The Glove and Poop Bag Era Ends

Monday, August 24th, 2020 – Safeway

Starting the week, the weather was fine but we found no money and removed a roadkill rat. Not a good start. And it didn’t get much better.

We found another scratch and lose card.

Will they never learn? The money always goes to the house, the state. The state never loses. And you can’t write this off.

Another ball in good condition.

Well, it may have some dog slobber on it, but what’s a little dog slobber? It went into our ball collection. Like we’ve said, our standards are low.

Someone tossed two empty chicken packages in the gutter about three blocks from Safeway.

What does someone do with two slabs of raw chicken while driving away from the Safeway? Do you want to know? We don’t.

So what happens if you are driving down Juanita-Woodinville Way, checking your texts and drift too close to a roadwork sign?

You lose a mirror.

Tuesday, August 25th, 2020 – Park-and-Ride

The weather this morning was good, we didn’t find any roadkill, but we did find some money.

Ok, it was only a very beat-up penny, but it was still money.

Our route today was partly along the detour for the work on 100th NE Ave. We noticed they removed all the detour signs but left the sign posts and sandbags holding down some of the signs.

We sent an email to the city of Kirkland asking if the construction trash would be removed. We got a response that it would. We will see.

We found a sign in the ditch for sale.

It was pretty dirty, we wouldn’t pay much for it.

The sign war continues.

In the three days since we passed this spot, a new sign was erected, and evidently Marker Man left his work which was again taped over. Then the sign was knocked down. The saga continues. Such drama.

We’ve heard these are coming back in style.

Pince-nez glasses. Well, sunglasses, anyway.

A spoon full of sugar makes the medicine goes down.

Yeah, but what about this?

What does a spoonful of dirt do?

We came upon a water bottle with a small hole in it.

We watched it bleed out then recycled it.

We have extended our Tuesday/Thursday route up 100th Ave NE and up Simonds Road for a block or so. We pulled a car part out of the berry bushes.

It was light but bulky. We carried it to the top of Norway Hill where we found a half-full recycle bin to put it in. It is garbage day.

Wednesday, August 26th, 2020 – Safeway

Another nice day for a walk. We didn’t find any money but did remove a roadkill rabbit from the street. We seem to be finding either money or roadkill this week. For the record, we prefer money.

With the construction on 100th Ave NE wrapping up, we decided to resume our new Wednesday route that takes us by the construction site. We saw the traffic controller who we met several times on our Tuesday/Thursday walks when we came to the construction.

As usual, he gave us an interesting update of the project progress.

We thought we’d found another socket for our tool collection.

But it wasn’t a socket, it was a tube of some sort with the word “Taiwan” stamped on it. Fat chance of finding what it is with Google: 1,060,000,000 results (0.93 seconds). We’re not that curious. Recycled.

Great.

A Pot Shop with a rewards program.

Someone lost their “Award Student” badge.

We’re not sure what an Award Student is or what he got the award for. But a little farther down the road we found this.

We assumed it was an academic award, but perhaps it was athletic?

But we also found this.

So now we’re just confused.

We found one of these last week.

Another skinned baseball. This is getting a bit weird.

Who wantonly skins baseballs?

That’s just sick. Next she’ll want to make a keychain out of one of us. And at least one of us doesn’t want to think about what body part she would select.

Thursday, August 27th, 2020 – Park-and-Ride

We picked up another McLitterer bag by the side of the road, but we weren’t on our walk, so we can’t really count it, but it had the old normal black-based platters and unused condiments.

Yesterday we mentioned we were getting alternating money and roadkill. Today we got nothing. And we mean nothing, not even a glove or a dog poop bag.

We walked through the park-and-ride but didn’t find any new Coors cans, but we did find they had upgraded or maybe downgraded to pot.

The park-and-ride must be the party place. Ok, as long as they social distance.

We did pick up some tools on our journey. A brass pressure-washer nozzle.

$18 on Amazon. It’s supposed to have a rubber cover on it. Maybe it couldn’t handle the pressure?

We also found a pricey rock core bit.

The good news is that it was brand new. The bad news is it had been run over and was no longer round. So only good for oblong holes.

We found a nice unskinned baseball.

With the last couple of gruesome skinned balls we found, we cringe seeing a baseball. All we see are key chains.

Besides tools, we also found more car parts. First we found two hubcaps along Juanita-Woodinville Way.

One was nondescript and the other was a beat-up Nissan. Both were irreparable. Fortunately, the 7-Eleven recycle bin was within reach and they got recycled.

Then, someone’s lost license plate.

“WA 3A.” It didn’t seem like a valid license to us and got recycled.

Finally along Simonds road, yet another buried car part.

This time, there were no recycle bins available and we ended up carrying it home to our bin.

Since the Pandemic began someone set up a “Together for Bothell” sign along NE 145th Street. However, it was on Kirkland property and a Kirkland mower cut it down.

Ok, we’ll start looking for “Together for Kirkland” signs.

They didn’t take our suggestion.

Last year the state put out a bunch of Gypsy Moth traps and we faithfully monitored one. Nothing. Well, what do you expect. Don’t call it an “Insect Trap.” How about “Ye Olde Insect Inn?” Or “Le Chateau Bugue?” Would you stay at a hotel called “The Death Trap?”

Friday, August 28th, 2020 – Safeway

Ok, now you are rubbing salt in our wounds. Today we found no money, and no gloves. We did find one dog poop bag and removed two, count’em, two roadkill rabbits. Folks, this is definitely running in the wrong direction. We want more money and less of the other crap. Yes, dog crap too.

We’ve also decided we need to vary our routes. The ones we use have been fished out. We’ve heard there’s an elderly couple out there picking up trash. They better not be fishing in our territory.

We did find a very nice piece of hardware. A four-inch hitch pin.

It is in pristine condition, worth about $4.00. We collect a lot of these pins. Perhaps we should open an eBay hardware store to supplement our income. The cigarette butt market sucks right now. Wake up, a pun just went by.

We found an unopened “Big Cherry” candy bar.

It was unopened and $0.99 at QFC. A dollar for a candy bar? Perhaps we’ll be a hardware and candy bar store on eBay.

We also picked up some Mentos Gum.

It had been opened but almost full. The guy must not have liked the taste. It tasted ok to us. It wasn’t good for blowing bubbles, though.

We found a full-size bath towel.

We wondered where it came from?

Chuck could only hope.

Saturday, August 29th, 2020 – Riverside Drive

Another nice day for our end-of-the week walk. What is the opposite of a jackpot? Today we hit it for roadkill. Two snakes, two rabbits and a squirrel.

However, we also found money.

Two pennies and a nickel. But that’s not all.

In a discarded cigarette carton, someone left a dollar bill. So, is this a tip for picking up after him? This is actually bad. Now we’re going to have to open every cigarette box we find.

One of the first things we found at the Sammamish River Trail parking lot in Bothell was a condom wrapper.

A used condom was stuffed inside. “Well that was a good five-mile run. What do you want to do now?” As George Bernard Shaw said, youth is wasted on the young. Or was it Oscar Wilde?

We found a pair and a half of kid’s socks today.

The single was on the freeway onramp and the pair was at the Sammamish River Parking Lot near the condom. Did what the kid see knock his socks off?

Another article of clothing.

A bandana in good condition laying in the gutter. We’ll wash it and put it in our bandana collection.

We also found two pairs of work gloves.

Both pairs were in good condition. It’s a good day for Goodwill.

On the subject of gloves, here is the glove-and-poop bag report for the week.

Ten gloves and eight poop bags. Of these, we picked up nine of the gloves and five of the bags today. We are getting bored with these and the TrashWalking Board of Directors agreed we could drop them. Well, not drop them, we will continue to pick them up, but we won’t document them.

More work of Marker Man?