My trash walks of late have branched out to new neighborhoods. That’s in part to add mileage to the daily slog and because plenty of litter has been eyed laying about. Why not spread the wealth, trash-retrieval wise?
Serious note to self: When embarking on a new path, take along an extra bag – or two. Multiple bags would have come in handy today.
The stretch of Colony and Sharon Roads through Southpark gets – I dunno – 25,000 cars per day? That could be high or low. Whatever it is, it’s a steady stream of one hell of a lot of traffic.
So it stands to reason more cars = more trash. Back in the day of longer walks this path was a routinely trod. No more. As a daily practice for the past several years I’ve stuck closer to home circling the big block around Philips Place. My zigs and zags probably amount to three miles (plus or minus a few hundred yards).
But new routes come at a high price: trash has accumulated for who knows how long – as I discovered in a dispiriting manner during this afternoon’s six mile trek.
This new tangent – a much longer path – took me through swanky parts of Myers Park, a ritzy enclave in Charlotte. But Lo and behold, there’s still more litter on the sidewalks and streets than there should be.
By the time I reached the intersection of Sharon and Runnymede, my Harris Teeter bag was stretched to its physical limit. Some blocks earlier, the decision was reluctantly made to let paper and non-plastic junk sit where it lay. Plastic bottles and polystyrene were the only two litter subgroups to make the ‘must pick up’ list.
There was simply no way to corral everything. The bag was beginning to tear and while it bugged me to leave litter behind I had no real choice. Better to pick up some junk than none at all. The last three miles, virtually nothing new was stuffed into the jam packed bag.
Still, it gives me more impetus to make a return trip – this time with another couple of bags.
President Trump continues to thumb his nose at the environment
It boggles the mind how Trump could become – allegedly – such a successful business man when he makes such transparently idiotic decisions on so many fronts. Personally, I think most of his wealth is based on real estate valuations. It certainly can’t be for his bellwether efforts that have gone belly up such as Trump Wines, Trump University, et al.
He apparently has put no – zero – thought into the concept that environmental protection makes sense.
He wiped an Obama era protection against coal mining waste off the books. It clears the way for coal waste to hit our waterways. His tone-deafness to global warming – the Pentagon is still moving ahead to plan for sea level rise impacts on military installations – is utterly stunning. My belief is he’s reached his decisions on a whim. There can be no real thought process beyond that.
His support for the two pipelines through the upper Midwest are further evidence of his hostility toward any concern for the land, water, and air.
My small rants don’t carry much weight beyond this thin page. But there are real news stories about real events that ought to have even Trump’s supporters wondering what the hell this guy is up to.
