Misunderstanding

The garbage collector now thinks I am a complete and total nut.

I had a bowl of leftovers in the fridge that I meant to throw out on garbage day last week.  I waited too late and they had already emptied our garbage by the time I got down to take it out.  So this week I was determined to get rid of said leftovers as I did not want them in the fridge for yet another week nor did I want them in the garbage can getting really nasty for an entire week.  The leftovers happened to be in a bowl, covered with press and seal, that I apparently lost the lid for so I was tossing bowl and all.

When I went out to throw away the leftovers the cans had already been emptied.  I could hear the truck a few streets over.  I was determined to get rid of the leftovers so I loaded everyone in the van for preschool and brought along the leftovers.  I stopped on the street the garbage truck was on, grabbed my leftovers and approached the closest garbage collector.  I explained that they had already gotten the garbage on my street and asked if "I can please give you this," while extending the bowl.  He looked at me like I was crazy and asked what it was. I'm thinking what is the big deal can you just throw this away?  My response was something along the lines of "just some leftovers I don't want to leave in the fridge until next week."  He finally took in and almost stealthily placed it in the back of the truck with the rest of the garbage.

That is when I realized that he thought I was trying to give him the leftovers!  And that I had driven out of my way and gotten out of my van to do so!  Of course by this point I was driving away and it was too late to explain that all I was trying to do was get the blasted things in the garbage truck and that I was not trying to pass off my leftovers on the garbage collector!  I was mortified, but of course had no way to right the situation with out making it much, much worse.

In the end, I got what I wanted - the leftovers tossed.  I just hate it came at the price of having to hide from the garbage collector for the foreseeable future.

Jenn