From The Peninsula Sanitation Website

One of my neighbors called yesterday to ask if my garbage had been collected on Wednesday morning.  “Yes, as usual,” I said.  “What time?” was the next question.  Actually, I wasn’t sure.  I left the house  about 8:3o a.m. to get to Ilwaco and set up for the Community Historians class.  I pushed our tote out of the garage before I drove off.

It seems that her garbage wasn’t taken and, when she called she was told that she’d have to wait until next week; the collection time had been changed.  Now, instead of our years and years (and probably years and years, besides) of early afternoon pick-ups, it would be at 6:30 in the morning.  SAY WHAT?

I know for a fact that I rolled that tote out when I’d left for Ilwaco Wednesday  morning.  It certainly wasn’t any 6:30 a.m.  “Were we supposed to be notified about that?” I asked my neighbor.  “That’s what I wondered,” was the response.  “I thought maybe I missed something in the mail.”

From The Peninsula Sanitation Website

So, after we hung up, I called Peninsula Sanitation to find out.  The first time I got the answer machine but when I pushed the appropriate button I was told the hours were Monday thru Friday from 8:30 to 5:00.  So I called again and voila!  A live voice.”

“Yes,” the woman said after I’d identified myself and she could look up my address for herself.  (Apparently, I didn’t sound like I really knew where it was that I lived.)  “The Ocean Park route was getting too big, so we split it.  You’ll have to have your garbage ready at 6:30 a.m. now.”

It took asking just the right combination of questions to find out that the drivers begin their routes at 6:30 a.m. and, no she couldn’t tell me an approximate time for the Oysterville pick-up.   “If you are first on the list, it will be 6:30.”

“Were you intending to notify any of us, or perhaps I missed it,” I said.  There was probably the beginnings of “a tone” in my voice.  “No,” she told me.  “There won’t be a notice.  It already says on your bill that we may be picking up at any time after 6:30.  It’s always on every bill.”

From The Peninsula Sanitation Website

“So you won’t be sending us anything in the mail or putting an announcement in the paper?”  For sure there was a tone this time.  The answer didn’t change.  No apparently is no.  Have your garbage out by 6:30 or risk living with it another week.  Over and out.

It was all a good reminder of what monopolies are all about.  “Snippy” doesn’t begin to describe that voice.  (Mine either, probably.)