One of my household duties is to handle all recycling and trash. Monday night I fell down on the job, failing to haul both the trash and recycling containers out to the curb.

Next morning, really early, the recycling truck roars up the street. I am nowhere to be found. Another individual hears the truck coming and begins struggling to drag the container off the front patio.

Recycling crew member sees the struggle, hops off the truck, bounds into the patio area, and grabs the container—-essentially doing my job and his.

We all like to hammer our city agencies when they screw up. We send in complaining e-mails, hammer city workers on blogs, gripe to our councilmembers. All of which makes it critical that we likewise get tough on ourselves when we fail to fulfill the urban compact.

I assure you, Department of Public Works (DPW), that this’ll never happen again. You folks have too much worthwhile work to do to pick up after me.

Photo courtesy of eurleif.