daily reminder: don't be a jerk

   I am LIVID, so please excuse any typos.

   My old biddy neighbor (yes, the same one who called our landlord and complained about the length of our lawn a couple of summers ago while Hotter was in Club Med fighting for his life) just called me over to the fence between our yards to give me a ration of shit because she wants us to buy a trashcan that matches hers.

   I'll give you a moment to let that sink in.

   Now, I realize that letting a garbage bag sit in the side-yard now and again until I can take it to the nearest unguarded dumpster is not ideal, and that you can pay companies to come and take your garbage away on a weekly basis, but here is the thing: we're poor. We're not the only ones, either. A lot of folks are struggling right now and currently something like half the children in America (my own included) have received Food Stamps at some point in their lives (we do not currently qualify because I "make too much money," although "too much money" evaporates with a quickness when you're buying transplant meds and trying to get dental work done on your transplant-recipient spouse to keep him from developing a life-threatening infection before Something Happens to your job). Nobody talks about it, because it's Not Nice, but you know what? Maybe more of us should.

   So I stood up straight, looked her in the eye, and said "Mrs. Neighbor, we are out of bread, milk, and butter, we have $0.21 in the bank right now, and I don't get paid until Tuesday. Therefore I. Am. Not. Worrying. About. A. Trashcan."

   Go easy on your fellow humans, y'all. If their lawn is unsightly, maybe they have a loved one in the hospital and can't afford gas for the mower. And maybe if they're not worrying about their trashcan matching yours, it's because they're about to go and make some biscuits with coconut oil despite the one child hating the flavor and try to make their kids think that Everything Is Just Fine. Sure, maybe it's just that they're a lazy slob, but give them the benefit of the doubt, okay?

Comments

[Cy]

What did the old biddy say to that? I hope she left several bags of groceries on your doorstep.

[MFA Mama]

I have no idea, although she DID say SOMEthing. I was dangerously close to bursting into tears and didn't want to make THAT big a scene, so I turned on my heel and went inside.

[krlr]

Ditto. You hear that, you go strait to grocery store, with maybe a stop at the ATM along the way to fill an envelope. Or at least bring over a goddamn gooey cheese casserole. But then again, the person most likely to hie hisself (?!) to the grocery upon hearing that neither notices nor cares about his neighbor's garbage can.

On a not totally unrelated note, a goddamn pipe burst in our house, on the upstairs of course, so... flooding and a massive homeowners deductible. Is it next month yet?

[Bonnie]

Your neighbor definitely has a Rich People Problem. Poor thing...looking at a trash bag! teh horrors!1!!! oh noes!eleven!

*swoons and faints*

[K]

Yes to ALL of all this.

It is never possible to know all of the circumstances and reasons behind something.