Last Thursday, there was a lot of excitement at the Watchdog residence. It finally happened. It looked rather bleak for more than the first half of the month, but then it arrived in all its splendor. I’m referring to my cherished recycling cart.
The City of Naperville did not disappoint me. They said it would arrive by the end of the month and it did on the 18th. I began to get a little anxious when it wasn’t here by mid-month, so I called the city on the 16th. I asked when my recycling cart would arrive and no one could answer the question, though they could tell me who already received their carts. That’s like telling me last week’s weather. I still had no idea if or when it was going to magically appear.
Thursday rolled around, and when I went out to get the mail, there it was, laying sideways on my driveway, as though it had been unceremoniously thrown off a moving truck. I was hoping to see the Mayor carefully positioning it upright at the base of my driveway, but no such luck.
I picked it up and carefully opened the lid and peered down; it was a clean as a whistle, well actually pristine clean, because whistles aren’t very clean. I rolled it up the driveway and into the garage. Then came the challenge, trying to figure out where to put it. I pride myself in space utilization, but this was the mother of all challenges. I purposely didn’t get the largest size, thinking that those should be reserved for urban street dwellers, so I chose the middle size, but even that looked huge in my two-car garage. I was determined to find a home for it on the perimeter and after about 30 minutes of rearranging stuff, along with pushing and shoving stuff, I miraculously accomplished my goal. I learned some tips about pushing and shoving while observing folks in downtown Naperville after midnight. It worked.
It was now time for me to use my big, bold, bright-blue, bottomless recycling cart for the very purpose I had intended. I began piling bird food, basketballs, and baseball bats into it, and still had room for a bowling ball, a bag of baseballs, and my wife’s bamboo basket.
My well-built recycling cart, is a thing of beauty.
At first I thought “What’s this? A positive spin article from the Watchdog?” I was enjoying your missive as I just went through the same exercise about where to put my new recycling cart. And then I got to your “punch line”. I guess you’re choosing not to recycle. Suggestion – when the city mandates similar-style garbage carts (and you know that will be coming), go for the larger size since that is going to have to hold both your garbage and your used-to-be recyclables.