Return of the Racoon

January 14th, 2018 – Safeway Route.

The weather has been clear for the last few days which, this time of year means cold.  This morning’s temperature was 33F, only three degrees above our walking limit of 30F.  We got a honk from Mr. Handyman and a couple of waves from random cars.  We flung a roadkill raccoon.  We really drug it off the roadway because it was too heavy to properly fling.  This is only the second raccoon we have flung since we have been keeping track of the flings.

Early in our walk we found Plan B. Emergency Contraceptive.  One pill for $47 at Target or $33 on Amazon.  Amazon has free one-day delivery on this.  I should hope so.  Okay, what was Plan A?

We found a discarded Contigo water bottle. It’s in good condition and destined for Goodwill.

A ball strayed over the fence at the KinderCare facility. We tossed it back into their yard.

Also near the KinderCare, we found these. When I was a kid, I only got milk money for school.

More rubber gloves. 

We also found a Pedialyte Butt-Bottle. It doesn’t quite have the ring of a Gatorade Butt-Bottle, but it does have 33% more electrolytes.

We found a bullet. This must be the .44 Magnum of the Nerf bullets.  $8 for 10 on Amazon.  Yikes!

We found a Weed Pipe and an empty marijuana container. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Another irresponsible pet owner. This is a serial bag dropper.  We have found several at this location.

We saw a Mike’s Harder Lemonade can in some bushes.  When we went it to get it, we saw another. And another and another.  We found a total of 10 cans all within about 20 feet of each other.  They have probably been there for a while and we weren’t seeing them.

As we neared home, we came across this.  Someone dumped two large plastic bags of trash and a large comforter.  It didn’t give us much comfort.

Later in the day, we went back up the hill and retrieved the bags and the comforter.  The contents appeared to be the remnants of someone’s apartment after they moved out.  There were, among other things, a bedsheet, pillow case, blanket and two backpacks.  Anything useful went to Goodwill.  The rest went into our trash cans.

 

January 15th, 2019 – Park and Ride Route.

This was another cool morning like yesterday.  We flung an opossum.  This one was definitely not playing dead.  There was very little trash other than the normal cigarette butts and beer cans.  We found mainly items of clothing.

On the way to the Park and Ride, we found a glove in the middle of the road. I saw it on the Saturday walk in the middle of Juanita Woodinville Way, but the traffic was too heavy to retrieve it.

We found a BMW emblem. This is the second or third of these we have found.  BMW should beef up their emblem QA team.

We found a pair of women’s socks.  Someone knocked her socks off.

We also found a scarf. Both the socks and the scarf will get washed and put in the Goodwill box.

 

January 16th, 2019 – Safeway Route.

This morning was another cold, clear morning for walking.  There was a lot of little trash, probably escaped from Tuesday’s garbage truck pickup – ironic!  Along the route, we found the raccoon that we dragged off the road on Monday back on the sidewalk.  Perhaps someone pulled it out of the bushes?  They wanted a coonskin hat?Or, maybe the raccoon was only playing possum.

We found a discarded tea package. Grapefruit – Ash Tree?  And what’s with that logo?

Another hubcap. We found this two days ago and it was in good condition.  We left it in view by the side of the road.  Somehow it found its way onto the road.  It’s not in good condition now.

Another rubber glove. 

At the KinderCare, we found a spoon outside the fence hanging by its leash.  We poked it back through.

A Butt-Can. It was packed full of cigarette butts.  It’s no good for recycling now.

Someone welcomed us with rose petals on our path near Safeway. Or, maybe a couple of store employees got married here.

Create, Share, Enjoy. Does marijuana use make people more creative?  Or do they just think they are?

On the last leg toward home, we found a bonanza. It was with a bag, so we hauled it home and sorted it out there.  It had the remnants of a Taco Bell meal, a Captain Morgan Spiced Rum bottle, a wine bottle and a margarita can, probably to go with the Taco Bell meal.  That was quite a party.  There was also a Monster Energy Drink can.  They probably needed to go to work.

 

January 17th, 2019 – Park and Ride Route.

Today was much warmer than yesterday at 43F which made for a pleasant walk.  There was a very slight mist toward the end of the walk.  A slight mist in Seattle qualifies as a light rain.

There was another big party at the park and ride last night. We’re missing a can.  One for the road?

Heading back from the park and ride, we met this gentleman. I said my normal good morning as I passed.  Most people respond in kind and some people just keep looking forward as if we weren’t there.  This guy didn’t say anything, but kept staring at me until we passed each other.  Kind of eerie.

Another irresponsible pet owner. This one didn’t even use a real doggie bag.

We found a cigarette package with another warning message on it. This one is slightly different from the one we found last week.  The tobacco companies were sued by The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids for designing cigarettes to be more addictive.  They were forced to add several of these statements.

We found Milk of the Poppy. $20 on Vapetasia website.  It is described as, A velvety blend of strawberries and dragon fruit mixed with cream that can become highly addictive.  Highly addictive and no poppy seeds to boot?  Wait ’til the Federal Court hears about this.

Finally, after our walk, on the street by our house, we found, Yes, the McLitterers struck very close to home this time.

 

January 18th, 2019 – Safeway Route.

Another balmy 47F walk.  We got a honk from Mr. Handyman and a random passerby.  We did fling a very stiff rabbit.  But the weird thing is the raccoon.  It was again back on the sidewalk.  This time we dragged it farther into the bushes and covered it with leaves.  If it comes out yet again, we are calling for a Raccoon Zombie Alert.

We were feeling good at the start of our walk, but the first thing we found was this. Yes, yet another irresponsible pet owner.  Ok, the Bothell Municipal Code  specifically identifies this as a $250 find per incident.  We may become Poop Bounty Hunters to make a profit from our walking and maybe even get a reality TV show out if it.  What is going through these peoples’ heads (our maybe nothing) to think that they are doing a great job bagging the poop then leaving it?  Gee, maybe there is a Poop Fairy.

At the KinderCare, we found this flower. 

Ok, it was a ball that escaped.  We threw it back over the fence.  It probably added 10 years to its sentence.

Another rubber glove. Yes, we know this is repetitive, but SO IS PICKING UP RUBBER GLOVES!

We found this. 

This piqued our interest because we didn’t know what a Cuir was.  After some research, cuir is French for leather and further determined this was a tag on a pair of work gloves.  Boring.  We were thinking it was some BDSM thing or something.

So the walk was pretty uninteresting so far, but on the return home, we came upon an owl. This was a Barred Owl which we may have met before.  It calmly watched us take its picture until we moved on.

 

January 19th, 2019 – Riverside Drive.

This morning’s weather was mild with no rain and we were looking forward to a quick walk.  However, there was a lot of trash, mainly small scraps, but some bigger stuff.  Fortunately, there were some well-placed garbage and recycle bins left out so we were able to unload at times.  We did fling a newt that was not fast enough to get across the street.

Going down the hill toward Riverside Drive, we found a lot of McDonald’s litter. In all, we picked up 10 large McDonald’s cups on that one stretch of our walk.  And yes, the one on the right is one from the McLitterers.

Interestingly, we have noticed that McDonald’s has started putting use-by tags on the platters. We don’t know what the expiration period is and there was no information we could find about it on the Internet.  Perhaps we could use this to track down the culprits.

Continuing with food, Someone left us a pizza box, but no pizza.

And we found some Obleas candy. Wafer with Cow and Goat’s Milk Candy.  There were still some pieces left, but we didn’t eat it.

We found a nearly-full pack of cigarettes. Smoke ’em if you got ’em.

We also found a refillable cigar torch. These are also used for marijuana and other drugs.  Given we never found these until cannabis was legalized, I would guess it was marijuana-related.

We found a wrist brace. We think.

We came across the jawbone of an animal.  It might be an opossum.  This one for sure is not playing possum.

We found two hubcaps. A Toyota hubcap in good condition and a Fiat 500 hubcap in poor condition.  You can get the Fiat hubcap for $60 on eBay.  They both ended up in the earliest-available recycle bin.

On the way down the hill, we found the shackle part of an anchor shackle without the pin. On the way back up, we found the pin for it.  They are happily reunited and with our found hardware collection.

We found a rare Gatorade bottle, without the butts. 

However, we also found these.  Three non-Gatorade Butt-Bottles at different points on our walk.  We wish we could find these people so we could tell them where they should put the bottles.