Monday, February 7th, 2022 – Safeway
Here we are at the start of another walking week. There was a lot of trash, so much so that we needed to bag up our garbage and leave it at the Safeway garbage can. We didn’t feel bad about that since most of the trash came from Safeway.
This trash did not come from Safeway.
It came from McDonalds and was in front of the town homes on 112th Ave NE. Come on, people. Have some pride in your neighborhood.
We found two halves of these sandwiches.
The first we found had ants all over it. Dead ants. This half did not have any ants on it but given that the last killed the ants, we decided not to eat this one either, as tempting as it was.
We found two nice balls today.
A dog ball and a superball, both in good condition. As we all know, superballs have a very high rebound ratio, which in laymen’s terms, very bouncy. However, being interested in the science, we found this paper: “Velocity Amplification in Collision Experiments Involving Superballs.” This proves that some physicists have too much time on their hands. Unlike people blogging about the trash that they find.
This guy is totally out of his gourd.
Why throw away a perfectly good squash? Okay, it was covered with glitter, but still.
Tuesday, February 8th, 2022 – Park-and-Ride
Today was a quick, uneventful walk, well except for the above-average amount of trash. It is only 40 °F (4.5°C) and the amount of trash continues to increase. Can’t wait until summer.
But we did pick up a handy brush.
It would have been much handier if it had had a handle to handle it with. Yes, we could have handled this better. Next time.
Another lost and crushed locking gas cap.
We don’t get it. If you lock it, it should not get lost and crushed, right? But wait, it is “Not Vented.” No wonder they left it unlocked.
At first, we thought this was another vaping device.
We thought, “Why would anyone want a bowling pin sticking out of their mouth?” Then we found it was a lighter. We thought, “Why would anyone want to light their pot with a bowling pin?”
Wednesday, February 9th, 2022 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
Today was another relatively warm day with moderate, uninteresting trash. Even the beer-drinking bus rider let us down.
Only four cans, and the bus stop was relatively free of trash. This must be some kind of weird science fiction litter warp.
On the way back from Safeway, we spotted a roadkill raccoon in the opposite side of the street.
We just walked by this intersection. Checking the video, the animal was not there when we were heading toward Safeway. So, the critter met its demise during the previous forty minutes. Too bad. We did give it a proper burial in the bushes.
Over the years, we have become acquainted with several folks on our walks. We generally start off with a polite “good morning” and, as we become more familiar, waves and smiles. We passed this person today.
We have met her about five times now and, even though we give her a friendly “good morning”, she totally ignores us. We understand, we do look and act a bit weird, but we are confident we can get a reaction from her, and hopefully not the result of a 911 call.
Thursday, February 10th, 2022 – 160th to 124th Street
Yet another enjoyable mild day to walk. We have not found any money this week and that includes today, but the week’s not done yet. We did find a roadkill rabbit on NE 116th Ave. Chuck picked it up and walked between two cars and tossed it into the bushes. As he turned, his flashlight lit up a lady getting something out of her car.
Chuck: “Whoa!”
Lady: “You startled me.”
Chuck: “Sorry.”
Lady: “Thank you for picking up the trash.”
Chuck: “No problem… Uh, thank you.”
Bottom line, Chuck was more startled than she was. Of course, she didn’t see the rabbit fly into the bushes.
Farther down the road, we found another rabbit.
This one was in worse shape than the first. We walk this road once a week and would have seen it if it was there last week. So, this has been here a week or less and is starting to show bones. We left it and will check its status next week. Don’t you just love a science experiment?
Not far from the science experiment, we found the top of a compact case.
It looked like a Disney knock-off, but it turned out to be part of a Disney back-to-school product lineup. “Disney has created a fun range of cosmetics exclusively for tweens and teens. These products feature Disney characters like Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse and others and include fun, trendy cosmetics like tie die lip glosses, eye shadow duos, fragrance, and more.” Great, just what we would want for our teen/tween grandkids.
A lost pair of glasses at the bus stop.
No, you should not leave your glasses in the gutter while awaiting the bus. The bus always wins.
We found this piece of cardboard.
“PLEASE REMOVE BEFORE PIPE INSTALLATION.” Really? You need to tell professional pipe fitters to remove the cardboard cover before installing it. Sigh, yes, yes, we know, the lawyers. “Critical Oil Pipeline Fails Due to Cardboard shield.” Probably the cause of the high inflation.
Okay, some kind soul left us some sushi.
The use-by date, it was 02/09/2022 9:52AM. Damn, missed it by eleven hours and thirty-eight minutes. This is fifteen dollars’ worth of sushi down the drain. It’s too bad, we were looking forward to having some authentic sushi from Kent, Washington.
Friday, February 11th, 2022 – 100th Ave NE
Whoa! Today we found some money!
A badly beat up quarter in the Starbuck’s driveway and a nice shiny penny near Simonds Road. Score! And we do not need to worry about being skunked for the week.
We cracked her. Yesterday, we talked about the girl who we have passed several times only to be ignored.
Today we met her again and as we said our “good morning”, she gave a friendly smile and wave. You can see her hand in the upper left of the light. Trust us, that is her hand, and not her middle finger. Another friend to meet on our journeys.
Yet another lug nut lost.
Okay, there are a lot of lost wheel videos on YouTube. Do not overtighten or under tighten your lug nuts. It is a fine line.
At the 7-Eleven, they have one of the used clothes bins that always overflows. Today, the bin had a range of ideas for our learnings.
It included a book, “The Sadness of Sex.” We left it, not something we want or need. Enough said.
Then we found this sign.
Okay, we are a bit past the nineth of January, shouldn’t they remove their signs? Isn’t there a badge for that?
This is the time of the week to check what’s in Chuck’s vest pocket.
At the upper-left is a half of a key-entry card. We don’t know what it would let us into, but it would only let us in halfway, so it’s useless. The AutoSpa card looked like a business card for an auto detailing shop, but it was for a tire brush. Who has a special brush for their tires? Who brushes their tires anyway?
A toy ram. Nice, we put it our toy collection. It will probably find one or two toy sheep in there that we have found in our past. We may have a whole herd in there soon.
A BMW emblem. We’ve found several of these. BMWs are expensive vehicles. Wouldn’t you think they could afford better glue?
Two specialized thumb screws. We don’t know what they are for, but when we went to add them to our hardware collection, we found that we had found one before.
We now have three screws we have no idea what to do with.
On the bottom-right is a Panama Jack’s hat tag.
It is a bit misleading. Panama Jack’s hats are made in China, not Panama. Also, there was an antitheft strip that had evidently been forcibly removed in the store. Some folks will go to great lengths to steal these tags.
We find a lot of discarded store rewards cards these were a Haggen (Safeway) and a Fred Meyer. We almost tossed them, but on further inspection, these were gift cards. Yes, we find these too, but they are normally expended. Checking online, we found the Haggen had $19.08 on it and the Fred Meyer had $50.00 on it. Score! We feel a bit bad that someone’s wallet was probably stolen, and the thief tossed out the “rewards” cards. However, we are happy that we got the rewards instead of the thief.
Saturday, February 12th, 2022 – Riverside Drive
What a difference a little light on our walk makes. We found more money today.
Two pennies near where a food truck parks, a dime in a parking lot and a nickel and penny in the park-and-ride. Eighteen cents.
Also, an earring.
But only one which is great for a pirate, but we are not sure how scary a pirate would be wearing this.
A chair at a bus stop.
We get it, it can be hard standing waiting for a bus, so why not a chair. And why not a tub of Baskin-Robbins’ ice cream while you are at it?
On the subject of snacks, someone left one for us.
An unopened bottle of water on Riverside Drive. Janet decided it was best to open it and pour it out. We did. Later, at the park-and-ride, an unopened bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. A nice bottle of water would have been good at that point.
We picked up a couple of balls this morning.
A soccer ball was at the bottom of the Brickyard Road hill and looked like it had a very rough trip down. We put it out of its misery. Then we found a dog ball. What the… What’s a dog ball doing outside of a tennis court? Has someone trained a dog to play tennis?
On the freeway offramp, another pair of glasses making a spectacle of themselves.
Yes, we have used that joke before, but it’s a good one. Too bad they weren’t rose-colored. We could have a field day with that.
Also on the freeway off-ramp, an abandoned car.
This is a toy sold at Chevron Stations in 2001. We are surprised it has not been towed before this. It is in pretty good condition and goes for thirteen bucks on eBay: CHEVRON TECHRON 2001 – Hank Hot Rod No. 26 – Purple / Flames Toy Car Open Doors $12.98 – PicClick.
Someone dropped a Delivery Catheter System.
No, we didn’t know what it was either, but after some research, it is a system to deliver treatments into the heart. This is not something you find bouncing around your average pickup truck. During our searches, we found a price list from a hospital for this item.
| ATTAIN SELECT II CATHETER 6248 | C1887 |
272 |
$1,116.00 |
That is a pricey item, but that probably includes installation.
At the park and ride, we found someone lost a roll of masking tape.
And with that, we can wrap things up this week, pun intended.
First, a postscript on last week’s blog. Last week we found a tagged bird that turned out to be a racing pigeon. We were able to track down the owner and gave him a call. We told him about the bird and said we were sorry, but he took the loss of the bird in stride.
We also retired our shoes this week.
Our old shoes have 748 miles on them according to Garmin. They will be recycled at the Brooks Store. The new pairs will be our thirteenth pair since we started walking nearly seven years ago. By the way, some folks can’t tell the difference between the old and new shoes. Hint: The old shoes are on the top.
That’s it. Our take for the week was,
- Forty-four cents.
- $69.08 in gift cards.
- An $1,116 Delivery Catheter System, installed.
- A $15 box of outdated sushi.
- Fourteen Mikes Lemonade cans on Norway Hill.
- A 20-year-old car.
Trash Walking 