Building Something Better...

"This is all it takes, really. Two hands clasped in fellowship, pledging to build something better." - PROFESSOR X

CS CHALLENGE:
Recently, I took it upon myself to start cleaning out these two storm drains in my community (where I live, there happens to be some kind of unwritten weekly tradition where my neighbors and passers-through like to put all of their trash in the nearest storm drain.  Ugh.)  When it would rain, the storm drains would be too clogged to do what they were supposed to do.  After multiple flooding in the streets, I kind of had enough.  

So, I went out one day to get down and dirty and collect the garbage from the drains.  In the back of my mind, I was a bit worried about how I would be perceived if one of my neighbors saw me.  And just as I was elbow-deep in the storm drain and had nearly filled my second bag of trash, I heard a voice from behind me, "Hey, what are you doing?!"  Immediately, I got to my knees and turned around.  Across the street, staring in my direction was one of my neighbors.  We had never been very friendly before and I was under the impression that he didn't take too kindly to having me in the neighborhood.  "Hey," I answered back somewhat timidly.  "Hey, why are you doing that?" he said again.  "Uh, the drains were flooding because of all the trash," I said a bit nervously.  "Oh," he reacted, "I didn't realize that was what was causing the flooding.  I thought we just had old drains."  Then, as I knelt there, unsure of what would happen next, my neighbor reached down and picked up a plastic bottle laying nearby in the gutter.  He walked over to me and put the bottle in one of my trash bags and extended a big open hand. "Hey, thanks.  I'm Big Mike, by the way."

This is all it takes, really...

Citizen Superhero