Matters of No Real Importance

--My workplace started supplying us with tissues again. They stopped during budget cutbacks about a year and a half ago. This is more of a convenience than an actual perk, because the tissues they buy aren't really that great, but it's still nice not to have to go to Stop and Shop or Walgreens and buy my own.

--The city of Medford switched to a new trash and recycling system this week, the kind where the truck with an articulated arm comes along and picks up your trash container and empties it into the truck. I was kind of pleased about this, because the city distributed shiny new trash and recycling cans to each unit. The upstairs neighbors have never had any trash cans of their own, and when they'd add their trash to our can, it tended to get a little overfilled. Now the container for trash is about twice as big as the one we had, and even though we got two, one will probably be sufficient most weeks.

The recycling containers are huge, 50% bigger than the trash cans. This is an even bigger improvement, because recycling is collected every other week, and our standard-size bin was often overflowing by the day of collection. No sorting or bagging is needed; everything just goes into the can. It's too wide to fit between the car and the next-door neighbor's fence at the bottom of the driveway, but there's plenty of room to roll it out on the other side of the house.

When I got home from work last night, it was kind of strange to see the cans sitting right where I'd left them the day before. I looked inside; the trash can was empty, but the recycling can was still full. I put away the trash can and went inside, and about 20 minutes later I heard the truck outside. It was literally the first day of the new system, so I guess they were still getting used to things.