In the last couple of weeks, in the night sky, we have had a full snow moon and a so-called Chinese weather balloon pass by. We also had an asteroid whiz by closer than some of our satellites, so it was close. There is also a blue green comet visible in the sky.
Time will tell whether these are omens, coincidences or who knows what. I wonder where all the soothsayers are, to explain these phenomenon and strange occurrences. Perhaps they have all have turned into political pundits and talking zombified heads on TV.
On Tuesday, I went to the city dump, to drop off a few things in case the dump got closed due to the strike. I was going to drop them off at the coop recycling bins but they were all gone. Without any warning they had disappeared. So, either the city removed them for some undisclosed reason, or someone stole them. But stealing those big blue bins would be quite a feat. They aren’t something you can load on the back of a pickup truck or even drag with a quad or snowmobile.
It was rather quiet at the dump and the salvage area was completely bare and empty except for one lone chair. It looked a little forlorn and sad, sitting there all by its lonesome. Yet it was a very poignant image. It seemed to represent the city failure to really embrace salvaging because it was the only thing in the salvage area.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me, but returned an hour later to capture this iconic image. One lone chair in the salvage area. The chair was no longer alone, it had been joined by four others. So now there were five chairs just sitting there waiting. I wondered had someone called an impromptu meeting. Were other chair heading to the dump, to join the quorum?
I have often said that the dump is an ideal place for the politicians and bureaucrats to hold their meetings. They would be in the great outdoors and get to see how wasteful our current ways are. It would be a great learning experience for them and the meeting would probably be a tad shorter and more efficient and effective.
The next mystery to confront me, was why was there a portable outhouse set up at the road entrance to the dump? That seemed like an odd location for an outhouse. The city doesn’t have public washrooms or outhouses downtown, where they could certainly use a few, yet here was one sitting at the gateway to the dump. Not only does it look odd and out of place but who uses it. If it is for the dump staff, why isn’t inside the dump? I just don’t understand what it is doing there or if it is symbolic of something bigger.
I would have phoned the city to find out more about this strange occurrence but not sure this would qualify as an essential service. Also, the staff still working might have more pressing concerns to deal with. Which brings me to another philosophical query which has long puzzled me. Who gets to decide what is an essential service or not?
Seniors who get some winter exercise at the field house, could argue that this is an essential service, since it helps them maintain their life style and mobility. Just as programs for children, could be considered essential for their health and wellbeing. Getting water could certainly be deemed essential but paying for it could be considered optional. The same could be said about property taxes. Property taxes are there to help pay for city services but if we are not getting those services due to a strike maybe the taxes should be readjusted to account for this. No one likes paying for services they don’t get.
So, you see a simple trip to the dump could be considered essential to ones well being.