What Stinks

Here's another task that stinks for someone who lives alone: taking out the trash.

I can't stand it. I think to myself every Sunday evening when gathering the trash, taking it to the trashcan and struggling to roll it to the top of my driveway that I wish so much that I could hire some guy to come do this for me once a week. That's all - just come collect my garbage and take it to the top of the driveway. 10 minutes max. And it never, never fails that it's raining on Sunday evenings at the exact time I'm ready to take it to the curb. Never fails. So I run out there with a large black bag filled with garbage from every trash can in my house, haul it up and over the side of the big garbage can, being careful not to use too many fingers to pick up the lid or touch the handle, usually in the rain. Then the wheels of the can get bogged down in what's now become mud from the rain and I try not to step in the mud myself, instead wrestling with this large can now waited with garbage until I can get it at the right angle to pull it free onto the concrete driveway. Feeling good about my accomplishment when it's finally at the curb, I always somehow think, this isn't my job. It never was growing up - it was my dad's. But then again, Kara, who else is going to do it? Yep, looks like I'm it. Inevitably at least one or two times a month, I'll come home from a long day at work and dressed in heels and work clothes, go to retrieve the empty garbage can from the curb and find that it's still full. Yes, the stupid garbage people either passed me up or skipped my neighborhood altogether. Let me just tell you how angry I get when that happens. After I've struggled in the rain to get the damn thing out of the mud and up to the curb only using 2.5 fingers and some prodding with my foot, the thing's still full! Needlesstosay, Tuesday mornings aren't good mornings for the people at the answering end of their phone number after I call! Maybe I should start a trash "taker-outer" service for all single women out there that don't want to have to do this task anymore.