Third Car

Monday, October 16^h, 2023 – Safeway

We started out our week with cooler weather but no rain, which suited us fine. We found no roadkill, but did pick up some money.

The service station gave up eleven cents. Not as good as last week’s start, but we’ll take it, and we did.

Someone lost a car mirror.

“Mirror, mirror on the ground, who’s the fairest pair around?” Not willing to perjure itself, it remained silent.

We found some unopened energy drinks.

Echo Power Blend Gold. We decided to save them for later and it’s a good thing. “Protects against carbon buildup.” Wait, what? This is an automotive oil additive. It still might taste ok, though, and we don’t need any more carbon buildup.

On Juanita-Woodinville Way across from Safeway, there is some construction taking place and they put up one of those small vinyl fences for ecological reasons. Today a raccoon was about to climb over it.

It froze. We froze. A coyote howled in the distance. After about thirty seconds, we ended the standoff and continued on our way. We don’t know what the raccoon did.

Just up from our house, on Norway Hill, there is a very sharp curve marked for fifteen miles per hour, but people don’t seem to believe it. Today as we approached the curve, we saw some fresh tire tracks leading off into the very steep ravine. We backtracked and saw a car about thirty feet down.

This is the third car we have found off the road at this location. The first was a brand-new Dodge Challenger headed down the hill, the second was an older Nisson Leaf headed up the hill and this is a 2003 Infiniti that was heading up the hill. By this time, we knew the drill. Janet called 911 while Chuck made his way down into the ravine to check if anyone was in the car, there wasn’t, and get the license plate number or VIN. As Chuck eventually climbed back up to the road, the police showed up.

While Chuck was down by the car, he took some photos.

He didn’t try to open the door, but the windows were rolled down about a quarter of the way. Inside the could see the center console.

There was at least seventy-six cents in change. It was so tempting, but we left it. It could have made our week.

In case you are bored, here is Chuck’s body-cam video of the incident. The clip is about fifteen minutes long, and much of it Chuck navigating down and back up the steep terrain. Yes, Chuck’s old and slow.

Tuesday, October 17^th, 2023 – Park-and-Ride

Today’s weather was much like yesterday, but our walk was not near as interesting. Spoiler alert: We did not find another car. In fact, we found neither money nor roadkill.

But we did find a real tool.

A combination 8 mm-10 mm wrench on the freeway onramp. It was in great condition, not runover at all. Okay, perhaps a little, but still in good condition.

We found more unopened drinks.

Three Coors Lights, two are still sealed but one was slowly oozing its contents. We gave it a quick death, didn’t drink it but poured it out, and carried the other two home. And yes, we checked. They are not to prevent carbon buildup.

Wednesday, October 18^th, 2023 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE

Today was dry and comfortable, but again, we found no money and no roadkill. We had a chance at some money at the service station, but a car pulled in just as we approached, and we had to divert. Maybe Friday.

We came to another spoon in the road.

We could have left it, but it would probably just stir up trouble. Give us a break, this is not great material to work with. And yes, we’ve used the flatware angle before.

We picked up some instructions for a portable toilet.

Five steps. Okay, but what if you are in a hurry?

It’s time to check out the collection in Chuck’s vest pocket.

Starting with the cards on the left, a ten-dollar Google Play card and we didn’t even bother to check if any money is left on it. Even if there was ten dollars, what would we do with it?

Then there is a referral to a LEAD Program. We looked this up and it sounds like a reasonable program:

“The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) arrest diversion program is a collaborative community safety effort that offers law enforcement a credible alternative to booking people into jail for criminal activity that stems from unmet behavioral health needs or poverty.”

It sounds like it could work, but evidently in this case, it didn’t. The person tossed the card.

A HireQuest Visa debit card. We’ve not heard of this group, but here is their vision:

“HireQuest Inc.’s family of companies—and those who lead them—are transforming the way America does business. From coast to coast, large metro areas to local centers of industry, we are rejuvenating workforces and workforce hiring.

We dream of a future where every person in every community is able to find empowerment through employment.

We dream of a future where business ownership is achievable by everyone who’s willing to work for it.

We dream of a future where every company can scale on-demand.

We dream of a world where work works—that’s the future we’re building, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”

That sounds great, keep dreaming. So how do we get one of these debit cards? Or are we just dreaming?

Continuing at the top, more broken glasses and a hair band. It looks like a Nerf shotgun shell, but it was an unbranded lip balm next to the Nerf bullet.

Below, a smashed set of hearts, and finally a destroyed Apple AirPods charger and the protective cover that was supposed to protect it. Nice try.

Thursday, October 19^th, 2023 – 160th to 124th Street

Today was again a nice day for mid-October. In fact, for mid-October, it was a fantastic day. Not too cold and no rain. On the other hand, we found no money, a bad thing, and no roadkill, a good thing, so they kind of balance themselves out.

We picked up an Adidas hoodie.

But it was runover and ratty and ended up in the trash.

We found someone’s key fob and keys.

It was slightly disassembled, so we put the keys in our lost key collection and recycled the rest, including the battery.

Finally, we found a couple of similar items.

On the left is a small hubcap made of metal. We find a lot of plastic hubcaps like this, so this one is unique. Then here is the item on the right. It looks similar to the hubcap, but it’s larger. It might be connected to construction, but it remains a mystery that it will carry to the recycle center. Overall, a pretty boring walk.

Friday, October 20^th, 2023 – 100th Ave NE

Today was a bit warmer and we had a little mist, but overall, it was fine. We did remove some roadkill today, a rabbit on Simonds Road and a small bird on Norway Hill. We didn’t find any money, but we did find a change drawer.

You know, in case we ever do find any money, you cheapskates.

On the start of our walk, we passed an interesting truck parked in front of the apartments on 112^th Ave NE.

It was not a semi-truck; the front part was a large truck, and the back part was a trailer. There were no markings except that it was from Glendale, Arizona. Later in the day, the truck was gone. Probably aliens. The extraterrestrial kind, not the other. Well, we guess it could have been the other kind.

Someone left us some pizza.

But three slices? There are two of us, but we didn’t fight over it. We passed on it since they didn’t leave us any beer to go with it.

Near Safeway, someone left us a neatly tied-up bag of trash.

Perhaps we should have opened it up and made sure there were no hidden treasures, but our instincts told us it was just trash. If you want to explore it, we will let you know which dumpster to dive into.

We picked up a Complete package of cigarettes.

Except there was one missing. We have opened a trouble ticket with their customer support for the missing smoke. No response yet.

A tossed Seahawks flag.

Okay, they have been stumbling a bit, but it’s too early to throw in the towel. Or the flag.

Today is our day to venture up Simonds Road and for some ill-advised reason we decided to go farther up than we’ve ever gone to some recently-constructed homes. On the way up, we found random trash and when we reached our goal, we found it was garbage day.

There were some inviting trash bins for us to utilize. But the other side of the road was our real target and there was a lot of trash to contend with.

We sincerely hope the guy with his trash bins out didn’t look in them before the garbage trucks showed up.

Saturday, October 21^st, 2023 – Riverside Drive

This morning was cloudy and warmer, but we didn’t have any rain. We didn’t find any roadkill, but we did find money.

Two pennies. The penny on the left was found yesterday when we went to a pumpkin patch with our youngest grandson.

We did pick up some trash while we were there, so the penny counts. The penny on the right is from our walk this morning. We saw a cigarette butt off the side of the road and when we picked it up, we spotted the coin half buried in the mossy ground.

We saw the light lady again this morning with her blinking wheels.

We almost made it through the week without a urine bottle.

But not quite.

A fidget keychain.

Thirteen dollars on Amazon. Okay, it’s not really that expensive, that is for a package of 100 keychains. Thirteen bucks for one would make us fidgety.

On the freeway overpass, we picked up a small Mexican flag with a broken pole.

This should serve to raise a red warning flag to folks doing too much flag waving with a weak staff.

In the park-and-ride, a cracked headlight.

And on the offramp, a cracked crack pipe.

Somebody lost the bottom part of their license plate frame.

We didn’t know what the top part said, but we found one for sale on eBay for twelve dollars plus nine for shipping. Here’s a tip:

If you’re going to sell something on eBay for $12, first remove the $7 price tag from the photo.

That wraps up another exciting TrashWalking week. Our take:

• 22 Mike’s Hard Lemonade cans, above the average count.
• 13 Cents. Perhaps we should start accepting Apple Pay.
• 2 Balls, a very low count.
• 2 Roadkill.
• 2 Unopened Coors, the breakfast of champions.
• 2 Flags.
• 2 Keychains, one fidgety and one not.
• 1 Mirror, silent.
• 1 Set of toilet assembly instructions, complicated.
• 1 License plate frame, overpriced.
• 1 Lost car that they wouldn’t let us keep.

Have a great week and remember to keep on the straight and narrow except on sharp curves.