Gone with the wind

I like Days. I don’t mean to say that I don’t like days, ordinary days, because I like most of them too. But I like special Days — I even like Arbor Day (which, I am pleased to note, is making a comeback
with the Green movement) and Flag Day (June 14), as well as some of the other days most people like, such as Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Independence Day, and snow days.
There are also Days that I like that probably are unusual, such as Burger Day at KC’s Restaurant (two free toppings on Tuesdays — what a deal!) and Trash Day (Thursdays in our neighborhood). It gives
me a good feeling to see all those trash cans and recycling bins lined up on the curb.  There’s just something civic and orderly about it all.

The great grinding trash and recycling trucks come along and pick up the trash and the recycling. People take their cans and containers back to where they live and the neighborhood looks brighter
somehow. Call me sentimental, but I like it.

There are a few days I don’t like, such as Tornado Days and Windy Days. Now, normally, I am a fan of the weather in most of its forms, excepting the extreme ones — tornadoes, hurricanes, and the
like — but I don’t like ordinary windy days.

There’s something unsettling about too much wind. I know, without wind we wouldn’t have weather at all which would be rather dull, but I don’t think we need too much wind.  Just a suggestion.

A few weeks back, we had a combination of a good day (Trash Day) and a bad day (Windy Day).

I think the winds were over 25 miles an hour, which is too much. They blew the empty plastic bottles out of the paper bag I put them in for recycling so that I had to go up and down the street collecting
my wayward bottles. A neighbor came out and helped me put them in his recycling bin where I hope they did not blow away. On windy days I will have to remember to put a rock in the bag with the bottle
and face it away from the wind to keep it in place and hope the recycling people don’t try to recycle the rock.

So, Trash Day came, along with the Windy Day. Normally the people who pick up the trash stick the lid back inside the can so it doesn’t go anywhere. This day, however, they didn’t and my lid was
gone, blown away.

Now, let me say that the trash pickup people do a wonderful job. I think I could put an Abrams tank at the curb with the trash and they would calmly toss it onto the truck and haul it to the dump. I don’t
consider it their fault that my can lid blew away. I should have had my name on it or had it tethered to the can.

As it turns out, I have three other trashcans without lids. In those cases, the lids cracked and I kept the cans for yard waste and other tasks. But for my main garbage can I need a lid.  There are all kinds
of critters who get into the trash if there isn’t a lid on it.  We have quite a collection of fauna around here for a suburban community. Besides the usual squirrels and rabbits, we have seen possums and
even deer. When Sumner Lake was being built, a deer came out from the construction area and was lying in my side yard. I called animal control but they said they couldn’t do anything unless the deer
was injured or destroying property. It lay there for a while and then got up and ran down the street. I don’t know what happened to it after that. At least we don’t have rabid foxes or coyotes. That I know of.

Anyhow, I didn’t have a lid for my trash can. I drove around the neighborhood looking for it, but didn’t see it.  Finally I concluded it had blown away or someone had picked it up. I thought there weren’t
trash can lid stores but it turns out you can buy replacement lids, saving me from having four lidless cans. I thought about putting up “Missing Lid” posters with a picture of it, but thought that would be
silly.

As it turned out, a neighbor had found my lid in his yard and brought it back the next day. Glad for the kindness of neighbors, I’ve put my name inside the lid. I plan to attach it to the trash can, but that
can probably wait until the next windy day.

Dan Verner is a Manassas resident. He contributes his thoughts and stories to the Perspective page on a few Sundays every month.