I can’t recall a daydream that I have ever wished to see a garbage truck. Not. One. Daydream. I’ve wished to see celebrities. It happened. I’ve wished to see America. It happened. I’ve wished to go to the moon. This one remains to be seen. But so does our garbage truck.
Today we turn one year in our new address and we’ve only seen the garbage truck once. Yes, just once and it stopped by to pick up our trash just because we offered to pay for it. It didn’t show up again after that. So what happens to one year of trash? Everything goes up in smoke.
An ironic statement from someone very particular of sorting and recycling stuffs. But that’s how we’ve been doing it for the whole year however opposed we are to burning garbage in our backyard at the expense of the environment and right under the risk of our son’s asthma being triggered because of the smell of smoke.
The metal drum I converted last year into an incinerator is already beginning to crumble so it should be about time to get another. I can make a new one, it should be easy especially now that I have my own power cutting tool. Yet I decided to give our barangay another chance. I’ve dropped by the office last week to inquire when the garbage truck really passes. They said Monday. Today is Monday.
So here I am for the first time in my entire life so full of anticipation to see if that garbage truck still exists. I’m keeping all fingers crossed, toes included, that today I get to see a week of trash taken by our barangay’s sanitation department or whatever it’s called locally. When you see white smoke though, it means only one thing: the truck misses and we start burning our trashes once more. Next step? A visit to another complaints desk.
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One of things that fascinated me while in the US is seeing in person the modern sanitation equipment at work. One sunny but cold morning the motorized street sweeper made its regular pass on the neighborhood’s court. My in-law said it is just to keep off dirt that could turn into sludge and clog the drains. Too bad Marcus didn’t see everything but it would have made him remember those cartoon shows. Well, Call of Duty was more important that day.
A day or so later came the huge green garbage truck. No other personnel with it but the driver. It performed a seemingly well rehearsed stop beside each covered plastic bins of each house, picked them up using a hydraulic claw, dumped its contents at the back of the truck, returned the empty bins in front of the fenceless yards, and left the court without any fuss. All in a day’s work.
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Image above is a derivative of William Warby’s Smoke Plume as seen on Flickr’s Creative Commons. Truck is from Google. Driver is Marcus’ Spongebob.
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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (So this is one year.)
Marcus Can Blog 