Monday, August 23rd, 2021 – Safeway
We started the week with some great anticipation after last week’s boring start. And, yes, we were disappointed. No money and had to remove a flat rabbit from the road.
It took three trips. When we came back on our return trip, the crows had swooped onto the road to clean up. Stupid birds. The good stuff is in the bushes behind you.
By the KinderCare, more toys tossed over the fence.
We knew these kids were calculating. We need to watch our backs.
We really dislike people who sponge off society.
But evidently, this guy sponged us off. We did need to pick it up, nice sponge, though. We can find someone who needs sponging down. There goes Chuck and his dirty mind, again. But what do you expect, his mind is always in the gutter.
At a bus stop, “No CCP”
Evidently these folks are against the CCP Antibody Test. But probably not. More likely it is No Chinese Communist Party. We can definitely get behind that.
Tuesday, August 24th, 2021 – Park-and-Ride
Today was cool, but turned into very nice day, after our walk, of course. We removed a small roadkill squirrel from the road but did pick up a nickel.
Nice, very clean.
And a nice pair of nail clippers.
We have found several of these, but they normally have been damaged beyond repair, not that we would repair nail clippers. We should start carrying these with us. In our six years of walking, we have never had a hankering to trim our nails, but you never know.
We picked up a nice little brush.
It is part of a small brush and dustpan set for camping. So where is the dustpan? We feel so cheated.
So, how much do you trust the Amazon reviews?
Today we found a card offering a twenty-five dollar Amazon gift card if the purchaser provided a five-star review. We would have gone for it, but they required an order number, and we don’t know what the product is. But we are sure it was worth five stars for twenty-five dollars.
Wednesday, August 25th, 2021 – Safeway
Today was a perfect day to walk. The weather was not too hot and not too cold, and the porridge wasn’t bad either. We did remove another small squirrel and found some hard-earned money. At the relatively busy corner by the 7-Eleven, Janet spotted a penny, and then another. From the other side of the road, Chuck saw her looking around and started looking on his side. More pennies.
We spent several minutes waiting for traffic to clear so we could dive for more pennies. Between us, we found thirty-eight of them, two folded in half. They were pretty beat up. Then later near Safeway, we found another pristine penny. So, all in all today, we found thirty-nine cents, though we doubt someone would accept the folded pennies as legal tender.
Someone purchased a high-performance torsion bar from Sway-A-Way. With the kit they got a bumper sticker which they dumped.
Does Sway-A-Way really think their customers will place these on their vehicle? We would toss it too. But not on the road, in our recycle bin.
Someone was playing ball with their pet in the middle of Juanita-Woodinville Way.
A Chuckit! Ball launcher. Chuck is not overly thrilled with the name, but we found it on Amazon.
Wait, what? “Target Species: Cat?” Okay, you can find some instances on the Internet where cats play fetch, but we think those cats identify as dogs. Or maybe the target is a cat.
We don’t know what the issue was, but do you think this helped?
Never try to teach a pig to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig — Robert Heinlein.
Thursday, August 26th, 2021 – 160th to 124th Street
This was a warm, overcast day to walk. At the 7-Eleven intersection, Eagle-Eye Janet spotted another loose penny from the penny spill yesterday.
She also saw three more embedded in the tar and another in the middle of the intersection. More forays tomorrow, including some excavation.
We picked up an Earth Science book.
“The Forest” by Rita Crosby. We spent a minute reading it, all eight pages. It was engaging and kept our rapt attention until we got to the end, until we realized there was no plot. We are not thinking of a Pulitzer here, but what do we know, we pick up trash?
On this route, we are slowly cleaning our way down to the Tolt Pipeline Trail continuation across the freeway. We finally learned our lesson and bit off a smaller section to add to our route. It still took about twenty minutes to clean up.
And among the trash, some Adidas underwear.
We have not found underwear in a while, so this was a good find. Well, not that good, it and a lot of other trash was left in the bus stop trash can.
Finally, Janet carries a pair of old sunglasses that we once found in case the sun comes out. Yes, this is the northwest. She went into the center of the road to pick up a piece of trash and heard something fall on her way back to the sidewalk. She turned to see a car run over her sunglasses.
The road giveth and the road taketh away.
Friday, August 27th, 2021 – 100th Ave NE
Today was another warm, overcast walk, not bad. We did separately remove two roadkill rabbits. Well, one each and two total. But we did find more money.
Thanks to Janet’s eagle eyes, we picked up the three pennies that were impeded in the construction fresh tar. Chuck used his utility knife to dislodge them. We also picked up two more loose pennies in the middle of the intersection. We decided that we were not going to pick up more pennies. It is a cost-bennet analysis study.
Finally, we found a separate penny along 145th Ave NE. So the net for this week was forty-seven cents. Not good, but we have lived with less.
And there was another tool.
It was another socket of course and a 10 mm socket to boot. This must be helping our retirement account somehow, right?
Evidently, the party’s over.
Don Meredith had it right.
Yet another car mat.
This one was about four feet across, but very light. We rolled it up and carried it home for Goodwill. Unless of course, we can get a better price somewhere else.
We picked up an unopened nineteen-dollar bottle of Amber Fragrance Oil.
According to their copy, this fragrance blends with your body odor: “This fragrance blends with your body chemistry to create your own unique scent.” Great, enhanced body odor.
Other features,
- Clean Ingredients. Okay that is good, nothing dirty.
- Vegan. This is okay, no animal products.
- Cruelty-Free. Wait, what? What would a cruel vegan product be?
Saturday, August 28th, 2021 – Riverside Drive & Brickyard Road
Today, we were under pressure to finish our walk early to meet a telephone repairman due between 8 am and 12 noon, so we walked fast. This is probably why we missed a bunch of money and roadkill. Plus, the repair man didn’t arrive until four in the afternoon. A waste of a day for us.
A computer table was left by the side of the road of an industrial area.
Did someone put their desk outside to work remotely? Could be, no free sign.
We saw an old saw.
Not saw like the saying, “A poor workman always blames his tools.” Well, in this case, it could be true.
At the bottom of the Brickyard Road hill, we often find balls that we assume get lost and travel down the hill to the dead end on Woodinville drive. Today, we found two.
Chuck found the larger kissing emoji one on the left. The label indicated it was imported by the ABC Trading, Inc.
That is our guy in the upper-right. “$150 equates to $6.00 per 1 dozen(s).” That is fifty cents per ball. It sounds a little steep to us, but then there was Janet’s little blue ball. We assume it is the center of a golf ball. It has no character compared to Chuck’s.
We found some stolen/lost mail with a postcard on Riverside Drive. It showed a neighbor’s home.
And THIS is how we find out about it??? Sheesh!
We’ve found several test pages over the last week scattered on several of our routes. Today, we found pages on Riverside Driver and Brickyard Road. Here is a sample.
Here is the text:
[Our comments below]
Read the scene. Fill in the circle next to the better answer.
Scene One
The stage should look like a clearing in a jungle. The LION should be standing in the middle of the clearing, and the MONKEY should be up in a tree nearby.
LION: (looking around) I am sure I lost my crown right here in this clearing. I remember having it on my head when I looked at my reflection in that pool over there.
MONKEY Perhaps I can help you find it, your majesty. I can see far and wide from the top of this tree.
Lion: It had a jewel in it that was very special to me. It’s called the Roarhead Ruby. It belonged to my great-great-grandfather when he was king of the jungle. It gives off a bright red glow that can be seen for miles
MONKEY: (climbing higher in the tree and shading his eyes) I do see a red glow! But it looks like it is a great distance to the west. If you’d like, I’ll go with you a short way on your search.
LION: Thank you. When we do find the Roarhead Ruby, you will be rewarded for your trouble.
What is the strongest feature of this scene?
- It has a great deal of exciting action.
- It raises curiosity about where the ruby is.
[It would be better if it were a diamond. Or perhaps a sapphire. Rubies are boring.]
Which mistake in punctuation occurs in this scene?
- Quotation marks are missing.
- A colon after a speaker’s name is missing.
[If we didn’t notice it, who cares?]
Which mistake in capitalization occurs in this scene?
- One of the speaker’s names is not written in all capital letters.
- A word at the beginning of a sentence is not capitalized.
[Again, see the previous answer. Kids have it so easy these days.]
What does the dialogue in this opening scene clearly reveal about the characters?
- The monkey is hiding something from the lion.
- The lion is in a position of authority over the monkey.
[Obviously the monkey is hiding something. Chuck don’t trust monkeys. He got a monkey bite overseas in the army. Chuck will never get over it and is still seeking retributions from the monkey.]
Trash Walking 