TONIGHT WAS A FANTASTIC NIGHT!

 

Tonight was so good!  I headed for Arlington with a half a gallon of water in my cooler.  No more dehydration for me!  As I drove by the football field on Wilbeth, I saw the red beer cans, I can only guess are strategically placed about 20 feet apart, just for me.  So I whipped into a parking lot and headed west on Wilbeth Road to pick them up.

The first thing I saw was this glass liquor bottle on the grass where the kids play.  When I got next to it, I saw there were two glass liquor bottles.  So glad I saw those before they were broken. 

The next thing I saw, before I even got to the sidewalk, was this Halloween spider.  The legs were busted off of it, and I found the other legs as I picked up trash.  But what the heck?  Who's messing around with Halloween decorations in June?

I had a hard time getting across the road.  There was a lot of traffic on Wilbeth Road, so I just kept walking, and I ended up spending two hours cleaning, and only picked up 1,286 pieces.  That's because there wasn't a lot of trash. 

But where the old Dairy Queen is, currently closed, I found some trash in the bushes.  I used to find a lot of Dairy Queen litter.  Now it's from other fast food places, but there's still litter around the Dairy Queen.

I wondered if the drive through was trashy, and it sure was.  Why?  There's nobody in there!

I walked a lot tonight, but I also talked a lot.  I met so many interesting people.

When I was going west on Wilbeth, I saw a man with earbuds.  I said, "Hello."  He ignored me, or couldn't hear me because of the earbuds.  But when I was going east on Wilbeth, I saw him again, and this time, he was all smiles, and he said "Hello" first!

After that, I saw a mom with two little boys walking on the other side of the street.  I said "Hello."  The mom ignored me.  So I said "Hello" to the little boys following her.  They both lit up, and waved!  And the mom did too.  Sometimes kids have to teach their parents how to be friendly.

This car wash place is relatively new.  I always clean around it.  They've never said anything to me, but today, both the worker and the owner came rushing over to me and the owner gave me a hand shake and then a hug!  Weird!  

The owner said, "I want to pay you to clean around my building once a week.  Will you do that?  You name the price."  I just looked at him.  I said, "I'll clean around your building for free.  I've been doing it for a year."  He insisted on paying me, so I finally told him I'll use whatever he gives me to buy trash bags.

So that was very cool!  I wonder what got into him.

Another interesting woman I passed on the sidewalk was this gorgeous Mexican woman.  She was carrying a case of beer.  She didn't look friendly at all.  But I said, "Hello!"  She lit up with a great big smile and said, "Congratulations on reaching your one million piece goal!"

Who was she?  I'm pretty sure I never met her before.  I would have remembered her.  What a wonderful surprise!

When I got back to the parking lot, the dumpster looked like it puked.  It wasn't like that when I left two hours earlier.  Ick! 

I got it all cleaned up.  It didn't take five minutes.  Why doesn't anybody else see a mess and clean it?  What a wonderful world this would be if people did that, don't you think?

So I headed over to Arlington, finally, and I started where I left off, at a car lot, and behind their building, more tall grass with trash hidden.  I saw a herd of boys coming through the field.  I'm talking maybe 10 kids?  The oldest was probably 14.  The youngest about 5.  I hurried back to the sidewalk.  You hear all kinds of things about kids hurting people, and nobody would see me back here.

These young men were delightful!  They wanted to help me pick up trash.  I told them I had this under control, but they could help by throwing their trash in the trash can.  They promised they would.  I told them I was going to be on Channel 3 next week, and the little boy said, "I'm going to watch you on TV!"

So they left, and I went back to pull the trash out of the tall grass, not one of my favorite things to do.  Who knows what I'll find! 

I didn't grab a snake or a rat, but I did find a whole lot of trash!  Goodness!  Can you imagine how fast that would accumulate if nobody picks it up?  Plastics like this never go away.

I picked up 981 pieces on Arlington, and I can see Waterloo in the distance.  If I can just keep chipping away at it, I'll get one side of Arlington cleaned up, and then I can cross the street and do the other side.  And then I can get back to my neighborhood.