It's Saturday morning

It's Saturday morning, I can hear the garbage trucks moving through the neighborhood. Today is recyclable day as well as trash pick up day. I got three recyclable bins out this morning, but no trashcans. I need to get a new plastic trashcan that I can roll out to the curb because carrying the aluminum trashcans is becoming difficult.

It's Saturday morning and I'm behind on writing again. I'll get caught up of course, but I may have to stay up all night. I know what gets me behind, lack of planning. The lack of planning comes in when I have to leave the house for three or four hours. Today I have to pick up meds for myself and for my mother at two different stores. I also have to get cement, a mop bucket and fabric softener.

I bought an outdoor cloths dryer, but I need to have cement for the post hole and the cement is on sale until May 13, so I have to get it today. I don't have a real mop bucket, which would help with mopping the floors. I'm going to have to plan my shopping and bill paying trips better from now on because spending most of the day driving all across Las Vegas is just too time consuming.

The Saturday Morning Silence is Broken

The barking of a dog breaks the Saturday morning silence. I set the aluminum trashcan down and put the trash bag I am carrying in my left hand on top. I glance right and left but don't see any dog. I turn back on the street, pick up the morning paper and start toward the house.

The dog comes up behind me, barking all the time. He sounds vicious, so I continue to the house rather then taking another trashcan to the curb. I left the front door unlocked when I went out to get the trash. I open the door and go into the house. Only then do I look back to and see the dog standing in my driveway barking at me.

The dog large and completely black, he isn't a huge dog, but his barking sound vicious so I remain in the house. I'm not going to risk a dog bite by taking another can of trash to the curb. I stay in the house about five or ten minutes, then I go back out and get another trashcan to carry to the curb.

I don't see or hear the dog this time. He has disappeared as quickly as he appeared. The logical explanation, of course, is that the neighbor who owns him took him back in the house. Logical explanations are fine, except when it comes to using experiences similar to this in a short story or a poem. Logical explanations don't make good plots. I am going to use this experience in a short story or piece of flash fiction, but I don't think I'll use the logical explanation for the dog's disappearance.

This writer is a day behind

This writer is a day behind. I know today is Wednesday, September 3, 2008, but I keep thinking today is Tuesday. On Tuesday, I kept thinking it was Monday. Three-day weekends that end on Monday always affect me this way. All week I'm going to be a day behind.

The old say is "A day behind and a dollar short." Of course, that saying does not factor in inflation. If it factored in inflation, it would be "A day behind and two hundred dollars short." It also does not consider an individual's personal financial situation. However, this blog entry did not start out about my financial situation, which is an offline journal entry rather then a blog entry.

Anyway, I woke up this morning thinking today was Tuesday rather then Wednesday. After fully waking up, I knew it was Wednesday and trash pick up day. Fortunately, all my trashcans are already at the curb. They have been setting there waiting for today since either Saturday or Sunday when my "yardman" cleaned my backyard.

My neighbor trimmed oleanders that day as well. There are bundles of oleander limbs waiting for the trash trucks. I am going to have to worry about trash this coming Saturday because my garage is full of plastic bags waiting for me to put them in the trashcans. They will just have to wait until I get home from work and have empty trashcans.

I am glad I did not have to lug trashcans to the curb this morning because I would not have made it. I am going to set the trashcans out Friday night. It is all right to set them out the night before because they are safe from dogs or other animals turning them over by dogs or any animal. The only animals I have witnessed running free in this neighborhood are cats, people keep their dogs in the backyards or house. My time sense will return to normal before Friday.

The Sound of Thunder

Saturday morning
I hear the sound of thunder
rolling through my neighborhood.

Saturday is trash pick-up
from street to street garbage truck move
obediently stopping at each house.

Saturday morning
a partly cloudy sky echoes
with the sound of thunder.

Saturday is trash pick-up
the thundering sound that echoes
come from the garbage trucks.

They Don’t Burn Trash Anymore

Jalál (Glory), 19 Rahmat (Mercy), 165 BE – Saturday, July 12, 2008 about 5:51 AM PDT

This is Saturday, trash pick-up day in my neighborhood. Weekly review day, time for me to review the past week past and see what I need to change. This is also the last day of Rahmat (Mercy) and time to set goals for Kalimat (Words). What does all this have to do with trash and not burning trash anymore?

Changing bad habits is like taking out the trash, it is something you have to do everyday. I can remember my grandfather taking the trash out to the alley. He would carry it out and put it in a huge metal barrel, with metal lid that went on it. Then, when that can was full, usually once a week, he would burn the trash that was in the barrel. He usually burned trash on Friday afternoon, because the city would pick the trash up on Saturday. By burning trash on Friday, he made sure that the fire was out and there were no embers to sit the trash truck on fire.

After he carried the trash to the alley, he would wash the containers out that went back into the house. Grandma then put the container in whatever room they belonged. As I said before, taking trash out is like changing bad habits, it is a continuous process. It is a never-ending process because it is a daily process. You have to be vigilant or you forget something; sort of like forgetting to empty a trash container in the house by carrying it contents to the outside trashcans, if you forget you will regret it later.

On Trash Pickup Day

‘Idál (Justice), 6 Baha (Splendor), 165 B.E. – Wednesday, March 26, 2008 about 9:02 AM PDT

On trash pick-up day
I listen for the comforting
sounds of the garbage trucks
moving from house to house.

On trash pick-up day
when I carried the trash to the curb
I watch the pink sunrise
and paised the Lord for the opportunity
to see the sun come over
the eastern mountains of Nevada's
high snow capped peaks.

Trash pick-up day in my neighborhood

15 Masa'il 164 B.E. - Wednesday, December 26, 2007 about 7:00 AM PST

It's the Wednesday, December 26, the day after Christmas, the first day of Kwanzaa, either the first or the second day of Christmas (depending on the tradition followed), boxing day in Canada, and trash pick-up day in my neighborhood. I took my trashcan out last night, so this morning I don't have to worry about it. The trash is suppose to be put at the curb by 7:00 AM and if I don't take it out the night before I can't take it out until Friday night or Saturday morning.

I always think I'm going to get it out before 7 o'clock, but often don't. As I sit typing this, I can hear the garbage truck on the next block. You can't miss the sound of their motors as the lift the trash up to dump it in the trucks; it's a comforting sound. I think I'm going to have to get new trashcans in 2008 because the cans I have are about ready for the garbage pick-up to take them.

The hum of motors
echo through the neighborhood
announcing trash pick-up day.

I suppose I should look out the window, to see if any dogs turned the can over last night. It was heavy when I dragged and carried it to the curb last night, so I don't think any of the dogs that run free are big and strong enough to turn it over. I did put a lamp I haven intended to throw away for several weeks on top. Also I still have trash in the garage I have to take out. I can usually manage to get one or two cans to the curb, but no more.

There are a couple of good story ideas in this entry (1) ode to a garbage truck and (2) dogs or some animal turning over trashcans. I'll have to think about those for a little while. The one about an animal turning over trashcans has potential especially if the animal is one that isn't prone to that type of behavior.