A Trashy Tale

Buckle up because this one has it all: Inattention, shock, disbelief, resignation, and finally, delight.

Buster brought the bus home from school two days this week. On the second day, he had a math exam, then Japanese class. I would be working when he got home so I told him if he stopped in to see me at work so I could hear about his day, I would buy him one of our delicious cookies.

He decided a cookie after his 3/4 mile walk sounded like a good idea. I was tickled to see him and introduce him to my co-workers. One of the team chimed in that he looked like he could use a drink, too, so I got him a cookie and a soda.

When I grabbed my credit card out of my wallet to pay, the card I normally use was not there. 🤔 That's strange.

I pay for his treats, and off he heads for home.

I return to washing dishes, or, "doing dish" as those of us in the field call it, and my brain slowly wandered through my memories. With a shock, I KNEW what I had done with my credit card.

Uncle Z and Aunt A gifted us two generous gift cards for Aldi's when we flew down to hang with our nieces in August. I finally remembered to use them up on October 1. After I used them up, and paid the little extra for the remainder of the bill, I threw the cards away. And my brain was pretty sure I threw the credit card away with them. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Okay. I've had to dig through the trash before. The most memorable time was making Barton go back to the KFC in Kirksville because my retainer was on the tray when I dumped it in the bin. We found that. Surely I could be lucky twice.

There were several problems.

1) I could not remember if I threw the cards away at Aldi's or at home. 😳

2) If I threw it away at home, was it in the bag of garbage out back waiting for trash pickup, or was it in the bag inside.

When I got home, I pulled the bag of trash out of the big receptacle out back and started digging. If I found even one of the Aldi's gift cards, I would know I was on the right track.

I dug.

And dug.

I slowly shifted my way through, moving trash carefully from one bag to another.

Finally, after thinking many gross things about my family and all the hair that they have, 🤢🤢 I found one of the Aldi gift cards!

There was no credit card with it, and the other gift card was not visible, but at least I knew for sure now that I had thrown them away at home.

It was dark out and I was tired of trash so I put both bags back in the big bin and retired for the night.

The next afternoon I brought both bags inside so I could listen to soothing music while I sifted.

For a moment I wasn't sure which bag was the original and which was my sorted bag. That made me very disappointed with myself, but then I saw some trash I recognized. 😬🤦‍♀️

Sort, sift, breathe through my mouth, sift some more.

And then, oh frabjous day, there it was!!!

I was ecstatic. This is our card where we collect miles for travel and consequently, I put everything on it. It would have taken hours of my time to move things to a new card.

Plus, it isn't good to have more than one person in a relationship that displaces things. That has been Buddie's area of expertise for thirty years, and I have no desire to infringe on his super power.

So very, very grateful.