A Real (Laughing) Gas of a Week.

September 30th, 2019 – Safeway Route.

This morning, the stars were out which meant our walk was cold at 39 F.  We even saw some frost in some places.  We found no money, received no honks, and didn’t come across any roadkill.

Well, we did find a dead mouse.  But not the roadkill kind.  This is one of those mornings when we should have stayed in bed.  We did pick up some significant trash, though.

Someone had a fender bender that left several pieces of debris.  Wonder if the Fireball bottle had anything to do with it?

We found a piece of jewelry at a bus stop.  Ok.  It was only a baby’s bracelet.

I gave Janet a flower I found.  She tossed it in the bushes.  We have been married a long time.

We found this and have no idea what it is.  Cyrano De Bergerac’s nose cozy?

Some people purchase food at Safeway and toss the empty containers as they leave.  Today this was lying next to the Safeway driveway.  Fast drinker?

Summer’s over.  They threw in the towel.

We ventured down into Gatorade Gully and found no Gatorade-Butt bottles.  The person seems to have fully switched to other energy drinks.  The bottles are filled with water and cigarette butts.  What do we call these? Monster-Butt bottles?  On this side of Norway Hill, we predominantly find Bud Light cans.  On the other side, we find more tall Budweiser cans.  So, both litterers seem to know where to put their cans.  We’d like to tell they where they can put them.

At the top of the hill at the Tolt Pipeline, another mess to be cleaned up.  The box was from QFC and had some “Popeye Chicken” balls in it.  The crows didn’t take them.

A little farther along, we found a McDonald’s bun.  The crows left it alone also.  The Norway Hill crows have good taste.  Then, again, maybe if we tossed it onto the road they’d go after it.

Someone left two barrels at a bend in the road where no homes are in sight.  One was half full of leaves.  If they expect to clean up all the leaves here, they’re going to need many more barrels.

Oh boy!  Garbage day.  Someone’s already staked out his spot for the big show.

October 1st, 2019 – Park-and-Ride Route.

The walk was another marginally uncomfortable one due to the continued cold temperatures, but it was still dry.  We got a honk from a passing SUV and a wave from Salinas Construction but didn’t find any money.  We did remove a roadkill bird from the street.

We found a CPR Life Key.  It’s a small envelope-keychain with a light-weight mask to use when giving CPR to a victim.  The bag was empty, so perhaps this person saved someone’s life.  But more likely, they took it out to see what it looked like and couldn’t get it folded up again.

Someone tossed a “Safety OK” decal.   He probably had a “Litter OK” decal on his car.  

At the park-and-ride, we found s single shoe. It looks like this one  sells for $15 on Amazon.  So, this single one should be worth $7.50.  Looking at the Amazon add, there is only one shoe shown, so maybe it’s $30 for a pair?  

We also picked up a neck gaiter.  This is also about $15 online.   People are tossing clothing left and right.  And in this cold weather.

Another dropped (and run over) keychain.  Toys For Tots.  Hey, here’s an idea.  Merry Christmas, kids.

October 2nd, 2019 – Safeway Route.

Today was a couple degrees warmer, but still uncomfortable.  We got a honk and wave from the NW Health Care driver.  He is becoming a regular.  We didn’t find any roadkill, but did find some money.

Twenty-four cents. We saw the two dimes, one almost down a drain, at a service station driveway.  As we were picking them up, we spotted a penny.  Then we started searching the area and found three more.  Yes, we’re penny pinchers.

Sharin’ Mac & Cheese on Juanita Woodinville Way.  We’re sure they tossed this out for the crows.  And they were thoughtful enough to leave the utensils.  Things like this restore our faith in humanity.

We find a lot of eye drop-related trash on our walks.  Doing some research, there is a lot of chatter on the marijuana forums about the best way to treat red eyes due to smoking pot.  There are even questions about whether Clear Eyes kills a high.

We found a couple of balls for our ball collection.  Another tennis ball and what looks like a golf ball, but is about the size of an orange.  Our collection’s getting out of hand.  We need to get on the ball and do something about it.

Pirate’s Booty!  Someone left a treat for us.  I won’t say who ate it, but she said it was good.

For some reason, this rock caught our attention.   On the back it states “Post on F.B. #BothellRocks”  We don’t have a Facebook account, but maybe we’ll find someone to post it for us.  In the meantime, we’ll put it somewhere for someone else to find.

On Juanita Woodinville Way, we found a couple of cartridges. They could have been carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide.  

On our way up Norway Hill, we found an empty box.  We’ve found these before.  Whipped cream chargers.

Then, at the top of the hill at the Tolt Pipeline we came to this mess. We picked up a total of 42 nitrous oxide, aka laughing gas, cartridges and other miscellaneous trash.  People get “high”  on these.  They work by depriving the brain of oxygen.  Sounds like a swell idea to us.

Among the trash were two Shadow Warrior boxes.   Only $10 apiece.  Collect all 283 of them.

On Juanita Woodinville Way, we found an empty egg carton.  Then, farther along, we found an unbroken egg.  We put it in our bag and carried it the rest of the way home.  When we arrived home, the egg was still in one piece.

So if you are looking for someone to remove your trash and safely get it to the garbage bin without damage, you know who to call.

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

Today was a warm 49 F.  It was like summer again compared to the last few days.  It had rained earlier but we didn’t have any rain during our walk.  We didn’t find any money or roadkill.  We waved to Salinas Construction.

On 112th Ave, we watched a couple of guys get into and start a pickup truck.  We also saw a bicyclist coming down the street.  Just as the bicyclist reached the truck, it pulled out.  We waved at the truck but he ignored us.  Fortunately, the bicyclist had time to slow down and followed the truck yelling “Thank You!” over and over.  We’re not sure the truck driver was ever aware of the bicyclist.

Near the Park-and-Ride, we started picking up pieces of Styrofoam.  We took some time to pick up most if it.  The Styrofoam was the loose-packed kind spreading little balls all over our gloves and bags.  No, we didn’t put them in our ball collection.

We did find another tool for our tool collection.  Well, part of one.  It’s a bit for one of those multibit screwdrivers.  Come to think of it, we may have found one of the handles without a bit.  We’ll check.

Near the top of the hill, we had a brief conversation with the jogger we’ve nicknamed the “Happy Jogger.”   He runs with his dog and is always very cheerful.  We’ve seen him all over our routes and beyond when we have been out and about  He certainly out travels us, however, he told us that we are an inspiration!

At the Tolt Pipeline, we found another Taco Time bag.  For once, it was neatly wrapped up with all the trash inside.  There were four unused taco sauce containers.  This is eerily reminiscent of the McLitterers whom we have not seen in quite a while.

October 4th, 2019 – Safeway Route

Today was another 49F-warm morning, but with a light rain.  Rain jackets were in order.  It quit raining about half way through our walk, so our rain jackets became sweat suits.  Because of the rain, the litter we picked up was waterlogged and relatively heavy, so we availed ourselves of various garbage bins along the way.

We got a honk from NW Health Care and found no money and no roadkill.

The first thing we found very near our house were two more NO2 whipped cream chargers.  We wondered what we’d find at the top of Norway Hill.

We found someone’s Flip.  But not the Flop.  It’s not much good without the pair.  It went into the garbage.

Some kid’s homework.  Crazy Shapes.  “Write each word around the outside of the shape as many times as you can.”  Up, very, pin, win.  We don’t understand, where did these words come from and what is the point?  This kid is obviously smarter than we are.

Waterlogged stolen mail.  This is part of what we collected along Juanita Woodinville Way.  We went through it at the end of our walk and the addresses were all from Kenmore.  There was nothing worth returning to the recipients as the perpetrators kept anything of interest.

A student tried to butter up their teacher, Mr. Watkins.  

Evidently he was having nothing to do with it since he tossed the note.  Wonder what the instrument is?  The violin?  The piano?  What about a tuba solo!

An item condition tag.  Ok, which is it?  Is the tag ready to rent, not to be used or needs to be checked out?  What is this tag for anyway?

A Girl Power hammer balloon.  Really?  A hammer?  We could get political here, but we are already deep into garbage.

We came upon a Jump Bike.  

We’ve had Lime Bikes in the area for a while and now have Jump bikes.  As we understand it, Lime Bikes have not been profitable and Uber has not been profitable.  So, now Uber is trying to get into the bicycle rideshare program to be more unprofitable?  Okay, maybe this is one of those “We won’t make a profit, but we’ll make it up in volume” deals.

As expected, we found more NO2 cartridges at the top of Norway Hill. This looks like two different litterers.  One was an energy drink and a bunch of Reese’s Pieces wrappers.  We can understand the product, but not the trash.  The other was more NO2 cartridges.  Counting on the road, we picked up twenty-one more cartridges.  We also found a balloon.  Balloons are used to inhale the NO2.

The YouTube video below is from the manufacturer of a device to aid in NO2 use.

Thank you for your contribution to a better society.

September 5th, 2019 – Riverside Drive.

Today was a pleasant 49 F and dry.  It made for a pleasant walk.  We removed two roadkill rabbits from road along the way.  A car pulled out of one of the mobile home parks on Riverside drive and the driver stopped to talk to us.  He thanked us for picking up trash.  He said he was delivering newspapers and sees us all the time and just wanted to say thank you.  It was one of the nicest thanks we have had.

The first thing we found on our walk was, you guessed it, another NO2 Cartridge.  We found a total of five cartridges today.  For the week, that is a total of sixty-eight cartridges for the week.  We found a total of three empty, 50-cartridge boxes.  So, we haven’t even found half of them.

Wrapping up the week in gloves, we got a good selection.  We haven’t found an orange glove before.  Then, again, it is nearing Halloween.  It goes well with the black one next to it.

As for the irresponsible pet owners, maybe they are changing their ways.  Only two this week.  Then again, it is getting very dark on our walks.  We may be missing them.

On the way down the hill, we found another Taco Time bag neatly tossed in the ditch.  We may be at the end of the McLitterer era and starting a new Taco Time era.  If so, what will they be called?  The Taco Trashers?  It doesn’t have a very nice ring to it.  We’re open to suggestions.

We found this weird-shaped wrapper.  We don’t know what was wrapped in it and maybe we don’t want to know.  It was near the Senior Center.

Speaking of Senior Center please vote ‘YES’ on Proposition One.  You don’t want seniors aimlessly roaming the streets, getting into trouble and ending up with police records that will follow them the rest of their lives.

Two more Sutter Home wine bottles at the Sammamish River Park parking lot.  

Also in the parking lot, the debris we pulled from the bushes last week is still  where we left it.  We hoped the Bothell Parks and Recreation crew would remove it.  It does blend in with the surroundings.  We’ll send this picture to the city so they can recognize what trash is.

Someone tossed a bag with a unidentifiable contents.  Well except for the 200-count bottle of orange Tic Tacs.  It was almost full.  Must not have agreed with the litterer.

We found a broken, four-sided Cruciform Key.  According to this article, one of the main uses is for steering wheel locks.  Hope this guy got his car unlocked before he broke the key.

Well, duh! Of course, it’s a curb.

Someone lost an electronics device.  It might be a now-stationary mobile phone, but there’s a remote possibility it was a remote.

At the end of our walk near our house we found the remains of a bicycle light.  We were able to snap it back together and put batteries back in it.  It wasn’t very bright at all.  It was a Cateye light.  Cats have very good night vision so don’t need much light when they ride their bikes.