epiphany

I Love This Town

or

Advantages to Living on Main Street

Watertown has plenty of flaws, which I'm always quick to point out in my head. However, there are certain advantages to living in a small, blue-collar town.

One of the primary advantages, at least from a cleaning point of view, is that people other than the garbage men will come and pick up your trash. They won't take really nasty trash or plain old garbage, but if there's something you need to get rid of, no matter how large, just set it on the curb and wait an hour or two.

While cleaning out the basement, we decided to get rid of various still-useable items. I set them out in sequence, sort of as an experiment to how quickly things would disappear. This afternoon we got rid of

1) a five gallon aquarium
2) a small parakeet cage with one cover
3) a large parakeet cage
4) two bags of charcoal with two containers of lighter fluid
5) three folding lawn chairs (these took the longest to go)

and

6) an old lawnmower with a bagging attachment.

After the success of the other items, I put the lawnmower out on a whim, just to see if it would go. I really figured I'd be hauling it back into the garage tonight but was thrilled to discover it had disappeared only a half-hour or so after I set it on the curb.

Now I hope that the real garbage men will take the rest of our varied bags and boxes. I especially hope they'll take the old, nasty cupboard. Why we've had the former kitchen cupboard in the basement for 15 years or more, I don't particularly care to know.

Posted by at July 25, 2004 5:40 PM