Rant #3,058: Just Another Day

My family and I have lived in our community on Long Island for going on 52 years.

Me, personally, I have lived at this address for around 50 years myself (when I was in my first marriage and had my first child, I lived elsewhere).

But over 50 years, we have never had a problem with our garbage, until recent times.

We have contacted the town we live in about the preponderance of feral animals destroying the garbage as they look for things to eat, and you might remember that a few weeks ago at this Blog I told you about some really lazy dog walkers that were dumping their animals’ waste in our garbage pails, the smell of which attracted the feral animals, who then went to town on our garbage.

And you might remember me telling you about the dump trucks missing our garbage a few times, claiming they couldn’t see them behind the cars (utter laziness).

But yesterday morning was a first—we received a warning, in writing, from a Department of Sanitation inspector about our garbage.

Of course, I never received any response at all when I complained about the feral animals destroying our garbage, but yesterday, we received a response, in writing, abut what time we put the garbage on the street.

Evidently, it irks someone that we put the garbage on the street early in the morning—when I go out and get the newspaper, between 6 a.m. and 7 am-- and that it stays there until the next day, when it is picked up.

It is put at the curb at this time simply because it is easy for me to do when I bring back the pail that had garbage that has already been picked up. I have to bring it to the same area that we keep out pails, so I simply put the one that has been emptied back where we keep the other pails and drag another pail to the curb.

Honestly, I have been doing this for years, and I had no idea at all that there was some sort of time period where you can do this and cannot do this.

And others on our block often do it too.

I found out yesterday that our town allows garbage pails to be put at the curb at 5 p.m. the day before they are to be picked up, and we have been in violation of this rule.

When I called the town about the violation, they explained to me that the reason they do this is that feral animals get the garbage and spew it all over the place.

Of course, I brought up that I have myself complained about this problem, to no avail, and that they do it overnight, so if you put the pails out at 5 p.m. or later, they are going to get to your garbage anyway.

And of course, this all fell on deaf ears.

“If you continue to put your pails out early, you will be subject to a fine and possibly even imprisonment,” I was told.

But the burning question is this: After so many years of unwittingly doing this, who reported us?

I asked the person on the phone, and she said that she was not at liberty to tell me. “We have inspectors driving around all the time, so it could have been the inspector who gave you the warning,” she said.

But she would not divulge if a neighbor complained about it being at the curb so early … and while I will never know for sure, methinks it was probably a neighbor, perhaps the one who I scolded for putting their dog refuse in our garbage pail.

We live on a very small block, and since the original or longer-term home owners have either moved out or died, we have had a succession of new home owners in every house on the block, except ours.

We barely know them, and at least one house on the block is an illegal rental unit, with two or maybe three tenants living in what is supposed to be a single-family house.

They have brought their cars with them, and at times, we have had parking problems because these new home owners—or renters—have no idea at all how to be good neighbors, and they park all over the place, including in front of my house.

My family has subtracted two cars—my parents’ two cars—from our ownership, but with our two cars subtracted, there are maybe a half dozen or more new cars on the block.

And that doesn’t count people who live on the surrounding blocks, who park anywhere they want to without regard for anyone’s personal space.

We don’t own the street, but if we own a house, we should expect to not have problems parking in front of it.

So there has been some tension about this, and the person who owns the home across the street—the one with the renters—has promised me that he has told his tenants not to park in front of my house, but to no avail.

No, we will never have a block party on our block, and I do mean N-E-V-E-R.

So I have a sneaking suspicion it was one of the people who live on our block who complained but like I said, we will never know for sure.

But whatever the case, I have more important things to do in my life than argue about garbage placement, so if I can’t put my garbage out when I want to put it out, then I guess I won’t.

This is all a load of utter nonsense to be honest with you, wouldn’t you agree?

Someone is getting their kicks from this, but if this is what thrills them, I would tell them to get a hobby to fill in their time thinking about my garbage.