Pop Tabs for North Dakota

Monday, June 22nd, 2020 – Safeway

This morning was beautiful for a walk. We got lots of waves, horn honks and folks thanking us. However, we did remove a rabbit and a rat from the road and found no money. Very bad return on our investment.

Coon-skin hats were once the rage many moons ago. We considered pushing rabbit fur, but there are a lot of rabbit fur caps out there. Perhaps we should push rat-skin hats. But we’d need a hell of a marketing team.

Someone lost their slipper in the road.

The guy obviously had flat feet. It would keep him out of the military draft, if there was one anymore.

We found another unlocked lock.

This one is in exceptionally fine condition compared to most we find on the road. The key is, unfortunately, we did not also find the key for it.

We also found a high-quality incandescent Maglite flashlight.

It is still available as a “classic” version for $85. Newer models use LED. Does “classic” mean “we have a warehouse full of these we need to get rid of?”

On Norway Hill, more Angry Orchards.

Two were very well hidden by the overgrowth and may have been there a few days.

At the top of the Tolt Pipeline, we found the random trash and a pair of shoes.

They were very worn and ended up in the trash bin.

Graduation or Father’s Day?

Probably graduation. Not manly enough for a new BBQ grill.

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2020 – Park-and-Ride

Today was another nice day for walking. At the height of the pandemic, there were so few vehicles that we were waving to every vehicle that passed in either direction. A few weeks ago, with the increase of traffic we quit waving at the cars coming from behind except for folks who obviously wave or honk and/or wave.

Most wave back and some do not see us or choose to ignore us. If we saw us waving at us, we would ignore use too.

We did find some money after being shut out yesterday.

A bright, shiny quarter, though a bit beat up. And lately, not just by the traffic.

We found a tool for our collection.

It wasn’t beat up at all and fairly sharp. You know the drill. It went into our found tool collection. One day we’ll drill down into the collection.

Someone thoughtfully left us some crackers and Italian salame [sic].

Well, at least the crackers. Bastards.

Again, we came across a woodpecker cleaning the cracks in the sidewalk.

We have been walking for five years now and this year is the first time we have seen the woodpeckers doing this. This may be another symptom of Covid-19.

They must be new at this but they do a really good job.

As you recall, even though this is called the “Park-and-Ride” route, after many months of picking up trash in and around the lot, we were asked to not do it to help keep Metro workers employed. We understand and are obeying their wishes.

There are exceptions. We still walk the lot and take photos of interest. We also will pick up items of special interest. The sock on the left was left in the lot with a plastic cap next to it. The cap was gone, but the sock remains.

The cans on the right were there last Saturday:

We plucked the new cans of their tabs and left them be.

Also at the P&R, we found another gaiter.

It is a “Blackout Flag” design from SA Fishing. We are not sure what a blackout flag represents.

Wednesday, June 24th, 2020 – 100th Avenue

Today was warm and overcast. We got rained on a bit, but it cooled us off a bit. For roadkill, this may have been a record. We removed three rabbits and a crow from the road. Two may have been related since the crow was found near one of the rabbits.

We also found more money.

Abe has been taking an undeserved beating lately.

This was on the road next to our house.

The McLitterers are getting very ballsy.

So did someone go to the dentist?

Or is it the “rock band?” According to Wikipedia, they disbanded. Perhaps a root canal? If they really “did it”, they should update the Wikipedia entry.

We found a lovey.

We didn’t know what it was, at least Chuck didn’t. There are several here on the Kickeepants website. Judging from the price, we may need to put this into our retirement portfolio.

And we found some clothes.

A Merona sweater in good condition. It was too warm to wear, though. We carried it home for Goodwill.

And more clothing.

A McDonalds server’s shirt. We’re retired, we can use this. We can become the a Assistant to the Assistant Manager. Hey, better than being the greeter at Walmart.

Thursday, June 25th, 2020 – Park-and-Ride

This morning we were rushed because Chuck had a dentist appointment in Seattle at 9 am. We cut our walk short by not walking all the way down to 100th on 145th.

We did remove a roadkill snake.

This was close to the end of our walk. We carried it home to show it to our grandkids. The loved it. Score one for the grandparents.

Ok, another discarded diaper.

We find these periodically in groups which means this series appears to be a single irresponsible parent. Just think of the values the child will inherit.

We did find some tools.

More drill parts, probably more from the drill bit we found on Tuesday.

And this tool.

A Sawzall blade. But it was so dull, it didn’t even make it into our tool collection. Recycled.

Then there was the Park-and-Ride.

We have been passing these ever-growing cans honoring the Metro Worker who asked us to not pick up trash for fear of his job.

The sock is still there.

And more trash is accumulating.

Ok, enough is enough. If the trash is still here on Saturday, we will start our grooming cleanup of the area.

Someone set up some chairs for the annual Fourth-of-July Parade over Norway Hill.

Wait. There is no Parade over Norway Hill. Someone just dumped them. Very patriotic.

Friday, June 26th, 2020 – Safeway

This morning was another very nice walk and we got a lot of waves and a few honks and a few flashes of the headlights from passersby. We also got a trifecta: one driver honked, flashed his lights and waved at us. Thank you. We also removed a roadkill rat from the road, cancelling out the trifecta.

Outside the KinderCare was an over-the-fence ball.

We were feeling generous and tossed it back.

We found what Janet called a “sheer ankle sock.”

Chuck thought it was sheer fantasy to call it that. But we’re calling it a “sheer ankle sock.”

Someone tossed out a can full of cigarette butts.

It was advertised as Mixed Nuts. Talk about false advertising. If we were him, we’d sue.

Then we found a discarded hard hat.

That’s not blood on it. At least we hope not. This was called the “Blockhead Series,” probably after the person who tossed it.

Finally, we found a poignant fortune cookie “fortune.” It’s really more of an adage.

It really should read, “A quiet evening with friends six feet away and wearing masks is the best tonic for a long day.”

Saturday, June 27th, 2020 – Riverside Drive

This morning’s walk was overcast and we were forced to use our flashlights for the first few miles. We removed roadkill from the road: two rabbits; a squirrel; and a bird. But we did find money!

Two pennies.

An old 1969 penny was found on Riverside drive It happens to be a “floating roof” penny which, according to this video, is worth about one cent. A newer shiny penny was on the south-bound onramp of the freeway.

But wait, there was more on the north-bound offramp.

One dollar in folding money. We have not found any paper money in a very long time.

Also on the offramp near where we found the dollar, we found an unopened condom.

Guess she wouldn’t take a dollar.

We also picked up a See’s Candy gift card.

We checked. It has five dollars on it! So our total take today was $6.02. And that’s not counting the condom.

We found a couple of balls.

A small yellow one like we’ve found before. Also, a baseball half-buried by the side of the freeway onramp. Both are in our ball collection.

We found some car parts.

A gas cap near the Shell station and a bumper on Riverside Drive. How do you not notice your bumper fall off your car? On the plus side, they’ll never get stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. On the other hand, no place to put their bumper stickers.

Also a car mirror.

We call this “Self Portrait, Near and Far.”

And then there was this.

Someone dumped two bags of garbage under the freeway on Riverside Drive. They were too big for us to deal with on foot so we came back later with the car. It as mostly garbage, but we did find what appeared to be old stolen mail mostly from Duvall.

Today, we probably collected a record number of pop tabs. We collect these for our neighbor who has a brother in North Dakota who uses them for a charity. Janet collected 20 tabs while Chuck collected 25. However, with the help of the social misfits who left the garbage bags, we harvested another 26, for a total of 71 pop tabs in a single day.

Coincidently, our neighbor is leaving tomorrow for a family funeral in North Dakota, we emptied our pop tab jar and added them to the previous batch we had for him to carry along.

We weigh these each time we empty a jar or send them to N.D. The tabs weighed 1.95 lbs. Using a number we found somewhere on the Internet, this is about 2,500 pop tabs. In all, we’ve sent about 6,750 tabs to North Dakota.

Ok, let’s get this over with. At the end of the week, we report on gloves and poop bags we’ve picked up.

Sixteen gloves or pairs of gloves and seven poop bags including a pair on Norway Hill. So finding zero poop bags last week was an anomaly. Like being in the Twilight Zone.

We found Jakob’s Social Security Card.

Searching the web for his unique name, he is one smart cookie. A 4.0 high school valedictorian, accepted to Harvard, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania. Now he needs to work on keeping track of his important documents.

We found more tools.

More drill bits near the freeway onramp. We also found out why. There was a smashed Milwaukee drill bit case. The Lineman pliers are H. Boker model 5612 and are for sale on eBay for $10 to $20. They don’t say how many sell for that price.

We found another ear bud near the apartments on 112th Ave NE.

A left Apple ear bud, this time. Again, no good without the other and the charging case. We’ll hang onto it in the hopes of eventually finding a second one. If we find one, with our luck it’ll be another left.

An unopened package of vegan yeast.

Okaaay. What makes yeast vegan? Is it range-fed or what? This article makes it clear. The vegan yeast is called “Nutritional Yeast.” The types of yeast are:

Baker’s yeast: Baker’s yeast is purchased alive and used to leaven bread. The yeast is killed during cooking.
Brewer’s yeast: Brewer’s yeast can be purchased alive and is used to brew beer. The dead yeast cells leftover from the brewing process can be consumed.
Nutritional yeast: This yeast is grown specifically to be used as a food product. The yeast cells are killed during manufacturing and not alive in the final product.

So, the difference seems to be that the vegan yeast is dead when you get it. Okay, now we get it.

Also, we found some clothes. Kind of.