Christmas is a season for miracles, and I’m a simple guy, so my miracle expectations are pretty low on the scale of grandeur. And don’t get me wrong — by no means am I comparing my miracle to anything religious. That’s because my miracle has to do with a garbage can.<\/p>\n
That’s right, a garbage can, or a City and County trash receptacle, to be exact.<\/p>\n
Years ago, when the city issued trash receptacles for our weekly garbage pickup, I was kind of elated, as those, plus the recycling receptacles, were clean, sturdy, uniform containers. I got rid of our ugly, dirty garbage cans with ill-fitting lids and no rollaway wheels.<\/p>\n
As the guy responsible for taking out the trash every week, this was a big deal. But over years of use, my new trash can got pretty filthy and was significantly damaged by all the mechanical truck handling. I just lived with it, not knowing that I could get it replaced.<\/p>\n
Then, recently, my kid brother told me that I could call and the city would replace my receptacle. They told me to leave it out on trash-collection day, and a crew would come by to switch it out with a new one.<\/p>\n
Wow, that was like getting a gift on Christmas morning. All day at work I was pretty excited knowing that, when I got home, I would have a new trash receptacle.<\/p>\n
As I drove up to my garage that evening and my headlights hit that dark-gray container, my heart skipped a beat.<\/p>\n
For that entire first week, I was careful to make sure our garbage bags were tied tight so as not to have any leakage. Anything bulky I wrapped in newspapers and then covered in plastic, as I didn’t want to soil my new baby.<\/p>\n
Then, one evening, I was standing near the garage, where we keep the receptacle, when my wife and daughter came home.<\/p>\n
They got out of the car with handfuls of loose garbage, coffee cups and fast-food wrappers. They headed straight to the receptacle and were about to dump it in, when I yelled out, “What the heck are you doing? Don’t you dare throw that in there!”<\/p>\n
I continued: “Don’t throw trash in my garbage can!” Baffled, they both looked at me and my wife uttered, “You’re insane.” <\/p>\n
rnagasawa@midweek.com<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Christmas is a season for miracles, and I’m a simple guy, so my miracle expectations are pretty low on the..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whats-next"],"yoast_head":"\n