Littering Crows?

September 2nd, 2019 – Safeway Route.

Today was Labor Day so the traffic was very light at 6:00 in the morning.   There were very few people out, we didn’t find any money, we got no honks and found no roadkill.  Very boring.  Perhaps we should have slept in.

But there was trash.  This was outside the Apartments on 112th Ave NE at the beginning of our walk.  The trash was from Taco Bell, but was delivered by Grubhub, a food delivery service.  So, what?  Someone in the apartments ordered Taco Bell through Grubhub then went out to the street to litter?  It makes no sense.  Maybe Grubhub has an Order-and-Litter Service.

Awe, this is so sweet. The parents of three kids are teaching them to litter as a family.  “Well, isn’t that special?”

Along the same lines, while waiting for the bus, run across the street and buy something at 7-Eleven so you can leave the bag as litter.  What a convenience.

We found some Safeway Monopoly cards.  Oh no, the annual card littering is starting.  Wait, these expired in 2017.  Obviously someone who saved up their cards prolonged the littering season.  Too bad.  We got excited when one of the coupons was for a free box of 100 count of ziploc bags.  Dang, expired.

We found a deflated red balloon.  We were deflated when we found nothing on it.  No “Happy Birthday” or “Get Well Soon,” nothing.  “Hi Ethel.  Here’s a balloon… put it to good use.”

An ExtraMile Extra Large cup.  We don’t think we’ve seen a cup this large.  It may put the 7-Eleven Big Gulp to shame, but we did not compare them directly.  It was too hard to swallow.

We found some new homes-for-sale signs. Whoever put up these signs must be paid by the sign.  Hey, there’s room for three or four more.

Still nothing.   We could be showing you the same picture over and over.  We aren’t, but now you need to go back and check.

A druggie was considerate enough to replace the caps before tossing a needle. We’re certain the kids who would find this would not get hurt.  Thank you so very much.  And thank you, King County for your needle exchange program.  We feel much safer.

So, the site on 145th seems to be static.  Not sure if this is a Labor Day delay or permit delay.

A while ago, Mike’s Harder cans ruled the litter on the Hill.  In recent months, it has been Budweiser and Bud Light.  But today Mike’s came back with vengeance.  We picked up several Mike’s cans including these that were within six feet of each other.  This seems to be a last-ditch effort to retain the King-of-the-Hill status.  We’ll see.

Okay, as we mentioned, this was a boring day for Trash Walking.  We decided to organize our Trashwalking Finds.  The vast majority of what we pick up ends up in the recycling, the garbage or the organics.  However we retain some of the more unique items.  We have several collections of items, one of which is “Found Tools.”  These are tools that have fallen off vehicles and are usually in various states of disrepair. Above are the categories of tools we have found.

• Eight screwdrivers and a bunch of rusty drill bits.
• Five pliers and three wire strippers (one broken)
• Eleven wrenches and two crescent wrenches.
• Thirty-eight sockets and a broken socket wrench.
• Six utility knives.  We admit some knives are not in the collection but were retained for personal use.
• A bunch of random tools.

We also sorted other items and will try to keep everything neatly sorted in the future.  Yeah, like that will happen.

Here is the current utensil collection.  Arrgh!  Nothing matches!

 

September 3rd, 2019 – Park-and-Ride Route.

This was another cool, clear morning and it was bright when the sun finally arose.  The traffic was heavier than yesterday, but still light.  We expect there will be much more tomorrow as schools end their summer break.  We did get a wave from Salinas Construction and found no roadkill.

Abe!  No, not a five-dollar bill, only a penny.  Yes, a penny for our thoughts.  They would have been much better thoughts if it was the other Abe.

One of the first things we found was a very small hornet’s nest. Houses-for-Hornets™ Realtor:   “This is a fine little starter home for your family.  What? Well, yes there is some traffic in the area, but nothing to be concerned about, I’m sure.” 

At the Park-and-Ride, we found this AAA card. AAA PLUS?  “Plus membership provides you up to four service calls per membership year. Plus benefits include: MORE MILES – Up to 100 miles of towing.”  If you need that many tows, you need a new car.  Or the bus?  Who knows, it may belong to the bus driver.  He’ll be in trouble if he runs out of gas.

After doing our tool inventory yesterday, we found this. A utility knife.  It had very little utility left in it.  We didn’t accept it into are collection.  They are low, but we do have our standards.

We found a card from the Apples-to-Apples Game.  We weren’t aware of this game and watched a couple of YouTube videos on how it’s played.  We think Balderdash sounds more fun.  Especially if there’s alcohol involved.

The tree still stands.  We haven’t seen much activity since the city was here.  We’d love to hear the story.  But he did hoist his twelfth-man flag.  Do we detect a sign (or flag) of rebellion?

After our walk, we took our car in for servicing and took a walk to kill some time.  That road really needs cleaning, but, not our territory.

At a bus stop, we found a guitar on the bench.  We didn’t touch it.  Again, not our territory.  Maybe the guy preferred playing an air guitar.  Our Air Guitar sounds much better than our real guitar.

 

September 4th, 2019 – Safeway Route.

More good walking weather today.  We found no money and no roadkill.  However, we got several waves and one very enthusiastic honk.

We found two toys.  A toss-ring outside Cedar Park School. We tossed it back.  Then we saw a kick-ball outside the Kindercare.  We kicked it back and it went between the two dinosaurs on the playground. That’s a dino-goal.  Three points for us.

Someone left us a friendship bracelet.  But we don’t know who.  We have a secret admirer!  Or maybe they just tossed it out the window.

More Imodium A-D litter.  Only one pill was used.  He must have been in a hurry.

Still no more activity.  We’ll probably see some activity when the first wind gust hits the tree.  It’s been pretty calm.

At the secluded parking spot near Safeway, the remnants of a party. Two vodka minibottles and a bunch of cigarette butts.  Ok, not much of a party.

This looked like some creature from a bad Sci-Fi movie.  But it was only a ratty dog brush.   Or, maybe it is a rat brush?

This looked like an interesting clothing tag.  But it wasn’t.  Quickie Mops.  “Hey, Honey, it’s our Anniversary, how about a quickie?”  “Well, sure.”  “Here you go.”  Wham!  “I didn’t know a broom would fit there…”

 

September 5th, 2019 – Park-and-Ride Route.

Another nice morning.  We didn’t get any honks but did get some waves.  We removed two rats and a flat rabbit from the road.  At the top of the Tolt Pipeline, someone dumped a bag from Taco Time and miscellaneous wrappers.   Under the bag, we found a penny they left.  A tip for us?

We found two more pennies on our walk. One was under the bench at the Park-and-Ride bus stop.  The other was by the side of the road on Juanita Woodinville Way.  One of them was minted in 1968, 50 years ago.  According to this site, it’s worth one cent.  Guess we’ll let it age another fifty years.

At the corner where we found the beat-up utility knife yesterday, we found some of its blades. Two were in good condition and sharper than the ones we carry, so we replaced ours.

We found a beret. It was only about an inch and a half in diameter.  Probably a doll accessory, but perhaps a rat visiting from France?

This is getting boring. We’ll return to this story when something changes.

 

September 6th, 2019 – Safeway Route.

Yet another nice morning for a walk.  However, we hear there is rain in the offing.  Oh, joy.  At the bus stop where we normally see three waving riders, there was a fourth.  He waved also.  Peer pressure.  One of these times, we’ll pass by and they will accidentally flag down the wrong bus.

We removed another roadkill rat.  This must be a rat record for a week, and we still have one day to go!  We also found more toys.  A tennis ball outside the KinderCare fence. We tossed it back, but we didn’t get any points for it.

Another Wiffle ball.  We could have thrown it back over a likely fence, but we liked its Hole-ier than Thou attitude, so we put it in our ball collection.

We found a six-page FedEx preliminary delivery manifest.  Really, in this day and age, a delivery schedule on paper?  Perhaps they should upgrade to telegraph.  Baby steps.

OPMS Kratom Extract (fancy name for marijuana)  One for twenty dollars.  But if you buy four or more, you get them for $15 apiece.  That’s better.  But, wait, they have a sale!  Buy three and get one free!  So that works out to, what? $15 apiece.  Okay, we get it.

We picked up some candy wrappers.  Marijuana candy wrappers.  They are marked “Not for Kids.”  That’ll keep the toddlers out of it.

At Safeway where we see a woman and a child begging, these were behind the bushes. We don’t know who was drinking which, but both were half full.

We found another tool. Actually more of a kitchen tool, but we still added it to our tool collection.

We found ten dollars! Well, okay.  A ten-dollar quarter wrapper, empty.  One day, maybe.

A set of keys by the side of the road.  This wins the prize for the most destroyed set of keys we’ve found.  Our key-standards are very low, so we put them in our collection.  It was a key decision for us.

 

September 7th, 2019 – Riverside Drive.

It was a warm and muggy morning that made for an uncomfortable walk.  We got one honk on Riverside Drive and the guy waited until he was right beside us to honk.  We’re pretty sure it was a friendly honk.

We removed a snake, a rabbit, and yet another rat.  Why the spike?  Rodent complaints in Chicago peak about this time of year.  Maybe we’ve had an influx of homeless rats from Chicago.

We did find some money. Thirty-six cents.  Chuck found the quarter and took a picture of it, then realized he was standing on the dime and penny.  It’s the shiny object syndrome.  You see something up ahead that catches your eye and you miss other important stuff.  It happens.

We had our second guest walker with us today. Our son, Jon and his dog Pepper walked with us.  Of course, he used the Pepper for an excuse to cut his walk short and head up the hill to our house.  Then, again, he did jog up the hill.  Show-off.

But we did have some good solid fun while he was walking with us.  

Wrapping up the week in gloves, we found a usual number of gloves.  Again, the Proctologist’s bus stop (our name) helped out.

As for poop bags, only one for the week?  What kind of crap is this?

Mirror, mirror on the ground,  why is it you that we have found?

We went into the Sammamish River Park parking lot and found not one, but two Sutter Home wine bottles.  The guy must have done some more celebrating for Labor Day.

Someone gave up their Soul for littering.  Scratch that, it was a Sole.

We found a piece of smashed jewelry.  Okay, it could have been a spring, but it felt heavier.  Anyway, it went into the jewelry jar.

We found this curious rubber object.  Using Google, we tracked it down.  It is an insulator used on some Buick suspensions.  Kind of a letdown, actually.

Another crocheted potholder.  We found another one last week in the same area and put it in the trash.  Dang, we could have had a pair.  We’ll hang onto this one to see if a third turns up next week.

We found another lost lug nut.  It was artfully-placed next to some bird poop.  The bird was probably using it for target practice.

Some guy lost his shorts.  Under Armour Heatgear Shorts.  We would give you a short description, but the internet was short on information about these shorts.  That’s the long and the short of it.

We found a small shovel.  We left it on a stump in front of the house where we found it.  It may be a trowel.  But, we call a spade a spade.

“Hey, grab a some more hot sauces.  We may be few short.”  These are Taco Bell hot sauce packets and we noticed they have different sayings on each one.  It’s a clever marketing scheme.  There are some examples on this site.

• Bike tires scare me.
• Can I drive?
• Can I ride shotgun?
• Chalupacabra: Legendary Beast
• Consider yourself warned
• Dibs on the taco.
• “Do you add sauce left to right, or right to left?”
• Does the Spork go on the right or left?
• DON’T WAIT UP
• Friend request accepted.
• Have your people call my people.

So, we were walking down the sidewalk and a piece of litter dropped from a tree.  We looked up to see the crow that dropped it staring down.  Have we been wrongly blaming people for the litter?  There are an awfully lot of crows around.  But, no, we have yet to see a crow smoking.