Sunday Dilemma: No Dumping!

We've faced a serious problem the last four Sundays. Some inconsiderate neighborhood jerk has been placing his bag of trash in our garbage can. I don't think it makes me uncharitable or unkind to be irked about this. If it were the morning of garbage day and there were room in our can, go for it. But he does it on Sundays when our garbage pick-up day isn't until Wednesday. We have not yet finished filling our can with our own junk; there's no room for anyone else's.

One week I moved the can into our back patio area, but it's so ugly to have the can there. Convenient yes, but not aesthetically pleasing. And not so convenient when it's time to drag it out into the alley, negotiating a narrow gate and bumpy sidewalk. Also, why should I be inconvenienced by someone else's jerky behavior?

For awhile I thought that it perhaps belonged to the person who may or may not be living in the trailer home that's permanently parked in a questionably legal spot in the alley. I have taken the bag of abandoned trash out of my can and moved it to the trailer. That worked for one week, but the next week it showed up in our can again. Again I took it out and placed it by the trailer. This time it ended up in the alley's no-man zone, which is right where I park, so that wasn't cool either. My deductive reasoning told me it didn't belong to the trailer after all. But who? The vampires? The chupacabras? Oh, the stories I haven't told you yet about our neighbors. There's a blog post for another day.

Deterrents I have considered implementing:

• Rigging the lid with a camera that takes a picture of the trespasser when he opens the lid
• Putting a webcam in the laundry room that faces the can and monitoring it to see who the culprit is
• Loading up my iPad with entertainment and hanging out in the laundry room to surveil
• Putting a generous amount of slow-drying adhesive on the lid to catch the person sticky-handed
• Rigging the lid with some sort of spray paint so that when he opens the lid it gets him
• Drilling a hole in the lid and chaining the whole thing shut
• Setting up a motion-sensitive security floodlight

I am more industrious in thought than I am in action, so I have opted for putting this sign on the bin instead:

All of this brings to mind another form of dumping we're all susceptible to - emotional and mental. When we open our minds to the wrong influences, they become a dumping ground for unwanted thoughts and images. Whatever we let our minds be filled with determines how we act and ultimately who we become. It's so easy to let negative thoughts and self-doubt creep in.

Just like my sign points out, our brains, hearts and minds are privileged - even sacred - areas. No dumping allowed!

Yes, it's another gospel/life analogy moment. You're welcome. Meanwhile, I'll let you know how it goes.