I'M AT 620,000 PIECES!

 

My friend, Tom, just called me to see if I was okay.  I haven't posted on my blog in 7 days!  I told him I'd have something tonight.  I've been out picking up trash, but there's not much to pick up.  Tonight was my first 3,000 day in a long time.

Graduation ceremonies at the new high school are tonight, so I'm guessing there'll be a lot of trash on Brown tomorrow, but there isn't any right now.

I worked really hard tonight. First thing, I pulled six tires out of tall grass, and I'll ask Keep Akron Beautiful to pick them up tomorrow.  Can you imagine trying to mow that area?

Who throws tires in the grass?  That's disgusting!

I cleaned around the bus stop at Lover's Lane and Brown.  Just as I finished, I saw a young man come from the Circle K across the street.  He had his dinner and lots of wrappers.  I asked him if he was allowed to eat on the bus.  He said he wasn't getting on the bus.  He was just eating.

I continued down the sidewalk, and when I saw him leave, I walked back, expecting to see a mess on the bench and on the ground.  No, he threw all his trash in the trash can.  I smiled!  

I wonder if he would have done that if he hadn't seen me picking up all the trash.

Right after the bus stop, I met this delightful young boy.  He asked me if he could help.  And he was a HUGE help!

We picked up a couple hundred pieces together.  I held the bucket and he dropped them in, and we counted together.  I really enjoyed his company.

When we got past his house I told him I was crossing the street and heading home, but I'd see him again.  So I crossed the street, swept up a bunch of broken glass in a church parking lot, and when I looked across the street, he was sitting all by himself on the porch,  I'm guessing that picking up trash with me was the best part of his day.

Here's the church parking lot.  Can you believe this?  The side by the church building was pretty clean, but the other side was an awful mess. 

I got that all cleaned up.  Won't they be surprised when they come in to work tomorrow?

The part I am confused about is this . . .

There's a really nice dumpster in the church parking lot.  It's not like there's no place to put food wrappers and unused ketchup packets.

I'm hoping, now that it's clean, they'll try a little harder to keep it clean.

I found a great big bolt of some kind, a really sharp nail and a really big drill bit on the road.  And all these pennies!

Today, I created 15 routes so I know where I'm going every day.  Each one takes about three hours if there's a lot of trash.  If there's not a lot of trash, then I'll get done early.

So instead of cleaning Wilbeth Road every day, I'm going to work on each area every 15 days.  Since there's so much less trash, I think it will work well.

I was ready to order my t-shirts today, and I woke up in the middle of the night and realized I don't want the standard round t-shirt neck.  I want V-neck t-shirts.  I don't ever wear regular t-shirts.  I feel choked in those, so it's going to take a little longer, but I should still have them to pass out early in June.

It's gonna be a great summer!  I'm not going to reach my one million piece goal by the end of summer, because I have slowed down to keep my hand from hurting, but I will reach it.