Bad Drivers

Monday, 1st, 2021 – Safeway

We started the week on a high note. A banknote, that is. None of that loose change, we’re talking folding money.

A dollar bill on the sidewalk. One of us walked right by it and, as usual we don’t identify which of us it was, but she claimed to be distracted by flashing crosswalk lights.

About two hours after our Saturday walk, we saw that a young girl had run her car into a ditch on 112th Ave NE.

She moved a tree trunk and took out a road sign. If she had been there two hours earlier, she might have taken us out along with the sign. This street is a 35 mph straight residential street. We are guessing texting was involved.

On the side of the road was an unopened beer.

This was really a pain. A glass bottle is a burden let alone a full one. We may need to start carrying a bottle opener like the several we’ve found. Or we can buy one on Amazon.

$5.86 apiece? That’s expensive, but they do say it is made of silver.

This was also a pain. Literally.

Someone lost a three-by-six foot piece of carpeting. Because of the rain, it was waterlogged and heavy. Fortunately, it was only about a block from the 7Eleven dumpster. Thank you, 7Eleven.

In the bushes, we found a rice bowl.

We know it was a rice bowl because there was a pile of rice nearby. So what is a rice bowl? We looked it up on Google: “a dish out of which rice is eaten.” Well, that’s helpful.

A frustrated fisherman.

We understand folks are bored and we’ve had an abundance of rain, but there are no fish in these ditches, trust us. We have seen ducks, but not fish.

Tuesday, 2nd, 2021 – Park-and-Ride

This morning we had off-and-on light rain and we found little of interest. We did remove a roadkill bird from the street, but only a small one.

We found a heavy-duty construction jacket.

It was waterlogged and heavy. We left it hanging on a post for the owner to find. During the winter months, we wear undershirts, a vest and neck gator for warmth, a raincoat with hood for waterproofing and a light-weight vest for visibility. Maybe we should get a couple of these. It would cut down on dressing in the morning.

We found a free sign.

Or perhaps the tape was free. Either way, we took it.

It was a pretty boring day.

Wednesday, 3rd, 2021 – Safeway

When we started walking this morning, something was wrong. We had an eerie feeling like we were in a Stephen King novel. Then, we realized it wasn’t raining. We were in a Stephen King novel!

We continued warily on our way. We found no money, but we think we removed a roadkill rat from the road. It looked like a wad of waterlogged paper, so we stepped on it to squeeze the water out. Ugh. We were in a King novel.

Now that we’re past that, we did find a tool.

Another socket. This was buried in the mud for a long time. It took a while to get the caked mud out of it, but it looks to be in good condition. It costs four dollars at Lowe’s. We’ll let it go for $2.50. No charge for the extra mud.

At the KinderCare, we found several toys outside the fence.

A numbered tile and two Hot Wheels cars. Then, farther along we found a ball, not shown. These kids are getting rowdy in this fair weather. Hope it starts raining soon.

Later, we found another toy.

It turned out to be a McDonalds Happy Meal frisbee-like toy for the movie “How to Train Your Dragon 2.” It must have been a movie about training your dragon to play frisbee.

Another mask in a baggie.

This is about the tenth one we’ve found always in the vicinity of the Safeway store. We’re thinking Safeway gives them to their employees to wear while working. But why does the employee take them then toss them unopened? Maybe this guy is wearing the mask without removing it from the bag? Hasn’t he read the warning on plastic bags.

Well this was refreshing.

An unopened bottle of Gatorade. Not literally refreshing because we opened it and dumped it out, but refreshing in that we normally find these filled with water and cigarette butts.

Thursday, 4th, 2021 – 160th to 124th Street

Today, the eerie dry weather continued until later in our walk when the rain returned and normality returned. We got a money twofer today.

Two separate pennies. Not bad, but not good either. According to this video, the desperately-poor people in the world make less that two dollars a day. Where does that put us?

We retrieved another baseball from the schoolyard.

We’ve found and tossed several of these back into the playfield. Perhaps we should hold them for ransom, say a nickel apiece? It probably won’t raise our poverty level much, though.

Yesterday we found an unopened Gatorade.

Today it was another unopened beer. No thanks, we would never drink a Coors before breakfast. Now if had been a Bodhizafa…

Friday, 5th, 2021 – 100th Ave NE

The weather this morning was a warm 45°F (7°C) with light rain, a very comfortable walk.

Another gas cap near the 7Eleven. Helpful tip: If your gas cap has a tether, it is recommended to attach the other end of the tether to your car.

Along Juanita-Woodinville Way NE are several street islands with trees growing in the middle.

Someone took out a tree in the middle of the road. More texting?

We found a lock in pretty good condition.

No key, of course. We’ve found ten or twelve locks without a key and we’ve found a bunch of keys. One day, when we are very bored, we should see if there are any matches.

We did find another tool today.

Another socket. But this one was a Torx. We’ve found several Torx drill bits, but this is the first Torx socket we’ve found. Now we need to start another socket collection. That really torques us off.

Along 100th Ave we found what appears to be a .22 caliber shell casing, but we’re not sure the exact size.

We’ve found a few of these during our walks, mostly only the cartridge shells, but we have found unfired bullets.

We found a smashed carabiner.

“NOT FOR CLIMBING.” Well, not now anyway.

The Porta Potty where we found the suspenders last week was gone.

But they left a roll of toilet paper. Bet they wouldn’t have left it at the beginning of the pandemic.

Saturday, 6th, 2021 – Riverside Drive & Brickyard Road

This morning was a good walk with no rain and mild temperatures. We were out for nearly four-and-a-half hours. It is getting lighter and we are able to see more trash. We spent a lot of time pulling bottles and cans out of the bushes.

But, we were rewarded with more money.

We found a penny by the apartments on Woodinville Drive and a quarter near the trailer park on Riverside Drive. Someone dumped some trash and accidently tossed the quarter too. Thank you. For the quarter, not the litter. So we’ve had a good week at $1.28 total.

We did find another coin.

A Washington State Lottery scratch-and-lose scratch coin. It only cost the owner fifty bucks in scratch cards.

Last Saturday, we saw some items for sale on the curb.

The only thing with a price tag was the box lid, “Free”

This morning, the only thing left was the box lid.

It was still marked as free, so we took it.

Whoa! Another unopened beverage for us.

This week folks have left us two beers, a bottle of Gatorade and now, a bottle of Synergy Organic Golden Pineapple Kombucha. We are not familiar with Kombucha, but Wikipedia states that it’s a mixture of “Tea, sugar, bacteria, yeast” with variants adding fruit juices, pineapple in this case. So, where does the bacteria come from? Do they start with dirty bottles?

Another discarded music CD.

The Beastie Boys. We think we know why they got rid of it. We didn’t even try to play it.

We found some sculpting paste.

We had no idea what it was for. After some research, this is to help shape a man’s hair style. From the Dove website, here is an example.

If this works to Chuck’s head, we’re all in, but we think it will only make it shinier. We’ll let you know.

We did find some clothing today.

A sweatshirt that has seen much better days and a neck gaiter. The neck gaiter is from a company named Sequoyah Electric. Here is an employee photo from their website.