Monday, November 15th, 2021 – Safeway
Washington is being hammered with “an atmospheric river.” A series of storms from the south that means warm, wet weather. Warm is relative. The temperature is in the fifties. This morning was overcast with gusty winds but no rain. Again, another bad start to the week with no money finds and a roadkill squirrel. A messy one, at that. No, we won’t show a picture.
We did find quite a bit of random trash, but nothing to write home, or even write in our blog about. At one point, we went into the brambles to get a beer can only to step on a buried sign. We pulled it out.
Rod Dembowski. This guy just ran for reelection to the King County Council and won. However, this sign is much older than this election. He also has left several new signs along our route, and we’ve taken note. We will let him pick this one up too. He will probably not want to reuse it in the next election.
We found a squeeze tube.
This is a multipurpose tube to use for any gelatinous substance like mayonnaise, sunscreen, etc. Our first thought was, okay, how do you fill it through the small neck? You would think the company would have a YouTube video explaining its use, but the only thing we found was this.
A video in a language, unknown to us, presumably, talking about the benefits of the tube and how much the guy likes honey on pretzels. We noticed that there was a comment:
“Bunu dalga geçmek için paylaştın dimi 😀 ”
We fed it to the Google Translator, and it came back as Turkish for,
“You shared this just to make fun of you :D”
We have no idea, but it may be a comment about honey and pretzels. It turns out, based on an Amazon product question, the tubes have a plastic clamp to seal the bottom. It is not shown in our photo because we didn’t find it. So, it seems to open from the bottom for filling and is sealed with the missing plastic clamp. It would probably work fine for honey. Not so much for pretzels.
Tuesday, November 16th, 2021 – Park-and-Ride
It was colder this morning at 38°F (3.3°C), so we bundled up in full cold-weather garb. We may have over done it as we overheated a bit climbing Norway Hill. But overall, a good walk. Well, except for no money.
We did find an undamaged wheel cover.
No, it was not another Toyota, it was a Subaru. We hauled it home to take to Goodwill. It was so tempting to put it in a nearby recycle bin, but our conscience wouldn’t let us.
Other than more random trash, we found a discarded audio CD.
It was also undamaged and labelled “Christmas songs.” So why toss out a CD of Christmas songs this close to Christmas? Inquiring minds want to know.
The CD is a copy of the “Monster Ballads Xmas” album. The album was a compilation of 16 songs.
- “Jingle Bells” – Skid Row – 3:02
- “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” – Winger – 4:06
- “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” – Warrant – 3:35
- “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” – Twisted Sister (w/ Lita Ford) – 4:09
- “White Christmas” – Queensrÿche – 2:28
- “Run Rudolph Run” – L.A. Guns – 3:10
- “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” – FireHouse – 3:07
- “Naughty Naughty Christmas” – Danger Danger – 4:56
- “Blue Christmas” – Cinderella – 4:15
- “Jingle Bell Rock” – Nelson – 2:52
- “Silent Night” – Faster Pussycat – 4:13
- “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” – Dokken – 4:01
- “Happy Holiday” – Enuff Z’Nuff – 4:23
- “Winter Wonderland” – Stryper – 3:34
- “Christmas Love” – Billy Idol – 3:57
- “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” (DeeTown Rock Mix) – Alvin and the Chipmunks – 2:14
Of these artists, we have heard of Twisted Sister, Stryper, Billy Idol, and Alvin and the Chipmunks. But wait, there are only fifteen tracks on the CD we found. Our favorite, “The Chipmunk Song” is missing. Rats!
Wednesday, November 17th, 2021 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
Today was flat-out cold at 30°F (-1°C) but calm and dry. Our walking limit is 32°F (0°C), but we will walk below that temperature if it is not slippery or too uncomfortable. And it was worth it. We found money!
A dime. This is the first money we’ve picked up in three-and-a-half weeks. We were starting to lose our confidence.
At the bus stop on our Wednesday route, the beer-drinking rider did not let us down.
Seven beer cans, one for each day of the week. Remember, a beer a day keeps the doctor away. Words we live by.
At the 7Eleven, we found a shoe.
There was only one, and it was ratty. So, we gave it the boot.
We also picked up an icy pair of glasses that had been run over.
They may be prescription glasses because we don’t think most reader lenses would withstand being run over by a car.
This was cool.
From across the street, we saw a pair of coyotes. Each of them looked warily at us as if deciding if we were a danger to them. Or, they may have been sizing us up for breakfast.
Thursday, November 18th, 2021 – 160th to 124th Street
It was much nicer today, a full 10°F warmer at 40°F (4.5°C). It made a huge difference. We found no money and removed a roadkill rabbit.
Other than Saturday, our Thursday walk has become our longest walk. We only do it once a week and it includes our newest challenge, 116th Ave NE. It is the street that keeps on giving.
As an example, we came upon a lot of scattered trash and the smell of human feces.
There was a Safeway basket among the trash and an obvious place where an RV had dumped part of its tank contents, to be socially correct. We picked up the trash and dumped it in a nearby dumpster. We set the Safeway basket aside and bagged it later while running an errand, using rubber gloves, of course. Later, we hosed it down and sanitized it. We will return it to a Safeway store.
Okay, no money, but we did find a fine tool.
Okay, maybe not that fine, but a socket that has not been run over. It was a 14mm, not as popular as the 10 mm, but in very good condition. We counted it as a tool. Of course, if it were badly run over, rusty and bent, we would still count it as a tool.
Then, we came upon a small pumpkin.
Okay, it turned out to be an orange bell pepper disguising itself as a pumpkin. Janet, not liking bell peppers, decided to toss it up into the bushes to rot. It did not go well.
After two attempts, Chuck tossed it behind a switch box. The bell pepper was probably red with embarrassment.
We reported on this a few weeks ago before the elections, a handmade election sign.
They reused an old Bernie Talmas election sign who was a Woodinville City councilman and mayor several years ago. Kudos for reusing old signs. Brickbats for not picking up their campaign litter. We recycled it.
Speaking of signs, for months a John L. Scott open house sign has been hanging on a fence. We finally sent a request to them to have it removed and got a prompt response.
This is week two.
Still there.
Well, this is a first for us.
A Tesla wheel cover which we ultimately recycled. But shouldn’t we be able to tell it to recycle itself? We did find several other pieces of wreckage in the area, so it may have been part of a fender bender. So, if a Tesla gets into a fender bender, does it get sent back to the factory for a driving refresher course?
We found a lost key and lock box.
It is a magnetic key case. They may need a stronger magnet. The key was in good shape, though.
Friday, November 19th, 100th Ave NE
The weather this morning was about the same as yesterday but with a light rain. No money and no roadkill. We did find a hat on 100th Ave NE.
Superior Glass Installations, Inc. We assumed this was for auto glass, but it is for building windows. “Quality and Service Unmistakably extraordinary.” Yeah, we would probably toss the hat too.
Someone was busy last night.
Along 100th Ave NE and on Norway Hill, we found discarded stollen mail. It was from an apartment complex on Riverside Drive. Of the mail, most was junk. Mail thieves never leave any good stuff for us. There was one birthday card that we returned to the mailbox later in the day. We have returned stolen mail to this complex before. It really needs to invest in locking boxes.
Thank you for discarding reusable bags.
And a reusable sandwich, a reusable yogurt and a reusable chicken. No, we did not eat it. The chicken may have been gnawed on; it was hard to tell.
Saturday, November 20st, 2021 – Riverside Drive & Brickyard Road
Today was a little cooler than yesterday at 38°F (3.3°C) but with no rain. Not a bad walk. We did remove two road-kill rabbits from the street but found no money. That makes our money week a grand total of ten cents. We’ll take it.
On our way down the hill, we came across more piles of the stolen mail, mostly shopping ads.
The thief probably grabbed the mail then tossed the flyers out the window before going through the rest of the take.
At the Bothell parking lot, a couple of furniture items.
One was a nice chair that looks like it should be in a doctor’s office. We don’t know what the other is because the dumpster was sitting on it. The question is, is it a foldable piece of furniture or was it folded by the dumpster? Either way, it is probably pretty useless now.
We use these dumpsters to unload our bags. We do walk the parking lot and pick up the trash, so we don’t feel too bad about using them.
We found a nice tennis ball on Brickyard Road.
The interesting thing was it was in the gutter on a steep part of the hill. We find a lot of balls at the bottom of the hill that got away from the owners. We were tempted to toss it into the middle of the street to watch it resume its journey, but we brought it home instead. It was a nice ball compared to what we normally find.
We also found a nice hat at the park-and-ride.
It was a like-new hard hat. Twenty bucks on Amazon. We are hard-headed and have no use for it, so it will go to Goodwill.
We reached across a guard rail with our picker to get a bottle.
It was a juice bottle but had yellow liquid in it. And it was warm. See item 7 about the top reasons we wear rubber gloves.
On our way back home, near the freeway, we found a mattress.
At least it was the coil springs from a mattress. Someone had rolled it up and tied it. We were tempted to cut the strap to see what would happen, but discretion is the better part of valor. We could get hurt, after all. It was too heavy for us to haul home, so we left it alone. One day the strap will probably rot and let it loose. We hope nobody is around when it happens.
Trash Walking 