Monday, February 28th, 2022 – Safeway
Today we found a lot of trash along the way, but little of note. We didn’t find any money and removed a rat and a frog from the road. It finally warmed up. It was 48°F (9°C), much better than the dry, cold temperatures of last week.
Of course, along with the warm temperatures came rain. Heavy rain for the Seattle area and, even though we wore our rain gear, we arrived home thoroughly soaked. Later we read that that today set a new rain record for Seattle.
And we can verify that.
We found a cup with about 1.629 inches of water in it. We will contact NWS and let them know. They would want to know their instruments are well calibrated.
At Safeway, someone had a major sweet tooth.
Two empty Oreo cartons and one empty Drumstick carton at the Safeway parking lot exit. Bet he was on a sugar rush driving home.
Later, we found an empty Trojan package.
Then, about 200 feet down the road, we found the used condom. Wow! That guy is fast, and while driving at that. Maybe he is the one who ate the Oreos and Drumsticks.
Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 – Park-and-Ride
This morning was slightly warmer. and we started out in heavy rain, but it tapered off and we had a comfortable walk. We removed three small roadkill frogs from the road. Well, they may have drowned in our recent rains, but they were run over.
But we found money! Not really. Along Juanita-Woodinville Way, we found a small pocketbook. At that point, it was still raining hard, and we waited until we were home to check it out.
Inside the pocketbook was a jar of marijuana, some Zig-Zag cigarette papers, a dime bag, another smaller bag, a wad of burnt foil, a pair of tweezers and a penny. So, this appears to be someone’s drug kit and the penny was inside. But we’ll still count it as a find, damn it.
Someone dropped a nice beanie.
We will wash it and send it off to Goodwill.
Along 100th Ave, we found a Twix bar.
If someone left it for us, they left it about six months ago because it was half buried and barely showing. It was still sealed, but we didn’t bite.
We found an apple cable and a set of Bluetooth headphones.
We have found several of both, and these were not particularly good ones. The apple cable is very thick and stiff, and the headphones are unbranded. We will not even bother testing them.
Someone lost their windshield wiper.
And at a particularly bad time too. You need to watch out for that high wiper speed. The speeds should be low, medium and eject.
We picked up a half-full bottle of juice. Without paying much attention, we unscrewed the cap and dumped the contents.
It was a butt bottle! We spent a few minutes picking up the cigarette buts and caused our garbage bag to reek. We need to pay more attention.
At the top of Norway Hill, someone set out a short bed.
It seems to be a child’s bed that is designed to grow with the kid. There was no “Free” note, but at least they did not dump it down the hill. We will let it sit for a few days before contacting Bothell City.
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
Today the weather was misty but still relatively warm. We didn’t find any money and removed a roadkill rabbit from the road. At least it was not another frog.
On yesterday’s walk we saw an abandoned shopping cart at the intersection of 112th Avenue NE and Juanita-Woodinville Way NE and we left it.
Today, since we were passing Safeway, we dragged it back to the store. It was 1.25 miles (2.0 km) away. We dislike doing this. It slows us down and makes people think we are homeless, which we are not. However, if inflation keeps rising… Perhaps we should have kept the cart.
At a repair shop on Junita-Woodinville Way there used to be a small dumpster that has since been removed. However, it appears people have some innate instinct where their trash should be dumped.
A mattress. They probably dumped it because it was so uncomfortable. Turn it over, idiots.
Then about ten feet away was a pile of toys.
We were imagining why someone would dump the toys. The guy on the right looked particularly perplexed. We were not equipped to pick this up and it is on private property. We left it.
At the beer-drinker’s bus stop, we found a six-pack worth of cans.
We have not been here for two weeks because of the cold weather, so this is a low number of cans to find. Perhaps he doesn’t drink beer when the weather is colder than the beer?
A kid’s booster seat beside the road.
Twenty-six bucks on Amazon. We looked around, but we didn’t find the kid.
We found bags today. First, we found a bag that contained someone’s COVID kit.
It contained a bottle of hand sanitizer and a mask. It also contained small pack of Kleenex, probably in case you catch COVID, and your nose starts running.
Then we found an REI stuff bag.
The stuff bag had a small stuff bag attached to it but did not contain any stuff. We stuffed the large stuff bag into the smaller stuff bag and, it made a manageable six-inch-long stuffed bag. Remember, don’t sweat the small stuff.
Finally, we found a knapsack.
It was in the bushes on top of Norway Hill. Next to it were eight Corona Beer bottles and caps. The knapsack was in very good condition. We placed the bottles in the knapsack. Chuck put it on and marched home. The bottles went into the recycle. The knapsack will go to Goodwill.
Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 – 160th to 124th Street
For lack of interesting photos today, we found a bunch of trash. The main part of this route had not been walked in two weeks due to weather and there was a lot of random trash. We dumped at a few places, but still ended up at home with a very heavy load. Yes, Aleve helps.
But, we did find money.
A dime in the gutter by the freeway onramp, so it was all worth it.
This is the third one of these we’ve found.
It is a trailer hitch lock in very good condition, but of course, no key, so it is useless to us. We do have one we found a few years ago that did have keys. We still have no use for it because we don’t have a trailer.
At the freeway onramp we spotted a green rag.
It was a Black Lion T-shirt that was wet and run over. We use them to service our furnace. We’ll give it to them the next time they visit.
Friday, March 4th, 2022 – 100th Ave NE
Today was cooler and dryer. But we did not say dry. We had a few misty sprinkles and some fog. It was okay. The good and the bad of it is, we didn’t fling any roadkill and we didn’t find any money. We did get several headlight blinks and honks including from Erin, the schoolteacher we met and from Mike, our dental hygienist. No, he did not stop and offer to clean our teeth.
A lost hubcap.
We found a hubcap at the end of 112th Ave NE. It had not been run over and was in great condition. We added it to our Goodwill pile.
We regularly find McDonalds bags with a bunch of uneaten fries.
Today we found a bag with two uneaten hamburgers and no fries. Go figure.
Someone went to Safeway and bought dinner, then took it to his favorite picnic spot in a cart to dine – a bus stop about a quarter mile away.
But we had to do the dishes. And push the cart back. That is two carts this week. Safeway owes us about two hundred dollars. If we try to claim it, they will probably give us a voucher for two-hundred tickets for this year’s Safeway Monopoly Game.
And just our luck, we read that Safeway is canceling it for this year. But wait. This also means we won’t need to pick up hundreds of discarded Monopoly cards this year. Score.
We found a comb that must have been run over and the handle broken off.
We didn’t see any of the usual bits and pieces of the handle. Fine with us. We recycled it. Later, while reviewing today’s trash, we found that this is actually an undamaged pin tail comb. We should have kept it. Who knew? Certainly not Chuck. Why do we always find these “keepers” on garbage day?
A strainer in a ditch.
The only explanation is someone was trying to catch some fish for dinner and starved to death. Given the “net” and the “river”, he probably deserved it. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Okay, but you should also teach him where to fish.
We found a can of peaches that, by the weight, we thought was unopened.
We were wrong, it was filled with trash, including two condom wrappers and a banana peel. No, wait, those are hand sanitizing wipe packets. What is the guy thinking? Those won’t work. Also, what is a banana peel doing in a peach can? And what happened to the banana? Too many questions.
Okay, it’s Friday, time to see what’s in Chuck’s vest pocket.
Actually, not much. Two halves of gift cards that did not match and did not have enough information to check the balances.
Two tools. At least one drill bit and another item that should be a tool, but without a purpose. We know people like that.
Super chimp. We tore him up and tossed him in the trash. Not very super.
An Alliance Flooring pen. The pen works, so the company must be reputable but we are not endorsing it.
“Non-Endorsement. The Executive shall not in any way, directly or indirectly, at any time during the Restricted Period endorse any Competitive Business or competing product, promote or speak on behalf of any Competitive Business or competing product, or allow the Executive’s name or likeness to be used in any way to promote any Competitive Business or competing product.“
No, we did not read it either.
Saturday, March 5th, 2022 – Riverside Drive
Today was clear and colder, but not too uncomfortable. We removed a roadkill rabbit but found more money.
A dime and a penny. That makes twenty-two cents this week. Not a great week, but better than getting skunked.
On our way down the hill to Riverside Drive, we picked up a bunch of bottles and cans including eight Mike’s Hard Lemonades. We have not walked this route in two weeks, but still. We also spotted a pair of gardening clippers in the ditch.
A little bit of WD-40 and they will be as good as new. Well, maybe not new, but usable.
At the Sammamish River parking lot, we found Mitch’s sign.
His van was no where to be seen, so Mitch must be a man of his word. He may be a litterer, but he is not a liar. He said nothing about removing his sign.
One of the apartment dwellers dumped a headboard.
We left it and will notify the City of Bothell. Why are we the ones that always need to contact them? There are a lot of Bothell trucks running around. Shouldn’t a city employee see something like this and report it? Or, God forbid pick it up?
A tossed needle near a bus stop on Riverside Drive.
It must make riding the bus more fun?
Breakfast!
Two hard-boiled eggs, one for each of us. Wait, it says to keep refrigerated and we don’t know how long they have been out. Oh, well, we didn’t have any salt and pepper with us anyway.
On the freeway onramp, someone tossed a note out the window.
It appears to be a username and password to Consumer Lab. The person tried to scribble out the information, but did helpfully point out that one character was a “small a.”
However, we turned the note over and mirrored it. You can almost make out the username, but the password did not come through. It is a small a, though.
On the way up Brickyard Road, we started seeing bits and pieces of a torn-up note. The pieces were wet, and the ink had run on most of them, but one piece was partly legible.
We hope this wasn’t a high school writing assignment.
Oh, come on.
Really? Someone left a boat anchor for us to carry home? Give us a break.
Things are beginning to get weighty, so we will wrap up another week.
Our take for the week is,
- 22 cents.
- 40 Mike’s Hard Lemonade cans on Norway Hill.
- 1 Drug travel purse.
- 1 Unstuffed stuff bag.
- 1 High School writing assignment.
- 1 Boat anchor.
Trash Walking 