It's Trash Tuesday!

What is Trash Tuesday you might ask? I don't know! But I felt like doing it and I think I'm going to continue to.

I've been walking around the area surrounding my apartment complex lately and I've noticed a shitload of trash. Of course, the massive snowbanks all just melted, so that obviously has something to do with it; but to add, people just being assholes does too.

When I was a kid I used to walk down my dirt road and pick up trash out of the ditches. It was just something I would do when I was bored. I would want to get out of our old farmhouse and go do something but what I really wanted to do was skateboard and there wasn't an inch of pavement near us. So, I think that's how I ended up walking down the road with a trashbag. It wasn't often, but often enough for me to remember it pretty clearly in the blur of my childhood memory.

I've kind of made a habit of it. When I'm leaving the skatepark I'll usually grab a bag out of my car and fill it with any trash I can find. If I see something that's convenient for me to pick up I always do. But I hardly go out of my way to do it. Unless I'm killing time on the clock at a workplace.

But with my recent unexpected bout of unemployment, I've been looking for things to do to keep myself busy until I can get down to Chile for my marriage. And today, I decided I was going to try to make it a weekly thing to try to fill up a trash bag as much as I can with garbage.

I didn't have to go far to find a spillway of torn up trash leading from the dumpster to the woods. We have a family of local bears that frequent the area and I think they were most likely the culprits.

Our dumpster has a very good bear-proofing system; it's just that no one seems to give a shit. We have over 100 units in our complex, and living in a ski town, many of them are short-term rentals such as AirBNB and Vacasa. I think a lot of the people who come up to party to get away from the city don't care too much about using the easy bear-proof slide.

Either way I don't care too much. Last year the bears were starving because of how dry it was, so I say let 'em eat!

Almost immediately I found what looks to be a gas cap for some sort of small machinery. Upon closer examination I realized it was a snowmobile gas cap. This was a long ways away from anywhere a sled would be; and additionally it looked like it had been run over by a snowcat. I thought that was really strange; that it would be perched up here. I thought, "well, I should take a picture of this". I didn't expect I would find anything stranger in this small area.

A couple of minutes later proved me wrong! Avocado in a plastic bag with a knife in it. In the middle of the woods. OK, it's not THAT strange. But, really, who thought it was a good idea to put that knife in that bag? Was this in your pocket? Why even have the bag to begin with? You aren't eating the skin and it's not gonna do much for your knife there.

Oh well. Sorry you lost your avocado/knife/cool plastic bag.

I stumbled around a small section of woods and came back with a pretty damn full trash bag. I didn't even have to leave the apartment complex. In rural Vermont. It sucks. I quickly decided that I should do this more often. It's nice to me, I walk around outdoors aimlessly in my free time anyways, why not pick up some shit?

I found these cans of vienna sausage by a log it looks like some kids were partying at. Funny thing is, there was no evidence of a fire. So it seemed like some drunk kids out in the woods here chugged down 3 cans of cold sausage and then, I'd imagine, booted somewhere nearby. The only things there were cig butts, beer cans and these three cans. Nice work out there guys.

All in all it was a pretty good haul and it didn't take too long at all. I'm going to make Trash Tuesdays a thing from now on for myself, and anyone who feels welcome to should hop on in! You don't have to pick up a full bag by any means. Just go on a walk and pick up a few things. Why the hell not?

is this what Travis Bickle meant in Taxi Driver?

Thank god for the rain to wash the trash off the sidewalk

Anyone who has seen the movie knows that no, this is not at all what's he's talking about, but I couldn't get the quote out of my head. Take care HIVErs.