look ma, no _______!

Hey — look what's missing! (besides a couple months worth of blog posts...) You're not sure? I know it's been a while since I posted a picture of our trash on the web, but look carefully: there are some conspicuous absences from the trash heap – nine to be exact.

Any guesses?

That's right! We finally found a way to get rid of our, ahem, spare tires (some of which, interestingly, seem to date back to a time before tires really had treads...) What's the big deal, you ask? Mainly that New York City's sanitation website says that tires cannot be included with household trash. It mandates their disposal in specified disposal sites which are, of course, never named. Or indicated anywhere else on the site. A fairly involved google session turned up nothing. Likewise a call to 311.

In fact, the only general tire disposal policy we have seen in effect involves driving to a less desirable neighborhood than yours and just sort of letting them bounce out the back of your truck ....or older model Toyota. (Actually, a neighbor of mine suggested that I could get rid off ALL my unwanted debris just by bringing it to the housing project on the other side of the park... He did say to do it at night, though.)

Mary Beth and I were on the verge of adopting just such an eco-friendly approach when I finally found a tire shop (look for a painted yellow tire in your neighborhood -- the seemingly vacant lot behind it may actually reveal itself to be a rubber-based commercial enterprise) that was willing to take tires -- for a price. On wednesday mornings, they said, a truck came by to take old tires at a cost of $2 per. Now, no one seemed to know who owns this truck or where the tires go next... Most likely they go to the housing project, but at least by paying somebody something we're supporting local business, right?

Anyway, this morning when I woke up a little early because of the time change, the perfect thing to do seemed to be to text Maureen, borrow her sweet station wagon, and load the tires up (remembering to bounce them on the flat side a few times to expel the fetid water inside!) In the end, I was done inside a half hour I think. Or four months and a half hour... TCOB in a flash!