More Bad Signs

Monday, August 22^nd, 2022 – Safeway

No walk today as we were returning from a wedding. The wedding was held in a state park not far from the small town of Montesano, Washington. However, we went to three stores and found a total of four pennies in the parking lots. We need to spend some more time in Montesano. The place is a gold mine.

Tuesday, August 23^rd, 2022 – Park-and-Ride

Today was cooler than it has been in a few weeks at 59°F (15°C) which made for a very comfortable walk. We removed a small bird and an opossum from the streets, but we found some money.

On the freeway onramp, a very beat up penny. Then in the park-and-ride, two dimes and a quarter. They were all in separate locations of the parking lot. Finally, another penny imbedded in the tar that we extracted. Forty-seven cents. Not a bad start for the week.

The road closure sign is still having issues.

The guy who knew how to turn it on must be on vacation.

Two bungee cords today.

Scratch that. One tarp strap and one bungee cord. The bungee cord was in good condition, but tarp strap was missing a hook. We would normally toss this but realized that we have picked up a lot of hooks. We will replace the hook and put it in our strap/cord collection.

An unused push-on lug nut cover still in the bag.

A typical 18-wheeler has, duh, eighteen wheels. However, only ten have lug nuts. And each wheel typically has ten lug nuts. So, an eighteen-wheeler had one hundred lug nuts. This guy probably bought a 100-pack of lug nut covers and discovered one of his lug nuts was missing. Or, he had all the lug nuts, but one cover was missing. We think that covers it, you big lug. Yes, you need to be old to get that.

Besides the money at the park-and-ride, we found a lot of trash.

Far too much for us to handle. If the metro were smart, they would shut off the back lot because it is mostly used for parties and to dump unwanted stuff. The front lot, which is much more visible remains less than five percent used. But we are talking the government here.

Also, in the park-and-ride,

Lemon Drops Candy. We did not partake, but because of the number of candies, we used our gloved hands to pick them up. We ended up with sticky gloves, sticky picker handles, and ever-so-lovely-smelling garbage bags.

Finally, behind some bushes we found a tent along Juanita-Woodinville Way.

It was too big to carry, so we came back with the car to pick it up. We didn’t fully open it because the ends of the tent poles were rusty, so we put it in the Goodwill pile. Let them deal with it.

Wednesday, August 24^th, 2022 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE

Another good morning for our walk, and evidently everyone was in a good mood. We had several honks and headlight blinks and a guy going over the hill thanked us and told us we were an inspiration. However, he didn’t get out of his car and join us. Then at the coffee stand at the Shell station at 100^th Ave NE and Junita-Woodinville Way, a guy waiting for coffee called Janet over and welcomed her back, referring to her knee issues a couple of months or so ago. Then another guy came out of the Safeway parking lot across the street and pulled into a side street we were crossing.

He gave us a Starbucks gift card saying when we finish, to have a cup of coffee on him. Very nice. We thanked him but realized that we will never be finished until we can’t do our walks anymore which, we hope, will be a very long time.

Of course, we could use it on one of our birthdays. The judges do not allow us to count this as found money and we didn’t find any today. But we needed to remove two small birds from the road.

Come on, guys, how hard can this be?

Yep, dark road closure sign again.

At the KinderCare, we picked up several toys outside their fence including this toy car.

Chuck thought it was pretty cool, but after a short argument, we ended up tossing all the toys back over the fence including the car. But if it ends outside the fence again, Chuck’s going to keep it.

Week 14 and no gypsy moths in sight.

However, an atlas moth was spotted a few miles away in Bellevue this week.

It can have a ten-inch wingspan. Guess they need to get some bigger accommodations for these moths. There is that ADA thing, you know.

As we approached home, there was this in the grass.

It looked a bit eerie as we approached until we determined it was a ball-shaped dog toy. Too bad. We thought we could chalk up another roadkill.

Thursday, August 25^th, 2022 – 160th to 124th Street

This morning was warmer and more humid which was a bit uncomfortable, but not too bad. We also found some money which made up for the humidity.

Thirty-five cents in the parking lot and another penny on the freeway onramp. Between the gift card and the change, we are having a pretty good week.

Along 112^th Ave. NE, a utility trailer has been parked and we’ve passed it several mornmings now.

Today the door was opened, and we saw that the trailer was empty. We are thinking that the owners purposely left it unlocked because it was empty. If they had locked it, some miscreant, probably the one who opened the door, would have broken in causing damage. We didn’t touch it.

Ok, this is a little better, we guess. It’s not blinking, but at least it wasn’t dark.

They need to change the language from Klingon to English, though. At this rate, the project will be finished before they get the sign right.

As we approached the end of 112^th Ave NE, we saw a couple pushing a laden cart along the street.

They were carrying a small flashlight and the cart didn’t appear to be a grocery shopping cart. They were heading the same direction as us, and at one point, something dropped off their cart and they backtracked to pick it up. They kept up a pretty good pace and didn’t slow us down too much. At the park-and-ride, they veered up the first entrance and looked to be headed for the main freeway bus stop, but we lost track of them.

We did find another Toyota wheel cover.

We have found several Toyota caps before but this one was very heavy, no plastic at all. The clips that held it on were in bad condition, so it got recycled.

On our newest route, 116^th Ave NE., yet more 14 Hands wine bottles and cans.

Three bottles, one broken, and only four cans. No used condoms either. These guys are slacking off, or maybe their girlfriends are out of town.

Someone cleaned out their car.

A bunch of random trash including several Fortnite trading cards and a book of checks for Terry from Wenatchee. We did a search on the name and found a post, “An East Wenatchee man is charged with methamphetamine possession after investigators allegedly found more than three and a half ounces of the drug in his home.” Great, now he is here.

Ok, we don’t know what to say about this.

Yes, we have used the fork-in-the-road joke several times. But two forks in the road pointing different directions? Who knows? The Tines They Are A-Changin.

Friday, August 26^th, 2022 – 100th Ave NE

This morning was about the same as yesterday, warm and humid, but things should be cooling off a little, but hopefully not too much. No roadkill to remove and we did find money.

Two cents. Slightly better than removing roadkill. But the penny on the left is a 1953 San Francisco Mint penny. Checking the value on this site, even though more of these coins were minted in San Francisco, their value is more than the Denver or Philadelphia minted coins. In good condition, they are only worth two cents. This coin is worth three cents. Then there would be an argument as to whether the coin is even good condition after lying in the street. But a word of warning, one is advertised on eBay for seventeen-hundred dollars. There’s a sucker born every minute. We’ll put ours on eBay for only two-hundred bucks.

Okay, the sign has changed since yesterday, but it appears to still be in Klingon.

We only know a little Klingon, but yesterday we think the sign said, “Road closed ahead.” Today, it appears to read, “The destruction of the Earth is imminent.” Or maybe it’s “Where is the nearest restroom?” The Klingon language can be difficult.

We found a pair of pliers.

But the judges disallowed it. We argued that the pliers had very small handles, but they wouldn’t buy it. Maybe we should try bribery, but two pennies probably wouldn’t cut it.

It’s Friday, time to check out Chuck’s vest pocket.

For the first time in about four weeks, no card from the Amazon Security Engineer. He must have tightened up his security. A card from the Tinte Winery advertising their Malbec wine. Janet and her wine friends visited there this week but did not have this wine. Guess she will need to revisit.

Desiree’s receipt from Papa John’s Pizza. Not to mention that it was littered, but she tipped two dollars for a $23.76 purchase, slightly under ten percent. She then totaled it to $25 even. So, she tipped $1.24 on a bill of $23.76 or about a 5.25% tip. Cheapskate.

Then, a Washington State Lottery scratch-and-lose card. This one was patterned after the Mexican Loteria. We recently traveled to Tucson, AZ and visited a brewery. They were playing a Loteria game, and we joined in. On our first game, we won a five-dollar gift certificate at the bar. We paid part of the bill with the certificate and left. So, we had high hopes for this lottery ticket. Nothing.

A tag that said to Google Pat Rzany and we did. We got a few hits, but nothing interesting. The tag for Vic’s house key with no key. So, tag the key so you don’t lose it, but you lose the tag. A domino, the perfunctory hair band with a puff ball, and one earbud.

There must have been a Nerf turf war because we picked up six Nerf bullets. We think the green ones are hollow points. They leave bruises.

Saturday, August 27^th, 2022 – Riverside Drive

This morning was the coolest it’s been in a long while and made for a very comfortable walk. We removed a snake and a bird from the road, but we found more money.

A penny along Brickyard Road. Someone left us a tip of sixteen cents on the trash can in the dog park on Brickyard Road. We appreciate it. Then two more cents in the park-and-ride for a total of nineteen cents today.

We also had some rain today, but there was very little.

So, we found a very little umbrella. Sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves.

We found some clothes today.

A tee shirt that looked to have been used for a grease rag and got tossed. Then someone got their socks knocked off. They look pretty comfy. They might not make it to Goodwill.

We found an empty glasses case and dropped it in our recycle bag.

Later when we were consolidating the recycling, we felt something in the case. We pulled out a plastic bag of white crystals. We don’t know what it is, but we’re pretty sure it isn’t salt. Suppose we could taste it to be sure.

On the freeway onramp, a pair of glasses frames.

We normally find cheap readers, but these are prescription frames, though the lenses are gone, so they may as well be readers.

At the park-and-ride someone left a big Dick’s Drive-in mess, and the crows were having a feast.

At one point, we uncovered an uneaten hamburger then turned to pick up some more trash. When we looked back, the hamburger was gone. That was going to be our lunch. Hope they’re happy. It’s certainly nothing to crow about.

Across from the apartments on Woodinville Drive, we saw a car part.