BACK ON WATERLOO, SOUTH SIDE THIS TIME

 

I had so much to do this weekend, but I promised myself I would finish Waterloo Road, and I was hoping it wasn't as bad as the north side.  IT WAS SO MUCH WORSE!

There's a very small space between the water and the road on the south side of Waterloo.  The brush hog came through and chopped down all kinds of trees, and it's very hard to walk with sticks and branches everywhere.  

Most of the trash is buried.  It's very time consuming to dig out.   I never knew what I was going to pull out.  My trash grabber wasn't strong enough to pull out bags and bottles that were buried too far.  So I had to bend over and pull those items out with my hands.

Guess what this is?

It just kept coming and coming!  It's some kind of tarp.  Can you believe that?

It took up a lot of space in my trash bag, but I was happy to get that big thing out of there.

I sent five text messages to my friends this morning.  I was totally procrastinating.  I DIDN'T WANT TO  WORK ON THIS ROAD TODAY!  WAY TOO HARD!  I picked up 2,445 pieces in three hours, mostly big stuff.

I knew once I got it done, I could go back to cleaning neighborhood streets that are so much easier.

This is what the south side of Waterloo looked like before I cleaned it.  Driving by, it didn't look too bad, but there was so much trash here.

Several people walked by in the three hours I was cleaning.  I feel so bad for people who have to walk over all this.  Traffic is nonstop.  I forgot my safety glasses again, and I had to cross the road to get them from my car.  I waited and waited to cross the road.  

And I was too hot.  I had to cross the road again to put my heavy coat in the car.  Since there's no sidewalk, people have to walk on the berm and be careful of the traffic.  They shouldn't have to trip over garbage too.

Here's that same spot after the trash was picked up.  I filled three 45-gallon construction bags and have them sitting by the tires I pulled out of the bushes.

Even though it was really hard, I think it's time well spent.  Not only will it look nicer for people driving by, and keep wild animals safer, but the trash I was picking up today was chopped up and buried.  That means it's not new trash.  That means this area doesn't really get much litter.  It just hasn't been cleaned for a very long time, if ever.

That thought made me very happy!

Wait until you see the pictures tomorrow of the mess I left because I ran out of trash bags and time.  It will blow your mind!  Never seen anything like it!