Pop Tabs

October 29th, 2018 – Safeway Route.

Back to Bothell walking.  Chicago was a fun trip, but we are paying for shirking our trash-walking responsibilities at home.  We got a honk from Mr. Handyman and a drive-by honk from the Shave-and-a-Haircut SUV.  We flung a very soggy rat.

There was a week’s-worth of trash and much of it was waterlogged and heavy.  We found a wet tee shirt.

Ready for that contest.  We also found a wet shopping bag.

Shop ’til you drop it.

We found two items we couldn’t carry.

The item on the left was obviously dumped behind a transformer on 112th Ave NE.  The item on the right was left out with a “Free” sign on it.  It was probably a nice display case, but someone smashed the glass door leaving broken glass by the road.  Later, we went back with the car and picked up the first item, but the second item was already gone.

A different brand of wine!

Bandit Merlot.  $5.97 for a liter at Total Wine.

The McLitterers were busy in our absence.

All three bags had the standard unused packets of butter, syrup and utensils.

Another gas cap.

This one was in the Safeway driveway.  Also,

there’s an unpacified baby out there.

We came across an errant Safeway shopping cart and drug it back to the store.

Honest, we’re not homeless.

Five rubber gloves and an empty beer can.

There must be a story behind this.  A beer drinker with Mysophobia?

We know crows are smart, but…

The one on top was actually turning pages.  Probably reading a Poe poem.  “Quoth the Crow Nevermore.”  Or something like that.

 

October 30th, 2018 – Park and Ride Route.

Compared to yesterday, there was not as much trash as we expected.  We waved to Salinas Construction but didn’t get any honks and found nothing to fling.  We did find some items of clothing.

Two unmatched rubber gloves and an Adidas cap.  The cap is salvageable.

Unopened pack of cigarillos.

“Smooth, Sweet, Slow Burning.”  Don’t worry about that other stuff.

When we went to the Art Institute of Chicago, we saw several paintings of Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period.

We may have found his brush this morning.

We found a USB wall charger.

It’s in good working condition and in the Goodwill box.

No comment.

We found a bowl in the ditch near a football.  This is the first football we’ve found.  Obviously, someone is practicing for a Bowl Game.

 

October 31st, 2018 – Safeway Route.

Today was a slow drizzly day.  We got a honk from Mr. Handyman and another from the Shave-and-a-Haircut SUV.  We flung a bird but found relatively little trash.  Part of the problem is the leaves.

They are probably covering up a lot of material.  I guess we should turn over a new leaf.

We found another glove in the street.

And a winged (as in broken) flamingo.

We found another abandoned Safeway shopping cart.

We herded this one a mile to Safeway.

 

November 1st, 2018 – Park and Ride Route.

Today was a light trash and traffic day.  The temperature was a balmy 57F, about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday.  We got a honk from Mr. Handyman and waved to Salinas Construction.  We did fling this fellow:

This newt was wandering in the traffic lane, so we flung it back toward the wetlands.  We won’t count this as an official fling since it was not roadkill.  Perhaps if we had waited…

We found a whole cosmetic kit.

Halloween treats?  And speaking of Halloween, we found the usual assortment of discarded treat wrappers.

No, the last one was not from our house.

 

November 2nd, 2018 – Safeway Route.

Last night there was a lot of wind and rain.  At walk time, there was a heavy drizzle, so we wore rain gear.  There were a lot of limbs down and a new layer of leaves so our trash day was very light.

We did see a fence that was partially blown over.

There is an old proverb, “A reed before the wind lives on, while mighty fences do fall.”  Or something like that.

We found a cycling glove,

and some mutant-looking mushrooms.

We rescued a candy wrapper from being washed into the Puget Sound.

It is now headed to the dump instead.  Then we found a work of art.

I think this is a reproduction of a painting we saw last week at the Art Institute of Chicago.  Perhaps it was an early Jackson Pollock?  Or perhaps someone’s drop cloth.

 

November 3rd, 2018 – Riverside Drive.

Again, thanks to the leaves, Riverside was relatively light on trash.  We got an enthusiastic honk from someone we didn’t recognize.  Toward the end of our walk, we got a “Thank You” from the driver of a passing pickup truck.

Then the driver of the car in the background turned the corner and thanked us.  The McLitterer’s thanked us also.

This had the standard set of unused condiments and utensils.  It was missing one of the platters, though.

We also found,

A ping pong ball, dented, a PetSmart Frisbee, well-chewed and a dirty little boy.

We also found this.

We have no idea what it is.

A failure to communicate?  Morse Code? Braille?

Another Black Panther pill wrapper.

Their biggest feature seems to be No Headache.

This car is in front of the apartments on 112th Ave NE.

We have been watching it slowly rot.  We recycled the piece of the grill.

One pound, seven ounces of pop tabs in five months.  “There are 1,267 pop tabs in a pound”.  Thanks Google.  Doing the math we calculated 1,821 tabs.  We did not count them to make sure.

Our neighbor’s brother, who lives in North Dakota, collects pop tabs for charity.  You  can find more information here or here.  We have been pulling the tabs off cans that we find for a couple of years now and sending them with Bill when he travels home to visit.  He hasn’t gone home for a while!  We will bag these up and start filling the jar again.

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHUCK