Facie’s Ramblings

Litter is my biggest pet peeve. It bothers me even more than when someone uses a hyphen instead of an em or en dash, and that is really saying something. I have said many times, in many mediums that there are only two acceptable reasons to litter: Someone is threatening to kill you if you don't throw your empty McD's bag, water bottle or losing lottery tickets out of the car. Continuing to carry your grocery bag of wing bones, bag of chips, or half-eaten burger will impeded your ability to run away from a would-be assassin. I am tired of people having no regard for their community. But I am even more tired of having to look at it when I walk my dog nearly every day. So most days (not including a couple of winter months) I pick up things along our 1-2 mile neighborhood stroll. Fortunately, because I do this so often, most days I have just a couple of things to pick up. Unfortunately, last year, my perception of litter became more heightened, and I started to become bother...

I spent over an hour today trying to resolve an online banking issue. For some reason, when I paid my sewage bill last week, I chose the old bill payee, the one that has not been the payee for over three years (our water company took over for the sewage company, FYI). I won't bore you with the details of the various phone calls and time spent online. And, yes, the error was all mine (why I did not delete the previous/old payee, I don't know). But it does make me wonder how accounting works in companies. When my check was electronically deposited into the old sewage company's account, didn't they check to see why they were getting money from us, when they had not in years? Can anyone explain that? It does not help that I am tired today. Tired because there was a domestic dispute three houses away last night after 11, when I was sound asleep. Unfortunately, when four or five people are shouting in the streets nearby, as a light sleeper, I will hear them. The upside is t...

As I have mentioned before, I am very anti-litter. I have called the Pennsylvania Recycling and Litterbug (1-888-LITTERBUG) hot-line dozens upon dozens of times to report people throwing trash out their car windows. I go around my neighborhood many times throughout the year to pick up litter. If I see trash in a park and there is a nearby garbage can, I dispose of it properly. Last month, once the snow melted, I noticed the large amount of trash left behind an empty lot at the bottom of our street, a lot from which I have picked up trash numerous times. This time I decided I was tired of cleaning up after everyone else, so I called code enforcement. The person I spoke with said she would try to get in touch with the owner of the lot, but it may take a few weeks for anything to happen. Much to my surprise, in just over one week, I saw someone picking up litter from the lot. I am not sure if that person was a concerned citizen like I, or if her picking up the trash was a direc...