Considering how many people are unemployed in this country, I really have no reason to complain that my husband has a good job with a great company. I am, however, whiny, so I can always come up with something.

My hubby works for a garbage company. It’s a local company that takes fabulous care of its employees (they were wonderful when the hubs had cancer). In the last few years, they’ve gotten into recycling. Last year they bought a new building, and this year they’re installing state of the art recycling equipment. They will have the premiere recycling facility in the state, region, and probably the country. The facility will be able to accept construction & demolition waste, household waste, and recycling. Machines will process all of it for recyclable materials. The goal – recycle 80% of all waste.

As exciting as that is, that’s not what makes the company great. What sets them apart is their genuine concern for their employees and customers. They take care of individuals, like front-door-pick-ups for handicapped customers, but they also care about the community. They recently did a HUGE demolition project to help clear land for a new public beach. They bid it out at cost just because they think it’s a great idea that will benefit the community. In everything they do, they look out for everyone else.

The company is well-known for their customer and community service. That’s one reason they recently won some pretty big contracts. Two townships in the area just signed contracts with the company to be the only waste removal company in those townships. Yep – everyone who lives in those areas will be serviced by this one company. Earlier this week, another township made the same decision. The company picked up 6,000 new customers last week; in July, they’ll add roughly 2,000 more.

Woo hoo! Job security!

One of the perks to selecting this company within those townships is their recycling capabilities. Residents can opt for curbside pick-up, or they can go to drop-off sites. That’s the potential for a lot of recycling.

Now, go back up to the second paragraph, fourth sentence. Read it. Read it again. Refresher: “…they’re installing…” Reword: “…they are installing…” Rephrase: “The building isn’t quite complete yet, so they’re using the old equipment for the previous amount of recyclable materials, but they’ve picked up thousands of new customers, many of whom are recycling for the first time because they can leave on the curb.”

Translation: Hubby’s working a lot of hours these days. He goes in just before 6 a.m., and on his really busy nights he’s sometimes there until 7 p.m. (occasionally even later).

Boo hoo! No more social life!

Actually, it’s not that bad, because we know that it won’t last. The company is trying to overwork their employees. They’re just really busy right now, and that’s okay. This happened for about a year before they bought the new building – they’d out grown their old one, but couldn’t find a suitable replacement. During that time it wasn’t unusual for hubby to work 70 hours a week. It stunk as far as spending time together, but it was a great blessing when we got out of debt!

It’s just that we’ve really enjoyed his slow time (have both weekend days free is fabulous!), so it’s been a rough adjustment going back to these long days. Fortunately we know how to handle them (we eat out a lot just so we can spend time together instead of cooking and cleaning the kitchen). We also know that these days won’t last. Once the new equipment is in place, our lives we’ll change again (we just don’t know how, exactly).

In the meantime, we accept the blessing as it is…and maybe we’ll try out some new restaurants.