Ups and downs

Thursday, 7:32 pm

By Kate

Jan

22

2009

Today was trash and recycling day and I was prepared. As you may recall, my preparations can be rather hit or miss, quite often miss. I was looking forward to it, though, because the bird cage boxes were stacked in my kitchen taking up a lot of space.

Last night I noticed that not one of the neighbors had taken their trash or recycling out yet. That’s very unusual. It made me think maybe I had the wrong day. But no, the calendar clearly said Wednesday PM and trash collection is early Thursday AM.

I pulled the new trash collection rules and regulations out of the desk to check. Indeed, they said that the only holidays affecting trash collection are New Years, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Christmas. All other holidays are not affected. According to the old rules, just about every holiday pushed our trash collection back a day to Friday, Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday included. I think perhaps none of my neighbors read the inserts in our tax bills last month.

Being the lone exception on the street, though, it still made me wonder if I’d missed something along the way. This morning, I was so gratified to see the trash truck pull up. And equally amused to see a few people making the mad dash to the curb in slippers and bathrobes. For once that wasn’t me. For once I was ahead of the curve and I quite enjoyed it. Sometimes the littlest things really make my day.

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Then again, little things can kind of take the blush off the rose, too. This afternoon I learned that the lad will be departing tomorrow instead of Saturday. It’s only one day’s difference, but it was unexpected. A class mate of his called to offer him a ride back and he’s leaving very early on Saturday morning. Jeff lives in the same town as the lad’s Dad, so I’m taking him down tomorrow evening and dropping him off. Vacation is over and it hit me rather hard.

I told the lad that I was sorry to be such a Soggy Sally, but he just hugged me and said it was extremely flattering. Maybe so, but it’s still feels ridiculous to get so emotional about it. I expect I’ll still be this way when he’s 30. I suppose it’s a parent thing, but, then again, my friend with a college age son called this afternoon celebrating the fact that her son is leaving this weekend. She’s excited to have her house and an orderly lifestyle back. She wondered if I wanted to go out and celebrate with her. Well, I think I’ll go, though celebrating isn’t quite the word for it.

It’s the preparing and packing that get to me. I’ll be fine by Sunday, but the next 24 hours are going to be tough. Wish it wasn’t that way. I know he’s ready and looking forward to getting back, and that is as it should be. I should be glad of that. Which I am...but I’m still a bit of a mess tonight. Guess there’s nothing to do but accept that this is just the way I am and get on with it.