It’s been really funny adjusting from living in a city of 3 million to a town of 30,000. Here are some of the things that have made me smile this past week:
Today we put out our recycling and trash. We had like three large boxes full of broken-down boxes and two large boxes full of newspaper. This would never be a problem in Chicago, where they have a garbage truck come around to empty our ultra-big recycling vats every other week. I always stuffed ours to the gills, because we’re green like that. Well, today the driver stopped his truck, came up to my house, and explained that he couldn’t take away “all that stuff” because it wouldn’t fit in the truck. He said he’d have to come by later with a couple more trucks to haul away “all that cardboard”…(remember, this is five boxes full). As we finish unpacking, he asked that we put things out little by little in our little 30 gallon sterilite recycling bin so that we don’t overwhelm the system. I am seriously.going.to.have.to.stop.recycling. I love that I have singlehandedly overwhelmed the recylcying capabilities of my entire town.
We were sick of picking up random things at Walmart, so we headed out to where I thought Target was. After ten minutes, we’d driven through downtown and out through another valley to get to the mall. No Target. Fortunately, my new friend Jenny called me to see when she could drop by a meal (because people in small towns bring you meals when you move in. because there’s no peapod.), and she was able to tell me that actually, the Target was 2 minutes away from our house, back on the other side of town. Ten minutes later, we were walking in. In Chicago, this whole process would have taken me over an hour and the kids would be ready for lunch. Instead, I had all my shopping done, the friendly cashier had carried our new AC unit out to the car for me and buckled Tommy in for me while I got Elizabeth out of the carrier and into her seat, and we were home by noon. Have I mentioned how nice small towns are?
Before I found out last week that the public library had its own free parking lot (!), we parked at a meter. Armed with several dollar coins for our library visit, I was shocked to see that the price is 75 cents an hour. And you can pay with nickels.
