Morning Walks...and Medical Waste!

For the past few days, I have been taking a shopping bag (regular plastic bag that you get from the grocery store) with me when I leave for work. In the 2.5-block walk to the train station, I manage to pick up so much litter that the bag is soon overflowing; usually it is full before I even make it to block #3. I don't know what exactly goes down on 74th Street at night, but I can surmise from the litter that it involves the consumption of many airplane-sized bottles o'booze, cigarillos, and take-out food that comes in plain white Styrofoam containers.

I assume that people who pass me on the street think I'm a nutjob. Maybe when I do this on the weekends and I am wearing a dirty tee shirt and jeans they assume that I am picking up garbage as some kind of work release/court-mandated job. But when I'm dressed for work and reaching down every two feet to retrieve another item of filth, it must make people wonder. It certainly makes them swerve a few feet out of their way to avoid me. However, this morning a woman actually said in passing,"That is very nice of you." It made my heart sing. It made everything...groovy (sorry, just got that song in my head). Seriously though, I really appreciate it when neighbors say thank you! Makes me feel like other people are actually benefiting from my garbage-collecting obsession.

On another note: I have to start a photographic chronicle of the medical waste I find on 43rd and 74th. Elmhurst Hospital is a few blocks away. At least some of the medical waste I find in the streets must be from people who left AMA, because it's the kind of stuff that folks normally wouldn't walk out with. Here is a list of some of the medical goodies I've come across:

*ECG pads (I've come across many of these, both in the gutters of 43rd and also along 74th Street)
*Hospital "footies" (the socks with treads on the bottom that are worn by hospital patients). I found a dirty/well-worn hospital sock on 43rd a couple weeks ago-- looked like someone had been wearing it as his or her sole foot protection (no pun intended) to walk the sidewalks and streets.
*Elmhurst patient wristband.
*Insulin needles. Okay, so these could have been left by a non-hospital patient/outpatient diabetic. I found these twice in front of my house. At least the person was considerate enough to recap them before tossing.
*Bandages of all kinds and sizes (adhesive strips, gauze, some with blood/pus/serosanguinous residue, yum!).