“When I go home my mother still makes me take out the garbage.”
The sky is hurt your eyes blue. The sunlight is sharp, the breeze cool. It was in the 50’s last night, and right now it’s only in the high 60’s. It is the most delightful of days. Gracie and I have a dump run scheduled for later, but that’s about it for errands. I’ll make my bed in a bit and shower tonight, but I have no other plans. My book is interesting, and the deck is the best place to while away an afternoon.
When I was in Colorado, I noticed that most people under thirty have had a phone surgically attached to one hand or the other. During the baseball games, I saw heads down and thumbs moving, including a few in my family. They noticed the game only after the action, when the crowd cheered. My niece and her friend were sitting side by side at the restaurant carrying on a private conversation, texting each other. I’m afraid evolutionary changes have already begun, and phones will, over time, become appendages: two legs, two arms and a phone. I’ve checked both my hands. Neither yet has a phone growth, but I’ll keep an eye on them just in case.
Snakes on a Plane has a sequel in the works: Maggots on a Plane. A US Air flight had to return to the Atlanta airport when maggots started dropping on passengers from the overhead compartment. The pilot announced they were returning to the gate because of a minor emergency on board. Flight attendants told everyone to sit down and be calm. Right away I remember the garbage container in my backyard. It was in the ground right near the back steps. It had a foot lever to open the heavy, iron top. I remember the top was green. My mother would send me to empty the triangular, plastic garbage holder, the one with the holes in the bottom, she kept in the corner of the sink. I hated that chore. I’d use my foot to open the garbage bucket, and there were always these gross maggots crawling around. I’d dump the garbage and close that lid as fast as lightning all the while trying not to breathe. Once a week the garbage men came. They carried a barrel slung on their backs into which they’d dump the garbage and all its passengers. The men moved from yard to yard while their truck slowly followed. I used to watch. I couldn’t imagine a worse job.
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July 1, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Much the same weather over here, but hot hot hot 🙂
Even at work they use their phoes to keep contact with eachother!!! They are looking down at their phones while writing at the same time as they are controling a machine!? I don´t understand how they do it 🙂 🙂 Well sometimes they don´t and the most oddly shaped things come to me for painting 🙂 🙂 🙂
I love Snakes on a plane, it´s such a delightfully bad film 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
July 1, 2010 at 10:43 pm
Christer,
The night is nice and cool-no need for air conditioning.
I think it rude but then I am of a different generation.
It was delightfully bad-love your description!
July 1, 2010 at 2:38 pm
“Now here’s a little story, to tell it, its a must…about an unsung hero who moves away your dust…”
July 1, 2010 at 10:45 pm
My Dear Hedley,
That song I know well-played it on the blog formerly known as Coffee on a couple of a father’s day. I am a Lonnie Donegan fan-love skiffle.
July 1, 2010 at 5:07 pm
I live in my childhood house and I still have the old garbage bin in the ground outside the back door. I remember as a child lying in bed at night and hearing the raccoons trying to get the lid open. They’d rear up on their back legs and pounce their front paws down on the foot pedal. The lid would rise up a bit and then come back down with a loud clang. Pounce. Clang. Pounce. Clang. On and on until someone yelled. Eventually they figured out how to get the lid open without all the clanging. After that we had to put a cement block on it. There was evidence to support the idea that the raccoons were developing a way around that, too. The town went to unified collection of trash and garbage so the raccoons’ job got much easier. Plastic trash barrels are a piece of cake after a cast iron lid.
July 1, 2010 at 10:47 pm
Caryn,
So many times you describe events from your childhood that I also experienced, and the raccoons are another. I love your sound effects! They are clever beasts!
July 1, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Time for “two maggots fighting in dead earnest”?
Cheers
July 1, 2010 at 10:48 pm
Minicapt,
Hahaha!! Clever, clever!!