"Conveniences" in the Country

Good Morning! Living in the country in this day and time isn't as tough as it used to be. And granted, I am not very far out in the country, the nearest "town" (village really) is just 1/3 of a mile up the road. So we are lucky to be close enough for natural gas instead of having to have a propane tank. We also get rural trash pick up, and it's cheaper than our next neighbor up the road pays for in town pick up. If we lived any closer to town then we would have to pay for garbage stickers, $1 for each "container" whether that be a bag, box, or can (no bigger than 30 gallon). But living just far enough to qualify as "rural" we get the quarterly fee of $60 every 3 months for up to 6 containers each week which if you do the math comes to 78 containers for every quarter which means in town we would be paying $78 for that very same garbage. Cool, huh! We have pick up every Tuesday, so I try and have the trash out Monday night, though we don't always get to it on Monday. They tell you to have the trash out no later than 6:00 Tuesday morning, but rarely are they ever here before noon. And many times they fail to come at all! We have had to call about our trash so many times it is not even funny. So here lately we have called and really ranted to the manager about the trash still being here in the evening because it had been happening so much. And then last week we forgot all together about putting out the trash. And now here it is Tuesday, and once again, we forgot to put the trash out last night. Well as I was opening the curtain to watch for the school bus I saw the trash man show up at 6:30 a.m., wait for a minute or two and then leave. I am sure his manager has him call whenever he shows up at our house to make sure that he has been here. And I forgot...for the second week in a row. So next week I have GOT to remember to take the trash out, or I will be paying more than the "city folk" for my trash!