Monday, May 10th, 2021 – Safeway
It looks like this will be a great week for walking. Spring has finally arrived after some fits and starts. Ok, it will probably snow next week, but we will enjoy this week. Today, we removed a roadkill mole and a rabbit. Another sign of spring is an increase in roadkill count. On the brighter side, we did find a penny.
As we have said before, finding money early in the week is a relief because we know we will not be shut out. It happens.
And we also found a tool.
It was a square Robertson bit. What is with the proliferation of screw drive types?
Slotted, Phillips and Allen, were the standards, but now there are Torx, Pozidriv, Robertson, Frearson, and more. So, do you invent a new screw drive type and become famous? And don’t forget the Chuck-Head screw drive.
Don’t Mess with Texas.
This is a bit weird. At the 7-Eleven intersection, we found two Texas emblems. One was the standard “Don’t Mess with Texas” keychain attachment. Then, on the opposite side of the street was a larger leopard skin-and-rhinestone emblem. Evidently the message is, “Don’t Mess with Texas or You will be Eaten by a Leopard.” We’ll STEER clear, thank you.
At the top of Norway hill, a guy stopped to thank us.
We had a nice chat, and he was on his way. We really appreciate these encounters and it put us in a good mood.
But then we found this joker in the gutter.
Tuesday, May 11th, 2021 – Park-and-Ride
As predicted, today was another nice day to walk. We found no money but removed another roadkill rabbit.
We found the usual amount of normal trash, but someone also dumped a sofa.
This is at the intersection of 100th Ave NE and Simonds Road, one of the busier intersections on our walks. Based on the color, we understand why they didn’t want it, but why dump it here? Or at all? Miscreants. We hesitate to contact the City of Kirkland as we just reported a dumped TV set last week that is still there. Bothell and King County have been very responsive to our reports.
Wednesday, May 12th, 2021 – Safeway
Another beautiful day, but no money and we needed to remove another roadkill rabbit.
Near Safeway, we found two automotive emblems within the same block.
We have found a couple of the Honda i-vtec emblems before. Honda needs to work on the adhesives. We found a list of acronyms for BBS. Our favorite is the British Boomerang Society. But the BBS emblem is from BBS wheels. You can get four of them for about $20 from Etsy.
On Norway Hill, we found two McCafe cups that had been used for tea. This turned on our radar for the McLitterers.
We were not disappointed. We found their bag a little farther on. But wait, this one is different from the previous bags, red and yellow versus green. The two sets of clean platters and two unused syrups and six unopened butters were also there, but two baggies were included.
They each include the individually wrapped plastic utensils, a napkin, salt, pepper, and a strawberry and a grape jam. This is a major departure for the McLitterers. Not sure we can handle it.
We found a plastic disc with some unusual symbols on it.
Of course, this sent us down the Internet rabbit hole, but we hit pay dirt. It is the Viking Vegvisir, the Viking Compass that was to protect and help the Vikings through rough seas.
The definitive description is in the Huld Manuscript.
Like the plastic replica we found, most of the modern replicas have been embellished with references to Valhalla, like “Victory or Valhalla.”
Thursday, May 13th, 2021 – 160th to 124th Street
More beautiful weather today. We did find another roadkill rabbit to dispose of but, also a quarter.
It was on the freeway on-ramp, so very beat up. But it is a quarter. Trust us.
We did pay for it, though. There was a bunch of trash on the on-ramp.
This stretched much farther along the ramp on both sides. It looked to be a case of baby wipes that had been runover and dispersed. We only went as far as we felt safe, so did not pick up all the trash.
Another rescue ball with no obvious home.
It’s now in our ball collection.
We pass a vacant lot at the corner of 160th and 124th. It has two “No Dumping” signs. A few months ago, one fell over. Now, the mowing crew came by and destroyed it.
So, this looks like illegal dumping to us. We could contact the City of Kirkland, but so far that hasn’t helped.
Schools are back in session for four weeks before Summer break and a kid has already lost his ID card.
When we were in the ninth grade, the only school card we got was a report card. The back of the card is really depressing, suicide prevention hotline, crisis hotline etc. We mailed it back to the high school to be registered with the I-lost-my-security-card hotline.
So, this is not good.
We found two lug nuts with broken studs inside about a block apart. This will probably not end well.
Friday, May 14th, 2021 – 100th Ave NE
We found no money today, but with twenty-six cents under our belt this week, we’re feeling pretty good. But more would feel better.
At the end of 112th Ave NE, near the apartments, we found what may have been some stolen mail.
However, it was several pages of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) training. [Update.] We found a name and phone number on the papers and sent an IM to the number. The person replied that his car had been ransacked and he would like to get whatever we have back. He was most concerned about getting his flight logbook, but unfortunately, we did not find that. He retrieved the papers from us on Saturday.
Early on our walk, we picked up another Toyota hubcap.
Fortunately for us, the hubcap was in bad shape so we dumped it in the 7Eleven dumpster. If it were in good shape, we would feel guilty about dumping it.
We found some of the new flat-design cigarettes.
The Camels were unopened. The Marlboro’s were opened, but still nice and flat. We are sure the flat cigarettes are more expensive than the round design. It means a higher resale value for us.
In addition to the unopened cigarettes, we also found unopened Curad bandages.
This had a Goodwill price tag that is only a block away. So, someone purchased these and then tossed them within a block. Fast healer.
Last week, we were joking about Safeway collecting their shopping cart and leaving the TV.
It turned out not to be a joking matter. They did. Still no sign of the City of Kirkland. Maybe We should petition the City of Bothell to annex our routes. They are much more responsive.
Rounding out our walk, more screwing around on Norway Hill.
Literally.
This morning on 100th Ave NE, we spotted several crows in the street ahead of us, obviously attending to some roadkill for us to remove. As we approached, a very large crow grabbed the rabbit and flew away.
Bastard!
Saturday, May 15th, 2021 – Riverside Drive & Brickyard Road
Today was another nice morning to walk. It is getting lighter, and we only used our flashlights for about a half hour. We removed a very large roadkill raccoon from the gutter in front of the apartments on Riverside Drive. We’d like to see that crow from yesterday try to fly off with this one. A raccoon roadkill is rare, this being only the twelfth one during our six years of walking.
But we did find more money.
A nickel, a penny, and a Canadian dime. Someone must have slipped across the border. Not a great week with a total of thirty-two cents. But the Canadian dime converts to about eight cents US, so our take this week was a cool forty cents. Now were talking money.
Last Saturday as we started down Norway Hill, we found a mouse trap that someone had tossed out. We picked it up and recycled it.
Today, we found another, this time with a mouse still in its jaws. Again, we recycled it. Of course, we removed the mouse first. Does this count as a roadkill?
Three ladies out for breakfast this morning.
Breakfast sounds good. So, is a chicken omelet considered a full-service breakfast from the chicken’s point of view?
Someone tossed a photograph.
“Oh wow! Look how big and bright the moon is tonight. Isn’t it romantic? I’ll take a picture to remind us of how big our love is.”
We found two tools today, both in great shape.
An Allen Wrench and a 5/8th-inch spark-plug socket. But not many new cars use spark plugs. Next we’ll find a discarded spark plug gap gauge. And yes, we have a few we purchased many years ago.
We found a Hot Wheels toy car.
But the wheels were not so hot on this one.
An abandoned bicycle at the apartments on Woodinville Drive.
We were about to head up the Brickyard Road hill, so we checked to see if it was one of those new electric bikes. It wasn’t, which is good because if it were, an argument would ensue as to which of us would get to ride it. Of course, if it were electric, the battery would probably be dead.
Now this is nice, a handkerchief on the freeway off ramp.
A tag said “100% silk hand-made in China.” So, it must be true, at least the “in China” part. And what is the purpose? A 1960’s retro costume party?
On the freeway off-ramp, we found an unopened envelope that had been taped to something. Of course, we imagined there could be a $100 bill inside, but there wasn’t.
It was an eviction notice. The place of business was an RV Storage facility. Evidently, a couple stored their RV, lived in it, and proceeded to trash the place. The envelope was unopened, so we are not sure if the issue has been resolved.
For the second time this week, the McLitterers made an appearance.
Standard contents, two clean empty platters, two plastic utensils, two syrups and six butters, all unopened. Having the McLitterers back is like the Prodigal Son coming home. We are not happy with what they did, but it is good having them back in our fold where we can keep an eye on them.
Trash Walking 