Our Garbageguys

We are still cleaning out after 6 inches of rain water swooshed into our basement.  (Take note:  Rubbermaid totes are not truly waterproof if they float and then tip.)  And while I was able to salvage lots of things, much of it required laundering. I am the Queen of Laundry. 

The rest had to be pitched.  Big Black Bags of Stuff, now in a trash heap...  Stuff I've been holding onto "for one day" when I can do things like cross-stitch again without fear of children picking up stray supplies and using them to puncture their siblings' body parts.  It's a gross thought, but it could happen.

Okay, maybe that's the only thing I regret losing... the supplies, that is.  The rest of it really was excess and should have been donated somewhere a long time ago.  I'll do my best not to cringe when it all gets set out at the curb, not because I regret the loss, but because our Garbageguys will have to pick it all up. 

I love our Garbageguys, and so does my family.  We'll hear Josh and crew in their huge garbage crusher truck clamber up the street.  My kids will drop what they're doing and run to the front porch windows hoping to catch a glimpse..."The Garbageguys are here!!!!  THE GARBAGEGUYS ARE HERE!!!".  Or, if we're already outside, the kids will run up to the sidewalk's edge for a real close view.  They'll be greeted with a huge "HELLO!!!"  and "Are you kids having fun today??"  And then their big eyes will watch in awe as the men haul our big green bags and cans over their shoulders and toss them like paper wads into the mouth of the machine.  A lever will be pulled, and a claw-toothed arm will screech and squeal and engulf  the stuff that came from our house.

The kids will step back a bit, because it's noisy and intimidating.  But the men will grab the now empty cans and lids and race them up to the front of our house, taking care on especially windy days to ensure they won't tumble back into the street.  One of the Garbageguys might run over to the kids for a whole Victory Lane of High 5's.  Waving goodbye, the Garbageguys will hop back on their ride and clamber to the next row of houses, and they will hear me, and all the children, yelling "THANK YOU" and "THANK YOU SOME MORE".

If we are lucky, we will see them again when we are out on our walk, and don't you know our Garbageguys will beep the horn and wave to us across several streets.  They're good like that.

Tomorrow night our family will unfortunately be setting out more garbage than usual, and my conscience is tweaked because of it.  While we do Reduce/Reuse/Recycle, what is left over is put on our Garbageguys, and for me those are the first real faces of who has to deal with "too much waste".