Free. Convenient. Awesome.

It's undeniable.
The public library is awesome.
In this world of can't-get-something-for-nothing, it's so great to walk into a building filled with resources available to you simply because you live in this country...or, really, even if you don't live here, but happen to be here for some reason the library is there for you too.

This goes beyond books.
You've got the internet.
Teach-yourself-any-language-tools.
Job listings.
Discussion groups.
CDs & DVDs
and today, I discovered, recycling bins.

Now, this last item may not seem like such a big deal to you.
But that's because you probably have not been riding around with two full, smelly bags of recycle-ables in your car for the past week. And that's because you probably didn't open your big mouth during a community meeting and offer to be responsible for the recycling drop-off in order to get your whole house to participate in a recycling campaign initiated by you.

But, since I did, I've been suffering in smelly silence daily since my pride kept me from leaving the piles of un-delivered recycle-ables in the house until I figured out where to take them.
So, I found myself driving around today unable to locate the county's recycling drop-off point (yes, I checked the internet, but I could only find the addresses for the hazardous waste drop off) and thinking I might have to give up and ditch them in a dumpster, or sneak into my old apartment building and make use of their recycling bins.

I decided to stop into the library to pick-up a book that I had on hold. [one night I heard about a book that seemed interesting, next day I had it on special order at my public library]. As I pulled into the parking lot I noticed every kind of recycling bin imaginable! Whoo-hoo! Victory.

30 Minutes later I'm driving off with my exciting new book in my smell-free (and significantly cleaner) automobile, singing along to holiday tunes and thanking God I live in place with a public library!