I watched a coyote scurry on the outside of our fence. I got one photo of his face, but he was moving fast and it’s blurry. This was the only one in focus. We also saw three coyotes on a morning walk this week, darting between houses. FYI, my story has nothing to do with coyotes.

My husband and I walked down our driveway to start our morning walk. I noticed the recycling bin on our curb had a pink note attached to it. Two neighbors walked by at that moment.

“We’re in trouble now!” I said.

“What?” they stopped and asked.

“We got a pink slip from the garbage police.”

I quickly read through the pink slip and discovered we were getting our first warning for not having the lid down all the way. We had a box that stuck up above the lid line. After three warnings, they said they’d stop our service!

“I didn’t know they looked at our trash,” the neighbor said.

While we were walking through the neighborhood, I noticed a handful of pink slips on recycling bins. We weren’t the only violators.

We walked by another neighbor who was walking her chihuahua Duke. I said, “It looks like a lot of neighbors are getting written up by the recycling cops.”

“Don’t get me started,” she said. “I’ve been written up twice. Then the supervisor of the garbage company knocked on my front door!”

We stood there incredulous.

The supervisor told her that our city is the worst in the state for garbage violations. He also said she had broken a number of rules, including not separating her newspapers and putting them in a plastic bag, as well as not breaking down cardboard boxes enough. I’ve never before heard about newspapers needing to be separated from other recycling.

“We especially have our eye on you!” he said as he left.

Other troubles in Paradise? I’ll save the stories for another day. Thankfully, nothing major at all. Life is good.

The last of three coyotes we saw run between neighbors’ homes. The neighbor who lives here said he saw a pack of seven run by this week. Earlier in the week he saw three Mule Deer.

What do your recycling rules entail? Happy Friday! What are your weekend plans?