Monday, December 7th, 2020 – Safeway
We found money today!
Well, not really, it is a $1200 unendorsed check. These days you can deposit using a photo of the check, so we don’t know if Nathan deposited it or not. The check was from a foundation that provides scholarships to people with a certain cultural background. It didn’t match either of our backgrounds, so we mailed it back to the foundation.
We found some clothing.
A nice pair of gloves, but they are very small and don’t fit either of us.
A pair of underwear and shorts.
Way too big for us.
Then a pair of toddler’s sweat pants.
Too small for us. We felt like we were in the “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” story, but nothing was just right.
The McLitterers left us a present on Norway Hill.
They appear to be getting sloppy. The bag got run over and was bleeding syrup on the road. However, the contents we found match their signature.
A glasses case with a pair of biking glasses.
No matter how we tried, we couldn’t get the glasses to fit into the case. There’s that size issue again.
Then there’s this.
A preschooler’s work sheet. “I am Thankful for… [blank].” Yep, that about sums up 2020.
Tuesday, December 8th, 2020 – Park-and-Ride
We found real money today! No, really!
On the freeway offramp, we spotted a dime. THEN across the street near the Park-and-Ride bus stop, a ten-dollar bill! Woof!
And, some kind soul left us a bag of croissants.
Ok, mini croissants, but it’s the thought that counts.
Yet another golf ball in the gutter.
Ok. So did someone try to “strike” a car with a golf ball and it ended up with a “gutter ball?” Hope he had a “spare.” Hey, we’re running out of material here.
Wednesday, December 9th, 2020 – Safeway
Today was warmer, but very wet. There was a light rain the entire two-and-a-half hours we were out and we returned home soaked.
Outside the KinderCare, we found another tennis ball.
No, it was not another gutter ball, it was in the street. One of those kids has an arm. The Seattle Mariners should keep an eye on him. Or her.
Ok, someone threw in the Covid towel.
Really? Now that there’s a vaccine on the horizon? Oh, wait, they are now saying it will not stop the pandemic until 2022. Great. Where’s our towel?
We came across some roadkill.
It looked like a rabbit, but it was one of those reindeer antlers people put on their cars. We’ll still count it as roadkill.
Here’s looking at you, kid.
This ain’t Casablanca and you’re not Humphrey Bogart.
There was a dead tree at the top of Norway Hill and the city cut it down.
This is the remaining stump. From the rings, it appears to be about fifty-two years old, so it was planted in 1969. Well this sucks. That is the year we were married. So much for our first marriage.
Thursday, December 10th, 2020 – NE 160th Street
This is our third week of the new Thursday route and we found some roadkill. We looked around for some bushes to bury it in, but there were only walls on both sides of the road. This is probably the cause of the rabbit’s demise. About a hundred yards down the street on the opposite side, there were some berry bushes. It took two trips, but we were able to give the rabbit an honorable burial.
At the apartments on 112th Ave NE, we found what we would normally call stolen mail.
However, the address is several miles away and there was a package of super glue and a roll of black electrical tape. So someone may have just emptied his car. Either way, we have an unopened tube of superglue and another roll of electrical tape. We only need something to immobilize. Grandkids come to mind.
We appreciate folks leaving us gifts like mini croissants and, of course, money.
Starburst Swirlers, not so much.
More clothes.
A very wet, cold and heavy top that we slogged home. On it’s way to Goodwill.
This was not a comfortable walk, but near the end at the top of Norway Hill, we were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise.
Thank You.
Friday, December 11th, 2020 – Safeway
We found more unopened food today. First, at the very beginning of our walk, StarKist Tuna.
What the… Hickory Smoked Tuna? Surely Charlie the Tuna would not agree to it. But he’s on the package. And StarKist is now owned by a South Korean conglomerate. According to Google, “Charlie” translates to “Challi” in Korean. Nope, “Sorry, Challi” just doesn’t cut it.
Then there was the orange left in the shopping basket at Safeway.
Definitely unopened.
And a small bag of Cheetos.
Great, we can share three chips each.
We found what appeared to be an opened can of cat food.
Upon closer examination, it appeared to be some undefined material that had been wrapped in duct tape. We decided that the less information was better at this point and placed it in our garbage bag, never to be seen again.
We pick up a lot of discarded masks, but this was a first.
Forget those pesky ear straps, use tape. Whoops, there go the sideburns. Helpful hint: Don’t use duct tape. You’re welcome.
Another ball tossed outside a fence.
Considering it was a totally-skinned tennis ball, we figured they tossed it over the fence on purpose so we took it. No, we did not put it in our ball collection. We have our standards.
Very close to each other we found two needles.
The one on the left was used, wrapped with a couple of Q-Tips and the other was still in the wrapper. We’re guessing after using the first one, they lost track of the second one.
There is a house we pass that leaves a variety of dog toys for us to find.
This one looked especially eager to escape. We tossed him back.
Thank you so much, Smoker, for collecting your cigarette butts in a cup.
Butt we take that back when you throw the cup in the gutter. We can provide you with a graphic of where you can put your butts if you wish, but here’s a hint: It rhymes with “but” or maybe “bass.”
Whoa! Twice in a week, the McLitterers make an appearance.
This one had also been run over but not as bad. It was still leaking syrup, but not as bad as the first one.
Saturday, December 12th, 2020 – Riverside Drive
Today was very cold 32.5°F, only a half degree above our walking limit. But rules are rules and we went on our walk. It’s a good thing, too. We found more money.
A penny by a bus stop in Bothell and a nickel on Brickyard Road. With the money we found on Tuesday, we gathered a total of $10.16 this week. Even without the ten dollar bill, we haven’t made more than this since the week of October 19th when we garnered eighty-four cents.
We found two kid’s hats within a block of each other.
These were along the route near a neighbor’s house who goes all out on Christmas lights.
Keener’s Christmas.
It causes a traffic jam in the area, plenty of time for a kid to lose a cap.
We picked up some unopened travel-sized shower gel.
Fresh Neroli scent. We didn’t know what a Neroli is, but imagined some exotic plant only found in the Amazon rain forest, but turns out to be extracted from lemon blossoms, not very exotic. It’s also purported to be one of the ingredients in the recipe for Coca Cola. We tasted it. It doesn’t taste anything like Coke.
Another lug nut with a broken wheel stud.
With the number of these we find, it’s amazing that we don’t see more evidence of lost wheels. We have only seen one earlier this year.
We also picked up lost Toyota hubcap.
It was still covered in frost. We hauled it home and fed it to our recycle bin.
How nice, someone left a treat for the Amazon driver.
Actually, it was more of a bribe. Evidently the driver was not impressed, we found this on the freeway offramp.
You may recall, we found a dress and a pair of pants in front of the apartments on Woodinville Drive.
We hung them on a sign. Today we found that someone had tossed them in the bushes. We hauled them about a mile to a trash receptacle. People.
Trash Walking 