Monday, November 14th, 2022 – Safeway
This morning was coldest of the year at a finger-painful 32.6°F (0°C). Even the dogs didn’t like it.
They abandoned two toys. “Fido, fetch!” “Arf, grr, wolf.” [Google translation:] “Are you kidding me, at this temperature? Get it yourself, you have slippers. And get me a dog cookie while you’re at it.” Dogs can sound so much like cats.
Okay, it was a painfully cold walk, but we did find penny!
And we will not get skunked like last week. It still didn’t make up for the cold fingers.
Tuesday, November 15th, 2022 – Park-and-Ride
The cold continued, but we ordered some battery-powered glove liners and they worked! Okay, our fingers were not toasty-warm, and were cold, but not painfully so. We were actually quite pleased with them, though toasty would be better.
But there was a problem. The bulky liners made taking pictures difficult. Chuck came upon a yellow rose and, after a lot of fumbling around, got a photo.
It was out of focus. But, during the fumbling, Chuck accidently got a screen capture of the rose.
It actually turned out pretty good.
This is going to be a learning experience.
The only other thing we found of interest today, well other than four dog poop bags, was an unopened package at the Tolt Pipeline.
We waited until we were home to take the photos. An unopened three-pack of SanDisk 32GB SD cards. Probably worth about eight bucks apiece at today’s prices.
Now, if we only found more interesting stuff, we would have some pictures to store on them.
Wednesday, November 16th, 2022 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
Well, things are going downhill fast. It was cold again and freezing, we found no money and no roadkill.
Here is where things went bad. Chuck was walking down 112th Ave NE and spotted a bag in the ditch.
Okay, a DoorDash delivery bag that was heavy. There was a cup labeled “Chocolate Milkshake” and our standard protocol is to empty the shake into the ditch, pack the remains into our garbage bag and continue. However, the cup contained human excrement. Chuck gingerly packed the mess together and with the picker walked it back a block to a dog poop disposal bin.
This is getting old. Last week we reported on a similar find, and we routinely find excrement at the park-and-ride. We still pick up plenty of tossed dog poop bags. Do we need regulations requiring people to carry people poop bags? We don’t know the answer.
With the cold weather, there has been a lack of interesting things, unless you find excrement interesting. But we did find a couple of disposable Bic lighters and yes, we find a lot of these. But these were glued together.
We recall a poem about this:
- I burn my lighter at both ends;
- It will not last the night;
- But ah my foes,
- And oh, my friends,
- I need some pot to light.
Or something like that.
Thursday, November 17th, 2022 – 160th to 124th Street
Okay, a bit better this morning. Still no money and no roadkill, but the temperature was a bit warmer at 34°F (1°C). It doesn’t sound like much, but it made a big difference.
At 116th Ave NE the stretch of road near the freeway offramp, another urine bottle.
Okay, we get it. It’s probably challenging to fill while whizzing (pun intended) down the freeway. Emptied and recycled.
We also found this on the same stretch of road.
Two black condoms and a Kleenex. Even harder, and more dangerous to use on the freeway. But two condoms? Did they pull off for some extracurricular activity, fill up the car then decided they still needed some exercise?
We don’t know.
But if they did, they forgot their gas cap. Which is perfectly understandable considering the circumstances.
We did find some loose clothing along our walk, but they were not near the freeway, so probably not involved with the “no rest stop” activities.
A knit cap and a large sweatshirt. The sweatshirt looked to be soiled with some paint, but it was only frost. Did we mention it was cold?
We came across a large piece of metal.
Chuck immediately recognized it as a broken engine cylinder and piston. After some research it appears to be like a Detroit Diesel cylinder and piston. We carried it about a block-and-a-half to a recycle bin and dumped it. We guessed it weighed about ten pounds. The kit shown on the right had a shipping weight of eighteen pounds, so our guess is not far off.
Friday and Saturday
Friday, the temperature dropped to 29°F (-2°C) and Saturday was not much better at 31°F (-0.6°C). In both cases, we wimped out and did not walk. However, someone lost a lunch box near our home that we walked down and picked up.
A baggie of cracker crumbs, a half-eaten sandwich and a stick of gum. Oh, well, guess we still need to get a turkey for Thanksgiving.
Well, we still have whatever is in Chuck’s vest pocket.
Not much, actually given that we cancelled two days. One of the first things found was a small square piece of metal with what appeared to be glue on it. It turned out to be part of a compact with some makeup still in it. So, everything else had a pink tinge to it. Below is what appeared to be a finger ring, but on closer inspection appears to be some plastic bushing. To the right is a pinkish playing card some joker left for us.
Below the ring is a Mitsubishi car emblem. It’s pink also, but that is the real color. To the right of the emblem is a hard-to-see marble, not pink enough and a spider-shaped zipper pull, also tinged pink. Also, a ruler that was only six inches and did not measure up. Yes, it is green, but is still tinged with pink.
Then, there is the sloganed bookmark. “Attitude is Everything, Play Hard, Do It, No Excuses and Think Pink.” Okay, we added the “Think Pink” because, it was tinged in pink.
Finally, on the right are two receipts. The one on the left was found earlier this week, hence the pink tinge, and the one on the right was found a few weeks ago. Both were in the McDonalds litter we picked up down the hill. Both of the receipts are from the same McDonalds in Woodinville and purchased within an hour-and-a-half, though on different days. There are two more bags dumped that we were not able to pick up because of the weather. We will keep collecting the receipts until we might track down the litterers. And yes, we need to get a life.
Okay, this ends our shortened walk week. Our take:
- 1 Penny. Okay, better than last week, but really?
- 5 Mike’s Lemonade cans.
- 3 32-GB SD cards.
- 7 Dog poop containers.
- 2 People poop containers.
- 2 Balls added to our ball collection.
- 1 Yellow urine bottle.
- 1 Double-ended lighter.
- 1 Diesel piston.
That’s it. Hopefully, better material next week, but don’t count on it.
Have a great week and remember, don’t eat yellow snow and don’t drink yellow, well, you know…
Trash Walking 