Chuck Gets a New Cap

Monday, July 20th, 2020 – Safeway

We had a quick walk this morning. The weather was nice and traffic was light. For some reason, Norway Hill had almost no trash on it after a warm weekend. Very strange. We removed a roadkill bird from the street and, continuing our run from last week, found more money.

A pretty bad penny. They just keep turning up.

Someone dumped a Panasonic rice cooker on a lawn.

This was early in our walk about 500 feet from our house. We left it and retrieved it at the end of our walk. When we got it home we had quite a let-down. No recipe book!

Another cooking utensil.

A barbeque. This is near the house that put out free stuff last week, so we assume it’s free also. Or maybe they are planning a big barbeque party on the sidewalk. We’ll report them to the Pandemic Police and let the officials grill them about it.

Further evidence. We found their shopping list.

Hot Dog Buns, Hamburger Buns and Beer. Definitely a barbeque. “Bageutte” is spelled wrong, but that’s that way we would spell it also. Google found 47K hits for “Bageutte”, so we’re not alone.

This was a dangerous-looking piece of plastic.

But it is part of a Nerf gun toy. It would probably hurt if someone threw it at us, though. Shouldn’t it be made of foam rubber like their bullets? What are they thinking?

We did find two more balls for our ball collection.

Neither of them had an obvious home, so we had a ball. Make that two balls.

Another broken hubcap with fake nuts.

We had to lug them to our dumpster stop.

More needles.

These were about ten feet apart. At least they left the needles covered before tossing them for some kid to find.

Safeway has outside dining!

Their wait-staff needs to bus the parking spaces more often, though. And who was drinking the STP motor oil?

Well, the Sign Guy from last week sprang into action and taped over the graffiti on his political sign.

It remains to be seen whether Magic Marker Guy makes a move or whether he has signed off. Such suspense.

We came upon a roadkill-jam this morning.

For several years, we lived within a two-hour drive of Yellowstone National Park, so we went there often. We saw a lot of different animals, but never saw a bear.

We would be driving through Yellowstone and come to a lot of cars pulled to the side of the road. There were folks with cameras and binoculars pointing off into the distance. One car would spot something and other cars would automatically stop to see what was going on. This is called a “bear-jam.” We assume this is a “roadkill-jam.” One crow spots something… By the way, we did not see any roadkill here.

Tuesday, July 21st, 2020 – Park-and-Ride

Another nice day for a walk. We removed another roadkill bird from the street. It’s a bad trend for birds this week. No money, though.

We walked through the park-and-ride and found a wad of six gloves.

Who uses six gloves at one time?

It could have been Spiderman. Glad to see that he is wearing a face covering.

We found a ball at the top of the Tolt Pipeline.

We know why the owner’s left it. Pretty scuzzy. But we added it to our ball collection. We’re not proud.

At the 7-Eleven, we found someone’s left shoe.

Ok, so you are walking into the 7-Eleven and your sandal falls off. Would you notice? Perhaps it was the girl who lost her bikini bottom last week.

We found Edward A.’s key card.

It had a lot of date stickers on it. So is this like if you show up to work five days, you get a day off? Like a buy seven pizzas and get one free card?

Whoa! This is new.

Whatever you do, don’t park your bus here.

This is becoming a thing.

Someone left us more unopened food.

Do they think we are needy? We do pick up any money including pennies. Perhaps it’s Chuck’s cap.

We found this on one of our early walks. It has been used for walking, six days per week, Summer and Winter for about four years. It is getting a bit weather beaten.

Today, we found another cap.

This one seems like a good replacement. “Chuck Taylor.” We researched Chuck Taylor. From Wikipedia, he was a “semi-professional basketball player in 1919 and was the player-manager for the Converse All-Stars basketball team in the mid-1920s, but he became widely known as a salesman and promoter of Converse All Star basketball shoes.”

We can live with that. Chuck will start wearing this cap on the walks. Watch for the invitation for the retirement party for the old cap.

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2020 – Safeway

This morning was 61F, overcast and muggy. Fortunately, there was a light mist that helped keep us cool. This walk was pretty boring with no money and no roadkill.

However, this was the first day of the construction closure of 100th Ave. NE which blocked our new Wednesday walk, so we had something to discuss.

Overnight, they unveiled the new detour signs that make no sense. Perfect. If you are traveling south-west on Juanita-Woodinville Way, they assume you want to go south on 100th. If you don’t know the area and want to to north, they drop you onto 100th on the wrong side of the construction.

On the other hand, if you are travelling north-east on Juanita-Woodinville Way, they assume, correctly so, that you got diverted from 100th and need to detour onto 145th to return to 100th. But the sign is hidden behind a tree limb. Good job!

Ok, back to our boring walk. The “Free House” cars are gone.

It’s unknown if they sold or they finally put “Free Stuff” on them.

On the other hand, the Barbeque is still there with no sign.

No free sign or anything, leaving uncertainty. They need some marketing. How about “Sale?” Or maybe “Hot Sale?” Wait! “Fire Sale!”

We did find another hat.

It could also work for walking, but it’s a small kid’s cap.

Thursday, July 23rd, 2020 – Park-and-Ride

Another warm but pleasant walk. We removed a crow from the road and didn’t find any money. Okay, it wasn’t that pleasant. We walked through the park-and-ride and noticed two Metro trucks and some workers picking up trash. Per their request, we didn’t pick up any trash but we did harvest some pop tabs from the beer cans. Then we found this.

The metro worker who asked us to not pick up trash in the park-and-ride is evidently looking for more job security. It’s going to take a while to clean the entire parking lot with this. It’s also going to take a four-hundred-foot extension cord.

We think this is a first for us.

A discarded eraser. At least we don’t remember another one, but it may have been erased from our memories.

We did find a couple of tools today.

A headlight. For a human, not a car. Unfortunately, it did get run over by a car. We recycled it.

Also, a wrench.

This is a combination 8mm – 10mm box-end Matco wrench in very good condition. A welcome addition to our found tool collection.

Since our Wednesday walk was officially blocked by construction, we decided to walk up 100th to check on the construction.

Yep. They are constructing. Well, actually destructing now, but we are confident they will start constructing soon.

We found a Steel water bottle.

The steel construction didn’t help much. Or at all.

Janet found a water balloon.

She threw it across the road at Chuck. It hit the ground and rolled into the weeds. Chuck picked it up and, a few minutes later lobbed it high in the air so it would break on impact. It was a perfect shot. It landed right behind Janet, hit the road and bounced off into the weeds. We held disarmament talks and gutted the balloon with our utility knife.

Friday, July 24th, 2020 – Safeway

This morning was cooler and more comfortable. And again, no money. This is turning into a let-down after last week. But there’s always tomorrow. We got a honk from a different vehicle pulling a different boat.

This is getting weird. Why are we attracting people pulling boats? We do walk two-by-two.

But if they are looking for us to repopulate the earth, forget it. We’ve done our part.

Someone else noticed the hidden construction detour sign.

This morning, there was a more visible one on the sidewalk. Still no solution for folks wanting to travel north on 100th. They still need to go to the end of Juanita-Woodinville, turn north. Come to the construction, make a U-turn, come back up Juanita-Woodinville to this sign, make a left on 145th and reach 100th. The construction company is ICI, Interwest Construction Inc. Give them a call in case you get lost.

Hey! The barbeque grill is gone.

Our suggestion of the Fire Sale sign must have worked. You’re welcome. Where’s our commission? Oh. Free. Got it, no commission.

More free stuff, not at the “Free House”

Let’s see, strip the paint to restore them to their factory-fresh state or buy them for ten bucks apiece. Pass. Might as well add the “Fire Sale” sign then follow through with the fire.

This was bound to happen. Someone’s trash bin lost a wheel.

We keep seeing way-overloaded trash bins on our walks and this is the result. The least they could have done was to recycle it. But, no. Let us carry it home to recycle.

Ok, a week or so back, we saw marks on the road telling us to go back.

Now we know what they’re for. It marks where a Chinese guy performs dances between two holes. Everything is so clear now.

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub.

Here is our interpretation of Shakespeare: “To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rubbish.” Hey, he wrote it, not us.

Saturday, July 25th, 2020 – Riverside Drive

This morning was cool and clear, a perfect morning for the last walk of the week. Altogether, we walked seven and a half miles today and were out four and a half hours. We removed a bunch of roadkill: a mole, a rabbit, two rats and a weasel. But, after finding a penny on Monday and then being shut out the rest of the week, we found a dollar and twelve cents today.

Two pennies, a dime and a dollar bill. All found in different locations. We like the upward trend in folding money, this is the second week in a row.

Early on our walk, we found evidence of the McLitterers.

Inside was the standard litter: two clean pancake trays, two tea cups and bags and a small paper bag containing two sets of plastic-ware, two unopened syrups and five unopened butters. We’ve picked up well over fifty of these bags. That represents over one hundred syrups and two hundred and fifty butters. All sent to the dump.

This is irritating. We find a lot of gloves, mainly rubber gloves these days, but some work gloves. Most of the work gloves have been discarded for obvious reasons, but some are in good condition. We seldom find a pair of work gloves in good condition.

This looks like we found a good pair of work gloves. And we did. However, the one on the left was found on our walk toward Bothell on Riverside Drive. The one on the right was found a mile-and-a-half later past the freeway overpass on Woodinville Drive. At some point an opportunity arose to empty our recycle bags, including the first glove. So we ended up with only the glove on the right. We may go dumpster diving tomorrow.

We found a glove light.

We picked up a rubber glove but something was in it. It was an automobile light bulb. Maybe it’s a glove compartment bulb? Do cars have glove compartment lights anymore? Ours don’t. Back in the day, we had cars with lights that came on when the glove compartment door was opened, like a refrigerator light. Unlike a refrigerator light, when the glove compartment bulb failed, folks seldom replaced them. No, we didn’t either. And, by the way, who keeps gloves in the glove compartment?

We did find another type of glove.

No, this will NOT go in our glove compartment.

While we’re on the subject of gloves, this is our weekly glove-poop bag tally.

Eighteen gloves and only three dog poop bags. This is like the Twilight Zone. Again.

Someone discarded a bunch of trash in one location near the apartments on Woodinville Drive.

And across the street, its companion.

We put them together and left them. After our walk, we came back with our car and took them home. The first one contained some clothing and miscellaneous trash, some of which smelled of urine. Into the garbage. The second set was the debris of an oil change including empty oil containers and an oil filter. The black bag contained some pillows, a pillowcase and a blanket in good condition. Those are headed for Goodwill.

Like gloves, we seldom find matching socks.

Today, three pair, all going to Goodwill.

And we found another sock.

Oops. Sorry, we already used that.

We did find a tool.

C.A.T Albion. This is a Caulk Application Tool, C.A.T. It seems to be one of a set of six. On the site, there is one review: “Hands down BEST caulking tools ever. I’ve been using these tools for over 10 years and I will not buy anything else. Wish they would sell them individually!” Well, we have one that he can buy individually. Price is negotiable.

This really torqued us off.