Go Ducks!

Monday, May 1^st, 2023 – Safeway

What a difference a weekend makes. Though this morning the temperature was 51°F (10.6°C), about five degrees colder, the high temperature is predicted to be 60°F (15.6°C), versus a high of 82°F (27.8°C) on Friday.

We found no money and removed a rabbit and a problematic rat. The rat got caught on a bush and needed to be retossed.

Chuck needs to work on his roadkill tossing skills.

A bunch of trash outside the KinderCare fence.

They must be teaching their Littering Class again.

We found some loose pins.

With the number of these we find, we expect to find some trailers off in the weeds, but so far, nothing. When they talk about not being able to hear a pin drop, they weren’t talking about these.

We don’t recall finding one of these before.

No, we find lots of beer cans, but not a 22-ounce Sapporo beer can made of steel, not aluminum. We can remember when beer cans were made of steel, and it was a test of a guy’s strength if he could crush the can with one hand. We are guessing that not many could crush this can with one hand. On the other hand, there are Steel beer cans that are oddly, made of aluminum.

Chuck can crush this Steel can with one hand. Okay, perhaps not crush, but at least dent it.

Behind a copse, we found a bicycle missing a wheel. No, not corpse like the spell checker is claiming, copse. A copse is a small group of trees. There will be a quiz later.

The photo looks like the light is on, but it is only reflecting the camera flash. There was also a cooler and a suitcase. Attached to the bike was a note that was difficult to read, but basically said they got a flat tire and are trying to get it repaired and sorry for the inconvenience. We let it be, but wondered how they were riding a bike and carrying a cooler and suitcase. Well, the suitcase did have wheels, but still.

Another discarded urine bottle.

Just think about how someone makes use of a water bottle to toss their urine. Welcome to our world. And you are welcome.

People usually put up garage sale signs and leave them, so we really appreciate it when they remove them after the sale.

We would appreciate it more if they wouldn’t drop them on the ground.

Tuesday, May 2^nd, 2023 – Park-and-Ride

Today was a pleasant walk and we did not come across any roadkill but found some money.

Okay, it was only a single penny at the park-and-ride, and it was a bit moldy, but we will not get skunked this week.

Cheerio!

We found them in the middle of the street like they were neatly-placed, and it must have been recent because they had not been run over. It was tempting, but we didn’t have any milk to go with them so dumped them in the bushes so some critters can lower their cholesterol.

You are welcome.

Some pigs left the mess in a ditch.

Sorry, we apologize. Calling these “people” pigs is an insult to pigs. Fortunately, this was very near the Chevron station, and we put the garbage in their dumpster.

Some free stuff.

Unfortunately, the buckets were all empty, so whatever was free was already gone. We missed out again. Chuck was careful not to kick any of them.

Okay, today was basically a bust except for the moldy penny, but then we found a tool.

It was a foldable utility knife except it was found on the freeway onramp and run over several times. It no longer had a blade and was no longer foldable. So yes, today was still a total bust.

Wednesday, May 3^rd, 2023 – 100th Ave NE

We are leaving today on a trip to Spokane, WA to visit with some relatives so decided to do our 100^th Ave Friday route, but it didn’t help. Still no money but also no roadkill.

On Tuesday, Janet went into the copse where the bicycle was and found that the bicycle and other items were undisturbed. You do remember what a copse is, right? Anyway, today when Janet approached the copse, Chuck spotted a bicycle rider riding from the opposite direction.

After Janet entered the copse, the bicycle rider entered the copse, so Chuck entered the copse. So we performed a three-way enter copse. Sorry, very bad pun.

By the time Chuck arrived, no we will not repeat it, the bicycle rider was explaining the flat tire, and that he was riding his wife’s bike. When asked how he was able to haul all the stuff on bikes, he said “with God’s blessings.” Who are we to argue. Ok, final exam: What is a copse?

At the new “twenty-one”-chair dental facility, we found several liquor mini-bottles.

So, is this part of their economy treatment? “Good morning Mrs. Brown. I see you are scheduled for a filling this morning, so take six of these and stagger back in a half hour.”

We did find some unopened food items.

Two types of candy and a mango. Yes, the mango is technically unopened. So, what’s with this stuff? With the candy, we suspect the new dentist is trying to increase their customer base. But we cannot explain the mango.

Thursday and Friday, Spokane

As we mentioned above, we travelled to Spokane to visit family so missed our normal walks. However, we did do some minor walking to allay our guilt and saw a lot of normal trash. However, since we were on vacation and without our normal walking gear, we did not pick up any trash. We did pick up one tire weight on the sidewalk, but other than that, we let sleeping dogs lie.

One interesting thing we came across was a picturesque spoon and a yogurt tub.

We left it. Not our territory.

During our visit, we may have visited a couple of breweries.

And this may be why the “spoon and yogurt” seemed artistic.

Saturday, May 6^th, 2023 – Riverside Drive

Back to our normal routine, and back to winter. This morning was raining and 45°F (7.2°C). Not really uncomfortable, just disappointing. We removed two rats from the roads but did find some money.

One penny. It was artfully displayed, but still only a penny.

This caught our eye.

An unbroken egg among some rocks. It must be a good egg. Then we picked it up and discovered it was just the shell of an egg. Not only that, but it was also made of plastic, and not like easter eggs that open, just a realistic-looking plastic egg. There was a small hole on one end, so it could be filled with water to give it some heft. We will hang on to this and the next picnic where they have an egg toss event, we are a shoo-in.

On our way down the hill to Riverside drive, we came upon an owl on the ground.

We have often seen owls in the trees, but this is only the second time we have seen one on the ground. It was obviously wary of us, and we gave it a wide berth to keep from exciting it. At one point it spread its wings but remained. We moved on and later in the day while driving into town, we did not see any evidence of it. So, our assumption is that it went upon its own way and is living happily ever after. Or the coyote’s got it. Choose your own ending.

Another lost “new driver” magnetic sticker.

By the looks of this one, the student was probably trying to learn with a manual transmission. Okay, yes, you laugh. But how many of you needed to drive a vehicle with a manual transmission without synchromesh? Can you say “double clutch?” Look it up. Chuck learned to drive with a 1947 Ford pickup truck with a four-speed manual transmission, three speeds with a compound low, plus a Columbia two-speed differential. That is eight gears combinations, double clutching between each gear change. Chuck’s left leg is thirty percent larger than his right.

Along Riverside Drive near one of the Senior Assisted Living homes, we found this.

Yes, a condom. Not only that, a Magnum condom. And you are dreading the time when you need to live in one of these facilities?

Going into the darker side of our walk, under the freeway, we picked up a butt bottle.

This was probably tossed from the freeway above. So, we liken this to dog walkers who pick up their dog’s poop then toss the poop bag. These people keep their cigarette butts in a bottle of water then toss the bottle. And yes, there are some cigarette smoking dog owners that do both. What could be worse?

Even though you don’t want to hear, here is what is worse.

Human poop bags. But we shouldn’t be so negative, this is much better than the unbagged human poop that we often encounter. This was found in an area that the pet owners in the nearby apartments routinely dump their dog poop bags, so it is a natural place for the nearby campers to dump their own poop bags. Okay enough of this Sh*t.

Some other random things we found. This is shocking.

When you buy cheap jumper cables, you get what you pay for. Look it up, we can’t explain everything we find. Besides, this is pretty negative.

A nice pair of bicycle-riding glasses.

They were a bit wet, but otherwise in perfect condition. Headed for Goodwill.

At the park-and-ride, a lost cap.

It was in very good condition, and we would keep it, but it’s not our color. Off to Goodwill.

And Chuck is still having issues tossing things. He climbed up a bank on the freeway offramp to pick up a couple of beer cans. He tried to toss them onto the pavement to be flattened.

One of them got caught on a berry bush. What are the odds?

Since we did not walk yesterday, we will finish up with the contents of Chuck’s vest pocket.

First the cards on the left. Igor’s Visa debit card with an expiration of 2027. A coffee gift card for Gourmet Latte, a coffee stand that we walk by three times a week. Now this is something we can use, but, of course, it has a zero balance.

Julia’s lost middle school ID card. We would have returned it to the school, but it is a bit out of our way. And, as usual more Pokémon cards. We’re going to start keeping these.

We are going to start laying things out on a piece of cardboard since some smaller items get lost in the photo on our driveway. However, at the top, the sunglasses and toys shifted together. Although the pieces of the sunglasses were found on different days and different places, they look like they could be parts of one pair of sunglasses. Too bad we are missing one earpiece; we might have been able to reassemble them.

For the toys, we had to make some assumptions. The Lego wheel is obvious, but the other two are not so obvious. The red ball with what looks like part of a popsicle stick looks to be broken off something. We tried to use Google Lens to identify the purple object and it did identify it as a toy, but an adult sex toy. We don’t think so.

The post-it note is instructing a kid where and when to show up to Evie’s party, and some to-dos.

At the bottom, swimsuit is scratched out and rainsuit and boots is added. This is indicative of the weather we have been experiencing.

To the right of the note are the two letters, R and E. It could mean “Regarding” or “Emergency Room,” but if it is emergency room, we would hope the letters would be bigger and red maybe. But more likely, these were part of a bigger message, “If found, please REturn to…”

A small pin with a cowboy hat and boots labelled “TDC Texas.” When we Googled this, it came up with “Texas Department of Corrections.” Hopefully that is not what they use to identify prisoners. And what are they doing here? An unopened piece of Andes chocolate-mint candy, a small jar with unknown residue in it, and a clothes tag for a 360-degree tummy control skirts which is strange since most folks’ stomachs are less than 180 degrees. But perhaps we are being too literal.

At the bottom is a fake bill commemorating the coronation of King Charles III. Coincidently, it was found today, the day of the coronation, on the freeway onramp. No, the bill was on the onramp, not the king.

Back to the top, a butterfly made of leather. This could commemorate the merging of the bands Leather Wolf and Iron Butterfly to form the heavy metal band Leather Butterfly. No, we made that up. We don’t know what it is for.

Then a vending machine coupon worth a dollar, but we don’t know where we can use it. We tried to get the TrashWalking judges to give us a dollar credit toward our money finds this week, but they wouldn’t even acknowledge us.

Finally, in the bottom corner, a student’s Latin writing assignment.

We don’t know Latin, so we fed it to Google for translation:

We think that either the student or Google needs to brush up on their Latin.

With that, we end our abbreviated walking week. Our take,

• 2 Cents. You guys should loosen up with the change, but that’s just our two-cents worth.
• 4 Mike’s Hard Lemonade cans. Down yet again.
• 4 Roadkill, one tossed twice.
• 2 Balls.
• 1 Owl, live.
• 1 Beer can, steel.
• 1 Beer can, hanging.
• 1 Copse.
• 1 Bottle, urine.
• 1 Bottle, butt.
• 1 Human poop bag.
• 1 Miniature adult toy.
• 1 Bad Latin translation.

Have a great week and remember, Go Ducks!