Monday, July 27th, 2020 – Safeway
This was a clear, very warm morning at 64° F, ten degrees above our 50° F to 55° F comfort zone. But we aren’t complaining, it is a lot better than 32° F in the winter months.
This week is starting out the same as last week, no roadkill, but we did find some money.
Another penny. We’ll see how the week proceeds.
We did find another coin, though.
A Washington State Lootery Scratch and Lose Coin.
More free stuff, not at the free-stuff house of last week.
The coffee maker looked interesting, but it would not fit on our counter. We have no idea what the board with the round hole is. Part of a cornhole game? If so, it’s a pretty easy game. Maybe the bean bags are the size of pillows?
We saw these along 145th Street.
We would normally think these were more free stuff. But we recall seeing these out here before. Due to the construction on 100th, the traffic on 145th has picked up significantly. Perhaps this is their Pandemic Evening Entertainment?
Someone’s cheat sheet. How to add a P.O.
File/Add PO. Enter PO number. Seems pretty straight forward. Then there are some distances to various stores. We should be able to triangulate on these distances to determine where he was located when he tossed this trash. Okay. 0.09 miles from Safeway. That kind of gives it away.
Speaking of Safeway, we found another shopping list.
They found everything but cat treats, fig or spice jam and cereal. Really, no cereal at Safeway? What is “Tuna Sandwich Bread?” On the other hand, they did spell “Baguette” correctly.
On Norway Hill, we have been finding random Budweiser cans.
Today, the motherlode. And an empty pack of Camel cigarettes to boot.
We found a nice carabiner in great condition.
Stamped “Not For Climbing,” and for good reason. Good for keys, maybe.
A 150-foot roll of “Timber Harvest Bound” tape.
We can have fun with this. One hundred and fifty feet worth of fun. Lots of neighbors and lots of trees.
Oh, and we found this.
Slightly used and in the original packaging. $1.00 OBO.
Tuesday, July 28th, 2020 – Park-and-Ride
Today was slightly cooler than yesterday. We removed a squirrel from the road but didn’t find any money. We hope you guys aren’t going to make us wait until Saturday again. We extended our normal Tuesday walk to visit the construction sight again. The same Flagman was on duty and greeted us.
I asked if they were still destructing or whether they had started constructing. He said they were constructing and gave us a detailed description of the progress. Very knowledgeable.
As we started our walk this morning, we heard a bunch of crows up in a tree.
We think it was a union meeting to discuss going on strike unless the humans in the yellow vests agree to quit removing roadkill from the road.
The park and ride was a mess, but it looked mostly new since our Saturday sojourn through the lot. This was the worst mess.
It was mostly gloves with a couple of masks and dirty towels included. As requested by the metro workers, we left it in place.
Coffee anyone?
Also at the park and ride. We would not have put coffee, pumpkin seeds and pistachio nuts together. Coffee and donuts, yes. Beer and nuts, yes. Coffee and nuts is, well, just nuts.
At the bus stop across from the 7-Eleven, we saw a bag on the bench.
It was a bag of rubber gloves. The bag was sealed and the gloves looked unused. We’ll take them. And we did.
Someone lost an engine serpentine belt.
Why was his alternator not alternating anymore? It had no alternative. Oh, come on. Give us a break.
Approaching the construction site, “Sidewalk Closed.”
WHAT SIDEWALK??
We picked up a plastic wrapper.
Trapped inside was a beetle scurrying around. We set it free. Perhaps this was some country’s national delicacy. Grubs, anyone?
Well, this was embarrassing. We pass a property that has goats. As we passed, a goat stood up on the fence and bleated at us.
One of us, not Chuck, started bleating back at it. We didn’t notice another person passing by on the other side of the street. She practiced social distancing at about twenty feet.
Those of us of the older persuasion remember when Carter was president. Sayings like “He’s three bricks shy of a load”, “He’s coming in on three engines” or “He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer” were popular. We found a new one today.
“He’s two tines shy of a bite.” Hey, we work with what we got.
Wednesday, July 29th, 2020 – Safeway
This was a pleasant walk except it was long for a Wednesday. At the end of Juanita-Woodinville we decided to walk down to the construction on 100th. We couldn’t get within a hundred yards of the construction and it added a mile to our walk, seven miles total. We both decided we would not do that again.
We did find some money, and not on the added route.
Ok, it’s another penny, but it puts us ahead of last week’s money rate.
As we reached Juanita-Woodinville Way, we found the letter “U.”
Immediately we thought of “This program of Sesame Street is brought to you by the letter U.” For the rest of our walk the theme song to Sesame Street was stuck in our heads. Bastards.
We have been finding random discarded masks on our walks. Today we found three black masks.
They were probably dropped by some bank robbers who fled after nobody believed that they were there to rob the bank. “Ha, ha! Good joke that we’ve only heard about a hundred times since this Pandemic began.” We’ll sterilize and wash them. We usually use them ourselves, but someone suggested donating them. Great suggestion, we will find someplace. No, we send the disposable masks we pick up to the garbage.
The trend in unopened goods for us continues.
Kona Brewing Longboard Lager. Thanks, but we’re more the IPA types. But the deal killer was we didn’t have a bottle opener with us. Now if it had been a pop tab can…
An official NBA overnight toiletry bag.
So the kid quits college to join the NBA draft. He gets picked, goes for the tryouts and washes out. “Sorry kid, here’s an NBA overnight bag plus we’re throwing in a Gum toothbrush. Sorry, we’re currently out of toothpaste, though. Thanks for participating and good luck with the rest of your life.”
So as we were approaching Safeway, a car slowed with a pair of golf clubs out the window.
They turned out to be trash pickers/grabbers/reachers.
We call them “far sticks.” The driver said maybe these would allow us to not stoop so much. We thanked him and as always are grateful for the displays of appreciation, be them waves, honks or gifts like this. The far sticks actually work pretty good, but we’ll probably still need to stoop for dimes.
Thursday, July 30th, 2020 – Park-and-Ride
Another nice day for our walk. A bit warm, we’ll take it. We keep thinking of the long, cold upcoming winter. This is nice.
So the money keeps showing up this week.
And there is no way we are complaining. Four pennies, a five dollar bill and a Nicaraguan Córdoba. That makes $5.04 for our U.S. tally and three cents for the Córdoba.
We removed a roadkill rabbit today.
We also made enemies of about thirty crows. They were in the road, sitting on the fence, signs and streetlights. As we approached, they retreated but watched us remove the rabbit from the road. We placed it just over the fence for their easy pickings, but they didn’t see that. We need to watch our backs.
More birds!
These were escaped chickens on Norway Hill. They were more chicken of us then us of them. We hope they were not crows in chicken costumes.
We toured the park and ride but, per request, did not pick up any thing, but did harvest pull tabs. The major mess was still there.
Plus a baby diaper. Such fine parents, or a parent as the case may be.
We did save someone from a bad flat.
A ten-inch nail. This would have gone through the tire, inner tube and the rim. Yes, we know most cars now do not use inner tubes. For those who do not know, an inner tube is what you float down the river in.
Not only was this a good day for money, it was a good day for lost tools.
We found another socket, no surprise there. But also a crescent wrench and long screwdriver, both in pristine condition. Given the rate we are finding tools and money, we should be able to retire in thirty or forty years.
Ok, last week we found the markings on the road of the guy doing a traditional Chinese two-hole dance. They must have been reading the Chinese instructions.
This is the English translation.
Whoa! We found another one.
We are stockpiling these. Watch for them on eBay. We are thinking of an IPO. Contact us if you want to invest.
Friday, July 31st, 2020 – Safeway
The weather and walk was nice today. We found no roadkill and found money. The best kind of walk.
We found three separate pennies.
They were in various conditions. This Wikipedia page describes the coin grading scales. Based on this, we think the coin on the left is Extremely Fine. The one on the right is probably Good. For the one in the center we’ll use our new category: “Squint.” We’ll submit this grading to the Coin Grading Committee.
Later on our walk, we found two Saran-wrapped coins.
They were obviously a penny and a fifty-cent piece. We left them wrapped and Chuck put them in his pocket.
When we arrived home, Chuck reached into his pocket and got stuck by something sharp.
The fifty-cent piece had a sewing needle wrapped with it.
They turned out to be a 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar and a 2020 Penny.
We have no idea what the needle, or for that fact, what the Saran wrap was for. Such are the mysteries of TrashWalking.
Uh, we hate to tell you this.
But you lost your balloon.
We found what we think is a mint or candy.
We thought it said “Hotel For Camping” but it is actually “Hotel *or Camping.” Frankly, neither make sense to us. And don’t try to Google it. All you get are endless posts about the merits of staying at a hotel vs camping. For us it’s simple. At a hotel, you get mints.
We’ve found these before.
Dog poop bag dispensers designed to be put on your dog’s collar. It’s no wonder we find these discarded containers. Turn the tables, folks. Say that dogs ruled the world and some of them had pet humans. How would you feel about hanging a poop bag container around your neck for when you poop in public? “What the heck are you doing??” In dog-speak, it would be “Grr-arf-arf-Wrowl?” And what shape would they use for a pet human’s dispenser? More TrashWalking mysteries.
Saturday, August 1st, 2020 – Riverside Drive
This morning was a very uncomfortable walk. The temperature was 66F and very muggy. There were a few times of a slight breeze, but otherwise it was calm. We didn’t find any roadkill, that is very rare for our once-per-week Riverside Drive walk.
This week has been a very good money-finding week. We found some money five or our six walking days. However, today was somewhat of a let-down. We found one penny.
A very blurry penny. If you squint, you can tell it’s a penny. It was so blurry we almost didn’t pick it up, but our money standards are very low.
We found a rare pair of gloves in good condition.
What the…? They’re both left handed. This guy’s left hand doesn’t know what his right hand is doing.
Speaking of gloves, our weekly wrap-up of gloves and poop bags.
Twenty-seven gloves and six bags. At least three of the bags are serial offenders periodically leaving bags in the same location. We keep threatening to obtain a trail camera.
Down the hill near the start of our walk we found a McLitterer’s bag.
This one was a bit different in that there were only two unopened butters. Normally there are five or six. McDonalds might be catching onto these guys.
Another crow roadkill jam this morning.
We counted thirty-three visible in the photo on the ground, car and roofs and there were more behind the car. We didn’t see anything of interest, just a bunch of crows aimlessly wandering around wondering where the roadkill was.
More stolen mail under the freeway.
There were a lot of opened envelopes, and little junk mail, so this was probably what the perpetrator kept to go through in detail. Nothing to return to the post office.
We found two balls today.
A bouncy ball and a golf ball, both in good condition. Fine additions to our ball collection.
We came across what looks to be a homeless person’s abandoned cart at a bus stop.
It included among other things, a door mat and broom. It was on a hill on Brickyard Road and had a cord holding the brake on. We didn’t disturb it and hope the owner gets it back.
This is about ten-dollars worth. Evidently whoever purchased this didn’t think much of it.
On the freeway overpass, we found instructions on how to determine your breast shield size. Chuck had visions.
But, no, these were for a Medela Breast Pump.
It’s more baby-related litter, but still better than the used diapers we pick up.
We found a bracelet.
It was labelled “Punch Me!” and “Hit Me!” Why would anybody even think about wearing this? Maybe it’s a free promo bracelet from a sadomasochism club? List of universities with BDSM clubs. Things have sure changed since we went to college.
Trash Walking 