Monday, October 4th, 2021 – Safeway
Starting out the week, it was chilly but a nice walk. We wore an extra layer and one of our “found” neck gaiters.
And we found money.
Twenty-six cents. A good start. Keep it coming folks.
We picked up a “HAPPY BIRTH DAY ELLOT” sign.
Ellot is a unique name. In fact, the names.org doesn’t even recognize the name. So if you are expecting and want a unique name, Ellot is it. Your child would be the only Ellot around, well except for the Ellot who had a “birth day.” Of course, he would spend the rest of his life saying “that’s “Ellot” without an “i.”
Another USB-C cable.
Nice, in good condition. We are building a nice stockpile of these. Now if we only had more devices that utilize them. We have several Apple products that use the Apple Lightening plugs. But Apple is not moving to USB-C. “We believe that USB-C is detrimental to the MFi business’s profitability, and its waterproof specification is lower than Lightning and MagSafe.” Okay, you are worried about the cable being waterproof? It is probably more about the profit deal.
MFi is a licensing arm, Made For iPhone. Apple wouldn’t want to lose those profits given it is probably a major component of the sixth largest corporation in the world. NOT!
A single shoe.
It was a Brooks shoe in good condition. It is the same brand we use but it was a Brooks Addiction, and we use the Brooks Adrenalin. Adrenalin sounds so much better than Addiction. Also, it was a size 12. We could waterski in shoes this size. Goodwill collects unmatched shoes which is where this is headed.
More Marijuana trash.
An empty box of pre-rolled joints and a long match. Guess if the joints are gone, you don’t need any more matches. Also, a full bottle of Strawberry Beltz. It sells for about thirteen bucks. It must not be very good, but it is in the Drug Wing of our TrashWalking Museum. Donations accepted.
We picked up yet another beer can today.
Normally what we shake out of beer cans are slugs. But this was a Guinness and there seemed to be a ping-pong ball in it. It turned out Guinness cans have a “widget” in them. During the manufacturing process, the widget, a small plastic ball with a small hole is filled with Nitrogen at high pressure that is released when the can is opened. We still want to know how to remove the ball so we can play table tennis.
At the top of the Tolt Pipe Line, some Spoonin’ was going on.
We are okay with that as long as there was no Forkin’ going on.
Tuesday, October 5th, 2021 – Park-and-Ride
Today, about halfway through our walk, it started to rain. And not the normal misty light rain, this was moderate, and we got thoroughly soaked. Our newest fan stopped and asked if we also walk in the rain. Well, duh! In Seattle, if you don’t walk in the rain, you don’t walk for about half the year. Of course, we normally have our rain jackets, but this caught us by surprise.
At the park-and-ride corner, a car apparently jumped the curb and hit a tree. We have been picking up bits and pieces of car parts for a couple of weeks now. Today we picked up a camera.
We don’t know what kind of car it was, but this looked a bit eerie like a crow’s head. Wonder if it recorded the accident. It does look startled.
We stumbled on a Geocache, the second one in this area.
It is not an official geocache, but is a geocache just the same. We would normally add our names to the logbook, but it was still pouring rain and we were drenched. We hid it back in the bushes and will log our find when it is drier.
Near the 7-Eleven, we found an unopened carton of Truly Lemonade and a half-bottle of Raspberry Vodka.
The lemonade was worth about sixteen bucks and the vodka, half a bottle was about five bucks. There must be a story here. Perhaps it was a romantic dinner for two with Raspberry Vodkas for the cocktails and the Trulys for the main course. It does explain why the Trulys are unopened. Hope the romantic part worked out.
The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook.
We found this book under a tree. Nearby, we found two vodka bottles. The reader must have found a better way to deal with his phobias.
But we were interested. We checked the book’s index and there was no Cigarette-Butt-Phobia section. Sigh. There must be a cure out there somewhere.
Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 – Safeway & 100th Ave NE
We had a nice dry and crisp autumn walk this morning and we found some money.
Remember Ben Franklin’s adage. “A penny saved is a penny worth very little.” Or something like that.
At the bottom of the Told Pipeline, someone hung a lost key and keyring on a post.
We are not sure what the inscription on the keyring is or even the language. “If found, hang me on a post?” Just a guess.
Well, our knowledge of automotive wheel dressings keeps expanding. We started out calling everything we found a hubcap. Then we discovered that there were hubcaps, wheel covers and wheel skins. All different.
Now we find there are wheel simulators. We don’t know what the difference is between wheel covers and wheel simulators, but they look the same to us. Anyway, we found this one on Norway Hill. It was undamaged and heavy. We left it leaning on a mailbox hoping the owner finds it. But it will most likely end up in our recycle bin eventually.
Thursday, October 7th, 2021 – 160th to 124th Street
Okay!
Another penny today. We don’t care what Franklin says, we are keeping them.
At the corner of 112th Ave NE and Juanita Woodinville Way, there are now a grand total of fifteen signs.
You may not see them all, but trust us, there are fifteen of them. And we removed four of the five “Seal Coating” signs. One is enough. We are in the run-up to an election, so we expect more signs, but this is ridiculous. It is a sign of our times.
When we first started walking six-and-a-half years ago, we found small dolls and figurines with their heads missing. Then we started finding doll heads. After a long hiatus, we found another headless figure.
It was unnerving. It was dark with no one around. A coyote howled in the woods. Eerie. We took it home and added it into our museum’s headless figurine exhibit. We will watch for its head.
On our Thursday walk, we have been grooming a new section of road. Last week we made it to our goal of the continuation of the Tolt Pipeline Trail that happens to be the Kirkland city limits. We are still finding old buried treasures but even more freshly-dumped stuff.
This is new from last week. Someone had some tile repaired and most likely the workers just dumped the old tiles. They were too heavy for us to carry, so we piled them up to be picked up later with our car. These must have been “007″ Contractor Agents. License to Litter.
In recent months, we have found two cars over the bank in the ravines.
Today it was an airplane. We reported it to the police, but for some reason, they did not respond. There could have been casualties.
So, this was cool.
We found this strange bolt, but we noticed that the threads were not spiral and there was a notch in the center. After some googling, we found this was a Huck Bolt.
Chuck thought this was a very cool idea, but then again, he is a nerd engineer.
Friday, October 8th, – 100th Ave NE
Today was the coldest of the season so far at 40°F (4.4°C.) We were layered with an extra shirt, so we were comfortable after we got moving.
Outside the Party Store near Safeway, we found an empty wig bag.
“Character Wig.” We don’t think it would add much character, though. We sent the picture to Google Lens and it matched it up with Austin Powers.
Enough said.
Too bad the wig was not there; it would have been a good addition to Chuck’s mask we found at about the same spot a few years ago.
It wouldn’t have done much for Janet’s Jason mask. Unlike Chuck, she didn’t need a wig.
On Fridays, we walk down 100th Ave NE and there is a driveway corner near a 7-Eleven that we have been slowly cleaning up. But each week, new trash is left.
Today it was the leavings of a meal including a half full yogurt carton and a tray of rice. We decided to put it into the nearby 7-Eleven trash can. On the way back, we saw the trash in the 7-Eleven parking lot. We were too stunned to take a photo. Really? And people come to this 7-Eleven to purchase food? Is this the image 7-Eleven wants to present as their image?
On our Friday route, we are walking on the opposite side of the street our entire walk, sometimes separated by a block or so. We each picked up a glove on our respective sides of the street.
When we got home, we found we had a match. And in good shape, to boot. Or to glove.
Early along 100th Ave NE, Chuck found a water balloon in the gutter.
It was evidently a dud, because if was still intact. Chuck put it away in his bag and at an opportune moment, he yelled at Janet and threw it at her. It hit the ground near her without bursting and rolled into a parking lot. Janet retrieved it and rolled it back to Chuck, but he dared not accept the challenge.
Saturday, October 9th, 2021 – Riverside Drive & Brickyard Road
Another nice Autumn walk this morning and we found more money.
Yes, another penny. That wraps this week up with a grand total of twenty-nine cents. Not a great week, but we have had worse.
This may be a record for a single day for us.
Three wheel covers in one day. A nondescript, a Toyota (naturally) and a Mazda. All found their way into recycle bins along the way. Also, the “simulated wheel” we found earlier this week has disappeared, so perhaps the owner found it.
Another neck gaiter.
It was dropped in the Sammamish River parking lot. We are getting quite a collection of neck gaiters, though this one seems rather blah compared to most. We never used neck gaiters until we started finding them. They are very useful in cold weather.
Another run-over utility knife.
It lost its utility and got recycled.
Near downtown Bothell, we saw something white and investigated.
It was a corner of a buried sign and took a bit of effort to get it out. It appeared to be advertising membership to a gym or something. We searched the phone number and it turned out to be a Chiropractic clinic. They have memberships?
Another downed sign.
We would notify the city, but we cannot remember exactly where it was.
Down in a shallow gully along 112th Ave NE, someone dumped a coffee table frame.
We drug it up to the edge of the gully. It was too heavy to carry and will not fit in our car. After some discussion, we decided to bring some tools back later and disassemble it. Yes, we can disassemble it one way or another. We do have a Sawzall.
By a bus stop, we found some engine head gaskets.
Gee, you’d think that the Metro would have a facility to perform engine work and not do it at a bus stop. How long did the passengers on the bus have to wait?
We often see live wildlife on our walks, mostly rabbits, but also deer, a bobcat, raccoons, and coyotes. Today, we saw a coyote cross the street on Brickyard Road about half a block ahead of us. As we approached, it recrossed the street and ran into a park. It came back toward us on the other side of the fence and posed for a photo.
As we approached closer, it ran off into the park. It may not have been a real coyote. We didn’t see any Acme products nearby.
Trash Walking 