THE MESSES JUST KEEP ON COMING!

 

With all the excitement of having Maya at Channel 5 News interview me this morning, I got a late start.  And then I found this...

There was so much smelly trash behind these trees and bushes.  I don't know how many years all this has been there.  The little buds were on the limbs so very soon, it would all be hidden away for another year.

I spent almost an hour picking away at this.  Very seldom do I think I'm going to give up, but I almost did with this one.  My "before and after" pictures always motivate me to keep at it until I'm finished.

And I did finish.  I got all the bags and cups out of there.  I'm pretty sure nobody but me would notice that these bushes were full of trash, or that they are now clean and stink-free, but that's okay.  I will smile when I drive down this street.  I know what I did.

To reach my one million piece goal, I need to pick up 3,000 pieces of trash a day, or 21,000 pieces a week.

My total for the first week on my new schedule was 22,208 pieces!  So I'm ahead of schedule!  Yay!

Something Maya at Channel 5 News asked me that I thought about today as I was picking up trash, she asked, "Does anybody ever question the number of pieces of trash you've picked up?"  I told her no.  And here's why:

First of all, I'm picking up trash for me.  Nobody told me to, and nobody really cares if I pick up a million pieces by the end of summer.  I set that goal all by myself.  I push myself to go out every day to pick up trash, because it makes me feel really good to give to my community and inspire others.  Second of all, everyone who has been with me from the beginning has seen hundreds of pictures documenting what I'm doing.  

When Maya walked with me to Wilbeth Road so I could show her how I pick up trash really fast and count each piece, I told her, "I'm guessing there's 100 pieces here."  She listened to me count, and there were 132 pieces in my trash can when we finished.  There's always more than I think there is, but I was pretty close.