Walking around the block

I notice something unusual just about every time I take the dogs for a walk around Cloverdale. Today its Friday, normally garbage and recyling pick up day in Cloverdale. Due to the Good Friday holiday there is no garbage service today. They bump it back a day when a holiday falls in the week, so our pick up will be tomorrow, Saturday. This not unusual. Almost every month has one stat holiday so everyone should know the routine.

Today is a blustery day in Cloverdale. I checked the weather network and the winds are 30km gusting up to 50km. It wasn't real windy first thing this morning but picked up around noon.

There are a lot of households who put out their garbage and recycling even though collection isn't until tomorrow. There are a lot of garbage cans rolling around sideways and garbage can lids skidding down the road. Not to mention contents of garbage cans and recycle boxes littered everywhere.

I realize a lot of people, especially in the service industry, are working today, so out of habit they may have put their garbage out and left for work not thinking anything of it, forgetting that its a stat holiday because they're working and it wasn't windy this morning. A lot of people are at home too and completely oblivious to what is happening with their garbage cans.

I mowed the lawn yesterday and filled 3 garbage cans with lawn trimmings for the garden waste recycling. I don't have them out at the curb, they're in my yard. With bricks on the lids holding them down.

The most unusual thing I've seen today is the man 4 houses down who is power washing. The overspray is getting carried everywhere in the wind. I'm not sure what he has that is so dirty that absolutely had to be power washed today. We own 2 power washers, industrial sized, used in our business, and we would not power wash in this weather. I also would not power wash in monsoon rains even if it wasn't windy. Ideal conditions for power washing are when its raining a bit, or is scheduled to start raining sometime after the job is done so the rain helps wash away the debris that the power washing loosened up.

Meanwhile the weather forecast shows it will be windy again tomorrow morning. I might just leave the lids off all the garbage cans before I set them out at the curb.