Trash Talk

I know it's St. Patrick's Day and not Earth Day, but I'm not even Irish... and I do have an environmental platform today, so, deal with it.

After ushering kids out the door following last night's sleepover and then spending the rest of the morning at a very enjoyable Birthright gathering, I started the laundry, put Madeline down for a nap and the headed outdoors. If I had to choose a Number One Household Chore, it would pretty much be any kind of yard work. I really like to trim shrubs, pull weeds, anything I can do outside. It's just such a nice change of pace, and with this crazy weather, how could I not take advantage?

With the snow totally gone, there is a long list of clean-up chores, and I certainly couldn't tackle them in this afternoon's two-hour window. So, I picked up sticks and burned what was in the fire pit. Then, I took a garbage bag and walked around my yard, picking up trash.

If you haven't ever been to our home, this will be kind of difficult for you to envision. Basically, we live on a small, city lot, with the lake on one side and a busy street on the other. I choose to direct pretty much all my attention to the beautiful, serene scene out the back side of my house. But, when all those cars drive by, they see the side of the house and the yard that faces the road.

After cleaning up in back, picking up random items that had either blown into our yard or washed up on the beach, I walked around to the front, and headed straight for the end of the driveway. Why? I knew there would be lots of trash to pick up-- there always is. Here's some of what I gathered along 80 feet of road frontage:
*pages from newspapers
*candy bar wrappers
*two fast food drink cups-- one from a restaurant 20 miles away
*broken, plastic containers
*a used, disposable diaper
*at least 100 cigarette butts

Gross, right?

This is my life, people. My home. Keep your butts to yourself.