Christmas 2020

Monday 21st, 2020 – Safeway

Today it was raining heavily for Seattle and we returned home completely soaked. But it was relatively warm at 45°F (7°C) so the rain didn’t really bother us except for the added weight.

We did have a Metro bus driver stop, nowhere near a bus stop, and wish us a Merry Christmas. We appreciated it, but the few cars behind the bus didn’t seem to.

We found two balls today, a happy ball and a sad ball.

The happy ball made it into our ball collection. Sadly, the sad ball did not. You can’t save them all.

We found a discarded “Forever Pure Attraction Melon and Plum Silkening Body Mist” in the ditch.

It had about an eighth left of a fifteen-dollar bottle, or about a two bucks worth. So, Melon and Plum sounds like a good attraction for breakfast, but we don’t think they meant breakfast. Or, who know, maybe they did?

There is a place on Norway Hill where someone dumps yard waste. Mainly grass, branches and leaves. It annoys us, but we got used to it.

Someone else hasn’t. We can get behind this, but we have a bet between us as to when this sign will end up down the hill.

Last week, we found a note and five dollars in a baggie.

Today, we placed the baggie with the five dollars from last week in a different location for someone else to find.

We may not know for a couple of days whether someone picked it up. This afternoon, it began to snow, putting a light skiff on the ground. Depending on the conditions tomorrow, we may not TrashWalk. Janet is such a wimp.

Tuesday 22nd, 2020 – Park-and-Ride

Well, the snow was still on the grass and leaves, but the pavement and sidewalks were clear, so we ventured out. Just in case, we carried our yet-to-be-used shoe snow chains (Yaktrax) with us but didn’t need them.

We passed the location were we left the baggie yesterday, and we think it was gone, but there was snow in the area and we may have missed it. We’ll check again tomorrow.

Today, we got several honks and light flashes and three folks stopped and verbally thanked us. It must be the Holiday Season.

Although we did collect a lot of trash, we did not find much of interest, probably due to the blanket of snow. It was mostly like watching a black-and-white morning, except for one splash of color.

It appears to be a Gerbera Daisy, like Chuck would know. He was going for a Chrysanthemum, one of the few flowers he knows: Chrysanthemum, Daisy, Rose, Lily, Sunflower and Poinsettia. Guess he can cross Chrysanthemum off the list.

Wednesday 23rd, 2020 – Safeway

Today it was 32°F (0°C) right at our walking limit. We discussed whether to venture out or not, but it is supposed to get colder tomorrow, so we decided to walk today. And it was rewarding.

As we walked along Juanita-Woodinville Way, a car pulled over and stopped. All we could see was the glare of headlights.

The driver approached and said he sees us every morning and thanked us for picking up trash. He gave us a twenty dollar certificate and said Merry Christmas and to buy ourselves breakfast. We very much appreciated the gesture, but a simple “Thank You” would have been sufficient. But bacon and eggs did sound good at that point.

We see a lot of random lost cat/dog signs, mostly hand made. Today, we saw a lost dog sign.

Later while running errands in the car, we saw eight or nine more of these. Then we saw another similar sign but with a different dog. It appears someone is selling generic “Lost Dog” signs. We don’t mind if the signs are up as long as they are removed when they are no longer useful. This seldom happens. We still see a few political signs from the last election.

We did find a light quilt that appears to be hand made.

It was in good condition so we rolled it up and took it home. It will be cleaned and sent to Goodwill.

Thursday 24th, 2020 – 160th to 24th Street

The temperature this morning dropped to 27°F (-3.0°C), well below our walking limit.

Friday 25th, 2020 – 100th Ave NE

It was warmer this morning and there was very little traffic because it was Christmas Morning. However there was a lot of random trash for some reason.

We found another umbrella.

Someone probably opened the umbrella indoors. It’s probably not fixable and there was a recycle bin behind a nearby bank where we deposited it.

And we found a surprise.

We found some cookies on the recycle bin. Someone probably left some milk and cookies for Santa in their home but he didn’t like them. Someone just made Santa’s Naughty List.

We found another utility knife.

But it had lost its utility. Recycled.

We pick up several discarded or dropped masks each week. Today we found four. But this is the first face shield we’ve found.

In the fine print on the left, it states, “Use only as a face shield against splashing liquids.” We cannot think of anything but liquid that splashes. And we wouldn’t recommend this shield for protecting against splashes of molten lead.

Saturday 26th, 2020 – Riverside Drive

This morning was ten degrees warmer than yesterday at 45°F (7°C) but breezy at times. We didn’t find any money which makes this week a shutout. We cannot take credit for the twenty-dollar gift certificate because we didn’t find it. Rules are rules.

While running errands earlier in the week, we saw that someone dumped two bags of trash very near the dumpsters. This was at the parking lot in Bothell where we turn around on our Saturday route.

Today, we went to sort them out and found two heavy bags of unopened cans and boxes of food. Perhaps from some place like the Salvation Army. We don’t know the story, but is appears someone received the bags when they wanted something else, like money. What a waste.

At a bus stop in Bothell we found a “Friday the 13th” plastic cup.

This isn’t a paper or thin plastic throwaway cup; it was made of thicker plastic. Or maybe it was a throwaway, because someone did. Anyway, we took it. We’re hoping it wasn’t Jason’s. That guy holds a grudge.

We found some clothing.

A pair of socks on the freeway onramp and a kid’s Seattle Seahawks knit cap on 112th Ave NE. We thought the colors of the cap were not very close to the Seahawks colors and it doesn’t mention the Seahawks. But it shows the number 12 implying the “The 12th Man” that the Seahawks have adopted. We’re thinking this was not an NFL-licensed cap. Wonder if the kid knows he has cheap parents?

We found a formalwear mask, covered in sequins.

The person must have been going to a Covid Masked Ball.

We picked up four balls along our route.

Scratch that. The last one was an orange. It was in better condition than the balls.

We found a set of Merkury brand Bluetooth ear buds.

We don’t know if they worked or not because when we got home, they were not in our recycle bag. We must have accidently tossed them into a recycle bin when we transferred a handful of cans. Oh well, easy come, easy go.

We found more car parts.

Two hub caps, a Chevy and an American Racing brand. We have another of the Chevy caps already. If we find two more, they are worth fifty bucks!

An Acura front license plate.

It’s been buried a while and we have no way of tracking the person down, so if you know someone with an Acura missing a front plate, let us know and we can tell him which recycle bin we put it in. Better hurry, though.

We found a Bush Baby.

Well, not that kind, this kind:

Really sad. An abandoned baby by the side of the road. Okay, we left it too. If it’s still there next week, we’ll adopt it.

We found a rigid, heavy-duty athletic cup.

Wait, that is “RIDGID”, the tool company. It’s a worker’s kneepad. You could play some really rough sports with it, though. And they come in pairs.

Someone tried to get warm at a bus stop.

They built a fire with some trash, twigs and pinecones. They probably didn’t get warm but did succeed in ruining the finish on the bench.

Some lady received an adult toy for Christmas.

It must have quit working on her way home so she tossed it out the window in frustration. We’re pretty sure this counts as distracted driving.

We hope you had a Merry Christmas and wish you all Happy, Pandemic-ending New Year.