Seeking Serious Advice

So when we first moved into the house, a lady came knocking at our door at 9pm one Tuesday night with her hand waving furiously. My first impression was that she was a new neighbor come to welcome us to the neighborhood...not so much as it turns out. When I opened the door she held up her hands with seven fingers. After several attempts in broken English I was informed that she had seven children. I further came to understand that she was seeking permission to take the recyclables from the bin on the curb. To this I said, "fine go ahead." and began to close the door. As I closed the door she said, "okay you remember me when I come back" Very quickly I realized she had taken my affirmative to be my acceptance of a contract between the two of us by which she would rummage through my garbage at my curbside every Tuesday night. I immediately regretted every aspect of the interaction.

In the weeks that followed we realized that with a three bin system (Trash, recycle, Yard Waste) we really weren't generating enough trash to necessitate putting the recycle bin on the curb every week. (Well, that and the fact that we routinely forgot to put the trash out altogether) After a while I had nearly forgotten about the wayward (and overly reproductive) dumpster diver.

However...

Last week I was heading out to work at about 6:30 in the AM, and who do I see not only going through the recycle bin but chatting up the garbage men...you guessed it. Lets forget that I am notoriously surly at this time of day anyway, but something about having turned the front of my house into the garbage buffet REALLY got under my skin. So as I walked to my car I said, in a not overly unkind tone of voice, "Please don't through my garbage anymore". Her response was that I had given her permission. I said, "Well, please don't do it anymore." She fell back on what must be her standard mode of pleading and held up her seven fingers, and again informed me that she had seven children who all went to the school in front of my house (as if that was some sort of endearment to me). As I got in my car I again repeated, "don't go through my garbage anymore." My rear views revealed her moving quickly toward my car.. She was at my side window again holding up her seven fingers. I gesticulated wildy for her to get away from my car. She put her palms together and bowed to me. Had we reached an understanding or had she just sworn a blood oath to her god against all things Pete? She moved away from the car and went back out to the parking. As I drove by she gave me the creepiest smile I've ever seen. I was not at all happy about how the exchange had gone. Surely I could have conducted myself better and turned on the charm and calmly informed her that I was uncomfortable with her going through my cast offs, numerous though her offspring may be. Still, perhaps I had made my wishes clear and this would be the last I would see of her?

At this point your asking, what's the big deal? Let her go through your garbage and get on with your life. To you I say..."Yeah, but...." Look, there are several issues at play here that bother me about the situation, taken individually you will think me a hard hearted bastard and dismiss me, but perhaps taken together you can see my side?

First, with a stranger going through your trash you now have to be careful of what you put in the trash. Identity theft is a real thing and I have a lot to lose.

Second, someone who knocks on your door at 9pm asking to root through your trash clearly has boundary issues.

Third, had I opened the door to making my new neighborhood a haven for trash diggers? Not a very nice legacy to be sure.

Fourth, basic human nature says give a person an inch and they will take a mile. What was to stop her from deciding that if my aluminum cans were up for grabs, what about these rusty old aluminum rain gutters. And what about the bottles and cans that I had surely left in the back yard, why not hop the fence just to take a peak, after all she has seven mouths to feed.

Fifth, rubbish hauling contracts are in my purview at the job so I know that trash haulers use revenue from recyclables to offset the cost of operations, if all of sudden there would no recyclables to collect, trash hauling costs could conceivably go up. I can't have that on my head. I know that's more of big picture concern and, admittedly, it was distrust of strangers in general that led me to call an end to the smorgasbord of rubbish.

On Saturday there was a home invasion robbery, that ended with my neighbor a few doors down chasing the would be burglar into the nearby school and the Sheriffs having my block on lock down for a few hours until the police dogs found the suspect in the dumpster. Scavengers, burglars, oh my! You can see how paranoia might be setting in.

Then...

Tonight a knock came at my door at about 8:30pm. Guess who? She was back now with 3 of the 7 in tow. Presumably for the purpose of softening my hard heart into granting access to the remains of the past weekends shenanigans. I hadn't even brought out my bins yet. I did NOT open the door this time. When I saw it was her through the side window, again waving furiously with that, "there is really something wrong with me" smile. I simply looked in the eye and said "Go Away". She moaned a pleading "Nooooooo" as I secured the chain and locked the deadbolt. She left. She is about a 5 foot tall mid fifties Asian woman and at this point I have to admit, I'm nervous.

I know I've made light of some aspects of the situation for the purpose of holding your attention but in all seriousness I find the whole situation worrisome. And I also realize the person I am talking about is REAL person who clearly has REAL problems. But none of those problems are immediately mine or my neighbors. Recyclables can be accessed in any manner of ways (see previous posts) that don't involve knocking on my door or hanging around my house.

I don't worry about my own safety but for those under my care, especially the friendly dog who puts anything in his mouth including any manner of poison handed him by vengeful trash digger while I'm off making money in a more conventional manner than knocking on stranger's doors begging for access to trash. I know I'm probably being overly worrisome...but that's just me.
Any advice from the group on how I can solve the situation or at least some thoughts to put my mind at ease?

Jumping off a tall Building while staring in a mirror and having cake that you can also eat

"No matter what we fear, we MUST fear the moment of truth"
That's the opening of the Gang Starr track "Moment of Truth" that legitimizes that whole cut and it has relevance here I think.

Ahhhh....(that's a sigh of relief) It's the tapping sound of keys being punched that reminds me that it has been too long since I've done this.

Life has certainly changed since we started this blog in 2005. We've gone from "Life Outside the Rat Race" to...hell I don't even know what to call it. In fact, I won't attempt to analyze the ups and downs of trying to make a comfortable life in the free market society. I will share something I've learned, having a little loose change in the your pocket can really alleviate some stress, and if the price is getting up every morning and putting in your eight, as long as you're not hating your job, then its well worth it. I've been wanting, for a long time to acknowledge how much life has changed in the few years since we started this and my fear has been that I wouldn't be able to entertain with words with much less of my time being spent Outside the Rat Race. But what I've come to realize is that it wasn't what we did back in '05 that was all that fun, it was the flourish of words we put on it, that made everyday an adventure. I also recall that every experience was approached with the intention of putting it into words, in doing so you tend to look for the fascinating in the mundane. I think, if we want to keep this thing going we, (or just me maybe) have to try to do that again, despite how different things are now.

Having said all that, I'm still not sure what direction to go with this blog. It might take sometime to get the grove back. I realize now that with Facebook here, this thing will have a much wider audience and I have to decide whether or not to be careful with words and what stories to tell. But...I suppose you all know me well enough, so if I decide to fret, hem and haw, or openly rant you just have to remember, that right now...life in general is good and the various humours of the passionate soul are all part of life. I will, however, put a word of warning in for my younger readers if you are out there...
*All stunts physical and psychological are performed by a professional. Don't try anything read here at home.