...own the gloves!

We now live in the picturesque, American heartland.  Here's what I saw on this morning's walk.

Oh, my heart!  This is the rest of that view.  Look at all that trash!  It's lining the streets of my heartland and ruining the view.

What about the local wildlife? The ducks and geese live right here in all the roadside trash.

Well, we are only here on a temporary assignment for my husband's job.  I don't really feel that attached to the community.  I'm not even sure I would know who to complain to anyway.

Those were my first thoughts.  Like the childhood game of "duck, duck, goose," I was about to pass the problem off on someone else.  Then, I made a decision to take ownership of the issue instead.  After all, it is my community.  Even if we are here for a short time, I can make a difference.  I planned to collect the cans and bottles along my walk route to recycle.  So, I went off to buy me some gloves and get to work!

Remember these?

Since our household goods are in storage, I bought the cheapest pair of gardening gloves I could find.  Oh, my!  Aren't they...something?!  I've been trying to think of the best words to describe them.  Can I get a little help from my readers?  What words come to mind?

Well, I decided to go for it.  If I was going to wear something as...(what came to your mind)...as these gloves, then I needed to own this too!  Yep.  That's where the inspiration for my teaser magazine cover came from.  I shot a photo of myself striking a pose in these gloves.  Then, I Photoshopped the text in.  The text references my work project.  Do you see it now?  The words "trash," "bottle," and "can" are all there.  Did you catch these hints before now?

I'll post the picture again so you can take another look.

Now I won't make you wait until page 115 (from my magazine picture) to see "What I did one afternoon."  Actually, it was one afternoon and one morning.  I walked in one direction each time clearing a stretch of road 2 miles in each direction.  It took about an hour each time.  My 5 month old son was along for the ride.  In fact, his stroller turned out to be really handy.  I hung the bags from the handle.  I'm sure I was a sight to see for all the passing cars...especially if they caught a glimpse of the gloves!

Here's a front shot of the stroller with our friendly farmer in the background.  I see some tiny toes sticking out the front!

This is the view from behind the stroller with this morning's haul.  For fun, I counted the cans and bottles I collected.  I filled each bag with 25 before starting a new bag.  How many do you think I got?  Remember, this was from this morning alone.  I'll share yesterday afternoon's haul after a few more pictures.

There is a lot more trash out there.  I only picked up the bottles and cans that were easily recycled in the bin at the end of each walk.  I didn't touch the broken glass (top, right).  Can you imagine what the storm drain (bottom, left) water looks like?  Oh!  If there was a prize for the most disgusting, then it would have gone to the bottle ashtray (middle, right).  Wow!  I couldn't pick it up on this trip because I couldn't just recycle that puppy!  Yuck, yuck, and yuck!

So, here's the afternoon haul.  It was just a little bit less.  Any guesses as to how many?  I won't make you wait for the total.  I collected 4 full bags (25 each) and a partial bag.  Yep.  That's over 100.  110 and 1/2 cans and bottles in fact!  The "1/2" was half a can torn in a way that wasn't dangerous to collect or recycle.  I also collected two energy shot bottles that were too small to count in my regular tally. 

I think I "owned" the problem for today.  There is still a lot of trash out there, and I'm afraid there will be more added to that.  So, perhaps I will wear the crazy gloves another day.  For now, I feel a little bit better about the community I live in.  I've learned a good lesson.  It feels good to have taken this heartland to heart.

Okay.  'Enough with that.  I promise to be back to the regular "fluff" posts soon.  :)