It's hard to believe that this path has emerged down to the asphalt. I figured when we were climbing over 3 feet straight up to even GET on the path, that it wouldn't melt until May. But melt it has and we are rewarded by bare pavement - sprinkled with bits of dog poop that weren't picked up over the winter.
Speaking of picking up...
These are just two of the many blue rubber bands discarded at mailboxes.
Here are six more bands, two of which are not blue (the other thing is a contact lens case - goodness knows why someone didn't go looking for it). I have had mail come bundled in rubber bands. If I want to look at the mail while still standing at the box, I put the band in my pocket or around my wrist until I get home. Why on earth would I throw the band on the ground? I can re-use it at home or I can throw it in the garbage at home. If you pick up mail at the same box every day, you have to now look at the discarded rubber band every day. I just don't get why you would want to do that.
These are the plastic wraps that larger bundles of mail come in. It is my theory that the mailman himself discards these on the ground because I don't think individual mail comes wrapped in the plastic. I will eventually complain to the central mail-place-whatever and hopefully these things won't continue to be discarded. But as for the residents who live here, who throw garbage on the ground, the only audience I have is themselves. You wouldn't throw garbage on the floor in your house, so why would you do it on the floor of your common area? Just because you share the space with others is no reason not to care about it. And that goes for your front yard and driveway and the street in front of your house.
It occurs to me that perhaps people are annoyed or perturbed by the rubber bands. And in being so disturbed by them for whatever reason, they take them off their mail bundles and toss them on the ground in contempt. All I can say is "good grief". If there is some sort of consensus that rubber bands are annoying, then let us speak to the post office and prevent them from arriving in the first place.
5 comments:
Well said CV! This is the place to vent. I AM DISGUSTED BY THE CRAP all over the place. An even "better" example is over at the end of Millrise. As the cloak of the snow vanishes, more junk begins to appear. I'm told this is "normal" for March/April and it will be cleaned up by the landscapers in May but I don't remember it being this bad in past years.
As I walked the birthday dog this evening I noticed that the street in front of the freehold townhomes on Arbordale are just as messy, so I suspect it's more of a universal condition than we imagine.
I called you CV (Castlebrook Village) because I thought your identity was disguised but now I see differently. So way to go JR!
Thanks for your support Robert. I have literally never tossed something on the ground and walked away from it, so I simply do not understand why or how people do that. But you should see Merivale Road! We were walking there on the weekend and the debris is astounding. "They" were out sweeping Carling with machines which picked up the garbage but left a loose, fly-away layer of dust and grit that coated me in grime every time a large vehicle went by. So after the sweeping, we will need rain! It never ends.
Ugh! I share your sentiments about people just leaving stuff on the ground. Ridiculous! Just the other day in morning rush hour traffic, I saw someone in a car toss no less than three (!!!) items out his car window onto the street as he was driving.
What REALLY grosses me out, though, are discarded cigarette butts....
What I need is more nerve. I once walked behind someone on the bike path and watched her discard the packaging of something she had just purchased. I even picked up the first part of the packaging because I thought she had dropped it by mistake and I was going to give it to her when I realized what had happened. I fear the inevitable attitudinal confrontation so much that it is easier for me to pick it up and put it in the garbage myself rather than hand it back to her and get a blast of entitlement or whatever it is that motivates these people.
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