I'm not going to say how many years it's been since I paid for a City of Durham yard waste collection sticker. I don't want to embarrass the city by publicly announcing how long it was possible to go on getting my leaves and shrub trimmings picked up without paying for it. Apparently the city is now cracking down, however. Tuesday I found a little notice sticking out the top of my still-full bin that said my yard waste wasn't picked up because my sticker is expired. (Way, way, way expired, to be exact.)
Fine, I've had so many years of free pick-up that I suppose I'm getting a bargain for my $60 fee at this point. And the alternative would be to buy a chipper and then spend a bunch of my yard-work time running everything through it and then buying or building a bigger compost bin to accommodate it all. Meh. I'll give the city some money.
The little notice instructed me to call a phone number (which happens to be the Durham One-Call number), but I figure this must be something I could take care of online. I mean, how hard would it be for me to fill out a web form, have the fee either billed to a credit card or added to my water bill, and then receive my cart sticker in the mail? Well, apparently the City of Durham thinks it's still 1990, because my options are a) Print a PDF form off of the web site, fill it out, fax it back and then wait to see what happens or b) Call Durham One-Call and talk to a person, who possibly may hook me up with a yard waste sticker or, if my previous experiences with the City of Durham are any guide, will probably tell me to go to the web site, download the form, fill it out, fax it and wait.
To test my hypothesis,I'm calling the number right now ...
... wait for it ...
I am correct!! If you call the number and ask to order a yard waste sticker, the nice lady tells you to go to the web site, print the form, and fax it in. You can't see me but I'm rolling my eyes. Oh Durham, you're such a hopeless dork.