Today was garbage day.
By virtue of the fact that my cats and I generate the most trash in our family, via cat litter, garbage hauling is usually my responsibility.
Not to mention that I own a truck. So there you go.
Garbage day, when we lived in Tompkins County, meant a drive into Ithaca and a wait on asphalt to get weighed in and pick up your ticket. Then you got back in line to dump your trash on the tipping room floor. You waited for someone to wave you in and take your ticket. Every few years you renewed your permit and got another sticker for your driver's side window.
The people at Tompkins County Solid Waste are wonderful folk. Still it was a long trip to a land of concrete (Route 13 Ithaca). They made it as easy as they could given the huge number of vehicles coming in, but it wasn't on my list of top ten fun errands, I'm afraid. The best part were the people.
Now that we live in Tioga County, however, it's a lot more fun. Of course, they probably handle less trash. I actually like the bi-monthly trash run. First of all, the drive is gorgeous, over the hills and only twenty minutes away. The weigh station is quaint and fun. Trucks going in and trucks going out must alternate on the single scale. The traffic light keeps you all sorted out. There are no permits. The employees inside check out your license plate through the window while you sit on the scale waiting for your red light to change to green again.
There isn't a person on the tipping floor to back you in, so there is a bit of an honor system once you are there. People are good about going in order, although they aren't always good about letting the front-end loader clear the floor when it's needed. I tend to sit back and let them do their job. Other folks back right on it, front-end loader or no front-end loader, and the operator just sort of sighs and backs off to wait for another opportunity to swoop in and get trash out of the way.
Usually, after I've off-loaded my quarter-ton of cat litter and paid my fee ($14 today; $22 last time), I stop for an ice cream at the little gas station just past my turn. It's one more opportunity to see a few friendly people. Then I head on home over the hills again. But it's a bit cold for ice cream now and today I just came on home and took some photographs instead.
Autumn. There's not much of it left, I'm afraid.
3 comments:
Beautiful photos. The autumn colors are lovely where you are.
Quarter ton of cat litter! Whoa! ;o)
You might try cappuccino as a treat for yourself, now that it's getting too cold for ice cream. Usually gas-station cappuccino is kind of like hot chocolate, and not top-notch, but a tasty treat, nonetheless.
At first I about spit up in laughter at the thought that this gas station (two gas pumps in the middle of nowhere) might have cappuccino, HOWEVER, it occurred to me I never looked, and I would be stereotyping quite a bit if I were to just assume it doesn't. I'll look!
At the very least, it may have good coffee!
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