Bin Scavenger

Snow again, but only enough to dust the ground. Grass still sticks through like beard stubble. But it's enough to obscure the underfoot ice patches.

This morning a dark blue minivan parked in front of my house briefly. Trailing behind it was a man on foot, poking through all of the recycle bins on the street, removing aluminum cans from them and putting them in his own plastic bag. As he walked up the street, the minivan crawled further along the street as well.

I'll take this as a sign of the times, since it's the first time I've ever seen anyone scavenging our bin like that in five-plus years, though by night pickup trucks sometimes quietly pick up discarded furniture or appliances. At least the bin scavenger was careful not to knock over the bins or scatter anything else around, which might haven drawn unwanted attention.