Thinking Green

The offspring of my loins (yes, good morning!) usually needs to talk about his ideas and inventions before he falls asleep.

Last night in particular, he was talking about one idea he had about a train and telling me it would be green.

"Like the Flying Scotsman?" It seemed an innocent enough question. "Or a darker green?"

"No, Mom, like good for the environment."

We had a good laugh at my expense. I don't remember the rest of the conversation except that, while he was expounding on his idea, I regularly interjected a "go to sleep" and tried to catch a few z's myself. I am the model of good motherhood.

Fast forward to breakfast.

"Mom, when the weather gets nicer, I'm going to ride my Gator a lot more."

"Good for you." I said.

"I'm going to go around and collect trash."

"Where?"

"In our yard."

"Oh, okay. That's good. Because you can't take your Gator on the road."

He has a toy John Deere Gator. It's meant for the preschool set to tool around in. My 2nd grader is long and gangly. When he drives the thing now, his knees are up by his chin and his elbows are behind him in order to accomdate the short distance to the steering wheel.

He doesn't seem to notice.

Our yard is the recipient of stray trash. Empty coffee cups, beer cans, plastic bags, cigarette cartons. We have justified this wayward trash by saying it's fallen out of the garbage trucks on pickup day. We are sticking to that even if it isn't true. I just can't understand how someone can't hang onto an empty beverage container until they find a trash can for it.

I could go off on this, but I won't. Suffice to say that there is a little boy in this town who wants to make it a better place to live.

Viva Community Spirit!