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Thursday, April 19, 2012

April 19. Day 110. What a load of rubbish

It was some time just before 7am when I heard the garbage truck this morning and had one of those "Oh **** I think I forgot to put the bin out" moments. As it turned out, I had put the bin out and it was several hours before the truck wound its way through the maze of streets in our area to my home. Stinking prawn shell disaster averted.
I love our garbage collectors. That they manage to collect bins from the impossibly hilly one-lane section of street I live in really is nothing short of a miracle. But I guess that's their job.
That they always put my elderly neighbour's bin away is, arguably, also their job.
What is unquestionably not their job is stopping to check on 84-year-old Margaret and that's why I love them.
A few weeks back there was a commotion outside the house on bin collection day. The truck was beeping and carrying on and I assumed someone had, once again, parked in a way that made collecting the bins from the dead end section of the street impossible. But the beeping and yelling continued so I went to investigate.
Turns out that when the bin men return Margaret's bin to under her house she always waves and thanks them.
This day she was perched in her normal spot by the window on the front veranda but was motionless. Nothing. When the beeping and yelling still failed to get a response they stopped the truck and went to investigate.Turns out she had taken out her hearing aids and fallen asleep. Mouth open, catching flies, looking dead to the world. When she realised what had happened she gave the bin collectors a mini Mars Bar for their efforts.
What a shame the move from the old bins to the wheelie bins means there's no longer a practical way to carry out the age-old tradition of leaving out a bottle of beer for the rubbish man at Christmas.

6 comments:

  1. That awkward moment when your lying in bed, Damn the bin man cometh! which he did last week and left without our garbage... I was away so it was not I that bagged it up for a quick dump run.. Maybe they should play music like the ice cream man does when he is out of ice cream.

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  2. Do you leave presents at Christmas for the bin men in Australia? I always give them a tin of roses or biscuits, can't be nice dealing with rubbish tbh and I appreciate their work come rain or shine!... don't always appreciate them waking me up on a Saturday morning though lol x

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    1. We used to - but when they moved to a system where you had to wheel the bin out to the footpath and the truck picked it up it became almost impossible. Shame really. We should find ways to say thanks

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  3. a very novel pic, would never think to take a pic of rubbish going into a bin lorry, but is actually a very good pic

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  4. I love the stories that you give with your photos, it brings the added dimension to an already cracking shot.

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    1. When I started this the plan was just pics with may be a caption.
      But the former print journo in me has been unleashed. It's nice to have a creative outlet

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