Love Your Garbage Men

Fall is here. I got up this morning and turned on the furnace for the first time. Fog is hanging in the air and the sounds of the garbage men humping trash are making its way inside. Rhythmic starting and stopping of the truck engine, pierced with the high squeal of brakes, then - CRASH as the glass bins get dumped into the recycling. Thump thump of the trash and recycling bins as they are dropped back to the ground. Our Sanitation Technicians are making their way through the neighborhood.

I am not mocking them my friends. I love our garbage men. And you should love yours. Their job is HARD! Up before the crack of dawn, these men get ready while the rest of us are snuggled in our beds. Yoga or the gym and then coffee is not the order of things for them. Its get up, get dressed in layers that are going to get wet and stay that way, get to work in the dark, get in a big rumbling truck that is going to damage their hearing with its high decibel noise, and hump our trash. That's right: OUR TRASH. The stuff we have been chucking into our plastic and metal bins during the week. Unwrap, open lid, throw in, out of mind....until trash day that is, when it enters the world of those 5:00am workers.

The life cycle of the garbage man is not foreign to me. My brother worked for a garbage company driving drop boxes. No humping trash (their term in case your wondering)for him unless absolutely needed, but he spent his day dropping off and picking up those big boxes we all load our crap into and have them haul off to the dump.

They handle our trash, recycling and yard debris. EVERYDAY. Its hard on the body. Have YOU tried lifting your own garbage/yard debris cans? Didn't think so.

So, friends, next time your are tossing refuse into your bin, take a minute to ponder your garbage man. He has a name. He has a job. He has a family he supports with this job. And he works his ass off. Love your garbage man.