Chasing Garbage

I dislike very strong wind and I’m not sure why. Certainly when I was a runner, although it was a strengthening experience to run into the wind, the frustration rate was very much higher. It felt like I put my all into it and just didn’t get anywhere. To me, there is also an annoyance factor in just walking in the wind. Watching someone walk in strongly gusty conditions could lead you to believe they are drunk with the way they stagger. And lately, being as low energy as I have been, it’s hard work!

Today is garbage day in our neighbourhood. Since I’m up early, I usually put the garbage out after the hubby has left for work instead of putting it out the night before. This morning was no different. At that time of day, conditions were warm and calm. It’s the first time this year that I didn’t have to wear a jacket. I put out the green box, the garbage can, and one blue box. The green box and garbage are picked up usually around 7:00 am – the blue box sometime in the afternoon.

So about 8:00 am, I brought the green box and garbage can back into the garage. The wind had increased slightly, and I wondered if I should just bring the full blue box back in too, waiting until next week for pickup. I thought it was heavy enough to stay put, so I left it out. A couple of hours later, the sounds outside that I was hearing finally dug into the recognition zone. The winds had picked up dramatically and that was the sound of blue boxes bouncing down the street. I checked ours and it was gone.

We live in a condo townhouse complex on the corner of a major roadway, and a dead end road. The back of our house faces the dead end road. Along the major roadway is a brick and fencing wall between our complex and the sidewalk. Good thing too! Today is a south wind which piled everything up against this wall. I also noticed our neighbour’s green box was missing so I walked down to the wall to rescue our boxes. At one time, we had three blue boxes but have lost one in similar conditions. It’s quite convenient to have two, so I wanted to make sure I found it. We wrote our unit number on our boxes, so I was pretty sure I’d find it. The wall had collected two green boxes, and about a dozen blue boxes – ours being one of them. And, a whole pile of recyclables.

Instead of just taking back the boxes and leaving all that garbage down there, I decided I would at least half fill our box and store it until next week. It was surprising to me that I found none of our items. Most of what remained were water bottles. On the way back with the neighbour’s green box and our half-full blue box, the wind grabbed a number of items out of the box and tossed them back where they had been. I could have gone chasing them down again, but just didn’t feel that energetic. Now I have to leave a message in our neighbour’s mailbox letting her know we have her green box.

Although this wind is irritating in my world today, the hubby phoned me to ask about it. It’s calm where he works and he said a friend told him they have shut down the Burlington Skyway because a steel truck was blown over and dropped heavy steel on nearby cars! Glad I was just picking up garbage and not out driving! There was a tornado yesterday about 90 kms/45 miles away from us, and we had a tornado touch down in the adjoining neighbourhood a few years ago. Spring. Winds not as severe as in the southern US, but still there is a need for caution in these conditions.

It is my belief based on scientific models I have read that there was no wind in the early days after Creation. The “waters above,” it is posited, acted as a canopy that filtered the sunlight, and provided moisture to the earth. There was no need for rain or clouds. After the flood, the balance of this canopy was disrupted and now it was necessary for clouds to form to water the earth. How nice such a gentle earth would have been to experience.

Until next time, love one another…