What a waste

[Enzo]

So today was Spring Fling here in Mason, a city wide fest taking over downtown.

But it was also Pierogi Day at the Polish Hall in Lansing, and we love pierogi. Every first Saturday in May is pierogi day. So we piled into the sedan, and headed for town. I naturally took the country route around the traffic. As we headed down McCue road, we passed a township waste water treatment plant, and saw it was full of activity... as well as what it is always full of. OPEN HOUSE and the sewer plant!! tents, kids and families. ACTIVITIES. I asked the wife "I wonder what kind of shit they are handing out?" Oh well, and we cruised on by.

We got to the Polish Hall, and expecting a line to the door inside, we found the line was out the door and all the way to the rear of the building. From experience there, we knew that the line was a good 40 minutes from the doorway, this line would be an hour and a half or two. SO we said, screw this, and drove on.

Now what, I guess back to Mason...OR...

We went back to McCue road wastewater treatment plant. Attendance seemed sparse, but then it was 45 minutes before the end. There was a demonstration of a big truck that power sucks sewage from septic tanks. And of course you could look at the big tanks of slowly churning poop-water. Ther was a tent handing out free cotton candy - a wring favorite - and ice cream, though it came with a lecture about waste water. There were some simple games for kids.

We went into one tent with displays. Had face painting for kids, but apparently they won't do Anne Hathaway on wring. They had jars of water in various stages from raw sewage to clean water. And a couple microscopes showing tiny critters. I saw a paramecium, yes I did. We were kinda hoping for some swag though

And then there was a table with a friendly guy handing out brochures and such, but he also had ball point pens and key rings. He asked if we wanted a "swag bag"? DID WE? DID WE? You BET we did. SO we got a nice blue fabric bag with handles. I had predicted they might have refrigerator magnets listing the things never to pour down a drain, like paint or motor oil. Well, he had a little placard with that, but no magnet. He thought he might have a magnet under the table, but no such luck.

Then in a corner, we found a young lady with a plastic pail on a fishing line. "Hey, want to go fishing?" A lot of fish pictures there, apparently to bolster the idea of clean streams and rivers welcome fish. There was a tarp/packing blanket hiding a corner space. The lady says to hang the bucket over the tarp with the fishing pole. And if we felt a tug, pull the pail back up.

So wring lowered the pail into the tarp sea, and a moment later feels a tug on the line, and lo and behold, her pail had caught another pail full of swag. Our swag pail was the same as the fishing pail, but inside it was a mouse pad, a ruler, some sort of blinking LED thing, and a plastic dogbone shaped thing. It was a pack of plastic bags you carried with you to pick up your dog's poop on a walk. But just in case, there was also a lump of fake poop! it was a squishy rubber thing, like those rubber hot dogs that are hard to pick up.

And out pail fit into our new swag bag.

So I guess they were handing out shit after all.

We never got any pierogis, so we stopped at a local bar for some burgers. Then back to the home. After all that activity, we were pretty well pooped.

[Heid the Ba]

And she says you never take her anywhere nice.

[Enzo]

I do and do and do for her, it is constant do-do.

[Lance]

What great way to spend a beautiful day. No shit!

[wring]

of course, we got back too late for the spring fling. And arrived at the home in time to see an ambulance there - one of our residents was having a family memorial service for his brother, said resident then had a seizure- nothing like that to get a memorial service off the ground.

What Enzo failed to mention about our shitty swag, was that at lunch, he activated the little blinking light, then couldn't figure out how to get it to stop. It was a simple mechanism, only had one little button on it which activated it. He opened it up said 'well I could pull the battery and get it to stop I guess'. I took it from him, pressed the button again but held it down, and lo, behold- the light stopped. Yeah, I out mastered the technician.

[wring]

And she says you never take her anywhere nice.