Monday, September 20th, 2021 – Safeway
Monday, the start of a new walking week. We had a stormy weekend that culminated in a late afternoon downpour. It may not have been of Biblical proportions, but certainly worthy of Mississippi or the Monsoon season in Asia. As a result, the streets were relatively clean with very few cigarette butts to pick up. They had been washed down into the Puget Sound. You know, like in the “God Father.”
“Cigarette butts sleep with the fishes.” But not the money. We started the week with a penny by a school bus stop.
No, we are NOT above taking a school kid’s milk money.
What the…
More car mats. These were buried in the bushes near the apartments on 112th Ave NE. They were heavy and we bagged them and picked them up later with the car. We are losing count, but this is probably the eighth or ninth vehicle floormat we have found in the last few weeks. What the heck?
On a sad note, we came across some roadkill, someone’s pet cat.
Photo is intentionally blurry, unlike most of Janet’s photos. This is the second pet we have found in our six years of walking, and we do not move them into the bushes. We checked the local social media site to see if a similar one was missing but did not find a match. We contacted the City of Kirkland to take care of it.
Well, okay. By the 7-Eleven, some pastry.
It was inside the bag and had been run over. But it still tasted good.
Tuesday, September 21st, 2021 – Park-and-Ride
This morning was cool. Not cool as in “great”, cool as in nippy, but not uncomfortably so. We ended up picking up a lot of trash, but little of note.
At the intersection of 112th Ave NE and Juanita-Woodinville Way, we now have eighteen signs including five sealcoating signs from the same company.
We have decided that one is enough and will start removing four of them.
On the bottom-right corner is a sign with a QR code. On Saturday at the park-and-ride, we found another one that had been knocked down and scanned the code. It returned with the message that it had been disabled, meaning that the house had sold. We cut it up and put it in our recycle bag. A couple blocks later, we found another that was still standing. We scanned the QR code to make sure it was the same one and it was also disabled. As we were removing the sign, a jogger came by and kind of scolded us to leave it so the realtor can pick it up. We have been around the block a few times and know that realtors pay companies to put these signs out. Why should they pay more to have them picked up? Anyway, we will leave this one alone and see if the realtor pays to have it picked up. Do not hold your breath. Maybe we should go into business.
Sunglass lenses but no frame.
It could work.
“Here’s looking at you, kid.”
Guess we know who did not tip the street sweeper last Christmas.
Lessons learned.
As we were heading up Norway Hill, we saw a coyote run across the road.
The picture is grainy, because unfortunately, Chuck had briefly covered the camera and it was just recovering as the coyote crossed the road. The coyote is the dark blob on the road in the center of the photo. Or it could have been a UFO.
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2021 – Safeway
Our walks now start in dark with flashlights on. As our walk progresses, the sky lightens, and we eventually arrive home in the daylight, sunny or overcast. This morning was one of those very rare days when we were reworded with a spectacular sunrise.
Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at the top of Norway Hill where we would have the best view, the sky had returned to Seattle grey. But it was nice while it lasted.
We also found another penny.
So far, only two cents this week, but after last week, we are not disappointed.
Near the Safeway gas station, another lost gas cap.
We can understand forgetting to cap off the tank, but how do you lose a tethered gas cap? Obviously, they did not put on their thinking cap. Here’s an idea: Put a feather in it as a reminder. [groan] We inserted it for you.
On Wednesdays we have been grooming a stretch 100th Ave NE. We had the area around the bus stop mostly cleared up.
However, today we found another nine cans. Okay, three of four may have been older that we missed on our previous three trips, but the others are new. This may be our new problem child.
Thursday, September 23rd, 2021 – 160th to 124th Street
Another fine day to walk. It was cool and slightly overcast, but still a nice walk. On our Wednesday walk, we go past a Chevron station that has gone under several months of revamping and today it was reopened. And, yes, someone already lost a gas cap.
Nice work. Perhaps we should give it to the station to put on their wall as the first gas cap lost from their station, right next to their first dollar bill.
Then, we came to a fork in the road.
And we took it. Yes, we may have used this line a few times before. If you don’t like it, Fork You
Then, things today seemed to come in twos. Two construction vests.
Pretty wimpy compared to what we wear, but ok.
We are grooming a new section of road and found two more neck gaiters.
Very colorful and patriotic. We will wash and use them.
And we will definitely not wash and use this pair.
One condom was found during the grooming process, and another one was on the freeway onramp. Well, it is a long stop light to access the onramp.
Then, as we were heading home, another car down the embankment.
Early last July, there was a brand new Dodge Challenger. Today, it was a few-year-old Nissan Leaf. No one was in the car, and, having been through this before, we called it in to the police. We then descended the hill to get a photo of the VIN and license plate. Last time, the police officer wouldn’t let us keep the Challenger. We were hoping this new officer would have a different opinion, but it turned out to be the same officer and he recognized us. He still would not let us have it, but it was an old Leaf, and we have a newer one. Sour grapes. What worries us is, we are now the person of interest for two wrecked cars at the same corner near out house. No good can come of this.
Friday, September 24th, – 100th Ave NE
This morning we did not find another car, which was good. We did find a roadkill first for us, though, a hawk.
This is the second raptor we’ve found, the first being an owl. The hawk was probably going after a rabbit when it got hit. We would have much rather found a rabbit. The rabbit probably does not feel the same.
We found another water bottle half filled with yellow liquid.
See number seven of Top Reasons We Wear Rubber Gloves. And yes, it was.
Yet another golf ball.
There were no parks, homes, fields, etc. around. It was in the ditch near where the cars were found. Does that count as another since it rolls? Perhaps not, but this counts.
Two separate shiny pennies. It almost makes up for the bottle of urine. Almost.
Saturday, September 25th, 2021 – Riverside Drive & Brickyard Road
We awoke early this morning and left the house at about 4:50 am. The weather was cool and clear which made for a nice autumn walk. And we found a nickel.
That brings our total this week to nine cents which is $50.91 cents less than last week, but we’ve had worse. We are happy with the nine cents.
We picked up a lot of random trash including in the parking lot at our turnaround point in downtown Bothell. Fortunately, there is also a dumpster there where we can dump our trash. Also in the parking lot, a pair of kids skates probably fell off someone’s vehicle.
We moved them out of the path of traffic so the owners might be able to see them. If they are still there in a few days, we will collect them for Goodwill. After we made the rounds of the parking lot and were emptying our trash, a lady stopped her cars and said she sees us every Saturday and thanked us for cleaning the streets up. Nice.
Near a bus stop, we pulled a tee shirt out of a ditch.
“Catch a Buzz.” Not exactly sure what that means, but we took it anyway. It will get washed and sent to Goodwill.
Now, this was cool. As we were walking down the freeway onramp, we heard a throaty engine noise approaching from behind.
A Jaguar E-Type, a Ford AC Cobra and two Corvettes, all 1960s vintage passed us by. This brought tears to Chuck’s eyes because in the sixties, he never owned any of these. The best he did was a six-cylinder ’55 Chevy convertible.
We were just talking to someone this week that we used to regularly find bongs and other marijuana paraphernalia but that dried up after Marijuana was legalized in Washington State. Well, we found some today.
A “herb” grinder that had been run over and destroyed and a Master Glass USA bong in good condition. Someone must be swearing off weed. We recycled the grinder. We will wash the bong and send it to Goodwill. Just kidding, the bong will end up in our TrashWalking Museum. Check the Drug Annex.
Now, this is downright insulting. Obviously, someone read last week’s post and knew we found a fifty-dollar bill.
They dropped a five-dollar bill in our path. It they wanted to get our attention; it would have been at least a one hundred-dollar note. And it looks counterfeit to boot.
Trash Walking 