The Ire of Southie Residents

Contrary to my prior thinking, I have discovered that there is indeed one thing that raises the ire of Southie folk almost as much as saving shoveled parking spots.

Dog poop.

I realize this is my second (and second too many) post on this topic in recent weeks, but I had another incident today, I think.

I worked from home today, and decided to get some fresh air around 4:30. I brought Rosie for a walk. Carrying her blue bag of doggie doo, I walked past the dumpster near the elderly home down the street from me. From the sidewalk, I threw the bag in their huge dumpster with the same degree of accuracy that I have used every time prior.

I never miss.

(Well, once I missed when I made some awful toss with my left hand, but I promptly retrieved the bag and threw it in).

I thought nothing of it. I have done this countless times before, both in daylight and in the dark. When the garbage is piled high inside the dumpster, I always see other blue bags of poo atop the mounds of trash.

We walked another block back toward my house, and before crossing the street I saw an older guy back near the dumpster, screaming at something in my direction. I could have sworn he mentioned "yeah you with the dog," but honestly could not hear him.

So we walked for a bit more, and then went home.

But, I felt bad. I didn't want an angry older guy to think that I ignored him intentionally, especially if he's about to ream me out for throwing a bag of poo into a dumpster, a common action in my neighborhood that I fully acknowledge I probably shouldn't be doing.

So I grab a bag of deposit bottles to put in my car (yes, I return containers for the nickels - why not), and walk down toward that corner to see if I can figure out who was yelling, and if it was at me.

While nobody was mulling around the street, I did see a few older guys at the corner pub. Since the window was open, I yelled in, asking if they saw who was yelling or if that guy was inside of the bar. I just wanted to set the record straight and see if I was the target.

The older guys said they couldn't hear me, and told me to come inside.

So, for the first time, I walked into the (not so welcoming to non-Southie born-and-breds) local pub, immediately becoming the youngest person inside by a good 25 years.

None of the six or seven older guys inside immediately came over to me, so I assumed none of them were the guy I was seeking.

But one guy sitting at the bar could not figure out why I wanted to find this guy. He kept asking if I wanted to make trouble with him (or something like that).

So here I am - all 5'8" of me, with rusty orange University of Texas hat atop my head, yellow gym satchel on back, and plastic bag filled with about 25 deposit bottles and cans in tow - in unfriendly territory, being asked by an older guy who won't take my "I just wanted to see if he was yelling at me and if I did something wrong" affirmation all that seriously.

Thankfully, his buddy next to him motioned toward my deposit bottles and asked about them. I told him it was probably "a buck worth," and then excused myself, saying I was headed to the gym....

..which was met with more stares, and then a "why are you doing that?" from the nicer of the two.

I simply patted my belly and said "to get rid of this" and then scooted out into the safety (?) of the streets outside.

Perhaps Rosie and I will be confronted by one of these characters sometime in the future.

For now, I'll be bringing the poop back home, disposing of it in my own trash where I probably should be throwing it all along.

What amuses me the most about all of this is the sheer amount of dog poop that is simply left on the sidewalks of Southie. It's terrible, and far worse to leave mounds of canine feces on public grassy areas and concrete than to actually pick it up in a bag, tie the bag, and toss it into a trash receptacle, public or private.

But I suppose the moral of the story is that neither action is right. Dog poop should be picked up and disposed of in the handler's own garbage.