Midnight Trash Collection

My wife, Holly, bought a new outdoor grill the other day and I called the Bureau of Sanitation's bulky item pickup service to come get the old one. All you have to do is put it out on the curb next to your regular trash barrels the night berfore and the next day a special truck comes to pick it up. My younger son, Gabe, put the grill outside just as it was getting dark. A short while later my older son, Ben, reported that two Hispanics pulled up in an old pickup truck, grabbed the grill and sped off.

I was telling Holly about this later and I was mad. The city was about to start charging for its bulky item pickup service. And I was saying, "Hey, we paid to have the city pick something up and then some guy steals it in the night and we still have to pay the fee. What a ripoff!"

Then it occurred to me, what difference did it make? Either way we paid a fee and either way someone hauled our grill away.