Monday, November 17, 2008

Redirecting Traffic

new blog! new blog! new blog..

http://plotkills.blogspot.com/


read this instead

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Blood

The baby had several drops of blood on her forehead. She opened her lashes to reveal more blood on the retina of her left eye. The right one was as crystal blue as the day before. She was blowing bubbles inside her warm blanket and didn't cry.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Prop 8, no, no, no

As the honking trucks and SUVs of the Prop 8 supporters filed past the Public Library in San Francisco today, the homeless tried to scare them away by bare flesh and screams Go Back Where You Came From, BIGOTS. I watched a woman behind the steering wheel of one of the trucks smile. Was she happy to receive the attention? Did it please her to know that San Franciscans weren't peaceful and laid back as all that? That the angry ones where all hungry and dirty and high? Or was it a smile of defense, a typical human reacton to being on uncertain ground? Where did she really come from?

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Recycling

Dear Michel and Yolanda,

I heard a lot of rambling outside tonight. It was about four or five o'clock in the morning when I was woken up by the sound of metal clanking against metal. I thought the raccoons got in your trash, so I walked outside and I saw that there was a truck parked by the curbside, and a woman — I could not see her face — was rummaging through your recycling bins.

"What are you doing over there?" I called out to her.

She did not answer, and I was afraid to approach her closer. But it was obvious that she was pulling out all the glass bottles and putting them in the back of her truck. When I spooked her with my question, she got in the truck and drove away. It was still dark, and I didn't catch the numbers on her license plate, but I called the sheriff to report the incident anyway. Gale had mentioned that there was an increasing amount of poachers in the area, people who more than $50 a day by stealing people's bottles and cashing them in for deposit. It worries me, especially now when I saw it happening with my own eyes: people who routinely scoop up the area for trash, might also come back for something much more valuable. I asked the sheriff what we should do to prevent this from happening in the future.

"There's not much you can do," he said. He wasn't very helpful.

His advice basically comes down to two options:

1. We put out the bins right before the recycling company comes by, which is approximately between 6:30 and 7 am. Since you're already up at that hour, this is the option that would probably fit your routine the best. I suggest that you consider it very seriously.

2. Separate the plastic and glass bottles out from the rest of the trash and take it to the recycling depot once a month or so on your own. This is the option that might work best for me, since I live on my own and do not accumulate much waste during the week.

I hope you take action on the above right away.

Your neighbor, Anne Marie.