Up at the top of the driveway I got chatting with my neighbor. She was in her car and I'd stepped out of mine to unload more garbage. I got back and moved my car’s position so she could get by. Door to door we chatted for a bit. She said she had taken a job at Lowes. I let her know I was glad for her and I suggested I’d probably see her over there at Lowes. I go there all the time.
As she drove off I noticed a white, plastic soda cup lying on the road, up beyond where the cedars are. It looked awful. I went over and there were a few crushed soda cans as well. Who are these fools that just chuck shit out their window? Didn’t they see the tearing Native American Indian brave in a headdress intoning us not to pollute. I remember that infomercial from 1972 or thereabouts. I used to suggest that China needed a generation to learn that lesson the way America had. But now it seems we’re regressing.
Reluctantly I pick up the random trash of other motorists, who sail by this patch of Route 208 at sixty miles-per-hour and decide it’s a perfect time to be done with the vessel they’ve drained, roll down the window and give it a toss. Perhaps that feels like freedom. It’s enough to make you wish for an ethical scoring system that would track the citizenry and penalize them for poor performance. Bureaucrats in China not only get to imagine such vengeance schemes but to carry them out at well.
Back in the kitchen I wash my hands and wash them a second time. My wife had made noodles for dinner and there is more than one pot to clean, one on the stove and one in the sink. I notice the dishwasher still hasn’t been unloaded since running the load yesterday evening. And that is where I start, with the mugs and the drinking glasses up to cabinet on my left, before removing the small serving plates and the spatula.
Tuesday, 06/22/21
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