trouble in paradise (AA5a)

There was a road rally here in Santa Rosa on Saturday and it was crazy everywhere (see video here, from the street where we’re staying). It seemed like every field nearby had been turned into a parking lot and people were walking by the house all morning toward the event.

We got out of town for our trip to Yacanto just in time. As we went through Santa Rosa there were policemen everywhere and people beginning to line the road to watch the cars come by.

I’m not sure if they started or ended in the field near us. Frankly I have no idea how a road rally works. But I do know that the streets and fields are littered with trash— an ocean of it.

Trash is a mystery here. I’m not sure where it goes and we can’t figure out when they pick it up. Everyone puts it in a metal basket on a pole to keep the dogs away but it’s a fight we’re losing. After Katie put it out three days in a row and picked it up off the side of the road each morning I decided I could outwit the dogs. How hard could it be?

Plan A was to cover the trash bag with a plastic bin and put a heavy rock on it. The garbage men took the bin of course. So I went to work on plan B. Here’s how it works. Everyone here has a very heavy grate for an outdoor barbeque pit where they roast meat.

I decided I would make a lid for the trash cage with Ivan’s grate and buy him a new one. It fit perfectly. I bought some carabiners to use for hinges and mounted it on the top of the basket. It opened and shut like a door. I even put a handle on it. It was perfect.

Except for the fact that it was gone when we got home after our day in the mountains. I’m sure someone at the rally needed to grill a steak and forgot to bring it back.

They forgot to pick up their trash too.