Got the electricity and water in our name. Garbage is private — weird. Our neighbors all have different color garbage cans depending on which company they use. I wonder if pickup is the same day for everyone. I put my cans out when I saw other people do it (regardless of color) and a few hours later my trash was gone. So that works.

Leaf pickup. Hmm. In Roanoke you just swept them into the street and the city magically made the piles disappear on a particular weekend. Here I have no clue. Some neighbors leave a line of bags off their curb, others just sweep piles into the street. Is pickup private? A guy offered to clean up my leaves for $200. No, thanks. Despite the fact that I rent, we have a lot of trees in the yard. If he vaccuumed them all up in a few days the ground would be covered again.

I’ve got a rake and a leaf blower, thankyouverymuch. And now I have big piles of leaves.