inessential by Brent Simmons

My Mom Lives in a Small Town

Maggie Davis: New recycling cart arrived - so why am I so angry…:

Today, I stormed out of the house as the Public Works employees dropped off the new cart in the middle of my soggy lawn (not the driveway) and then had to yell when they paid no attention to my waving… Along the way, he implied I should be happy they were dropping off the container when, after all, it was raining. Oh sugar, you won’t melt — trust me. I lived in Seattle for 24 years where rain is a way of life.

Side note: I bet you my Mom was thinking of the classic Asimov short story Rain, Rain, Go Away when she wrote “sugar, you won’t melt.” (I know that story’s in her library because that’s where I read it.)

And: the scene with the Public Works people reminds me of Jubal Harshaw in Stranger in a Strange Land when the government dudes land on his flower beds. “Get that God damned heap off my rose bushes!”