Alas, poor Trash Can; I knew him, Horatio.

UPDATE: Alternatively, I am but a fool with wool upon my eyes. The poor thing was just startled and hiding against the side of my car:

 Original Post:
Granted, it appeared next to my house one morning years ago as an orphan, but I gave it a home on my back porch and fed it regularly, set it out along the curb to be emptied as needed, and the one time I decide to use it as a marker for my shoveled out parking space, some inconsiderate boob wanders along and takes the plastic trash can I've been using for lo these years. Yes, I can buy another one easily enough, but I liked that beat up old molded plastic container with the cracked bottom. It was useful, it had character, I had made it my own. I searched up and down the street in shirt sleeves and slippers as soon as I noticed it missing, the snow flurrying around me. I hope, whomever you are, that you desperately needed that trash can to hold some precious thing, because any other reason for taking it makes you a monster.

Finally, Rupert?

If you're a Douglas Adams fan, then you know of his oft-maligned fifth entry in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, "Mostly Harmless." In that book, a fictional 10th (which would be 9th, had Mr. Adams been writing after 2006, which wouldn't that have been wonderful?) planet lurks in the dark outer reaches of our solar system. From the icy surface of that dim world aliens observe Earth's radio and television broadcasts that have leaked out into space. To find out what happens next, you'll have to read the book (sometimes I can be a wee bit the sadist).
According to astronomers with much better math skills and much faster computers than I, the math seems to be working out again that there's another planet out there in the far reaches of ol' Sol's gravitational influence. Reading this made me think some things:

New Year, New-ish Materials

Part of being me (an Independent Author, that is) is applying my humble design skills to my own marketing materials; using those same talents that brought you the lovely cover art you see to your right to whip up some fresh Business Cards and some Rack Cards that do double-duty as bookmarks for you, my reading public. And yes, I capitalized those two items because they are That Important to me.
Anyway, here are the designs I made up and had printed.