Monday, October 9th, 2023 – Safeway
The week started out on the right foot, literally. The weather was perfect for walking, we removed a roadkill mole from the street, and we found some money.
A quarter and a penny at Janet’s favorite drive-thru and another penny at a service station. In the first day of the week, we doubled last week’s total.
Someone tossed out his discharge papers from a local behavior health hospital.
He must not have agreed with the psychiatrist’s prognosis.
As we crested Norway Hill, the sun was putting on a show.
It was almost a perfect walk. A little more money would have been perfect.
Tuesday, October 10th, 2023 – Park-and-Ride
What a difference a day makes. Today we found no money and no roadkill. Also, it drizzled on us for about half the walk and when we reached the top of Norway Hill, here is what the sunrise looked like.
On the freeway offramp, a urine bottle.
Not sure filling one of these while driving down the freeway is a good idea.
Someone lost their license plate.
According to a records search, it belonged to a 1993 Ford Ranger pickup truck. When we found our first license plate soon after we started walking, we returned it to the DMV. They thanked us and said they give them to the boy scouts to recycle. After that, we cut out the middleman and just recycle them.
A Foot Joy golf accessory.
But it’s a glove, shouldn’t be called a hand joy?
At the park-and-ride, someone left a big mess.
It was spread over two parking spaces and the bulk along this fence. The weird thing is they used a perfectly-good shirt as a garbage bag.
It took about ten minutes to clean the area up and we put the lot into the bus stop trash bin. Except for the shirt, that is. It will be laundered and put in our Goodwill box.
In the gutter along Juanita-Woodinville Way, we found a ring.
A smashed one. It looked like an engagement ring with the diamond missing. However, when we examined it later, it looks to be silver-plated copper. We’ll put it in our found jewelry collection anyway.
It’s ALIVE! Last week, we reported on a runover and waterlogged Hyundai Tablet and our failed efforts to revive it. Yesterday, we were getting ready to put it with our electronics to recycle but decided to try to charge it one more time and a low-battery charging symbol appeared. We let it charge and eventually were able to get it to boot up.
Of course, it is secured with a PIN and it is now requiring a 30-second wait between tries. There is a place for emergency contact information, but nothing has been entered. Oh well, we tried.
Wednesday, October 11th, 2023 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
It was raining this morning and we suited up in rain gear. It was probably not necessary, but it was cozy. We found no money and no roadkill. But we did find a couple of unopened food items.
A Toblerone candy bar.
The outside wrapper was opened by nature, but the candy bar was still wrapped in foil. We still won’t eat it though.
The other item of food trash was an unopened Bud Light Clamato can.
It was in a bag with a shopping receipt from Safeway. The receipt was dated June 29th of this year. So, after sitting under a bush for three-and-a-half months, is it safe to drink? And would we want to?
Yesterday we passed small pile of firewood and a sign stating it was dry and ready to burn. Today, the wood was gone but the sign was left.
Really? The sign was burnable too.
It’s time to check out Chuck’s vest pocket which is pretty sparse.
An ID for a roofer lost in the park-and-ride showing he is a worker on a Microsoft campus project and a business card for a DJ out of Atlanta. A runover pencil and eyewear, a fake pearl, two KitKat bars, unopened, a lost reflector and a crushed wire nut. Then, an expired Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife vehicle pass and a receipt with an offer of free flu shots plus ten percent off groceries.
So how are the flu shots free? Did they find them in an alley somewhere? There ain’t no free lunch. Someone paid for the shots. Whenever we receive something for free, the money for it can usually be traced right back to us. For instance, in this link from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT),
“In 2013, the Federal Transportation Act eliminated the Highway Bridge Program as a stand-alone funding source for bridges. Instead, bridges located on the federal-aid system are eligible for funding under the National Highway Performance Program (NHPP). Bridges that are not located on the federal-aid system are provided a separate set-aside in the Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) program.”
Okay, that sounds good, but where does the Federal Government get the money to give Washington State?
Thursday, October 12th, 2023 – 160th to 124th Street
The weather this morning was cooler and foggy, but without any rain. Again, we found neither money nor roadkill.
The first big trash of the day set the tone for the walk. At the start of the walk on 112th Ave NE, were two large bags of trash including two half-consumed energy drinks.
Perhaps if they finished the energy drinks, they would have the energy to carry their trash to the trash can.
At the park-and-ride, another bag of trash including several empty marijuana tubes and an unopened toothbrush and Hershey’s bar.
Finally at the continuation of the Tolt Pipeline across the freeway, two more bags of trash.
These contained random household trash plus thirty Keystone beer cans. We came back with the car for these.
On 116th Ave NE a couple of lost soles.
On the left was a complete shoe that had been buried in the ditch. The recent rains must have exposed the shoe, and we pulled it out. The one on the right was found by the side of the road and was definitely new since last week. Neither will be going to Goodwill.
We found a set of keys along NE 160th Ave.
The key fob is unique and looks to be three dimensional, but it’s an oval disk. Google Lens wouldn’t even try to translate the text, but it was able to match images for us to determine it is a ring from the Lord of the Rings.
When we arrived home, there was a deer across the street under some apple trees.
In the bushes behind her was its fawn. We heard from neighbors that a doe with an injured leg was in the neighborhood. It watched us for a while then turned and did a three-legged trot down the street with the baby following. The injured leg wasn’t slowing it down much.
Friday, October 13th, 2023 – 100th Ave NE
This morning was cool and clear with no rain or fog. Yet again, we found no money and no roadkill. But as we left the house, we spotted the doe with the injured leg and the fawn in our yard.
Again, they did not trust us and headed away up the road. We wouldn’t harm them unless, of course we caught them littering. But that wasn’t the only live wildlife we saw. We have no photo, but on Janet’s side of Juanita-Woodinville Way, we saw a raccoon walking a fence until it decided we were taking too much interest and disappeared to the other side.
We usually find these runover and smashed.
A pristine wired headset for a mobile phone. Since the European Union has decreed that all mobile devices must use the USB-C standard for charging, we figure these 3.5 mm headsets are short-lived. Anyway, we’ll still send it to Goodwill.
Okay we did find a tool of sorts.
A hardly runover role of electrical tape. We’ll add it to our other eight rolls of electrical tape we’ve found.
Along 100th Ave NE, we found a litter jar.
It was filled with chewing tobacco cans and other random trash. Raves for taking responsibility for their litter and putting in a jar. Rants for tossing the jar for us to pick up.
As we reached the top of Norway Hill, another nice sunrise.
Based on our recent experiences, this means we will be walking in the rain tomorrow. We shall see.
Saturday, October 14th, 2023 – Riverside Drive
And guess what? It was warmer this morning and raining, of course. It rained for most of our seven-and-a-half-mile walk, but by the end, the sun was peeking through the clouds. We found no money today and removed a large roadkill frog from the road. We did find some tools, though.
An unused dusting wand with a broken handle on Brickyard Road and another tiedown strap on the freeway onramp.
As we were leaving the house the deer was again across the street.
It was just standing there like a deer in the headlights and this time, it didn’t run away. Later in the day after our walk, it evidently decided that our yard was a safe place.
It ignored Chuck as he took this photo.
Someone’s been busy.
An empty twelve-pack of ultra ribbed condoms. Fortunately, though, no used condoms were around.
As we approached the bridge into downtown Bothell, a lady peddled by on her bicycle.
We’ve seen her off and on for a few years now, and when it’s dark, she has the bike lit up even more than we are. Last year we asked her where she was going, and her reply was “swimming.”
In the parking lot, someone left a coat tree by the dumpsters with two tennis balls stuck on it.
We liberated the balls and left the tree. Why do people feel they can dump their stuff by the dumpsters? Only we should be able to do that.
Speaking of the dumpsters, Janet took a bag of trash and tossed it into the dumpster.
That should be tossed it at the dumpster because she missed the opening and had to go behind to retrieve the bag. She didn’t miss on the second try, though.
This was not music to our ears. Along Riverside Drive and Woodinville Drive we found several music books scattered along the road.
In all, we ended up with a two-inch stack of waterlogged books and sheet music. They must have decided to dance to a different tune or something.
Another unopened beverage.
This time a White Claw hard seltzer.
After the motorhomes were removed from the area across from the apartments on Woodinville Drive, the city put up a new sign.
We’ll see if it works, but we’re not betting on it.
We found clothing today.
At the parking lot in Bothell, we picked up two nonmatching socks and a black cap then a yellow kid’s knit cap nearby. Later, on Riverside Drive, another sock which may have matched one of the parking lot socks, but we had already tossed them. At the park-and-ride, there was a large black bag with a lot of clothing in it. The clothing was washed and folded. When we arrived home, Janet made an inventory of the items:
- 2 hooded sweatshirts.
- 21 short-sleeved t-shirts.
- 4 long-sleeved shirts.
- 17 sweatpants.
- 1 pair of long underwear.
- 1 ugly sweater
Chuck doesn’t know why she threw in her opinion on the sweater. Chuck kind of liked it.
The hood has Santa’s legs like he was going down the chimney. So, Chuck decided to use Google Lens to find more about the sweater and it found this.
Even Google is taking sides. Anyway, the whole lot will be sent to Goodwill. Yes, the ugly sweater too.
With that we wrap up our TrashWalking Week. Our take:
- 48 Articles of clothing, including an ugly sweater.
- 36 Keystone beer cans.
- 27 Cents, but we still doubled last-week’s collection.
- 8 Balls, mostly tossed back over fences.
- 8 Mike’s Hard Lemonade cans, way below average.
- 6 Unopened food and beverage containers.
- 2 Roadkill.
- 2 Nice sunrises.
- 2 Lost soles.
- 1 Ball tree.
- 1 Diamond ring, fake, missing the diamond, also probably fake.
Have a great week and remember, ugly is in the eye of the beholder.
Trash Walking 