Trash time at Christmas.....

People never cease to amaze me.

Our trash pick-up day is usually Wednesday. However, due to the Xmas holiday being on Monday, everyone's trash day is pushed back one day. So, we don't have to put out our trash this week until Thursday.

Normally, we are limited to two bags of trash a week and unlimited recyclable items. The system is run that way and helps to reduce both waste and costs by about $7/household in our city. If you want to put out more trash during a normal week, you just buy stickers from the city for $1/bag and you can put out as many extra bags as you want. However, Christmas week is different. There's no limit on trash for this week since the city is obviously aware that there will be a lot of trash/boxes/etc from the holidays.

A new neighbor down the street evidently didn't get the memo about trash days being moved back during holiday weeks. So he put out his trash today thinking that it was going to be picked up when in fact, it won't be picked up until tomorrow. Normally, that's not such a big deal. However, this guy decided that he would put out the boxes from his Christmas presents on the curb. So now, everyone driving by his home today knows that he received a 42" plamsa TV, a computer, a new tool chest, a very nice light fixture, and several games/toys for his kids. For those that aren't aware of it, this is generally an excellent way for thieves to scout out what they could obtain in a house before they even enter it. Not only that, if that computer or TV goes bad and he needs to return it for warrenty repairs, he's not going to have the packaging to ship those items. I'm sure the guy is nice, but I have no clue why he put all those boxes out there without at least attempting to mask them somewhat.

You can be sure that the only thing that anyone will know I got for Xmas will be a storage shelf unit for my garage. I'm guessing that won't move easily and it won't sell well on the electronics black market, so I should be good.