Wild Herds of Feral Shopping Carts Sighted in Germantown

I had to finagle the camera to get a trash-free view, and if you enlarge it....It's there.

We've been having glorious weather this week in Maryland, 75° and sunny, low humidity, and cool breezes, and I've been taking advantage of this to walk Tilly almost every day.

Unhappy ending to a deadly scuffle over territory?

During these walks, I've been noticing something disturbing more and more.  In ditches and creeks near footpaths between the apartment complexes of Germantown, I saw several shopping carts, blocks away from their stores, trashed.

The footpaths that go through the apartment complexes here are generally pretty nice walks. They get you off of impersonal streets and into a quieter area green and shaded by trees.  The one I take crosses a bright little creek a couple of times and last time I saw a bird with a wingspan as wide as my spread arms. It was black and immense, and it eyed Tilly and me for a few moments before it flapped off. Birds swoop, chipmunks scatter as you walk by, and the trees make little dapples of sunshine. It would be a perfectly lovely place to walk, if it weren't for the wild shopping carts that roam the area.

I come across their remains quite often along the otherwise picturesque path. Lately, I've been seeing the little black ones, but I've seen full-size, rusted, half-submerged shopping carts stuck in the creek bed, sunken into muddy areas. Sometimes there's one by itself, sometimes they're grouped together. And it's only been getting worse.

I've seen shopping carts blocks away from their stores, huddled under the bus stop. They're not in their orderly rows, corralled in parking lots and the vestibules of grocery stores. They're not even near any cart-providing stores. They're just huddled at the bus stop with the rest of the commuters. They look like cows grazing, or urban nuisances like pigeons or geese. It's kind of cute, when you can theriomorphize them. (Fabulous word, the product of an arduous word hunt and supplied, in the end, by @melindamcguire on Twitter.) When you interpret what is not animal in terms of animal characteristics, they become sympathetic.

Gross, ugly, and harmful.

But these carts, and all this other trash I photographed on my walk, is really dangerous to the natural ecosystems of the area. Wildlife has a hard enough time surviving when we "tame" (read: destroy) all of their habitats. It only adds insult to injury to then pollute the few places we leave for them.

And treating this trash like it's a natural part of the ecosystem removes the feeling that is harmful, and removes responsibility to keep our area nice for us and for the wildlife here. The carts and bikes and basketballs and pop bottles do not occur naturally in nature.

It is always astounding to me how blatant people can be about not putting their trash in appropriate areas. Granted, there will always be accidents. Baseballs will be batted and never found. Wrappers will fall out of pockets. But a few weeks ago, I saw a woman pushing home her groceries in a cart, a child riding along in the kids seat, and another one on a razor scooter. I've seen teenagers riding grocery carts down my street like they're some sort of skateboard.

Come, on, people. Don't you want to live in a nice area where there isn't trash all over the trails, and where people act with integrity and thoughtfulness?

The Heron

I didn't have my camera with me today when Gordon and I took Tilly for a walk at Seneca Creek State Park, but we saw one of these herons. We were walking down a steep path with root steps, and we spooked it. It lifted off a branch above us and swooped down to land in a little creek we were about to cross.

I un-gracefully squawked, "HOLY CRAP!" It's wings were so wide and it was so close to us that it shadowed us for a second. It was such a cool steely gray, so weirdly alien. It went to stand in the gummy, grimy water, and it watched us out of the corner of its eye as we passed. It took a few slow-motion steps forward, watching Tilly. Tilly was completely oblivious to it. I swear, she would be a terrible hunting dog. (She doesn't even chase squirrels unless they're climbing up her screen.)

The heron eventually decided that we were boring and continued to gaze out over the lake, and we went on. It was a really good walk though. We met a nice couple twice. They have a farm in Gaithersburg, and a Pomeranian. The husband wants a motorcycle. It is their new years resolution to walk more often, but the wife is bored with their neighborhood, so the husband took her to the park. I never learned their names, but we met them twice and they laughed at my dumb joke. And they liked Tilly's boots and backpack.

Everyone loves Tilly. She is kind of universally adorable. And don't get me wrong, of course, I think my dog is adorable. But people seem drawn to her. People stop their cars and get out to pet her. They roll down their windows and yell. Almost every single person I pass with her stops, or at least says something. I think I might make her a youtube channel or something. She does some pretty adorable things. Like her dervishing, and when she lays down and does her wiggles like a kid at a roller rink playing dead bug. :)

Anyway, in other news, I joined some groups on Meetup.com, and they look promising. One is a doing-things-with-dogs group. They do activities and walks and such. Another is a writing/art group that is having a meetup in Silver Spring on Wednesday. Man. People getting together to write and do art? Sign me up! Hehe. I'm trying to get Gordon to go, but kind of half-heartedly. I mean, I'd love it if he went, but I have to get used to doing things on my own. He's going to be in field med in June, and then deployed probably. So I have to be able to make friends and find things to do by myself. I'm so bored lately. Chronically bored. You can tell by my past two posts. Boredom just turns my thoughts inward, and that can be a terrible thing. I do so much better if I don't force things.

Well, oddly enough for lately, I'm actually kind of tired. I'm going to start ending each of my posts with a quote from a book or movie or song that I've been thinking about. I used to do that on my Xanga about a thousand years ago, and it's the only thing I liked about it. :)

So without further ado, so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodnight.

"The idea hovered and shimmered delicately, like a soap bubble, and she dared not even look at it directly in case it burst. But she was familiar with the way of ideas, and she let it shimmer, looking away, thinking about something else." - The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman