The Inexorable Grinding of My Gears

Some things really grind my gears. In the past I'm sure that I have railed more than once about people leaving their shopping carts strewn about the parking lot. I am also miffed when odious drivers who sit on my bumper when I'm already exceeding the speed limit.

But people dumping their flyers at the mailbox really jangles my nerves.

We have a neighbourhood mailbox situation. People drive up, grab their mail, and drive off.

You would think that they would be driving off with all of the contents. I mean it does not seem to this gaffer too odious a chore to bring the flyers back into you vehicle and take them to your own recycling bin. But many don't. Nope. They simply abandon their flyers.

They used to stick their unwanted flyers in the spaces between the boxes, which was rather thoughtless. I mean to say that flyers don't simply vapourize; someone has to deal with them at some point in time. But just as long as that someone ain't them, eh?

Then someone, a good someone, brought a trash can, which seemed like a better solution than just stuffing the flyers willy nilly. And it is.

Unfortunately, no one thinks to move it to the curb for recycling pickup. Except for one senior citizen, who shall remain nameless but who doesn't always remember to move it to the fore on garbage day.

And so the container can get rather full.

But the good, repsectful populace just keeps tossing their flyers on the top. The bin overflows and flyers get blown about, but still they discard the flyers.

The problem is at its worst in winter when the container gets frozen into the snow. I tried to move it to the curb for pickup. Alas, I was unsuccessful. And so, it will likely sit there until spring. Meanwhile, the nitwits good citizens will just keep discarding their flyers.

Not being able to shift the bin, I resorted to grabbing an armful of the flyers from the bin and walking them back to my house to put in our recycling bin.

That was yesterday, and the trash can is still pretty full as you can see. There also remains litter on the ground even after I picked up, most of it embedded until spring thaw.

See how full the container is? Before I grabbed a bunch, it was heaped up well above the rim, but people kept adding to the pile. And of course, it didn't stay there.

I guess carrying armloads back to my place will have to be my winter solution.

It is apparent to me that we are not that evolved of a species. I wonder if a better one will emerge in a few million years. Meanwhile, let wars rage, oceans rise, and the planet burn. Not to mention all those American evangelicals who are delirious about their president doing what he can to hasten the end times.

No, we are not nearly evolved enough.