“Take out the papers and the trash!”

If you are of a certain age, you’ll remember these words from a popular song in the 50’s.

This has become my new anthem.  Our trash  goes out every week on Monday night, and I consistently forget to do this annoying, but necessary task.

This is what happens: I clean up the kitchen, maybe do some laundry, walk the dog, read a little, play a few word games on the I Pad, check emails,  and then work on my writing.

Finally, when the clock reads way too late, I realize that I better go to bed or I won’t be able to function in the morning. So, I close up the house and tell Sparkle ( my dog) that it’s time to go “night –night” ( yes, I talk baby talk to her).

And then, like a thunderbolt in a cartoon, I remember that ( oh God!) I forgot to take out the trash. The next twenty minutes are spent scurrying around the house collecting trash, making sure the refrigerator is cleaned out, wrestling the trash  can and  the recycling box out to the curb. All the while I am doing this, I sing the refrain from that 50’s hit song  to myself.

Then the next morning, I drag the huge trash can ( which is almost as tall as I am)  and the recycling box back into the garage.

Every week I resolve to do this onerous task earlier in the evening. When my husband was still alive, he would sometimes not take the recycling out or not empty the waste basket in the den which contains only paper. I would accuse him of being selective in removing the trash. When I was a kid, I thought that taking the trash out was gender identified—it was a boy’s job, not a girl’s job. If I was called upon to it, I would resent having to do something that  my childish mind-set dictated  that girls’ shouldn’t have to do.

So, now I’m on my own. Obviously I don’t want to live in a house with trash—no matter how late it is when I remember it. So, I do it—like everyone else.

Maybe I’ll remember this task at an earlier time some week.  Maybe it will become  a routine. And  then I can adopt a new anthem.

News Flash!!

My novel, Loving Christy is available right now on Amazon.com., Barnes and Noble, and  available for Kindle. If you would like a signed copy, you can email me at kglascott230@gmail.com.