One for the books...

The other night I went upstairs to put Anna to bed and I noticed the flicker of a fire outside. I looked a little closer...and realized that our black garbage can (you know the one...the outdoor garbage can courtesy of the county sanitation department) was on fire! I ran downstairs and grabbed Trav. He proceeded to run outside and douse the flame with water, successfully putting it out, but not before our once sturdy garbage can turned into a big black pile of goo. This is what is left of our precious garbage can. Hmmm.I couldn't help it. I took one look at Trav's face when he came back in the house and burst out laughing. Apparently my husband had put ashes from our burn barrel into the garbage can, and then I, not knowing that fact, had thrown a sack of trash on top of them. They ignited, and the rest is history. In my husband's defense, the ashes were from a fire a week prior to this incident...who knew that they were still hot enough to ignite?

The funny thing is that when I called the county, they said that they would have to come pick up the old garbage can. I laughed and said that they could try. So I watched in amusement as 2 county workers came to my house, got out of their truck, looked at the black goo, looked at each other...then got right back in the truck and took off.

Not the way I wanted to spend $70 (the cost of a new garbage can), but I guess it could have been worse. At least it was in the street and not next to the house!