Monday, Monday ...

The Mamas And The Papas, right?

I love Mondays. Many people don't. Sometimes it is draining to think about the drudgery of another week of work. But when you look at the positive side of Monday, you'll see it can be a good day of the week.

Monday is a good day to start doing something such as a diet or a new exercise program.

Monday is also a good day to stop doing something such as a bad habit or having a bad attitude.

But the reason I like Mondays -- it is garbage day in my neighborhood. I know, you think I'm a little kooky now, right? Let me explain.

Every Monday morning I see two different garbage trucks go through my neighborhood. One empties the blue cart which is regular garbage and one empties the brown cart which is recycling. So I started thinking about the details of this. I can live my normal life all week long and then throw all my yucky stuff away. Once per week, on Mondays, some nice men come along in big trucks and haul it off. For up to 32 gallons of garbage I pay less than $3.60 per week.  Included in this fee is a once-per-week street cleaning service that keeps my neighborhood streets looking nice. And for less than $1.30 per week all the recycling gets removed and by recycling I mean anything recyclable -- glass, tin, paper, plastic ... All I have to do is put the garbage and recyclables in their respective containers, put the containers at the curb and Wa La it call gets carried away. Wow! That is pretty cool!

After traveling around the world, trust me, this is a valuable service. Not every country has such benefits. I've been to countries where the garbage just piles up in the streets - the city, and the countryside. In places that do have refuse service, the amount you can discard is quite small while the cost is quite high. Not many of us think about the benefits of having someone physically come to each of our homes and pick up our garbage. It just is what it is. It is a service we have come to expect.

Don't get me wrong, I expect this service because I pay for it. I'm merely pointing out the fact that I like this service, I appreciate this service and I'm grateful every Monday to see the smiling faces of those nice men in the big trucks driving through my neighborhood.

What do you like about Mondays?

MARVELING AT THE LITTLE THINGS

As I was walking this morning, I had a surge of happiness. It never ceases to amaze me at how wonderful our world and life can truly be. We are such a smart and inventive people. I won't discuss putting a man on the moon since that has almost become a cliche -- wow! we put a man on the moon. While I am not negating the importance or crazy accomplishment of that feat, it is not the only thing we can be proud of. We can be proud of and talk about so many other things - so many huge accomplishments. Actually, I personally believe that even what some would consider small accomplishments are something to marvel.

A few weeks ago my neighbor was having some work done on her house. We live in a cul-de-sac - this neighbor lives directly across from me so I was able to watch all the activity. She ordered two replacement columns for her front porch. The original two had dry rot damage and needed to be replaced. I did not see the truck arrive so I missed the beginning of the process and by the time I realized the columns had arrived, the forklift carrying them was already in motion. The driver was manuevering around in order to place them on the floor of my neighbor's garage. I watched with some amazement as it appeared he was doing his job with little effort. He gently placed the columns on the ground but was unable to push them entirely into the garage (there was some other stuff in the way). Once the obstacle was removed, he continued placing the items in the right place in order for my neighbor's contractor to be able to do his work. When the driver was finished with this, he proceeded to place the forklift back where it came from. He drove the forklift across the street and parked it directly behind the big truck (which carried the materials the driver was delivering). He then went to the bed of the truck and started pushing buttons. Some arms came out from the big truck and grabbed hold of the forklift. These arms then lifted the forklift off the ground and pulled the small piece of equipment close to its bumper. One could hear a few clicks and clangs while the connections were made between big truck and little forklift. After approximately 5 minutes, the process was complete and the forklift was fully secured in place. The driver then got into the truck and pulled away. Job complete!

It may sound odd but this whole process totally intrigued me. I stood in wonder at how easily one person was able to accomplish this task. The columns were 7 x 7 and 10 feet tall. I can only imagine how heavy they were. The driver was delivering two huge, heavy and cumbersome columns at the same time, he was alone, he was working an invaluable piece of equipment, he did all this with ease.

Isn't it incredible that we are able to accomplish these types of tasks? We are able to create and build and do and be! This particular task only needed one person to get it done. The two machines he needed to do the job - the truck and the forklift - both came in very handy and enabled him to deliver a product to the customer of the company with little effort.

I am often intrigued by what we have invented and I am eager to see what we'll invent in the future. There is so much possibility!