Week 69 – Underdog to the rescue!

Watching the Saints come marching in for victory was great!  Gotta love the underdog.  New Orleans definitely deserves something to cheer about…not to take any kudos away from their athleticism, sheer bravado and tenacity.

We showed our tenacity by running offense at our usual spot.  We’ve been trying to dominate the area by penetrating deep and delving into the line of scrimmage.  Unfortunately our coverage was blown and the other side had field position.

We could barely make a dent and their field advantage overcame us at one point.  But not to worry, just because they had the momentum meant that we could apply the sneak attack come from behind.

What we lacked in rushing, we gained with our double coverage.  We learned that as long as you have the drive and don’t mind encroaching on that neutral zone, anything can happen.  Two buckets in five minutes!  Now hit the showers…

Week 68 – Bucket All!

On Saturday morning Lori and I revisited a littery site on 35th in West Seattle. We quickly filled two buckets around the bus stop and returned home to get ready for a fun night in Olympia with Mom and Dad. When we returned home on Saturday night, we passed our cleanup site and were dismayed to see fresh litter on the ground just six hours later!

Perhaps there are places in every city that are just litter magnets. I was taught that cleanliness begets cleanliness but alas it ain’t always true. Of course we’ll head back to this same spot sometime in the near future, maybe someday we’ll win the battle.

Recently we added a new Bucket Head and are still hopeful that there are others out there who will join the team. Since my Mom was confused about the rules of entry to this elite group allow me to elaborate:

1) You simply need to fill one bucket or bag with litter and email us with a quick story including where you cleaned up and if possible include a picture or two of your clean-up. You do not need to fill a bucket every week (though we certainly won’t discourage you from doing so).

That’s it, there is only one requirement to join the Bucket Head Brigade, now get out there and bucket all!

Week 67 – Litter-ally Speaking

We added a new “Bucket Head” this week (welcome to the club Betty!) and were reminded how we should all make the time to do what we can, when we can.  Ben and I have been double bucketing way too much lately. Life has gotten in the way.

We had a month long preparation for Ben’s Mom’s birthday, which usually includes a cultural theme and a skit of sorts.  I was frantically trying numerous dim sum recipes while Ben sculpted and painted his homemade Dragon for our humorous Chinese New Year/Birthday extravaganza. Life has gotten in the way.

Ben was sick for a few days and work was overwhelming for both of us lately….Life has gotten in the way… But no, “life” has NOT gotten in the way, excuses have.  As they say, there’s plenty of time to rest when you are dead!

Even though we were tired and yearned for home, we realized that five minutes out of our oh-so busy lives to pick up litter was just a drop in the bucket….literally.

Betty from Louisburg, NC

We live in the country and a lot of the litter my husband and I pick up comes from folks hauling their household trash to the convenient site located at the end of our road. Some don’t secure their load and it does not take but one to make a big mess.

We keep 3 sections of roadside clean making a total of 2 miles. One of the sections is where 4 roads come together all leading to the convenient site. This is 5 miles from our home and we can’t keep it spotless but we do try to clean it up once a month.

The last time we had cleaned this area was in November as December was really busy plus very cold.  When we picked up in November, we were surprised to see that someone had thrown a big bag of trash over in the weeds beside a farm path near the road.  I told my husband that we needed to get it up or they would be adding to it.  We were not equipped to cut our way through the briars to get it and we didn’t get back again until the middle of January.  Sure enough, someone had added 4 more bags but lucky for us those 4 bags had not been there long.  They were still in tact and were not in the briars. Ray and I have been keeping this area clean since 1995 and this is the first time we have had to deal with a dump.

After getting that done, we walked the road and filled 6 more bags with litter. I have attached a picture of this load of trash.  It took only an hour and a half for the two of us to clean up this much litter. Makes me proud.

Week 66 – The King and I

What a whirlwind weekend.  My poor Ben who hasn’t been feeling well, getting ready for a big shin-ding next weekend and with all the ups and downs at work this week, I’m amazed that we survived without medication…or meditation. 

We happened to find ourselves lost around the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle and ended up heading South on I-5 and Ben thought it would be a wonderful tribute to pick up litter this weekend on MLK Blvd.  Since we skipped last week due to illness, we had four buckets to pursue and found no problem whatsoever getting our fill.

We actually picked up a bucket of litter right under a “Adopt a Road” sign for litter pick up.  It’s enough to make a person cringe.  But, as we celebrate (by working) MLK Jr Day it’s also a day we can think about the difference one person made.  Our litter pick-up may be minute in so many ways but it takes one step…one man or woman…one vision…one dream.

” Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.”  Dr. King

Watching the images and the tragedy of Haiti this week makes our tiny donation also feel minute, but we hope that the cumulative effort of many can make a difference.  Where’s your bucket?

Week 65 – Nought to be forgotten

With the “Nought’s” coming to a close, it is apropos that we think about the New Year and even better, the new decade.  But before we look forward, it is always best to look back and reflect.

The last ten years has been fraught with greed and gluttony.  The amount of waste and disregard for our planet has shown the disconnect with our world and the people who abuse it.

We are reminded every week as we revisit the same places in West Seattle and feel like we are picking up that same piece of litter.  A viscous deja-vu cycle…or recycle.

Looking forward, Ben and I realize our task is daunting and we may get discouraged at times, but the good we feel after filling two buckets is worth it.  Here’s to a safe and Happy New Year.

“Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.”  James Thurber

Week 64 – All that G-litters is not Gold

Ben and I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and a warm winter Solstice greetings to all. Tis’ the season to “give” and we thought it would be a wonderful idea that after all the hub-bub subsided Christmas morning that we give our planet a little Christmas present and fill a couple buckets with litter.

It felt good to do something for our community.  In my haste to leave work on Wednesday I forgot to drop off the donated food to Northwest Harvest.  I had to shamefully sneak back in my office yesterday on Christmas Eve and drop the food off at the food bank…too late for donations to the needy.  I know that they can still use the food after Christmas, but the whole point was to make someone’s Christmas dinner a tad bit merrier if possible.  So when Ben suggested a litter pick up on Christmas morning I jumped all over the possibility of redeeming myself.

It was a beautiful Christmas morning here in Seattle with the blue skies and sun peering through the trees with just a fine layer of frost covering everything.  The frost even covered all the litter we picked up which just goes to show you that “all that glitters is not gold.”

Week 63 – Burien Ground

We’re not sure if it’s the holidays or the bitter cold but we are finding it very difficult to find time for our weekly bucket pick up. Ben had to work extra hours and between the kids and the rain we just couldn’t seem to make it work.  This is the second missed week where we needed to pick up four buckets to make up for lost time.

When the constant rain and bitter cold turned to 40 degree weather and just a gentle mist, we headed out quickly before the weather turned on us once again.  We can’t help but wonder why it has been so difficult making the time where as last year we didn’t even miss a week during a massive snow storm.

Maybe because it’s not a new adventure, maybe it’s because our current administration (our initial muse) has had more uphill climbs than we anticipated and we’re feeling the effects.

Maybe the newness has worn off, but during these trying times we must pull together, make the best of it and forge ahead.  Four buckets in the cold mist amongst the massive debris near the airport in Burien made for a quick pick up.

We couldn’t even see the loud airplanes overhead.  We knew they were there as they rumbled in the dark gray clouds.  63 weeks and 4 buckets later we looked back at the tire and garbage ridden area and could barely see a dent.  But I liken our efforts to the invisible planes overhead…we can’t see it but we believe it’s headed in the right direction.

Week 61 – Oh SNAP!

Thanksgiving preparations and merriment consumed our time last week so we skipped a week and wish we hadn’t. A cold snap has Seattle in it’s grips and we faced the bitter cold for a four bucket litter pickup yesterday!

We headed to a desolate industrial area just below the West Seattle bridge and fortunately filled our four buckets quickly as the bitter cold wind had us both shivering.

As we all head towards Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Pagan Yule, Christmas, Festivus, etc let us all remember that this is the giving season. Why don’t some of you reading this head out and fill a bucket or bag with litter and give a wonderful gift to the planet that gives us life?

Happy Holidays to you all, stay warm and be happy!

Week 59 – Giving Thanks

With Thanksgiving on the horizon, Ben and I have almost whipped ourselves into a frenzy.  We’re hosting our favorite holiday this year with those we love.  We have so much to be thankful for and we are so lucky to have family and friends so close to make it special.

Before we sought after the largest turkey we could find, we headed to an abandoned spot in West Seattle to quickly fill a couple buckets.  Talk about bounty!  But we give thanks for where we live and the people we live near and we do our part to help the community as much as we can.

Speaking of help, we also help with collecting donations to Seattle’s Northwest Harvest. They are a wonderful organization who helps in feeding the hungry.  Please visit their website to find out about their convenient drop off locations or giving in other ways.

Last year when we dropped off buckets of food that had been collected at my work place the people who worked there ran to help us in the rain.  They commented on the hundreds of pounds of food that had already gone out that day and the thousands of people they had lined up the previous day.

Picking up (in more ways than one) and dropping off never felt so good.