Clean up trash on the side of the road

Take extra bags and gloves. Smile and talk to people as they pass, someone will stop to help. Take some stuff hiking, and find a spot that needs to be cleaned. Sometimes I go to neighborhoods I shouldn’t be in, and pick up trash at the bus stop. This is NOT recommended and could get you shot, but it’s a rush and sometimes people do stop and help.

Just take a little plastic grocery bag and fill it up every time you go up there & it will eventually add up.

I’ve also gone up to the 360 overlook with a big bag & gloves & filled it up.

And…f’r goddsakes, people….if you go someplace secluded in the outdoors for a little lovin’, I’m not gonna judge you. UNLESS you leave your filthy disease-filled used condoms behind, that is. That’s fucking disgusting. Take the scumbags with ya, scumbag.

I’m retiring this because having “perpetual” goals is getting frustrating, since I never feel any sense of accomplishment. Things need to be more specific. Anyhoo, I did do this last year, though it was damned discouraging to see just how fast the litter on that stretch of road reaccumulated. Gah.

Last Saturday I took two trash bags and picked up a whole bunch of crap down the street from my house. The area I was in was kinda swampy as it’s got a lot of springs; I didn’t quite get all the junk out of there because I’ll need to come back with some decent waterproof boots/shoes. But it looks great so far!

One person slowed down, opened his window and said, “You’re doing a great job!”, which made my day.

I haven’t figured out the alcohol bottle percentage yet. I do have to dump it all out and sort it because things are recycled around here and I’ll have to separate them anyway, so I figure I’ll start counting things up then. I’ll let y’all know!

I figure I’d count the percentage of coffee cups, soda cans, and alcohol containers to see just how many people are drinking and driving. Though I almost don’t want to know.

I’ll post the percentages here. Hell, I might write a letter to the local newspaper. It’s very frightening.

But waiting for better weather. I figure in the spring when it starts to warm up, but before the plants have overgrown everything will be a good time. There’s one spot on my walk where I go past a couple of spring-fed swamps; there is an enormous amount of junk in there (it’s really quite depressing). I keep thinking how in the ancient days springs were sacred as gateways to the Otherworld, and how they usually had a Nymph or Goddess who embodied them. Well this poor Nymph can’t be all that happy, or feeling very well right now, and I’d very much like to clean it up. I’m wondering the right way to do it, as it’s really muddy, and as it’s also got a lot of skunk cabbage in it, which is kind of rare around here, maybe even protected? and I don’t want to destroy it. I guess some long rakes are in order… Any suggestions?

I walk a lot, and my route often takes me past the local highway on-ramp. I am so sick of looking at all the crap people throw on the side of the road. It’s unbelievable. The really frightening part is that an alarmingly high percentage of the cans and bottles are for alcohol. Now if it’s on the side of the road, where did it come from? That’s right, someone’s car. Car + alcohol = . . . ?

Pretty scary.