Garbage Trucks

When we moved to Riverton, one of the things that bugged me about our yard was the concrete edging. I HATE concrete edging because people pay a lot of money for it thinking it will keep the grass out of their flowerbeds.  Wrong.  The curbing sits right on the surface of the dirt.  You need a 6 to 7 inch barrier to keep grass out of the flowerbeds.  It's also such an early 1990-2010's thing.  Everyone had to have it because everyone had it, and it would be so sad "if my yard didn't look just like everyone else's!" After 15 years of designing yards in mostly "new-ish" neighborhoods, I know that to be true.

The grass had already grown into our flowerbeds (under the concrete edging) when we moved in.  So one of the things I started to do was remove hundreds of linear feet of edging and throwing it in my garbage cans, a little at a time.

One week, I had two cans that were most filled with garbage bags, but I thought I would throw a piece or two on top, to get rid of it little by little.  Well, the garbage truck came by and wouldn't even attempt to dump the cans, because all he could see is concrete.  So he put a nice note out that said he "couldn't" dump the cans because they were too heavy, the truck couldn't handle it.

Keep in mind that this was the hardest time of my life, selling our amazing home in Bountiful, and moving to a cookie cutter neighborhood in Riverton (don't be offended Riverton friends, it was early on!).  I've already described a little bit about what was happening in 2014.  I was more depressed than I had ever been and in NO mood to be jerked around by a garbage truck driver!

So, I made the right phone calls to explain what had happened, that I could tell that he hadn't even attempted to pick up the cans because I knew they hadn't moved one inch from where I put them. The next day, the garbage truck came back, same driver and his supervisor.  About that same time, my neighbor from down the street came to visit me.  Joan Schneiter is the sweetest woman on the planet, and reached out to me despite my struggles and porcupine quills.

I saw them pull up and opened my front door with enough time to hear him say, "These are too heavy! I can't lift them!"  I said something snarky, like "Your truck can handle these cans! I've had way heavier cans than these (in Bountiful 😏)!  Just dump the DAMN CANS!!!" I yelled.  Guess what.  His truck COULD handle it!  He emptied the cans and drove away with his supervisor in the truck behind him.  Me and Joan joked about that incident for a long time after that.  DON'T MESS WITH KIM!!! As he was driving down the street, what did I do? I put even more concrete edging in the bottom of those freshly emptied cans.  The next week, he had no problem emptying my cans.

This is only the top part. There is that much more
below the red fire hydrant. I'm putting down landscape
fabric and putting rock out there.  This doesn't in any
way feel like part of my yard, I don't want to maintain it!

I'm in the middle of a similar project now.  Because we live on a corner, we have so much freaking park strip!  There were never any water lines run to it, and we don't want to do it either.  I've been tilling out the garbage grass ... and filling my cans with clumps of grass and dirt.

When our garbage was picked up on Tuesday, most of the grass didn't go anywhere, so the cans are pretty full still.  Yesterday I called the sanitation department and told them.  The guy said we may have to figure out how to empty some out, the new trucks have sensors and won't lift cans that are too heavy, blah blah blah.  So I've been trying to think of ways to get some to the dump. BUT that won't be necessary.

When I came home this afternoon, my kids gave me the name and phone number of someone that I should call.  They said something about garbage.  So I called, it was our garbage truck driver. (what?) He told me he had talked about it with whoever answered my phone call.  When they looked at the map, he KNEW he had dumped our cans! He noticed the project I'm working on, so he knows those cans are super heavy.  I mean, there's no way I could move them to the front of the house now.  He said maybe the dirt in there is frozen because it's been so cold in the morning. He said he's not worried about how heavy the cans are, if the truck will lift them, he will empty them.  So, he's going to come again Friday morning on the way to his route and empty my cans again.  WHAT?!?  I was stunned and shocked at the difference between my two experiences with garbage truck guys.  Actually, there is one more experience I may as well share here, since I'm on the subject.

This was probably 1998? 2001?

This was the first house we bought (1998?) which also happens to be in Bountiful. I was just beginning to learn about and have an opinion about landscaping. We had about 25 Tree of Heaven (worst tree on the planet-they spread like quakies on steroids) in our front yard, along with a huge Siberian elm (the 2nd worst tree on the planet).  I got this hair-brained idea to remove the 4 foot fence between us and our neighbor, to cut all those trees down, and to start fresh. We were able to pull all the fence posts out ourselves, except the one against the curb.  So one day, I'm out there struggling with it and the garbage truck comes by.  He sees what I'm trying to do and stops to ask if I want some help with it. Of course I said YES! So he wraps a chain around his bumper and around my fence post, and pulls it out with the garbage truck.  I was so pleased because it wouldn't budge for me!

See? I'm telling you guys. Bountiful really is the place to be!
Just for the record, I did later regret taking all that out, because "good fences make good neighbors." Robert Frost said that.

Stuff That Changes

Mat is home today!
We love Snow Days!

So, here is a question I've been asking myself.  Is it weird that I want to go to a mortuary to ask questions?  I already went to the cemetery to get info.  I found out that in order to have an upright headstone, we have to buy 4 plots.  I don't need 4 spots, I only need 2!  But that may be the only way to get a headstone that doesn't sit flat on the ground.  The plots are actually "relatively" cheap.  It's the mortuary that zings you.  I would rather do the legwork now and not have my family have to worry about it. It will all get figured out by me, long before there is a need for it.  I'm writing my own obit too, so all Mat has to do is fill in the date.

One of the things that happens when you're dealing with a serious illness is that you tend to look at your life under a microscope, and decide real quick what and who is important to you ... and who and what needs to go. You just want to stay close to your family, kids and love them like never before.  You want to make as many memories as possible and spend as much time as possible with them. 

Another thing I had to take a long look at was my relationships.  Maybe you wouldn't 😂, but I would say that I'm a pretty easy-going person.  I'm friendly and accepting and patient and respectful.  I would say, and I hope most people know about me, that I'd give the shirt off my back if someone needed it.  I'd do almost anything for anyone--sometimes I give so much it's to my detriment. I try so hard and my effort is deflected or rejected from those who have meant so much to me in my life.  I'm going through stacks of old scrapbooks and deciding what to scan and what to toss.  Some of my happiest and most painful memories are tied to my twin sister.  I've had a hard time reconciling all those happy things from the first three quarters of our lives with the absolute hell I've experienced with her in the last 9 years.  Going through old pictures brings tears to the surface and I find myself getting stalled on the project because I don't want to be reminded about where we are now. It's really important for me to leave a legacy for my family, to give those who I may not get to meet a glimpse into who I was and what I believed. The hurt is part of the happy and the happy is part of the hurt.  Have you seen Shadowlands?  Movie about C. S. Lewis?  SO GOOD!  "The happiness now is part of the pain then." and "The pain now is part of the happiness then."

One big thing is that has changed since my diagnosis is I cut my business way back.  Again, I had to look at what jobs were worth my time under the circumstances.  I did more than I should have that first summer, so last summer cut out consulting and designing completely.  That freed up time so I could get our entire front yard done, while Mat completed the sprinklers in one area of the yard. There's a fair amount to do in the back still, the rest of the sprinklers, some retaining, fire pit/patio area. I had my tiller out last Saturday removing grass from the last park strip.  That's one thing I hate about living on a corner - so much park strip!  We're not running water to it, just filling it with rock.  We'll also work on solid 6 foot fencing along the side yard. I feel like we live in a fish bowl, and the dogs feel like they have to talk to everyone that walks by.  Not being able to see everyone that walks by will be a blessing on both sides of the fence. Dang dogs.