They’re B-a-a-ack

Monday, February 24th, 2020 – Safeway Route.

Our weather apps agreed on the temperature at 39°F, for once.  It was dry except for about ten minutes of rain, so we didn’t get very wet.

Well, close.  It was Money Monday.  We found two bits.  We can get a shave and a haircut, if it was the year 1900.

Well THIS sucks.  Someone lost their vacuum cleaner attachment.

We found two minibottles of Cointreau.  We knew it was an ingredient for cocktails, but according to Wikipedia, it’s also an apéritif and digestif.  Did you know there is an International Bartender’s Association?  According to them the official margarita ingredients are, tequila, Cointreau, and lime juice.  Gee, we’ve always used triple sec.  We didn’t find any discarded tequila bottles, though.

We found a hat in very good condition.  T. L. Erickson has been “Issaquah’s top local quality builder since 1993.”  You can’t argue with credentials like that.  And it’s on the Internet, it must be true.

We found a pair of shoes!  Maybe not quite a pair.  And both for the left foot.  Dang!

While walking along Juanita-Woodinville Way, a big bird swooped up behind Janet, thought better of it and flew upward.  After a minute of searching the trees, we saw it.  It appeared to be a Barred Owl.  Not a good photo.  It was dark and taken with an iPhone from about thirty feet away.  Here is another photo we took of a Barred Owl a while back.  

Then, we had a Déjà vu moment.  We found a Frisbee.  It’s the same one we found in the March of 2019 Frisbee Fail.  The video is here.  This time Chuck tossed it back over the fence.  If we find it over the fence in another year, we’ll take it.

 

Tuesday, February 25th, 2020 – Park-and-Ride Route.

It was cooler today but dry.  There were several waves from passersby today including Salinas Construction and United Healthcare and we had one drive-by, verbal thank-you.  No money today.  There was plenty of trash, but pretty mundane.

We found a rubber suction cup that looks like one on our trash-picker.  And there’s a tire mark.  Maybe someone nailed that older couple that’s been encroaching our our territory.

On our last Saturday walk, as we passed the park-and-ride on the opposite side of the street, we spotted some beer cans in the parking lot.  Today we collected them.  We picked up a total of six, but there were two six-pack carriers.  One of the cans was unopened.  We split it.

Boy, did these balloons pick the wrong place to land.  Berry bushes are not a balloon’s BFF.

More Valentine’s Day droppage.  Pretty pathetic.  Leave a nondescript Valentine on the sidewalk and hope someone picks it up.  What then, are you going to stalk them?  Wait.  We picked it up.

 

Wednesday, February 26th, 2020 – Safeway Route.

It was warmer this morning with a very slight mist throughout our walk.  Trash was fairly light and again, mostly uninteresting.

We found two Dryft cans.   These are tobacco-less nicotine pouches that you,

1. Place one pouch behind upper lip.
2. Enjoy for up to 45 minutes.
3. Dispose and repeat.

Sounds like spit-less chewing tobacco to us.

We just can’t see someone doing this.  They tossed out their contact lenses.  They must be blind to littering the environment.

Behind a fence at a bus stop, we saw a small ball and used a stick to coax it under the fence.  It was another super ball, this one with a ghost embedded in it.  We found another like this with a snowman in it.  They are now both living together in our ball collection.  We’re not sure about these interspecies marriages, but they seem to be having a ball.

Also on Norway Hill.  Found together, a dog poop bag and a zip-lock bag with what looked to be a chunk of some kind of meat.  It reminds us of an episode of M*A*S*H where the guy on the loudspeaker announced, “And the answer to last night’s dinner was ‘some kind of meat’.”

For a week or so, we’ve been watching this fence being built.  It now appears to be complete and this sign appeared.  Weird.  So they build a fence then post a no trespassing sign.  You have a fence, why do you need a sign?

Okay, we get it. We can just walk around the fence, that’s why he needed the sign.  Of course, we still don’t see why he needed the fence in the first place.

Another condom on Norway Hill.  Come on.  It wasn’t that cold last night.

At the top of the Tolt Pipeline, we found a bit of marijuana trash and an empty, discarded pot lighter.  But it wasn’t empty so they must have left it out by mistake.  We hear smoking pot can make you forgetful.  Perhaps that’s why they forgot the lighter.  And maybe the condom?

 

Thursday, February 27th, 2020 – Park-and-Ride Route.

Today was much like yesterday with normal, mundane trash.  We waved to Salinas Construction and removed a large, roadkill crow from the roadway.

At the bus stop, we found a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich.  The eater meticulously avoided the crust.  But Mother always said the crust was good for you, right?  We found this publication about crust.  Here is the abstract if  you want to read it.  If not, translated, it says Mother was right.  We think.

“The influence of baking conditions and dough supplements on the amounts of the antioxidant and Phase II-Enzyme modulating, protein-bound 2,4-dihydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-1-(5-acetamino-5-methoxycarbonyl-pentyl)-3-oxo-2H-pyrrol (pronyl-l-lysine) in bakery products was investigated in quantitative studies. These studies revealed high amounts of the antioxidant in bread crust, only low amounts in the crumb, and the absence of this compound in untreated flour. The amounts of pronyl-l-lysine were found to be strongly influenced by the intensity of the thermal treatment. For example, increasing the baking time from 70 to 210 min or increasing the baking temperature from 220 to 260 °C led to a 5- or 3-fold increase in the concentrations of this antioxidant in the crust, respectively. In addition, modifications in the recipe showed to have a major impact on pronyl-l-lysine formation. For example, substituting 5% of the flour with the lysine-rich protein casein or with 10% of glucose increased the amounts of the antioxidant by more than 200%. Quantitative analyses of commercial bread samples collected from German bakeries revealed the highest amount of 43 mg/kg for a full grain bread, followed by a rye/wheat bread, both of which have been sourdough fermented. A mixed-grain bread as well as pale wheat bread, both prepared without sourdough fermentation, contained significantly lower amounts of pronyl-l-lysine, and German pretzels, which are treated with a dilute sodium hydroxide solution prior to baking, contained only trace amounts of pronyl-l-lysine (e.g., less than 5 mg/kg were detectable in pretzels). Systematic studies revealed that the decrease of the pH value induced by microbial acid formation during sourdough fermentation is the clue for producing high amounts of pronyl-l-lysine in baking products. These data clearly demonstrate for the first time that the amounts of the antioxidant and chemopreventive compound pronyl-l-lysine in bakery products is strongly dependent on the manufacturing conditions as well as the recipe.”

A druggie thought he could break into a locked car with a hanger.    Wrong type of coat hanger.

Maybe he listened to his mother.

 

Near the end of our walk atop Norway Hill, we spotted a hawk in a lone tree eyeing us. It was about 150 feet away and was a challenge for the iPhone for this photo.  Birds of prey have very good eyesight.  It probably  saw what we had in our bags and didn’t think we were worth the effort.   We don’t think so either.

 

Friday, February 28th, 2020 – Safeway Route.

Yesterday the temperature ventured barely above 50°F and it significantly increased the litter on the roads.  Maybe it’s because litterers are more apt to open their windows and empty their car of the winter accumulation of trash.

This morning was cooler than yesterday with a light fog.   It made for an interesting sunrise over Norway Hill.

Also, we got an enthusiastic honk from a passerby.  Or so we thought.  A lady passed by on our right, honked and waved at us.  We dutifully waved back to her, then realized she was waving to a guy walking toward us.  We often see him at the bus stop and say “Hi” to him.  Not anymore, we are vengeful walkers.

Near a bus stop where we normally find a rubber glove, we found a large bag.   It wasn’t very heavy, but was bulky, so we didn’t open it and left it to be picked it up later with the car.  When we opened it, expecting the worst, we found it was double-bagged, another bad sign.  In the yellow bag we found fourteen unopened packages of Tostitos.  They were marked “Not labeled for retail sale” and “Sell by 25 Feb 2020.”  So they were outdated.  Wherever they came from, we hope this is not going to be the normal dumping spot for their outdated food.  We tasted one.  It was okay, but needed salt.

We found more stolen mail in two separate places.  Both were unopened.  The one on the left was from Capital One bank.  We don’t know what’s in it.  The other was from the Toll Enforcement Agency and stamped with “CIVIL PENALTY ENCLOSED”  Really?  With that stamp do you expect someone to open it?  We’ll return these to the addressees, though we expect to find the PENALTY one again.

We did find two more balls.  Both were along Juanita-Woodinville way, but far away from each other.  Now they are close together in our ball collection.

Another pair of safety glasses.  Safely in the gutter.

Another utility knife.  It was run over and destroyed, so it was not very utile anymore.  It did have four good blades that we can use.

We found a discarded Taco Time bag along 145th.  In the trash was a gift card.  We were really hoping they accidentally dumped their card with the trash.  It would have been just desserts for them.  However, when we checked it online, it had a zero balance.  So it wasn’t dessert, just more of their litter.

A grounded FedEx Ground truck.  It was in a parking lot on Juanita-Woodinville Way, obviously out of commission and bleeding badly.  There are some disappointed porch pirates out there.

At the top of Norway Hill, we found a six-pack of Smirnoff Ice.  And at the bottom of the hill, we found another used condom. A coincidence?  We think not.

 

Saturday, February 29th, 2020 – Riverside Drive.

Saturday is our longest walk in distance of about seven miles.  But also in time, generally because of the more challenging “finds.”  Today we were out about four-and-a-half hours, much of it wading into berry bushes to drag out beer cans.

As the mornings get brighter, we are finding more hidden treasures.  As most of our readers are aware, we save the pop tabs from the cans we recycle.  Today we ended up with exactly 50 pop taps.  We haven’t kept track, but this must be close to a record.

At one spot on Woodinville Drive we pulled a bunch of Bud Light and Modelo cans out of the bushes.  They had been buried for a while.  Often, when we wade into the bushes to pick up a piece of trash, we uncover many more treasures.

Probably another one-day record. Three bungee cords.  The one on the left was not in good shape and didn’t make it into our collection, but the other two were fine.  Bungee cords are like duct tape.  Most of the time they sit idly by until you need them.  They’re indispensable until you have a good use for them, such as wrapping up your duct tape collection.

We did find money.  If you can call a penny money.  We do.

We picked up something made of rubber that started to strobe.  It flashed for about ten seconds and stopped.  We shook it but it wouldn’t light up again.  When we dropped it, again it flashed for ten seconds and stopped.  We have no idea what it’s for.

We picked up a collapsible cage.  Actually, it was more like a fence with no top or bottom.  Maybe you put it around a plant to keep the rabbits away and save the plant for the deer?  Anyway, it collapsed easily to fit into a nearby recycle bin.

We also came across this.  It’s another Step-2 product, a Kid’s Toy Organizer.  There was no “free” sign, so they may have left it out for recycling.  We could have emptied our recycle bags into it and got a freebie.

It was a fairly light week for gloves and dog-poop bags. Seven gloves and five bags.  Light weeks are good in this category.

A nice CamelBak water bottle.  It’s in good condition.  We’ll clean it up and send it to Goodwill.

We found a pair of sunglasses at the freeway bus stop.  Or are they rain-glasses?  Visiting the site, we found that gfoa is the Government Finance Officers Association.

“The association’s more than 20,000 members are federal, state/provincial, and local finance officials deeply involved in planning, financing, and implementing thousands of governmental operations in each of their jurisdictions.”

Twenty-thousand government bean counters?  Bet they know how much those glasses cost.

Mirror, mirror on the ground, who’s the fairest one around? The silence was deafening.  

99 Proof Peppermint? This company has several fruit-flavored liquors, but their main pitch seems to be that they are all 99 proof.

Two Saturdays ago we found a soccer ball across the street from the apartments on Riverside Drive.  We figured it belonged to a nearby house across the street and placed it in the yard.  Last week it hadn’t moved.  This week, it was down in a drainage ditch and we climbed down for the rescue.  We ended finding three other balls in the ditch, evidently a ball graveyard.  We hauled the three balls in bad condition up to the apartment trash and carried the good one home where it now rests in our overflowing ball collection.

They’re back!!  The McLitterers struck again.  A neatly tied up plastic bag with the standard contents: Two clean breakfast platters with covers and two tea bags.  Also a paper bag with two sets of utensils, five butters and two syrups, all unopened.  The only thing we didn’t find were the two cups.  We have not found these for a few months.  Perhaps they were wintering in Arizona.