It's garbage day in our leafy suburb, prime time for minor decluttering.

Among the many things I enjoy about city life in 21st-century Canada, municipal garbage pickup stands high in my esteem, right up there with potable tap water. I have plenty of friends and relations who live in rural areas that lack such services, so I understand what a privilege it is to haul the bags and boxes to the curb and expect it all to disappear before lunchtime, leaving only the blue plastic recycling bins asprawl on the grass.

The house feels lighter with its waste-paper baskets empty and the stack of newspapers gone from the corner of the hearthstone.

We took a trip to the States last week, which meant seven days of eating in diners, restaurants and the cafeteria at the Methodist Retreat Centre, home of the FSGW Getaway. I don't know what it is in commercially prepared food, but the inevitable result of one of these jaunts is five to ten pounds of weight gained through sheer bloat. Home food is salted, so it's not just sodium content. Stepping on the scale on Thursday gave me a real shock -- and almost all the extra poundage is already gone.