Friday, August 26, 2022

Odd.

I noticed a lady next door bagging her garbage. I smiled at her, but she ducked her head and did not look at me. They're stand offish, and that is their way. Just after they'd moved in, I noticed that she was using a taxi to get back and forth to work, and offered to take her in to save her money, but that was ignored as well.

That's all you can do is offer. 

We set out our wheelie bin for garbage pick up that night before we went to bed. Just by chance, Tim was unable to sleep. He got up and as he passed by the front window, he happened to notice two new bags of garbage set by our bin. 

Now, the thing is, if they'd have talked to us, we'd have told them that they were welcome to set a bag of garbage inside our bin. It's rarely even close to full, so it wouldn't have been a big deal. However, setting extra bags of garbage next to the bin results in extra charge to us. 

Tim moved the bags back. I attached a little note saying 'Talk to us. We're aren't unreasonable, but we pay extra if you put your bags outside the bin.'

It bothers me though. We called the garbage company. They've given instructions to their driver not to pick up extra bags, so if those neighbors want to tuck a bag or two into the bin, no harm, no foul. It will not cost us any extra. If they just bring the bags over and set them along side the bin, they will not be picked up. 

On the other side of us, there is a rental as well, an apartment building. Someone has been parking a yellow utility wagon on our side of the fence in the bushes. There are an awful lot of people who don't have cars and they use wagons, shopping carts, and baby strollers to haul their laundry or their groceries or even their kids from place to place. 

Again, I don't want to make anyone's lot in life worse, but the question begs an answer. Are they trying to hid it so that it doesn't get stolen? Dunno. Is it stolen, and they are trying to avoid being tied to the theft, so they are stashing on our property? Dunno. 

I keep telling myself that people are struggling right now. My job is not to make their situation worse. 


21 comments:

  1. You are right, a lot of people are struggling but that doesn't excuse bad manners. Garbage lady sounds most peculiar.

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    1. She seems friendly enough at her job. I have a notion that she's been fed a huge line of bs by the trump-loving person who shares her front porch.

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  2. You do have rights to enjoy your own property without others taking advantage.

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    1. We absolutely do. We have to figure out what to do about the wagon. I am thinking of locking it to the chain link fence and leaving a note that says, 'we need you to come talk to us.' We need some background on that.

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  3. Some people are just plain weird.

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  4. We are also limited to one bag unless we add a sticker which does cost. I do tink we pay enough in taxes that putting out an extra bag on occasion shouldn’t result in a surcharge. Oh well.

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  5. Here, you pay for your garbage pick up. You get a bin. Anything more than that bin, you pay extra for. Like I said, we don't mind if they toss a bag in our bin, if there's room for it (and there usually is). But stacking their garbage along side of our bin is troublesome.

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  6. I agree with Red.... WEIRD. You have been more than kind. This is so hard to understand. Our neighbor has 9 people living at their house and has asked us if they can occasionally add a bag of garbage to our only 1/3 full bin. We're more than happy to let them do this. But wow! Your neighbor is definitely strange. Really strange.

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    1. A lot of this is political, I think, as strange as that sounds. The man who also lives there is a trumper, and he doesn't like us. He used to yell stuff from his porch. I just told him flat out that we weren't putting up with this bullshit. We tolerated the difference and kept our mouth shut and expected him to do the same. He just glared at me, and I just stared right back until I got a grudging 'I can do that'. He's very paranoid. He has a surveillance camera to keep an eye on things when he's not there, and if he sees something he doesn't like, he comes rushing up in his employer's van (he's a delivery person. When I offered the ride to his neighbor, I was standing on 'his' porch (it is shared), and he came rushing home to ask me what I was doing. Now the property owner has installed a gate, probably due to the fact that 'I'm a problem', trespassing., etc. So I expect it's just gossip. It always kind of amazes Tim and I that the most paranoid person in the area is the one with a history of it.

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    2. Oh... OK... A trumper. That explains a lot.

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  7. There are some very strange people out there.

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    1. Yeah. The garbage issue is handled, but the wagon bothers me.

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  8. In our area, the trash company won't pick up extra bags set along side the provided bin unless they are in special bags that you have to pay for ahead of time, similar to the sticker system mentioned by AC.

    I am always amazed at the amount of garbage some households create. We are a family of five and generally our bin is only 2/3rds full on most weeks. Yet around the corner is a family of three and not only is their can overflowing, but they generally buy two more of those prepaid bags for the excess.

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  9. I agree with northsider above. People are very strange.

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  10. I guess I would have tossed the extra bags into my bin if I had room and then mentioned it again to the lady. Too bad your neighbors are not nice.
    I would definitely leave a note on the vehicle asking it to be removed from your side of the fence. Or talk to the people in the rental to find out who left it and ask them to move it.

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    Replies
    1. The thing is that I cannot talk to her. The landlord has gated the front porch, so I cannot just go up and knock on her door. The wagon is a different story. If we chain it to the fence, with a note, that would be the way to find out who owns it.

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  11. I am glad to know I'm not the only person who's experienced strange behavior by neighbors related to garbage! Hopefully your note will do the trick.

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    1. If not, the fact that the garbage man will not collect garbage in bags will. The interesting thing to me is that across the street there is a 3 houses in a row owned by the same landlord. They all set their garbage bags out in piles to be collected on trash day. The landlord pays it. They could put their trash bags across the street and no one would have been wiser.

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