From where I sit, garbage day is a procession of various waste collection trucks. I see the tops of the trucks, the flashing yellow lights, if any, and on hot days, run to close the door for a bit. Yesterday, I was surprised to see a human perched on top of his truck.

He appeared to have a couple of big recycling bins stuck in the upside down position. This made him very unhappy. He wrestled with one, got it unstuck, emptied it manually and flung it toward the curb. Luckily, it wasn’t mine. Mine was the other one, which was lowered with more respect by the truck.

Periodically, the city brings by new containers. On those days, it sounds like the citizens are under siege, what with the booming sounds of giant trash bins rolling off flatbed trucks. Unlike the metal cans of old, these bins don’t dent, have self-covers and appear to be varmint-proof.

However, the combined machine noises of the regular trash, the yard waste and the recycling trucks are no match for the tree pruners, who spent the day cutting and then GRINDING a neighbor’s trees.

Good thing I took part of the day off.