Garbage Games

Living in the city, trash day was never really a factor. When the kitchen can was full, I took it out to the alley dumpster which was emptied twice a week by magic trucks.

But in the suburbs, we have Trash Day. Every Tuesday night, I make the trip through the house, emptying the cans, and take it all out to the big can, then roll it to the curb. As a single girl, I don't generate a ton of trash - my recycling bin is actually usually the fuller of the pair - so I can skip a week if time or weather makes the twilight rolling unappealing. This is particularly true in winter, when there's no smell quotient.

The past two Tuesday nights have been snowy, bitterly cold messes, so while I keep adding to the cans, I haven't actually rolled them to the curb yet this month. Last night, while waiting for the car to warm up (it was two degrees), I realized it was time. I also realized that the cans were frozen to both the ground and the fence, stuck in a snow bank a good 18 inches deep.

Now the logical thing would have been to do what Kevin pointed out this morning: grab some hot water from inside, poor it over the bank, and move quickly to free the cans. That, or wait for Don to come over. But hindsight is always 20/20.

As bundled up as I was, I wanted to get the task done then and there. So I leaned up against the cans, trying to dislodge them. I pushed, I kicked, I cursed.

And finally, I walked back about 10 feet, got a running start (thank goodness for YakTrax!) and rammed into the recycling bin. Free at last! Once the recycling was free, the garbage had no choice but to follow suit.

Of course, when I got to the end of the sloping, icy driveway, I realized that there really isn't a curb, but rather a knee-high snow bank, so following the example of my neighbors, I left both cans in the street.

Hopefully, by mid-March, this won't even be an issue.