Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Stomp! (at my roadside every Wednesday)

Are any trash collectors reading this blog? Can you explain your behavior to me, please?

My trash is collected every Wednesday morning. The two guys who pick up at my house are very nice. They wait patiently on the days when I fly out of the house, clutching garbage bags in each hand, yelling something that passes for a greeting because I forgot to put the stuff outside the night before. If I'm out walking the dog when they show up, they politely ask about the health of my family. But on days that I'm not outside, this is what they do:

They evidently remove the lid from each of four cans, pitch the bags into the hopper of their truck, overturn the cans and kick them precariously close to the road, and then fling the lids as far away in the opposite direction as possible.

I don't understand this. I especially don't understand it when a can is empty. This week that was the case. I understand that they had to take the lid off to check. But, having found it empty, why didn't they just replace the lid and go on to the next can? Why on earth did they knock over the empty can and fling the lid?

I'm thinking maybe this is theater, in a way. Psychodrama, perhaps, or--if they're packing iPods--simply a bit of choreography. But if you have a better explanation, I'd love to hear it.

2 comments:

crystal said...

Ah, the rural life :-). My garbage collector is a giant truck with a huge automated claw. The claw picks up the big rubber garbage can and dumps the contents in the top of the truck, then tosses the can into the gutter ... see link for example - link

Jona said...

Maybe they feel you don't tip them enough at Christmastime ;o)