my mother, the can lady

My mother is in the habit of getting up before work to go walking. She used to go with her good friend and our neighbor until she moved; these days she is going solo. I'm not quite sure when it started, but at some point my mother realized that people leave an awful lot of cans on the side of the road. Of course being the clever, economical Dutch woman that she is, she looked at those cans and saw an opportunity: both to make the world a little cleaner and to make a few bucks. So she started walking with a bag so she could pick up all the stray cans that people had carelessly thrown out the window of their cars. At first our neighbor was a little embarrassed to be seen walking with "the can lady," but she soon got over it with a little shake of the head and an "Oh, that's just Sheryl." Well, here I am, 24 years old, and turning into my mother. Since starting the school recycling program, I am completely nuts about recycling. It's come to the point that I am incapable of walking past plastic bottles and cans along the road now. In the two short minutes it takes to walk from school to my house, I manage to pick up enough items that I can barely get the door open. So, I've resolved to start carrying a recycling bag. Yes, I am joining the can lady in her quest to clean up the planet. :)