PICKING UP TRASH WAS A ROLLER COASTER RIDE TONIGHT!

 

Picking up trash was a roller coaster ride tonight!  I wanted to finish the transit station, but driving by Wilbeth & Arlington yesterday told me I needed to go there first.  It was a mess!  

I picked up 785 pieces and was almost done when a young man walked up to me and wanted a better look at my trash cart.  Then he handed me a $100 bill!  I couldn't believe it!  

I wasn't sure it was real, so I went into the convenience store and the guy there used a counterfeit detection pen, and it was real!  That money will buy three boxes of trash bags!

After that, I headed to the transit station, but again, I saw a mess that needed attention.  So I parked my car and walked south on Main.  

I was crossing Miller & Main and a guy in a pickup truck with mowers on a trailer was turning left onto Miller, and he stopped right in middle of the busy intersection and yelled out, "You're that woman who cleans Wilbeth! Bless you!"  Meanwhile, cars are honking their horns!  I was so embarrassed!

I found dozens of glass bottles, piles of broken glass and a half a knife.  I was about a mile from my car, and my 45-gallon bag was stuffed FULL!  In addition to all the glass, I had a hubcap, several Depends, and a poopy baby diaper that was gagging me in my trash bag.

 

I crossed the street, and walked past this Firestone tire place, and there was a dumpster!!!  Oh my goodness!  I felt like someone walking in the desert when they see a pool of water!  

I emptied my bag and found more trash along the sidewalk.  I was busy working on that when a woman walked past me.  Then she turned around and started talking to me.  She seemed very nice, and at some point she asked me if she could use my phone to call her brother and tell him where she was.  So I dialed the number, and I heard her tell him she was done washing clothes and was getting on the bus.

She had been to the laundromat and had three heavy bags of clothes.  I watched her walk a couple steps, set her bags down and rest.  Then pick up her bags and take a couple more steps.  I was almost out of time, and a mile from my car, but I had to help her.  I couldn't not help her.

So I turned around and caught up to her.  I told her I could help her.   I put all her bags in my trash cart and walked with her to the bus stop.  

She said, "When do you get off work?"  I told her picking up trash isn't my job.  It's just what I do.  

I told her how my dog cut his nose on a piece of glass, and I told her I've picked up over 600,000 pieces of trash so far.  

She said maybe she could pick up trash too.  I told her if she did, it would change her life.  It sure has changed mine.