ARLINGTON ROAD IS GOING TO TAKE A LONG, LONG TIME!

 

Tonight, I went back to the bus stop on Arlington, where I left off yesterday.  I went east on Rosemary, a street I've never been on before.  It was very clean and beautiful.  I walked and walked and walked and then I found this area behind a wooden fence.  It was awful!

I started picking up layers of trash, and worked my way all the way to the end of this fence, not realizing that I was isolated back there.  I almost quit.  I should have quit.  I don't like being in scary situations, and this felt scary to me. 

But by the time I realized I shouldn't be there, I was done, and I left.  I picked up almost a thousand pieces of trash here.  Luckily, there was a big dumpster close by, so I threw everything away.

As I worked my way back to Arlington, I met a woman named Charlie.  She said, "I didn't know there was a cleaning crew here."  I said, "No crew, just me."  

We had a really nice conversation, and I hope I see her again. 

I found this blocking the sidewalk.  No idea what it was. 

The big plastic pieces were very heavy.  I threw them in a dumpster nearby.  

The thing that looks like a bucket had wires coming out of it.  Maybe it was a lamppost?  I don't know, but it wasn't going anywhere.

It's staying right where it is, but at least it's not blocking the sidewalk.

A short distance from that, I saw a single glass liquor bottle on the side of the road, unbroken.  

I hurried up and got that off the road.  I'm so glad it wasn't broken.  Sweeping up broken glass on a busy road is not fun.

These pictures still fascinate me, after all this time.

At the corner of Arlington & Rosemary, there's a drive through.  It was very busy.  There was a nice big dumpster behind it, and I cleaned all around that and found three long screws.  The people getting pop have no idea how close they came to getting a flat tire!

Beside the drive through, there was a lot of trash, and between the buildings, tall grass.  I could see stuff in this tall grass.   

It doesn't look bad from the sidewalk, but people are definitely using the tall grass as a trash can.

All this garbage was in there!  And this is just what I could reach with my trash grabber!  I didn't get it all.  Not going in there!

How gross is that?   

Get the trash out and the mice and snakes will go too.

I cleaned all around the front of the drive through, and on the other side, more trash.  This litter has been there for years.  That's the kind of trash that is hard to pick up.

I picked up 2,969 pieces of trash tonight.  Other than the scary spot behind the fence on Rosemary, I ended up going about a half a block!  It's going to take me a long, long time to clean the whole five miles of Arlington Road if its all this bad.

But what a difference it will make.  And once it's clean, it will be like Wilbeth Road, Waterloo Road and Main Street.  It will be easy to keep clean.