Monday, 8th, 2021 – Safeway
Today was a nice start to the week, no rain and 34°F (1°C). We removed a roadkill bird but didn’t find any money. A big let-down from last week’s Dollar Monday.
However, we did find a poker chip.
Does that count as money? We can be “all in” but it was a cheap plastic poker chip. We probably wouldn’t get away with trying to use it in a casino. We bet their chips are microchipped and, in fact, they are according to this website. This one had an imprint of a horse on it. So are poker chips individually marked to prevent cheating at neighborhood poker games? “Fred, you’re cheating. That is not one of my poker chips. No more borrowing my lawn mower. In fact, give it back.”
Well, this is worth something.
A Craftsman 13 mm combination wrench. It doesn’t appear to be run over at all which makes it unique in our “Found Tool Collection.” At least those found on the street.
At the KinderCare, those rascally kids tossed number one over the fence again.
They can’t seem to get past number 1. At least we hope it’s the kids and not the teachers.
Someone lost a taillight.
No evidence of an accident and it was in very good condition. So, wouldn’t you notice if your taillight was hanging out of its socket? This should signal a red-flag for someone. Or a red light.
A tossed bag with a cyclops smiley face.
Stupid litterers. It is a reusable bag so you can toss it out of your car over and over.
A very dirty golf ball.
It was in the rough and we have no idea where the fairway is, but we’ll give him a golf clap anyway.
We found an 18 inch hubcap.
Oops, our mistake, it’s called a wheel skin. Wheel skin, really? It’s been called a hubcap since we’ve owned cars and before. What is a car seat now called, a “human form ergonomic supporter?” Guess the steering wheel is the “manual navigation device.” And we can’t use the word “chuck” anymore.
We found a laminated work order for someone to investigate a leaking roof that the company had installed ten years ago.
“DO NOT ADMIT FAULT OR VOLUNTEER INFORMATION WITHOUT FIRST SPEAKING WITH ME – PERIOD.” Do you think there may have been some history here – PERIOD?
Well, today’s walk was worth it. Someone left us a donut.
Okay, half a donut. But it had sprinkles.
Tuesday, 9th, 2021 – Park-and-Ride
This morning was a marginal 31°F (-1°C) but no wind or rain, so we walked even though it was below our 32°F limit. However, we should have passed. For the first time since we began our blog, we were skunked. We found nothing of interest to take photos of. Yes, we could have taken pics of the cigarette butts, cans and bottles and random trash, but that it not very interesting. Well, perhaps to a garbage collector, and yes, we would be interested. But probably not the general public.
Thursday, 18th, 2021 – 160th to 124th Street
The wonders of time travel. Our last walk was on Tuesday the 9th and today is Thursday the 18th. The weather turned bad reaching a low of 26°F (-3°C) and, over the weekend, we got about 11 inches (30 cm) of snow. We got our exercise shoveling snow off our driveway, but found little trash.
We did venture out later in the day on Monday the 15th for a short walk in snow boots to the end of 112th Ave NE and back. We determined snow still covered the sidewalks and was piled on the shoulders of the street.
However, we did clean up a McDonalds McMess and found a pair of sunglasses.
These looked cheap, but the logo on the eye pieces and the design match this $65 pair on Amazon. However, the ear pieces on Amazon have the brand name and these were blank, so probably knock-offs. Oh, well. The sun wasn’t out anyway.
On to our Thursday walk. The temperatures the last couple of days were in the mid thirties and the snow had receded enough to provide a clear path on most of our route. We did remove a rat and a mole from the street.
We found a mini-bottle of Maker’s Mark.
It had a sip of whisky left in it. After a brief argument, Janet got it.
A red handkerchief was left on a crossing signal.
They didn’t have any of those yellow crossing flags, so this is a cheap substitute. Wonder if the city buys these in bulk?
A hubcap that didn’t fare well through the snow storm.
This one didn’t make it to Goodwill.
After snow storms, we find snow chains that vehicles lost.
Now, we know why.
Don’t buy cheap snow chain tighteners.
We picked up a cloth bag with the brand Shoei on it.
We found it was a motorcycle helmet bag. However, it was no longer available on Amazon. Perhaps riders were not removing the bag when riding?
Early in the walk, Chuck found an empty spray paint can that had been run over and put it in his bag. As it got lighter, we discovered the paint can was not empty.
And the recycle bag leaked. We put a 600-mile limit on our shoes and checked the current mileage. A little over 400 miles, so 200 more until we can buy new ones. We need to find a can of black paint.
Friday, 12th, 2021 – Safeway
The snow on 100th is still iffy, so we did our normal Safeway route. We didn’t find any money, but a guy stopped and gave us a Starbucks gift card.
He thanked us for all the cleanup work we do and passed the card out the window, told us to have a great morning and left. Well, the morning just got better.
We found another lug nut.
We lugged it home for our collection.
A street sweeper.
Well, it was in the street.
Saturday, 13th, 2021 – Riverside Drive & Brickyard Road
This week’s Riverside Drive walk was slow due to the amount of trash we picked up. Residential trash pick-up must have been delayed due to the snow because garbage and recycle bins were still on the street, so we had plenty of opportunities to unload our trash. We didn’t find any money and removed a roadkill rabbit from the street.
The first thing we found was a Lacrosse ball, the first one we’ve found.
In all, we found three balls, the Lacrosse ball, a generic dog ball and a tennis ball which was probably also a dog ball. Maybe the Lacrosse ball was a dog’s ball too, but we’ve never seen a dog play Lacrosse.
Someone on Riverside Drive is not happy.
We wouldn’t be either. And we wouldn’t be so polite.
For a while we were finding lots of rubber gloves but they have dropped off significantly. But they’ve been replaced by masks, mostly disposable, but a fair number are reusable masks.
This one was at the Sammamish River Park. The blackberry bush did not give it up easily which is probably why someone abandoned it.
We found another hubcap.
Or is it a wheel skin?
At a bus stop, we found a pair of women’s tights.
“I’m going to miss the bus! I’ll finish dressing at the bus stop.”
We found someone’s ski passes in the middle of Brickyard Road.
He has a unique name and we were able to track him down on LinkedIn and match up his photo. We will try to return them to him tomorrow.
Back in October of last year, we found where someone had dumped a mattress and box springs at a trailer park on Riverside Drive.
Today, they had finally been removed.
But farther along near the apartments,
someone dumped another mattress. The last one lasted four months, we’ll see how long this one lasts.
It’s one thing to toss beer cans, napkins, etc. onto the sidewalks. Tossing food waste takes it to a new level.
At this location on Brickyard Road, we often see shrimp shells scattered on the sidewalk, but today they outdid themselves. By the pattern of the trash, we can see exactly where the garbage was tossed over the fence. “Hey, we don’t want to stink up our garbage can.”
As we were walking along Woodinville Drive, Janet was ahead on her side of the road when a bus approached from behind us. Chuck waved to the bus driver who waved back. As the bus passed Janet, she waved but the driver ignored her.
Later, on our way up Brickyard Road, the bus driver put on the warning lights and stopped next to Janet.
The bus driver apologized profusely for not seeing and waving to her. He talked to her for a full two minutes. There must not have been anyone on the bus.
Trash Walking 