Garbage story

Taking care of our garbage was never my problem before until we moved to this apartment this year. In condominiums, you just throw and push every stinking item you have down into the garbage chute. But in communities like this, you wait for the dump truck to honk and wake every sleepy nerve in your body in the early morning. Because if you don’t get out of bed immediately, you would miss your once-in-a-lifetime chance to hand your garbage to the garbage men, oh boy. When hubby is around, he takes care of this. With an unbelievable adrenaline rush, he jumps out of bed, changes his shorts and shirt (which, by the way, is my little request since I’m paranoid that the odor of the neighborhood’s trash and the viruses from the bugs and flies would stick to his clothes, which I’d be embracing once he returns to bed! Eww.), then chases the garbage men.
But hubby’s not been around since last month, so I have to do the dirty job. Which stinks, which I hate.

So it’s not surprising that I have never met the garbage men up to now. Or was it me who waited at our gate one time? Darn, I was too sleepy to even remember. And as expected, my trashes have accumulated the past 2 weeks. Oh yes, can you imagine the ants, the mosquitoes, even the spiders and lizards rejoicing over their growing treasure at our backyard? And I shouldn’t forget the stray cat, who manages to squeeze its body to the slim gaps in our gate whenever it smells the trash. Looks like everybody’s happy except me, huh?

My only hope is the little kids who knock at every gate and door, shouting “ate, ate patapon.” These kids, probably between 6- to 9-years old, would collect garbage from villagers like me who didn’t catch the elusive garbage men the past few days. In exchange, you’ll hand them a few pennies, or for others, loose change. But unlike the garbage men, these kids don’t have a schedule, they just show up whenever they want. The past few days, I heard them shouting their services, “patapon, patapon.” But blame it on the extreme heat, I was moving quite slowly, that I even missed the kids knocking on my gate. Quite pathetic, I know. But a few minutes ago, I heard them loud and clear though their voices sounded far, so I opened my door even before they can knock. Gosh, I was too excited to clear my garbage, whoever thought that throwing garbage can perk me up like this, hehe? Now, I smell a sweet sense of victory! Thanks to the kids, my garbage woes are over, temporarily.