A Good Start to 2021

Monday, 28th, 2020 – Safeway

To start the week, it was a cold, clear morning with a full moon. There was also a lot of black ice on the road which slowed our walk. We picked up a reasonable amount of trash but left some because it was frozen to the pavement. Did we mention it was cold?

Then, we found a twenty!

Well, a twenty-dollar Washington Scratch and Lose Lottery Card.

At the 7Eleven, a Metro bus driver pulled over to talk to Janet.

This turned out to be the driver who honks to us and stopped and wished us a Merry Christmas last week. He said he is retiring and this was his last day. We wished him well and he rode off into the sunset. Make that the “darkness.” Well, that’s great, now we need to break in another bus driver.

Another reindeer shed its antler.

We typically find four or five of these each winter. Perhaps we should start saving them and build an antler arch like the ones in Jackson, Wyoming.

These are built from elk antlers. Elk shed their antlers every year. There are 1500 plus antlers in each arch. Lets see, fifteen-hundred divided by five antlers per year… never mind. Maybe we’ll just settle for a coat rack.

Behind the Party for Less Store, someone had a party.

We picked this mess up and walked it down to the dumpsters but they were locked. So, we carried them over to a Safeway trash can. That’s where these came from anyway.

We did find someone’s drivers license.

Our first thought was, wow, they have really improved the license photos. Then we realized it was a business card. It’s still a great photo for a driver’s license.

Tuesday, 29th, 2020 – Park-and-Ride

This morning was dry and 34°F (1°C) with no icy spots. Much more comfortable than yesterday.

We did three good deeds today and got rewarded with some found money.

A quarter on NE 145th St. It appeared to have some dried glue or epoxy on it. Someone must have tried the glue-the-quarter-to-the-sidewalk prank. This WikiHow article explains in great detail how to perform the prank. One of the steps instructs you to make sure the superglue is on the correct side of the coin then stand on it for a minute to ensure it’s set. Right, otherwise you are performing the glue-the-quarter-to-your-shoe prank

Near the beginning of our walk outside the apartments on 112th, we found a marijuana wrapper and a condom.

The Cannabis Industry is competitive, but are they including condoms in the package as a prize? You know, like Cracker Jacks?

At the Park-and-Ride, we found another cell phone in a nice leather case.

We’ve found five or six cell phones on our walks. Most of them were prepaid phones with the SIM card removed and tossed on purpose. One was an iPhone that was locked with a pass code but had a SIM card. We took it to the carrier’s store for them to track down. The phone today was not protected by a pass code. The owner had conveniently labeled some of the names with the relationship like (Wife) and (Cousin). He can’t remember his wife’s name? But it did help us to get in touch with his wife and she picked it up later in the day. Good deed number one.

In front of a church on 145th, we found an umbrella with the name of a church on it.

But it wasn’t the name of this church, it is the name of the church a block farther down the street. Has it come to this? Churches stealing each other’s umbrellas? Anyway, we carried the umbrella down the street and left it at the right church. Good deed number two.

Yet another lost lug nut to add to our collection.

Finally, we found this mess at the bottom of Norway Hill.

A garbage can in the ditch with its contents spilled out. There are side streets off this road, but no houses along the road. We pulled the can and garbage bags out of the ditch. While loading the can with the bags, we found an Amazon shipping envelope with an address.

The can came from a street about a half mile farther up Norway Hill. We left it by the side of the road. When we reached the street, we found that the house, had all three cans – garbage, recycle and organics.

However the house next door was missing their garbage can.

We have a passing acquaintance with the lady who lives here and after we got home, we sent her a private message on the Next Door app. Later, we received this back:

“Hey thanks for the help. This clarifies the issue. I found it after I guess you put the contents back in. Thanks so much. A garbage truck was at the entrance to 146th street and I was able to get him to empty out the garbage and then I tossed the can in the car and took back up the hill. Thanks for putting the garbage back in. All good. Hopefully this doesn’t happen again.”

Good deed number three. Three good deeds for a quarter. We work cheap.

Wednesday, 30th, 2020 – Safeway

This morning was warmer but raining and we got soaked on our walk. We found very little trash which made for a quick walk. Unfortunately, when it rains hard, much of the small trash gets washed down the storm drains.

At a bus stop on Juanita-Woodinville Way NE, we saw an abandoned Safeway shopping cart across the street.

After some discussion, we decided to push it the half mile back to Safeway. Yet another good deed. And yes, one wheel was fluttering back and forth.

In the median, we picked up a credit card.

When we got home, we contacted the credit card company to report it lost. They thanked us profusely for reporting it in these times of fraud and asked us to cut it up. Is the norm now that when one finds a credit card they try to use it?

Thursday, 31st, 2020 – 160th to 24th Street

We had an early-morning appointment today so we did not walk. But earlier, we sent out an IM to our littering followers to make sure they did not litter today.

Friday, 1st, 2021 – 100th Ave NE

The first day of the new year was relatively warm with only a slight mist for most of our walk.

And our new year started with a Bang!

We found a soaked dollar bill in the gutter along 100th Ave. Whoop!

At the Tolt Pipeline at the top of Norway Hill, some folks also started the New Year with a bang.

A used condom.

Someone started celebrating 2021 too early and tossed their mask.

Woot! 2020 is gone! No more masks. Not!

Two more lost balls.

The white ball had a chunk taken out of it and looked like it had enough of 2020. We couldn’t agree more. In contrast, the puppy’s ball looked like a fresh and bright welcome to 2021.

We found more signs of welcoming in the new year.

A Champagne cork.

And two bottles of Smirnoff Sour Vodka, one was about a fourth full. Hopefully the ‘sour’ is not a prediction of 2021.

Saturday, 2nd, 2021 – Riverside Drive

This morning was blustery and wet, but warmer. We picked up a moderate amount of trash and removed a roadkill rabbit. And, we found more money.

First on Riverside Drive, we went into the weeds by the road to pick up some trash and saw a half-buried dollar bill. Then, on the freeway onramp, we found a penny and another at the park-and-ride. Finally, we spotted a nickel in some gravel near the end of our walk. That’s one dollar and seven cents total. With the dollar yesterday, we are liking the way this year is starting out. Then again, given 2020, we could have found no money and needed to remove a roadkill skunk and we would still welcome 2021.

More folks celebrating the new year in parking areas.

The condom on the left was in the Sammamish River parking lot and the other was at the park-and-ride. Near the first condom was a bag.

So, which one was it? Naughty or nice? Probably depends on your viewpoint.

Our walks cross paths with some bus routes and we routinely wave to the drivers. Their responses range from ignoring us to waving back to honking. Today, as we were reached our Bothell Parking Lot turn-around point, a bus approached. We gave him a wave and continued into the parking lot.

The driver stopped the bus, opened his door and yelled “Happy New Year.” We wished him a Happy New Year back. It made our morning.

We found a lost tool on the bridge crossing the Sammamish River.

A 10-mm combination wrench. It was not run over and now resides in our found tool collection.

This was a first for us. As we started back from the Bothell Parking Lot, we passed a small bridge and spotted a large beaver in the water.

It’s in the lower left of the photo. Neither of us thought about taking a real photo until it got annoyed with our flashlights and wandered off into the bushes. This is the first beaver we’ve seen on our walks.

We found a discarded “VTech Spin and Learn Color Flashlight” on Riverside Drive.

It was not in good condition. According to the copy, it teaches “Colors, Animals, Counting and Fine Motor Skills.” From experience, we know why we found this by the side of the road. Dad: “THAT’S IT! I DON’T WANT TO HEAR WHAT AN ELEPHANT SAYS AGAIN!”

On Brickyard Road, the Bush Baby from last week was still stuck in the bushes.

We took pity on it. Yes, it. We haven’t figured out its gender. Now it is stuck in our garage. We’ll probably find a place for it in our trash museum. Yes, we have a trash museum and one day, it will be a bigger attraction than Disneyland. Trust us.

We found more balls today.

The one on the left was a plastic baseball outside a fence on Brickyard Road. We tossed it back. Across from a school near the end of our walk, we saw a soccer ball in the blackberry bushes. As we fought our way to the soccer ball, we spotted two baseballs. We tossed all three back into the field. So we came home without any balls. [Note to self: rephrase this before publication]

Our Saturday walks are long, about seven-and-a-half miles and toward the end we start getting hungry. We found an inviting wrapper.

Salmon Filet, Protein-rich. This sounds good. We should buy some to carry on our walks. Oh, never mind. It’s for cats.

In a gully near home, we found a Safeway shopping basket.

We hauled it home and later, on a shopping trip, returned it to Safeway. That’s twice this week we’ve returned property to Safeway. Safeway owes us. They’ll probably give us an extra Monopoly coupon when they start the game this year.

We unearthed an iPhone 5 on the freeway onramp.

It had been run over several times and buried for a while. When we got it home, we were able to get the SIM card out. It was an AT&T card, the same as our carrier. We put the SIM card in an old iPhone we have but it was not recognized. Too bad. The iPhone 5 was introduced in 2012. It would be fun to call the owner eight years later to let them know we found their phone.