Thursday, June 5, 2025

Dumping Memories and Unbelievable Expansion

It’s weird what you remember about your youth, especially when you reach the vaunted accumulation of years that I’ve acquired. Yesterday I had an appointment to drop off the old toilet and sink from the bathroom renovation along with a couple other large items that don’t fit in the weekly trash bags for curb pickup (that’s how Worcester rolls and it’s surprisingly effective). You must make an appointment and pay a fee to drop off these larger items. When I backed the car up and started throwing the stuff over the side, I was hit with those memories (yes, finally getting to the point). Back in the 1960s a weekly event, usually on Saturdays, was taking the accumulated week’s trash to the landfill. It was affectionately referred to as “going to the dump”.


Trust me, I know this sounds weird, but I have some really good memories about these trips. It was usually just my dad and I. That much younger version of myself loved both the time with my dad and seeing how far down the slope I could pitch the trash. My dad usually ran into people he knew and allowed me to do most of the throwing which I relished while he socialized. We always had a station wagon, and we’d load the trash into the back Saturday morning hoping it wouldn’t seep too much that my mother would notice. Going to the dump replaced burning the trash in the backyard, which I have much less fond memories of (especially on really cold winter days). Strange how pitching a toilet over an incline into a downhill dumpster should resurrect memories, but it did.

The Selected Site
I’ve written in the past (some would say eloquently, others excessively) about my Favorite Panamanian’s vast garden complex. While she tends to it, I am charged with providing the brute force and ignorance that is occasionally required. I thought my time creating retaining walls to expand the vast garden complex was over. There simply wasn’t any more space in our relatively small yard to expand. You know where I’m going with this, don’t you? I once again underestimated her thirst for additional garden space. An area next to Deckzilla had featured three huge flowerpots that she had me cut the bottoms out of, into which she planted flowers each year. The part of the yard there is kind of boggy so she didn’t trust putting them directly into the ground.

End of Day 1
My first inkling of an impending project was when she didn’t plant anything in the pots this year. I then foolishly asked her why not. She answered with a question of her own. How difficult would it be to put in an elevated garden along that side of Deckzilla? My fate was sealed. Strangely, I almost enjoyed it because there were none of the massive excavations required of creating the terraces on the backyard hill. It only took me a couple hours Wednesday evening to get it started and I finished it this morning. I needed two trips to the Depot to secure the bricks and soil. I am sneakily proud of how it came out (please don’t tell her that though). God knows where the next expansion could take place.

Project Complete

Five movies fell in the A-Z watch, all keepers: Phenomenon – just love this movie about the fictional possibility of the human mind; Pineapple Express – hasn’t aged well but still some laugh out loud moments and the unkillable Danny McBride; Piranha – how did they get two Oscar winners to work on this, goofy horror fun and Oh My God – Kelly Brook!!!; Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl – this wasn’t as much fun as when first watched but still good;  Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest – bigger and badder (in a good way) but still hate the tentacle faced villain, just grosses me out for some reason.

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RECURRING CHARACTERS:                                

ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete – my daughter in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; CRC - Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn; Czech Connection – Czech couple who’ve become good friends along with their daughter (the Czech Shadow); Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter; First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3rd Musquetera (musketeer); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member; PanaGals – female relatives /friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather – my brother-in-law (whom I miss more than I can ever explain); Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course

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