New Trash Territory

December 16th, 2019 – Safeway Route.

It was cold this morning at 35F.  It had rained during the night, but held off during our walk.  Traffic seemed fairly heavy for a Monday, maybe the Christmas shopping rush?

During our walk we were passed by three heavy dump trucks.  The last one blew Chuck’s cap off.  Talk about some serious Christmas shopping.

Along the way, we found a ball in a ditch.  It’s now in our ball collection, six-inch category.

We picked up a growler can.  A Space Dust IPA.  Good IPA, but we know nothing about the Whistle Stop.  Whoa!  One-stop shopping.

We found another Vodka Bottle.  It still had “three fingers” of vodka left.  We went to a very enjoyable Christmas party last night, so passed on this.

But, perhaps others didn’t.  Nearby was an empty bottle of Zegerid acid reflux medicine.  Too much Holiday Partying.

We found two caps today.  One on our outbound walk on Juanita-Woodinville Way and the other coming back on the other side of the street.  Both were LL Bean beanies, about $25 each.  They tossed them out the window for some reason.  We picked them up for them, so their hat’s off to us.

And, we found this by the side of the road.  Did it fall from an aircraft?  “What the…  Hal, can you reach out and remove that thing?”

 

December 17th, 2019 – Park-and-Ride Route.

The weather today was much the same as yesterday.  We got a couple of waves and waved to Salinas Construction.  Traffic again seemed to be heavier than usual and this guy was driving a bit recklessly, at least from our point of view.  We were crossing a street and were close to halfway across when an SUV waiting for a break in traffic decided to cross in front of us.  He glanced at us as he passed, but we don’t know if didn’t see us or thought he could miss us (he did).  The video is here if you’re interested.

Near the park-and-ride, we found an eyelash curler.  We think. It’s hard to tell because the curling end was gone.  But it looks like this.  So the question is, how did it end up in the gutter?  Of course, we could ask that question about a lot of stuff we find, like underwear.  Could someone be trying to curl their eyelashes while driving?

 

We found several of these along Juanita-Woodinville Way.  Livlongo.  This looked like something that might be vaping-related, but it turns out to be a diabetes glucose test strip.  Something else you shouldn’t do while driving.  There’s big money in this.  “Livongo Health raises $44.5M for its cellular-enabled diabetes management system”.  Cellular enabled.  Now if it would notify someone when a patient tosses one out the window, they’d have something.  No, we don’t want to be notified.

We find a lot of miscellaneous nuts, washers, screws and bolts on our walks.  We plan to open a hardware store some day.  However this is a first for us.  A golden bolt.  Probably fell off a Ferrari or Bugatti.

Googling, we found a lot of Golden Bolts out there including this. This guy set the 100m world record in the over-105 age category to enter Guinness World Records.  Ok, but who came in second?  Also, how much trash did he pick up on the way?  We’re not impressed.

At the Tolt Pipeline on top of Norway Hill, more Clear Eyes eye drops.  These are used to reduce eye irritation due to smoking weed.  But we didn’t find any of the usual marijuana trash.  Could it be that Clear Eyes is addictive?  Wonder how much they’d pay us to keep this quiet?  After all, if it’s on the Internet, it must be true.  We’ll start with a high price like a dollar and negotiate down from there.

We found part of some eye protection goggles.  

Obviously they’d been run over.  They really looked like some of the horror movies where the evil entity wears goggles or a face mask.  

On the other side of the street, we found this.  The brand was TUSA.  So these appear to be a pair of diving goggles and part of a snorkel.   Ok, there has been some rain off and on, but this is a little over the top, we think.  Well, there is Noah’s Ark to consider…

 

December 18th, 2019 – Safeway Route.

Another cool, dry morning with heavy traffic.  We got a couple of waves and didn’t come across any roadkill.  We did find some money.  Another penny for our money stein.

Then, we thought we found a nickel.  But it was only an electrical box knockout.  It’s worth less than a penny.

At the bottom of the Tolt Pipeline, a bag was neatly tied up and left in the middle of the parking area.  Inside were six empty beer cans, an empty can of Progresso Light Beef Pot Roast soup, an almost-empty jar of Reduced Fat Skippy peanut butter and miscellaneous cigar and cigarette wrappers.  Quite a party.  We get the beef soup, but don’t understand the peanut butter.  Maybe it was a man and an elephant.  At least the bag was neatly tied up.  That was probably the elephant’s doing.

At the top of the Tolt Pipeline, was a McDonalds bag.  Again, all the trash, standard McDonalds fare, was in the bag.  We have some tidy litterers today.  That qualifies as an oxymoron.

We always find some reindeer antlers at this time of year.  This probably belonged to a male reindeer because the males shed their antlers in the winter and the females shed them in the summer.  Facts you need to know, courtesy of Trashwalking.blog.  You’re welcome.

A smashed oil filter.  If this fell off a car, the car’s in trouble.  More likely some good citizen tossed it instead of dealing with it.  At least he waited for a dry day because, as we all know, oil and water don’t mix.

Another lost or tossed notebook.  There wasn’t much legible, but looked like something to do with installing hot tubs.

Another Christmas decoration.  It was well run-over and wasn’t looking too festive.   It probably matches the mood of the shopper who was wearing it.

Then we found this, but couldn’t identify it.  It was about four inches in diameter.  A filter of some type?  An alien flying saucer?  A hemorrhoid cushion for a raccoon?  

 

December 19th, 2019 – Park-and-Ride Route.

This morning was warmer but with some fog and mist.  We waved to Salinas Construction and found a penny at the bus stop.  No, we won’t nickel-dime you, we’re more the penny ante types.    Unfortunately.

We found a swab.  After some searching (thanks Google) we determined it was a “Mini Disposable Sponge Toothbrush , Suction Toothbrush Whitening Single Use”.  Their words, not ours.

Some people can’t follow the rules.  It says “Please retain your ticket”, not “Please litter your ticket.”  Chaos reigns.

We found a lost neckerchief.  Probably a dog’s.  “You lost your neckerchief?  Bad dog!  No biscuit for you.”  Wait, what about us?  We found it.  Woof.

A lost phone.  This is the only part we found, so without a battery, no chance of finding the owner.

And heading home, we found the remnants of another auto accident.  We picked up several small pieces and left a few big pieces.  One was a Toyota.  But we don’t have an ID on the other.  We went back with the car later in the day and picked up the other parts.  We need to find out who should be responsible for cleaning up the aftermath of an accident.

 

December 20th, 2019 – Safeway Route.

This morning was warm at 51F, but wet.  We returned soaked.  Our weather app told the story.

This was the weather front that ran us over.  Later in the day, this report came out.  

The wettest December 20th on record.  It sure dampened our spirits.  On a positive note, there was relatively little litter.  On a negative note, it probably got washed down the storm drains into the Puget Sound.

Outside the KinderCare, we found a broken shovel.  The user of this shovel was obviously working very hard.  This may be a child labor issue.  “Hey, Kid!  More sand castles.  Now!”  We recycled the evidence.

Then, there was this elephant.  Perhaps connected to the Skippy peanut butter?  We sent the rogue elephant back over the fence.

We’ve found these before.  It looks like a shovel, but is a broken motorcycle mirror.  Ominous, but we didn’t find any other parts.

It’s a Bird!  It’s a Plane!  It’s Super Elk!  Riding an arrow to pointing out their migration path?  No, it was part of a weather vane that fell off a shed.  We left it leaning against the shed, but meanwhile, we won’t know which way the wind blows.

 

December 21st – Riverside Drive.

Today was cold and wet with rain the entire walk.  As we turned to go down the road toward Riverside Drive, we found it closed.   However, being curious, we proceeded.

A little over half way down the hill was a minor mudslide blocking one lane.  We continued down the hill but stayed on the right side of the road away from the bank.  We took a different return route via Brickyard road.

It was a nice change, though we did pick up a lot of trash along the new route. 

We did find some money along our normal route.  Thirty-six cents.  A jackpot by our standards.

Along with the good, we also have the bad.  Being the end of our walk week, here is the week in gloves. 

And the week in dog poop bags.  

Well, we also found these bags.  A combination coin purse-doggie bag dispenser.  What will they think of next?

Uh, where are these bags dispensing from?

They had a party at one of the trailer parks we pass.  Oh, sorry.  Make that the “Riverside Mobile Estates.”  Cups, food wrappers, a bow off a present and a fork.  Now, just clean up after yourselves and you’ll really have something to celebrate.  And so would we.

Licensed Acupuncturist and Sound Healer.  We’ve heard of Acupuncture, but not Sound Healing.  So we looked it up.  Lots of benefits from sites promoting sound healing, but little scientific evidence.  “911.  What’s your emergency?”  “My husband just fell off the roof putting up Christmas lights.”  “Ok, stay on the line, we have Sound Healers enroute.  In the meantime, hum ‘It’s a Small World’ to him.”

ARRGH!  Don’t listen to the whole thing.

Then we found this guy’s punch card.  Nothing since 2017.  We won’t be visiting him any time soon.  What do you get if you fill in a row?  A free gallon of Roundup?

We found two pieces of jewelry.  An earring.  But only one.

And a finger ring.  The ring looks expensive, but is pitted, was run-over and flattened.

We came across this.  A big Sony Trinitron.  This doesn’t belong on the sidewalk.  It belongs in a museum.

And this.  Yes, we feel the same way about our current political situation.  We rescued the flag.  There’s nothing we can do about the politics until November.

On to the new part of our route, Brickyard Road.  This looks like a very close putt.  But, we dug the ball out of the hole.  It had been in there for a while.

We found a slug.  The bullet kind, not the slimy kind.  We’ve found several bullets and shell casings, but never a lone slug.  The bullet kind.  We find lots of the slimy kind.

We found another prepaid cell phone.  There was no battery, so we couldn’t try to power it on.  It went into our electronics recycle pile.

Near the freeway entrance, we found tripod.  It is for a 7-inch smartphone camera.  $9.99 at Target.  But the spring that clamped the phone was gone, so it’s pretty useless.  Maybe later when the rain clears up in the Spring, we’ll spring for a spring for it.

At the freeway entrance, we found a folding stool near where a guy plays a guitar looking for handouts.  It was broken and buried in the grass.  We carried it to a location we could easily stop with the car and picked it up later in the day.

Then there was this.  

Someone littered a liter bag.  “Model Litter Control and Recycling Act.”  After doing some research, this bag must be really old.  This was enacted in 1971, then was superseded in 1992 after several Legislative Findings were identified and the State Legislature took action:

• Recognizing the multifaceted nature of the state’s solid waste management problems, the legislation enacted in 1971 and entitled the “Model Litter Control and Recycling Act” is hereby renamed the “waste reduction, recycling, and model litter control act.”   – RCW 70.93.010

Good job!  Our tax dollars at work!