Free Floating Trash

02 April 2007 · 1 Comment · No tags

This morning, early (even for me – I usually start the day when it’s still quite dark), I heard a loud bang! which, even in deep sleep, my mind identified as plastic hitting pavement.

I knew intuitively that it was a trash-can. Our neighbor’s trash-can, but not our trash-can. Our trash can is of the heavy, thick, square plastic variety, with a hinged lid, chunky black wheels and a very stable base. It would be tough to push over, even for a big dog or animal.

But the neighbors across the street, they use one of those flimsy cheap round trash-cans that are hard to keep upright when you’re rolling them down the driveway.

Those kinds of trash-cans, a strong wind can knock over.

Looking out the window this morning, my suspicions were confirmed: their trash-can was on its side, the entire contents spilled onto their driveway, ripped open and torn apart by a dog or raccoon, littering the roadway.

They hadn’t bothered to put the lid on it.

Right at that moment, their garage door opened and I saw the wife walk down the driveway. She picked the refuse up from the road and tossed it into the trash-can and left the thing, still with no lid on it, but now with free-floating trash inside, and drove off.