16,000 Cans

Friday, December 30^th, 2022 – 100th Ave NE

This will be a stretch week unless we get weathered out again. Last week, we ended on a Thursday because we wanted to get the blog out. However, we did walk on Friday before we headed off to Kalaloch Lodge to welcome in the new year.

First, Friday’s walk. We didn’t find any money. Well, Janet did find a dime at her secret drive-thru spot, but she lost it down a crevasse.

So still no money for last week. But we did find a tool.

Yes, a socket counts as a tool. A ½ inch socket to add to our socket collection.

The other thing of value was a pair of apple ear buds.

We guess they are worth something, but we don’t have a charger for them, so we can’t test them. Besides, we have tried these before and they do not stay in our ears, so we must be a minority. We should sue Apple for discrimination. We could ask a mil or so. They are a two-trillion-dollar company, they could just buy us off. Then again, they probably have a lot of lawyers on their staff. That’s probably discriminatory too, picking on the little guy.

We did find a rat.

A whirling rat. We’ve seen dogs chase their tails, but never a rat. Maybe it was one of the three blind mice and was just following the tail of the mouse in front?

Finally, a fitting end to 2022?

On to welcoming in 2023 and Kalaloch Lodge, we have celebrated the new year at Kalaloch for about five years before COVID. Kalaloch Lodge is located in the Olympic National Park, the only rain forest in the continental U.S. Kalaloch is situated on the cliffs overlooking the beach. After a two-year hiatus, we decided to venture out and, to make things extra special we took our favorite middle grandson with us, an iffy thing since there is no cell or WiFi coverage there. But it turned out great.

The day before New Year’s Eve we drove the four-and-a-half hours to Kalaloch using the southern route through Olympia and Highway 101, the Pacific Coast Highway. Kalaloch is about 100 miles due west of our house, but the routes to get there are about 195 miles. We checked in and went for a walk on the beach.

Later that night, our grandson suggested a night walk.

We brought along flashlights and got some nice pictures.

The next day, New Year’s Eve, we drove to the Quinault River, up one side, cross a bridge and came back on the other side. There are some small waterfalls along the way.

But the main reason for this junket was to look for wildlife, specifically Bald Eagles.

We saw about ten of them and were able to get a few good shots, but mostly juvenal eagles.

At the bridge, we parked the car and walked across. We usually see two or three eagles here, but none were around today. But on the bridge was some money!

Eleven cents. The week is looking up.

Later the afternoon, we returned to Kalaloch beach and picked up some trash that had washed up including this fishing float.

We also walked down to the local Tree of Life. Not the famous Tree of Life, but the Kalaloch Tree of life.

The tree had a small waterfall form under it and has had the ocean high tides and storms eroding the earth below. However, it has lasted for decades and may last for several more, literally clinging to life. A good lesson for us all.

Monday, January 2^nd, 2023 – Safeway

Back at home, we were anxious to get back on our walking schedule, and the weather, though chilly, was dry. We didn’t find any money but found another rat. This one was not chasing its tail, in fact, it was dead.

Well, we thought we found some money, big money.

But it was only a tossed disposable lighter dressed up like a $100 bill. Yes, that is Benjamin smirking at us.

It’s a long story, but we collect the pop tabs from the beer and soda cans we pick up for charity. Every six months, we seem to fill up a jar with them.

In the last six months, we collected 1.42 pounds of tabs that is equivalent to 1805 cans or about ten per calendar day. Since our first count on November third of 2018, we have harvested about 12.5 pounds of tabs equivalent to about 16,000 cans. At the current market price of 45 cents per pound, we have raised five dollars and sixty-six cents for charity. Do we need a life?

Tuesday, January 3^rd, 2023 – Park-and-Ride

Today was a little more interesting. We removed a fresh opossum from the road and found a quarter at the park-and-ride.

We also found a urine bottle at the park-and-ride.

Maybe the guy left us a tip. The quarter, not the urine.

At the freeway offramp where the guy plays a guitar, we found more unappreciated stuff folks gave him.

Three unopened bottles of water, and unopened can of Dr. Pepper, a snack bar and a baggie with a Colgate toothpaste box and a waterlogged bible. It would be interesting to know what he kept. You would think that money would be high on the list, but we did once find a dollar bill here.

We also found a couple if items of clothing.

This is like a wrap-around neck gaiter the covers your face.

Then on Norway Hill near our house, one dog’s shoe. What do you call it when you by shoes for a dog? Two pair? A quadruple? Anyway, we found one-fourth of a quadruple. We decided to place it in sight on the road so the dogwalker might find it, but just then the streetsweeper went up the hill so we decided to wait.

What was going through the dog’s mind when it lost a shoe? “Wait, wait, I lost my shoe,” or “Well, that’s one I got rid of?” Since the walker did not notice, we are guessing it was the latter since the dog did not put up a fuss.

Wednesday, January 4^th, 2023 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE

The weather is holding at near 50 °F (10°C) which is fine with us. And the money keeps rolling in which is also fine.

Okay, only one penny, but after the last few weeks, this is like a gold rush.

We also found a tool.

Yes, another socket, a 12 mm this time. We would like some more interesting tools, but if this is all you have, just socket to us.

Thursday, January 5^th, 2023 – 160th to 124th Street

This is the day we clean up the road that is near the I405 offramp, and it was amazingly clean. We didn’t find any evidence of 14-Hands wine.

However, in the Chevron Station driveway we found this.

Guess someone went the Extra Mile.

More articles of clothing to add to the Goodwill pile. A tossed cap.

Yes, the weather is warm, but it’s too early to toss out you warm-weather clothing.

Also, this. Another cold-weather face covering. However, we cannot argue with tossing this one out. “Hey, Fred. Can you hand me that axe over there?… Never mind, I’ll get it. ” On further investigation, it is a Halloween mask.

Chuck kind of liked the look, but Janet would have nothing to do with it or him. She’s no fun.

Along our route, we found several of these.

Sheets from a last year’s desk calendar being methodically littered. The person is only in October. It’s going to be a long start of the year. The cartoon strip is Pearls before Swine which we have not gotten into. However, we looked at a couple of strips online and they were quite amusing.

More can be reviewed here.

Friday, January 6^th, 2023 – 100th Ave NE

Today was another relatively warm walk with no rain. We found no roadkill but did find money. Janet came out armed with every implement she could think of to visit the fast-food restaurant to get the coins that fall into a crack under the drive-through windows.

She was rewarded with a quarter, two dimes and four pennies, forty-nine cents. This is like a bonanza relative to the last few weeks. So far, we are liking 2023.

We didn’t find any tools today but did find some utensils.

Two spoons in the road. No jokes to be had here. If they were forks, sure, but not for these, unless someone wants to spoon-feed some to us.

An almost-full bag of potato chips.

Wait, not potato chips. Wilde Protein Chips made with chicken breast, egg whites, bone broth and Himalayan pink salt. The guy ate one and tossed them out the window.

Also, some cat food.

Sheba Tender Turkey Entrée. Maybe the cat took one taste and tossed the rest out. It didn’t look that good to us, but better than the pink chips.

A lost license plate.

Using our superior Internet search skills, we determined it belonged to a 2013 Toyota Tacoma truck. Recycled.

And another car part.

We found that this is a device provided by Allstate Insurance that plugs into your car’s diagnostic port to let Allstate track where and how you drive to potentially lower your insurance rates. There are many YouTube videos that like the results and some that do not, including this one. We don’t think that this is a good idea. However, it would be fun to plug it into our car and race around town for a few days to screw the insurance rates of whoever lost this device.

On the way over Norway Hill, we saw a Mike’s Hard Lemonade can way down a gulley and decided to retrieve it.

As usual, you can’t take just one.

Evidence of activities at the Tolt Pipeline.

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

An Eastside Mobile Mechanic business card. So, is that a mechanic who will come fix your car or is it someone that fixes your phone? A Lakeview Smiles Dentistry appointment card with no appointment listed. A slip of paper that had some interesting number on it but turned out to be a part number for a Chevy fuel system part. In a pile of trash, we picked up a “Continuing Education” pencil. How about taking a class in how to not litter?

A couple of rubber bands, a heavy steel washer, a rubber party ring with flashing lights that are still flashing. A United States Postal Service letter opener. Wait, what? Why is the USPS opening our mail?

A short string of pearls, fake, a small snowman charm, a rubber cover of some sort and what looked to be air duster but is really part of a kid’s toy to launch small rockets. We didn’t find any rockets, so maybe the thing really works. A five-inch Zodiac Hole Pocket comb.

Finally, a note” “Really interested in turck [sic] have cash if your [sic] interested in selling it. Please call 206-930-xxxx.” We have not seen any turcks, but we will carry this with us and find something to put it on. Should be interesting.

Saturday, January 7^th, 2022 – Riverside Drive

On the last day of our extended walk week, we found more money.

One penny in the gutter in front of the apartments on Woodinville Drive and the other in the park-and-ride. A nice money week.

We almost found a good tool.

But some vehicle found it first.

Another urine bottle.

The guy really worked to fill this one up to the brim. Yes, we wear rubber gloves.

Another lost license plate.

The second one this week. Again, we used our Internet resources and found it belonged to a Honda. Go figure.

Just past the Freeway overpass on Woodinville Drive, we found that someone had dumped two computers about fifteen feet down a ditch.

Chuck went down and herded them up the hill to the road for later pickup. The computers were old, one a Compaq and the other a Dell. Both had been stripped of the hard drives. The Windows stickers on them showed they were delivered with Windows 2000, so these are over twenty years old. We will pick them up later with the car.

Someone lost an eight-inch truck mirror.

This is what it feels like when the dentist says, “Now open wide.”

A free patio table.

Just add glass. It should only cost about four hundred dollars.

Across from the apartments on Woodinville Drive, we picked up a small cloth bag.

When we checked it out at home, it contained eight, homemade crack pipes made from pen barrels and straws, most of them warped due to the heat. Oh, and one small envelop of sore throat lozenges.

Okay, what is with this. The first full moon of the new year?

Today we picked up six condoms scattered along the way mostly near convenient parking areas. One was found on the freeway onramp. Probably used when the onramp was metered.

That wraps up another week. Our take:

• 89 Cents.
• 26 Mike’s Hard Lemonade cans.
• 8 Balls.
• 8 Condoms.
• 8 Crack pipes, melted.
• 4 Articles of clothing including one dog shoe and one Halloween mask.
• 3 Tools, one broken.
• 2 Computers, old.
• 2 License Plates.
• 2 Urine bottles.
• 1 Bag of Himalayan Pink Salt Protein Chips.
• 1 Letter opener, official USPS.
• 1 Opossum.
• 1 Soggy bible.
• 1 Turck Note.
• 0 14-Hands wine bottles.

Have a great week and remember that finding eight balls, eight crack pipes and eight condoms in one week can’t be a coincidence.

Our New Year’s resolution: more money less litter.