With our three daughters out of the house now, Jolene and I are adjusting to the world of empty nesting. As many of you told us, life is different. Certainly, there are the big changes like a quieter house and a lower water bill, but I have noticed a few smaller ones, too. 

This morning, I took a bag of garbage out to the trash container. When the kids were home, this seemed to be a daily occurrence. The other option was to come home and find that the dog decided to play hide and seek with the trash around the house. So I learned. But when I took the bag of garbage out this morning, I noticed only one other bag in the container. Two small bags of garbage. For an entire week. Amazing. 

I often wondered how some people could only produce such a small amount of trash. Now I get it. Not only is the nest empty; the garbage can is, too. 

With the available technology today, I wonder how far off we are from paying for garbage by the pound. The trucks could weigh each home’s containers and subtract the tare weight, then charge a by-the-pound fee.

Of course, I like this pay-by-the-pound idea at this stage of my life. I likely would not have agreed with it a few years ago when I had to stand on the lid to force all our garbage to fit in it. 

Either way, the one thing we can most all likely agree on is that less trash is a good thing. 

Have a fantastic Friday, and thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital editions
shane@dmcityview.com
641-755-2115