I FINISHED THE NORTH SIDE OF WATERLOO!

 

I was all excited about finishing the north side of Waterloo Road today.  I realized this morning that this is the only time of the year this mess could be cleaned up.  April is Clean Up Month, and the weather might be warmer, but if we waited that long, the trees would have leaves, and you couldn't see the trash.  And not only that . . . ticks, spiders, snakes and poison ivy would be coming out.  There's no way I'd be crawling around in the bushes in the spring, summer or fall!   No way!

People offered to help me yesterday, but I didn't want anyone working on this area.  I would be worried they would get hurt.  The brush hog cut all the young trees and bushes away from the road, so all along this area, there are tiny stumps about 2" high, just high enough to constantly trip over.  And the traffic on Waterloo is nonstop.  Cars are way too close.

Here's a picture of what it looked like to pull the bottles and cans out of the briars.  I was proud of myself for finding my safety glasses, and then I left them in the car!  I parked my car at the other end of this area, and pulled my trash cart over all the sticks and stumps, and that's when I realized I forgot my safety glasses!  I wasn't going all the way back.  So I started picking up trash without them.

I was moving right along, and all of a sudden, I heard a "snap!"  My trash grabber got eaten by a vine!  Oh no!  I absolutely cannot pick up trash without a trash grabber.  It would hurt my back to bend over 3,000 times!

I usually have extra trash grabbers in my car, so I can give them away to people who want to help, but I just gave away the one I had in the car.

That meant I had to walk all the way back to my car, over the sticks and stumps, about a half mile, and drive all the way home, and get another trash grabber, drive back and then walk all the way to where I left off, over the sticks and stumps.

Pulling my trash cart over all the sticks and stumps was awful.  I didn't want to do it three more times!

So I pulled my trash cart into the trees, and covered up the blue recycling bin with a trash bag.  I hoped nobody would steal it.  But then I thought if someone wanted to steal it, maybe they would pick up trash with it.  That would be a good thing, right?

If it was gone when I got back, I would have to go buy a new dolly, a new extra large trash can, a new recycling bin, and bungee cords to keep the trash cans on the dolly, and that would take up a large part of my day.  But I would do whatever I had to do. 

So I drove home, got another trash grabber, and two extra ones, just in case, and went back.  I was so happy to see my trash cart was where I left it.

I continued picking up trash, and I made sure I had my safety glasses this time.  There were several times I would have gotten poked right in the eye if I hadn't had safety glasses on.  I can't believe I haven't been wearing them.  I'll wear them every time I pick up trash from now on.

I picked up 3,612 pieces of trash today, and I finished the north side of Waterloo.  Hallelujah!  It took 10 hours!  I'm going to ask Keep Akron Beautiful to pick up the 14 bags lined up along the road.  After I was finished, I drove up the road, turned around, and drove by again to see how nice it looks.  I felt so good about finishing this project.  There were plenty of times I wanted to quit.

I'll try to clean the other side of the street next weekend.  I pick up trash after work, but I don't want to be on this street when it's getting dark.  Way too dangerous.