Monday, January 31st, 2022 – Safeway
Starting out a new week, the temperature was a bit warmer with a chance of rain, but fortunately, the rain never arrived. There was a lot of trash along our route, and we availed ourselves of a couple of bus stop trash cans.
Along Juanita-Woodinville Way, someone lost or tossed a pair of ear buds.
They were run over and will get recycled.
We find two or three Mike’s Hard Lemonade cans per day on Norway Hill. Since we do not walk the Hill on the weekend, we expect to find six or eight cans on Mondays. Today, we only found three Mike’s cans. However, we did find four White Claw Hard Seltzer cans.
We are tempted to blame the White Claws on the Mike’s guy, but whoever littered the White Claws used an entirely different littering technique. Yes, we do recognize different techniques.
Speaking of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, we found an unopened can.
Okay this was not a Mike’s Hard Lemonade; it was a Mike’s Harder Mango. It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. It is a 16-ounce can and was found behind a bridge abutment on Juanita-Woodinville Way, so probably not left by our Mike’s guy. On Norway Hill, we only find 12-ounce cans, and they are always empty.
We have never had a Mike’s beverage so we will open this one and have a taste. However, we will share it with some friends because evidently drinking too much of it causes littering.
In early 2020 near the start of the pandemic, we saw a bunch of “BK” markings with an arrow. We joked that they were omens to tell us to “go back”.
Over two years later, bicycle lane paint symbols were added at each BK symbol. We were impressed with the care and precision with which they were applied. Today, a mere four months later, we noticed several of them are breaking up.
Oh, well, it’s good enough for government work.
Tuesday, February 1st, 2022 – Park-and-Ride
This morning was warmer again, and, we have proof. Last week we found a cup of coffee someone left on the guard rail on 112th Ave NE with ice floating in it.
Today, we found another 7-Eleven coffee cup on the guard rail. No ice.
While running errands earlier, we spotted a caulking gun that was dropped at the intersection of Simonds Road and 100th Ave NE. Today, the remnants were still there.
It took about five trips and five minutes to pick up all the pieces waiting for breaks in traffic. The tube contained construction adhesive and was stuck to the road. Is this what they call ‘being stuck in a rut’?
At the park-and-ride, someone parked and rode.
The bus must have been late.
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
The temperature this morning was 32°F (0°C) with no rain. We bundled up in our cold weather gear including a neck gaiter and a hooded rain jacket. We also use a light glove under our latex glove and a chemical hand warmer. Aside from some cold fingers at the beginning before we warmed up, it was a comfortable walk. Of course, it would have been more comfortable at 50°F (10°C). We did not find any money and removed a very messy roadkill rabbit from the street.
In the middle of the street, someone tossed two perfectly good reusable plastic bags.
Obviously, they were not reusable to the litterer, but we can reuse them.
When we come across an errant shopping cart, we try to get it back to the store if it I nearby. Usually, it is a Safeway cart along Juanita-Woodinville Way.
This morning it was a Goodwill cart near the Goodwill store in the background on 100th Ave NE. We drug it back to the store. We always feel awkward dragging a shopping cart along with us wondering how many passersby think we are homeless. At least it was empty.
At the beer drinker’s bus stop on 100th only five empty Bud Light cans.
That’s only five pop tabs to harvest. The current recycle price of aluminum is twenty-six cents per pound, these five tabs are worth about a quarter of a penny. The beer drinker better increase his drinking. It’s almost not worth it for us to come down to this bus stop.
On our way down Juanita-Woodinville Way, we picked up several sheets of paper that were part of a construction contract of some type.
They were labeled with page numbers like “Page 8 of 53.” Among the pages we picked up was an estimate:
To us, a 53-page contract is overkill for a $640 job. Heck, the lawyer got more for handling the contract.
Thursday, February 3rd, 2022 – 160th to 124th Street
It was a warmer 40°F (4.5°C) today with a continuous light mist. Not bad, but we are still looking forward to 50°F (10°C), with or without rain.
We found SOnYa’s art work.
Not bad, but the pumpkin and gecko kept falling off. More about this later.
Near the Northshore Middle School, we found a pair of glasses in the gutter.
They were a child’s prescription glasses and in good condition. The lenses look shattered but are only beaded up with water droplets. On our way back from 124th Ave NE, we came back by the school and teachers were arriving. We saw one teacher park and waited for him to get out of his vehicle, but he evidently didn’t see us or perhaps didn’t want to see us and remained in his truck.
As we were about to flicker our flashlights at him, another person walked by in front of his truck, and we were able to get her attention. We gave her the glasses and she said she would turn them into the office. Meanwhile, the other teacher remained in his vehicle. Okay, we get it. We do look really weird in our walking garb. But in the summer, we only look moderately weird.
Wait, what?
For the third week in a row, we found yet another rubber duck. This one had an OMG-type of expression.
We have now found an evil duck, a happy duck and an OMG duck, all from the same factory in China. We now believe that these contain tracking/transmitting devices designed to transmit our trash finds to Beijing. They are trying to prove their litter is better than ours. False propaganda.
At our newly adopted 116th Ave NE stretch, we found three different places with the same trash.
They consisted of 14 Hands wine cans and McDonalds hamburger trash. So, their romantic dinners consisted of burgers from McDonalds, 14 hands wine from the Jackson’s Shell Gas station in their parked car. Of course, turn on the dome light for that candlelight ambience. And to cap the evening,
In total, we found 12 wine cans.
Hmm. Perhaps it is “Liquor’s dandy but candy’s quicker?”
Nearing home, we found a salamander that appeared to be very lethargic.
We placed the gecko from SOnYa’s art work near it to cheer it up. It didn’t seem to inspire him. We tried.
Friday, February 4th, 2022 – 100th Ave NE
The temperature this morning was about the same as yesterday, but dry providing the backdrop of a fairly mundane walk.
We did find a nice coffee cup.
This is a Hydro Flask travel cup to design to flatten to fit in your luggage. We found it was very difficult to unflatten. Not recommended by TrashWalking.
We walk by this place five days a week and have never noticed this.
We have seen the poster over the mailbox with the cats wearing hats, but now the post is wearing a hat. We have no idea what this means. And, we might add, don’t care.
Last week, we found someone lost a paint can and lamented that it will exist for a long time.
It is about gone. Was it water soluble? Did someone find a way to remove it? Who knows? But we are OK that it is gone.
This is Friday and time to check what it is in Chuck’s vest pocket.
A Nerf bullet, but it was very flat and will not fit in any nerf weapon. Half a United Explorer credit card. The name was not unique enough to allow us to track it down, so we shredded it. A tag for removable cups. This was a “what?” for Chuck. Some Legos that, because of the colors, scream “McDonalds Happy Meal Toy” but we did not find a match. Finally, in the upper-right, a badly run-over lapel pin or tie tack. We could try to polish the plastic cover to determine what the image is, but it would probably be disappointing and waste our time.
Saturday, February 5th, 2022 – Riverside Drive
Today was warmer than it has been in a while at 43°F (6°C) with a light mist/heavy fog. All in all, a comfortable walk.
Talking about waiting until the last minute to find money, today we found two pennies.
This made the eighteen-and-a-half hours of walking this week worth it.
We’ve talked about this guy before. We pass an apartment complex on Riverside Drive where someone chews huge wads of gum and tosses them into the street to let the cars run over them. Some make it to the opposite side of the street.
The street in front of the complex is a blotchy mess. We are sure the guy is very proud of himself leaving his mark on history.
And another slob on Brickyard Road.
At a trailer park, someone likes prawns, but evidently does not like to put the shells in their garbage. So, they just toss them over the fence onto the sidewalk and street.
And farther up someone finished a bowl of ice cream and littered the bowl and spoon.
A glass bowl and metal spoon. And that wraps up our slob report for today.
On the freeway off ramp, for several weeks we have been finding one or two Busch Light cans with the tabs removed.
It’s hardly worth it for us to pick them up.
Someone littered an almost full pack of cigarettes.
That’s the Spirit! We tried to light one, but they were too soggy.
Someone was probably recklessly running with scissors at the park-and-ride, fell and broke them.
We found a dead bird under the freeway. We find a lot of dead birds, but this one was tagged.
After some research, we found that this tag is a registration for the American Racing Pigeon Union. They have a website that describes how to interpret the band, listing of the bands, and the care of found birds. This one was a little beyond the care stage, having been hit by a car then gnawed on by a critter. Guess it was not fast enough.
That wraps up our walking week with a take:
- 2 Pennies
- 17 Mike’s Hard Lemonade 12-oz cans on Norway Hill, empty
- 1 Mike’s Hard Mango 16-oz can, full
- 12 14-Hands Wine cans, empty
- 1 Rubber duck, clueless
- 1 Racing Pigeon, dead
Trash Walking 