Something Dreadful

Something dreadful made me hurt, angry and upset.

People can sometimes be so cruel, whether it was their intention or not, or whether they are just social clods, one just never knows.

But dealing with my anger, hurt feelings and pain need to be addressed.

How I do not know.

I can't seem to concentrate on things I should be doing. Bah humbug.

But I decided on two things.

One, the dog and I need more walking and two, the park and neighborhood where I am camping is perpetually scattered with litter from the public. It's an ongoing nuisance problem.  (Let's go some place beautiful and trash it.)

I believe the land is sacred and we should treat it with tremendous respect. Apparently not many people agree from the looks of what today's loot brought in.

So, I leashed up the puppy on his flexi-leash, attached that to the huge spring clip, then attached a cleaning bucket to the spring clip. In this way, I am able to hold the spring clip which holds the leash and bucket.

In my other hand is the litter picker upper. It's a long stick with mechanical fingers to grasp things.

Yeah, I am lazy, I don't want to bend over a thousand times picking up litter, so I use my grasper.

So every time I get to wallowing in my pain, anger and hurt feelings, I get up and walk the dog while picking up the random litter that thoughtless people have left behind. My arms ache, my legs feel funny. A few times I had to stop in place just to gather up my strength to keep going.

It's only 3:20pm and the dog is exhausted.  We've filled, dumped and refilled our bucket over and over.  Some of the stuff we found included a used roof shingle, a big hunk of glass, two car or boat parts, dozens of cigarette and cigar butts, assorted beer cans, one pencil, soda bottles, a wash cloth, coffee cups, brown paper towels, a $75 parking ticket, straws, a pair of glasses, 2 plumbing parts,  gum wrappers, a gift card, 4 fishing lures, a hair curler, water bottle tops, crumpled tin foil, burger wrappers, a ponytail holder, 1 sneaker, a pair of underwear, 5 paper clips, 3 forks, 2 bolts and 1 big screw.

The park and road sides are looking beautiful again. I am covered in sweat, guzzling down homemade iced tea.

Am I still hurt, angry and upset?

Yes.

Let's be honest, I am!

But it feels good that something positive is getting done in spite of it all.

The dishes are piled up, there are a dozen projects I should have been doing, but picking up litter is mindless work. It jumps out at me, I can see the tiniest wrapper hiding under a bush.

Oh and the wild flowers. It was eye candy to see so many beautiful wild flowers.

Life is strange.