Talkin' Trash

Yesterday afternoon, B and H ran out to bring the trash cans in the garage. Within moments, they came flying through the door with the news that there was still one FULL can that had not been picked up. Questionning the validity of the story, I decided it needed further investigation; so I sent the Boy to check it out. Sure enough, he returned with the same report. I called the Public Works Department. The pleasant woman on the other end asked if a sticker had been left on the can. I turned to my three young trash collectors, who all responded in the affirmative.


Oh yes, Mother, they seemed to say, there was an enormous neon green sticker with the word SORRY emblazoned across the top, but it didn't seem important.


I relayed this to helpful Public Works woman, who then wanted to know what the sticker said.


What did it say? I thought to myself, the same children who didn't think it would be necessary to mention said day-glo sticker surely haven't read it. So a second time, I sent them back outside to retrieve the sticker, which read:

SORRY-Too Heavy (or for the Spanish speaking-Muy pesado)

What do I do now I whined into the phone? She politely asked what exactly we had thrown out and perhaps we could split that can's economy sized load into two smaller (and less heavy) cans. Then she would resend the truck to pick up our newly lightened loads. So, one final time, I grabbed an empty can and headed to the street with the boy. We redistributed the bags and headed back into the house. My new BFF at Public Works called back to confirm a pick-up time and I told her the trash problem had been sorted out, literally. What had we thrown away, she wondered aloud, that was so heavy? Embarrassed, I told her, that there were no old appliances, no used weight sets, no anvils and no bags of sand. No, I explained, sadly, this is just one week's worth of trash at our house.