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Friday, December 2, 2011

RANDY the GARBAGE MAN

RANDY the GARBAGE MAN

The big event at the Crankettes’ house when I put on my Grandpa Joe Hat is the arrival of Randy the Garbage Man.  Is that politically correct? Are they called Refuse Recyclers, Trash Totters, or Disposal Engineers? 

I’m pretty sure Randy would say that he is a Garbage Man.

Randy is a microcosmic example of the power of capitalism.  I understand there are functions which only government can legislate, mandate, and perform; garbage disposal as demonstrated by Randy is not one of those functions.

The garbage pickup at my municipality pales in comparison to Randy.

Randy is an independent contractors hired by the town where the Crankettes reside.  He owns his truck.  Randy collects the garbage by himself.  He drives his truck, stops, gets out, gathers the cans, empties them into the truck, compacts it, gets back in the cab and drives up to the next can. 

This is one hard working dude. Along the way, he takes time to wave to the Crankettes, save the compacting operation to display for their great enjoyment, and as he pulls away he gives the horn a short blast.  I am told by long term residents, that Randy or his father before him have not missed or been late for a pickup in twenty-five years.

The collection in my town works pretty well.  There are probably three trucks that do the work that Randy does.  There are three people to a truck, a driver and two collectors.  They work hard and do a fine job, faster, but no better than Randy.

Every two years our town’s collectors threaten or actually go on strike.  Randy never goes on strike.  Our collectors get vacation and sick days.  Randy does not get sick.  He seldom takes vacations. 

Randy is his own boss.  Randy’s boss is a prick.  Randy would not want to work for anyone else.

6 comments:

  1. Randy Rocks! The fact he takes the few moments to honk or stop so the Crankettes can see the truck, watch himo or whatever it is about the garbage man that thrills them- it is HUGE in the eyes of a child. Hug Randy for me would ya Mr. Cranky

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  2. I tell you OBP, Randy is cool but he is a little funky from the job so I have to say no to the hug!


    Cranky

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  3. Good ol' fashioned hard-working garbage dudes are a rare breed. Glad you treasure him!

    Got your comment on my blog about the Grinch :-/ Hopefully it will be a very long time until I get grandchildren! But your thought is well taken :-)

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  4. sa-weet -- win/win situation seeing how is contracted by the town.
    we have some of those around here but the peeps pay for trash pickup -- can ya believe that?

    anywho -- thanks for joining the *no more muffin top* hop -- sorry about the crop thing -- ain't that a pisser? i wish there was someway for me to avoid that shit... sorry!

    ♥cyn♥
    misadventures of a chunky goddess

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  5. Seeing as our towns are really far apart, I'm giving you a heads-up that I will be borrowing Randy starting Tuesday 27 December through 10 January. It's warmer where I live, and since your town has strikes, you're used to not having someone pick up your refuse for a couple of weeks, so I'm sure you won't miss Randy for such a short period of time.

    Hey, I've got it, you can have Randy during the summer, and we'd love to him during the fall and winter.

    Randy doesn't have to suffer through the dire straits of southern summer or northern winter and everyone wins with his excellent customer service!

    Deal, Joes, yes? Yes!

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  6. When I was growing up we used to have 3 men on the garbage truck. One driving, and two dumping the trashcans. They would wave at us kids, and we would watch them work. We loved the "trash guys", as we called them. And we always thought it was so cool how they both got to ride on the back of the truck, hanging onto that handle on the side. What kid wouldn't LOVE to ride like that?!

    But now, in the neighborhood we live today, they just have one guy on the trash truck. And he never leaves the driver seat! So boring. Instead the trash truck has an automatic arm that picks up each trash can and empties it into the truck. There are no waves, no friendly smiles. The guy is concentrating too much on driving, on maneuvering the hydraulic arm, and moving to the next house to even glance at my kids for a friendly hello wave. Sadly, we have no Randy's here. We have big, unfriendly machines with a driver inside. Just not the same.

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