I NEVER GO WHERE I PLAN . . .

 

Tonight, I wanted to clean Arlington Road, south of Wilbeth.  I haven't cleaned that area this year, and I drive by there a lot.  So I left my house, and I was going east on Wilbeth, and I saw this little mess.  I whipped in there and picked it all up.  It didn't take a minute.

At the next street, I saw another mess, much worse.  I pulled in there and cleaned that up.  I don't usually interrupt my plans, but the rest of Wilbeth Road looks so nice.  And it doesn't take long.

So I pulled into the shopping center on Arlington, and I parked my car.  The field beside the road looked really bad, so I started there.

Now it looks beautiful.  I tried not to go into the tall weeds any more than I had to.  I'm still afraid of bringing ticks home.  But I kept checking, and no ticks.

There was an older man walking in the shopping center parking lot, and he had a little dog.  He kept watching me and watching me.  Finally, I waved at him and yelled, "Hello!"

He turned and left and took his little dog with him.  I guess he was just curious to see what I was doing.

I cleaned a little bit of Arlington, and turned the corner, and ICK!  So much trash!

If you were turning onto this street, what would you think?

I'm pretty sure I'd think, "Wow, this place is a dump!  The road looks new, but I'm not going anywhere near this!"

It took maybe ten minutes to clean all this up, and I was headed back to Arlington, and . . .

The other side of the street looked almost as bad!

So I cleaned it up too, as far as you can see.  There was so much crazy stuff, like table legs and brake pads . . .

Yes, brake pads!  Do you think the guy who was working on his car would have left his trash behind if the area didn't look like it wouldn't be noticed?

I'm pretty sure he would have taken his old brake pads to a trash can if it was clean like it is now.

Wonderful things are really starting to happen!

As I was walking back to the corner, I saw a man with a tiny rake and a pooper scooper.  It had trash in it.  I hurried over to him with my bucket and asked him if it was all trash. He said it was.  I held out my bucket and he dumped it into my bucket.  I'm pretty sure he was cleaning up his yard because he saw me.

And then I headed home on Virginia.  I wanted to drive by the area where my friend, Rose, lives.  It's always a horrible mess.  Wait until you hear this!  I saw a lady with three full trash bags and a trash grabber!  She cleaned the entire area!

If I hadn't needed to get home to take my dogs out, I would have pulled into the parking lot and talked to her.  Are people really starting to join in?  Are people reading my blog posts wanting to find the happiness I've found trying to keep Akron beautiful?

Oh, I hope so!  All my hours and hours of picking up trash will be worth it if that's what's happening.