Monday, May 16th, 2022 – Safeway
Off to another thrilling week on the Trashwalking Blog. Or not. We found no money, not a good start, and removed no roadkill, a good start, so things balance themselves out.
Aside from the normal weekend trash, we found two balls.
A tennis ball and a smallish basketball. We find a lot of balls and try to determine which fence they came over, but sometimes it is not obvious. Today we decided to toss them into random yards. “Grace, did you get a dog?” “Marge, do we have a kid?”
We almost found a tool.
A runover bungee cord is at best, a pseudo tool. And the Trashwalking judges rejected it out right, but we are appealing it to the Appellate Court. Hey, it’s a slow year.
Another abandoned bicycle.
We left it to see if someone retrieves it. It is too heavy for us to carry. Wait, we could ride it.
Whoa, we missed this.
A blow-out party at the 7-Eleven. It is the happening place, you know, and it’s like having a bar open all night.
Someone lost this in the middle of the street.
Now nobody will know where their G-Spot is.
Tuesday, May 17th, 2022 – Park-and-Ride
Today was a nice walk, relatively cool with no rain. We removed another small bird and a medium-sized raccoon from the road. But, on the brighter side, assuming you believe that roadkill is not, we found a penny.
It was on the freeway offramp. It was beat up, but no problem, we’ll take it. And we did.
We’ve found several cigars along with the thousands of cigarette butts on our journey.
But this is the first cigar we found still in its wrapper. Okay, it was run over several times, but part of it is still in the wrapper.
Here is a life lesson.
If you lose a hubcap, do not leave it in the bus lane at a park-and-ride. We don’t think Goodwill will be interested in this one.
A cap for our collection.
Okay, it’s purple, so we may need to decide where it belongs. With the Smurfs or Goodwill.
We found pot by the sidewalk.
Well, what else did you think it was?
We love a good game of toss the spare tire over the tree limb.
But it’s really hard getting the tires for the next round.
We came across a bag of garbage at a bus stop.
The crows had ripped into the bag so we picked up the loose garbage and placed the bulk of it behind a traffic barrier. Later in the day, we picked it up and recycled it. It was not really someone’s garbage, it was a bunch of Japanese and Korean food, opened and unopened. We would tell you what it was, but we could not read most of the labels.
Soy Crayons??
We heard that Taco Time has been moving to totally recyclable products, which is very admirable. So are these edible?
We did have a major equipment failure today.
We lost a picker with a cable failure. These are very good pickers and this one lasted eight months. Others we have used last only a few months. Fortunately, we have a backup picker, but we need to order more.
Wednesday, May 18th, 2022 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
Today we got wet. It rained relatively hard for our entire walk, and we returned home with soaked pants and shoes. It was worth it, though, we found another penny.
It was in the gutter near a service station under about a quarter inch of water. We’ll take it.
And we found a tool.
We’ve been over this before. Bungee cords count as tools, the Trashwalking Judges approved it.
Someone lost their key fob and keys near the Safeway Service Station.
They had a small disc on it that appeared to be some sort of tracking device, but it turned out to be part of a quick release for camera straps. Guess it released a little too quickly.
Backtracking to last week, as you may recall we found an old unopened mystery bottle buried in the ground. We finally rinsed it off and were able to see some markings on the cap.
We recognized it as the Pyramid Brewery logo. Narrowing down the search, we were able to match up the label on the Internet.
However, we still don’t know how old the bottle is. Pyramid Brewing is no longer around, but the brand still exists and is brewed in New York.
Thursday, May 19th, 2022 – 160th to 124th Street
Today was much nicer than yesterday’s rain, though things were still a bit damp. No money and no roadkill today. We found a couple of things in the park-and-ride.
An EZ-Pass Card.
Whoa, great. These can have money attached to them. But this one is a reloadable card for a laundromat in Monroe, a town about twenty miles away. It appears the only way to find how much money is on it is by visiting the laundromat, and if we used gas to drive there and found there was money on it, what would we do with it anyway? We have our own washer and dryer. Life is so complicated.
Also, there was this bunny. No, not a roadkill bunny like we normally find.
We did not know what this was part of, but Google Lens zeroed in on it immediately. It is a Korean children’s program called KaKao Friends which has gained popularity in the U.S. The character is named Muzi but we could not locate this exact pen on the Internet. Unlike most of the Muzi pens we found on the Internet that are made of plastic or tin, this one is made of metal . Judging from the prices of the other items in the store, we figure these are worth between $15 and $20 apiece. We should have kept looking for more items.
Near the bus stop, a kid’s shoe.
It was in good condition but only one. “Hurry Freddie, we are gong to miss the bus.” “But my shoe isn’t tied.” “Don’t worry about it, we will fix it on the bus.” Right.
We found a towel on the freeway onramp.
It is a tourist map of Lake Tahoe. But Lake Tahoe, like a lot of California is shrinking. They obviously needed a new towel.
We found a can of Dupli-Color removable wrap for cars.
Evidently, you can spray it on your car and let it dry. It is durable but can be peeled off at any time. The YouTube video is impressive. That sounds great. Our question is, do they have a body spray that makes you look 25 years old again but can be peeled off after you do something stupid? We know our neighbor Steve would buy it.
Friday, May 20th, 2022 – 100th Ave NE
Today we had nice weather with a near cloudless sky. It was light enough that we did not need to use our flashlights, and we still found more money.
Three separate pennies. Mind you, we appreciate the pennies, but some higher denomination coins would be nice.
One of the first things we found was part of a trailer hitch lock.
At least we think that is what it was. It looks a lot like the TowWorks lock. [edit: More about this on Saturday’s walk below.]
Another tool.
This looked interesting. It plugs into a cigarette lighter and has a needle on it. A mobile tattoo kit? But we were disappointed to find that it was part of a car stereo installation kit. A boring voltage detector. We’d rather stick to the tattoo needle story.
Another needle.
This one had been in the bushes for quite a while. We put it in a bottle and disposed of it in our sharps container at home.
We found an almost full can of beer.
It had a small leak and was seeping beer. We opened and emptied it. No, we didn’t drink it, it was Modelo, after all.
Then there was this empty bottle of whiskey.
We were not able to find any mention of this on the Internet, so we don’t know what the story is. The ingredients state “other than standard orange wine with natural flavors and caramel color.” Seems like peanut butter should be mentioned in there somewhere. And what is “standard orange wine?”
Uh-oh. One of Kirkland’s tree tags fell off the tree.
Now they are going to lose count of their trees.
We make it a rule to not stoop for a piece of wood.
But it this case, we went the extra mile… make that foot.
This has been a bad week for Fords. Wednesday, we found the Ford key fob.
Today, we found two lost Ford emblems and a lost Ford fuel cap. The fuel cap was still in the packaging. So the guy lost his fuel cap, went to the store and bought a replacement then lost the replacement. This is no twenty-dollar gas cap, it runs about a hundred bucks.
It’s Friday, time to check out Chuck’s vest pocket.
Another hairband and a “Protect our Pets” wrist band, protecting a cat. A universal lawn mower starter key. Alla’s and Amber’s debit cards. Sophie’s note to fill “Emlly’s” bucket by saying, “Tak yo for playing wit me.” A broken drill bit. A joker playing card that is worth more than the Unlucky Lottery Ticket.
Saturday, May 21st, 2022 – Riverside Drive
Today was another beautiful day to walk, very pleasant. And we found money. Yesterday we bemoaned the fact that we only found pennies and wished for higher denomination coins, and today we found a quarter.
We should have asked for folding money.
Today we found the rubber cap to the lock we found yesterday.
We put it on the lock and sent the image to Google Lens and it found the exact lock on Amazon.
Yet another lost screwdriver bit.
A blue rabbit’s scut?
Wait, we were kidding. There really are blue rabbits?? Our American Blue Rabbits – A Good Life Farm (cosmopolitancornbread.com)
Someone left a box of orange warning triangles that trucks use when they are at the side of the road.
They were too heavy to carry, so we will pick them up later if they are still there.
Under the freeway, someone tossed out an unopened condom.
“Yes, dear, you’re right. Doing it on the freeway is dangerous.” He tosses the condom out the window. “Let’s live dangerously!”
We found two hats today.
A nondescript cream-colored cap and a cap with an American flag. We will wash them both. The cream hat with no personality may go to Goodwill. The other will definitely be added to our found hat collection as the 43rd hat.
These two sections of pipe have been here since some roadwork was performed about five years ago. Since then, people have stashed various discarded items in them.
Today it was a bucked of red stain with wet rags. We used our pickers to lay the rags out so they would dry by next week when we pass this way again. And, yes, our picker pinchers are now red.
On Brickyard Road, we found a smashed pair of sunglasses in a crosswalk. We hope they were dropped and not worn when they got smashed.
Anyway, Janet took the opportunity to take a selfie.
We picked up an Ultra can and there was something rattling around in it. After a bunch of shaking, eight slugs eventually fell out.
The slugs weren’t moving, so they were either dead or drunk. Or just unconscious from banging around in the can.
A Disneyland sand pail.
We took a picture then discovered the bottom was split.
Chuck remembers a risqué version of this song at a USO show long ago, and it wasn’t the one on Sesame Street.
At the park-and-ride, we found a copper-colored can with a chain on the lid and a small fluffy ball on the chain.
We have no idea what it was for. Rabbit soup?
By the side of the road, we saw what looked to be a small piece of glass in the dirt.
It turned out to be an old cell phone, a Samsung Galaxy S5 from 2014. We didn’t even try to revive it. This makes the seventeenth cell phone we’ve found.
Near the end of our walk, we were approaching a guy on the sidewalk when a Bothell police officer stopped and had a conversation with the guy. The policeman continued on his way then returned a few minutes later just as we were passing the guy.
We couldn’t hear the conversation, but thought we heard the word “warrant” as we passed by. A few minutes later, we turned around and saw the guy had handcuffs on and policemen was leading him to the car.
Phew! We were worried the cop saw us jaywalk at the park-and-ride crosswalk.
This wraps up another week of Trashwalking. This week’s take,
- 30 cents.
- 3 hats.
- 2 boxes of soy crayons.
- 4 pieces of Ford.
- 1 Tahoe towel.
- 1 piece of a blue bunny.
- 8 drunk slugs.
Have a great week.
Trash Walking 