On Saturday I did my part for the environment and collected garbage around Lake of the Isles. It was an Earth Day event. Made Hubby go too. This is my kind of volunteer event. One and done. Since I'm on the neighborhood Environment Committee, I felt it was my duty to participate. Plus, I like to walk around a pretty lake.
We managed to come up with quite a haul despite covering just a small amount of the lake's edge. That's where the most garbage collects. Hubby and I had a few chuckles imagining how some items made their way to the lake.
The combination of beer cans, candles and condom was a pretty obvious story. While I suppose to the couple that left their accessories behind, it seemed like a romantic evening, to those of us picking up later it was only gross.
I imagined the baby pacifier was the result of a young child being given a close-up look of the lake shore resulting in a gleeful laugh that landed the pacifier in the water. I wouldn't use it again either.
There were plenty of candy wrappers, plastic pop bottles and tops and straws. Just the leftovers from some fishermen or picnickers I suppose. The plastic alien head and action figures may have been tossed in a little temper tantrum. And the tennis and wiffle balls must have once provided hours of entertainment to a never tiring dog, but one not inclined to jump in the water.
The only clothing we found was a pair of men's flip flops. They were quite a distance apart but clearly a matched pair. I think you'd have to be a little inebriated to walk home without your shoes and not notice. There were a few Bud's around.
Our favorite was the environmentally inclined litterer of two organic beer bottles. After chugging one back, he/she thought "I'll just toss these bottles here on the ground. After all it's organic beer. It's good for the lake."
We found one six-pack soda ring. In unison, Hubby and I said "That's why there's no dolphins in this lake!" I knew there was a reason we were meant for each other.
