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jaunthieIt was intensely, densely, pea-soup foggy out when I left for the gym this morning. It's been quite a while since I've seen a fog that thick here, actually. I was very careful while driving, as there were plenty of early-dog-walkers and enthusastic-joggers out with the fog and the morning traffic.
Despite the murk and the dark, though, two things were immediately obvious to me when I pulled into the gym parking lot:
1) there were WAY more cars in the parking lot than is usual for that hour on a Saturday morning;
2) there was an awful lot of trash scattered around.
Item 1 was easily explained. We are in the January Resolution flush time at the gym, where there are far more people working out at any and all hours than is usual. I find this both cheering (yay! go you people go! get fit!) and annoying (darn you newbies for taking up *my* gym space and getting in the way of my routines!) in approximately equal measure. I mentally shrugged and found a parking spot not too far away from the gym entrance, thanks to a lucky departure as I was pulling in.
Item 2, however, was more puzzling. At first I assumed it was the result of crows. We have a very large and very active crow population year-round here,and it's not uncommon for juveniles to break into trash cans and dumpsters and scatter their contents in search of food. (Or for their own amusement; you can never be sure about crows.) But as I stepped out of my car, I noticed something else.
All the trash I saw on the pavement of the parking lot, without exception, was from snack or fast foods. Plastic candy bar wrappers, easily read and visible despite the very wet days we've had. McDonalds and Burger King bags and wrappers, or the sodden remnants thereof, only distinguistable by the lingering bits of the large, graphic logos. Soft drink cups and lids, crushed by tires. Chips bags, metallic linings shining even in the poor light. All trash, all dirtying up the parking lot - and all of it from what I would classify as junk food.
Needless to say, I haven't noticed my gym awash in junk-food debris before. Either the crows have been extra busy, or something odd is going on. All I can think is that these new gym-joiners are bringing in this trash - maybe cramming a treat as a 'reward' for going to the gym, or cleaning out their cars of reminders of the habits they're trying to change. Or maybe it's just a coincidence after all, or a side effect of the unusually wet and warm weather we've had this last week. Still, it struck me as very odd.
It also brought home to me, yet again, how annoying nondegradable packaging is. The paper bags and to a lesser extent the takeout cups were already well on the way to dissolving into goo. The chip bags and candy bar wrappers, however, were sharp and crisp and going nowhere, at least in terms of breaking down. They'll be the same even after they get swept up and dumped into a landfill somewhere. Years after the new gym-goer works off that Snickers bar, the wrapper he or she dropped carelessly on the ground will remain, practically unchanged, littering up the world.
Grr. Sometimes I just don't understand people at all.
Despite the murk and the dark, though, two things were immediately obvious to me when I pulled into the gym parking lot:
1) there were WAY more cars in the parking lot than is usual for that hour on a Saturday morning;
2) there was an awful lot of trash scattered around.
Item 1 was easily explained. We are in the January Resolution flush time at the gym, where there are far more people working out at any and all hours than is usual. I find this both cheering (yay! go you people go! get fit!) and annoying (darn you newbies for taking up *my* gym space and getting in the way of my routines!) in approximately equal measure. I mentally shrugged and found a parking spot not too far away from the gym entrance, thanks to a lucky departure as I was pulling in.
Item 2, however, was more puzzling. At first I assumed it was the result of crows. We have a very large and very active crow population year-round here,and it's not uncommon for juveniles to break into trash cans and dumpsters and scatter their contents in search of food. (Or for their own amusement; you can never be sure about crows.) But as I stepped out of my car, I noticed something else.
All the trash I saw on the pavement of the parking lot, without exception, was from snack or fast foods. Plastic candy bar wrappers, easily read and visible despite the very wet days we've had. McDonalds and Burger King bags and wrappers, or the sodden remnants thereof, only distinguistable by the lingering bits of the large, graphic logos. Soft drink cups and lids, crushed by tires. Chips bags, metallic linings shining even in the poor light. All trash, all dirtying up the parking lot - and all of it from what I would classify as junk food.
Needless to say, I haven't noticed my gym awash in junk-food debris before. Either the crows have been extra busy, or something odd is going on. All I can think is that these new gym-joiners are bringing in this trash - maybe cramming a treat as a 'reward' for going to the gym, or cleaning out their cars of reminders of the habits they're trying to change. Or maybe it's just a coincidence after all, or a side effect of the unusually wet and warm weather we've had this last week. Still, it struck me as very odd.
It also brought home to me, yet again, how annoying nondegradable packaging is. The paper bags and to a lesser extent the takeout cups were already well on the way to dissolving into goo. The chip bags and candy bar wrappers, however, were sharp and crisp and going nowhere, at least in terms of breaking down. They'll be the same even after they get swept up and dumped into a landfill somewhere. Years after the new gym-goer works off that Snickers bar, the wrapper he or she dropped carelessly on the ground will remain, practically unchanged, littering up the world.
Grr. Sometimes I just don't understand people at all.
