Monday, October 23rd, 2023 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
Today was cool and dry. We layered up and it made for a pleasant walk. Like the start of last two weeks, we came across no roadkill but found money on the first day of the walk, but we seem to be finding less each week.
You guys are not even nickel-diming us, you are only nickeling us.
We found a small Styrofoam pumpkin with a bite taken out of it.
There is one very pissed-off crow out their hacking up Styrofoam beads.
Balloon day!
Scattered along Juanita-Woodinville way were several balloons, mostly white, but one clear one, which we haven’t encountered before. Perhaps these were taped to a newly-married couple’s car who were anxiously speeding toward their honeymoon. We dutifully popped them and put them in our trash.
We also found this on Juanita-Woodinville Way.
No, it’s not another balloon, it’s exactly what it looks like. You don’t think it came from the wedding couple’s car, do you? Maybe they were too anxious.
Tuesday, October 24th, 2023 – Park-and-Ride
Okay, who’s the wise guy?
Yesterday, we complained about being nickel-dimed with no dime and today we find a dime. Very funny, NOT. And we had to remove a roadkill opossum, the forty-third since we’ve been keeping track.
At the apartments on 112th Ave NE, we came upon a really bad parking job.
Either this guy needs a good set of curb feelers or a late night at the bar was involved. And if you are too young to know what curb feelers are, look them up.
At the freeway exit where a guy often sits and plays his guitar, we found a bag that some good Samaritan gave him.
It contained some other contents that were very rank and an unopened can that, from what we could tell was something from Chef Boyardee. Okay, we might understand why he left it. We carried it home and put it in our garbage, but it ruined our four-month-old trash bag and we dumped it too.
A few weeks ago, we found the contents of someone’s smashed CD case, nothing playable. Today we spotted a mostly-hidden CD.
Cat Stevens, “Foreigner”, and, after some clean-up we played it. Good music, but who uses CDs anymore. Perhaps that’s why they tossed it.
At the freeway onramp, we found a very nice trailer pin.
No sign of the trailer, though.
As we approached our home, we found a tied-up grab-bag of what appeared to be trash.
When we got home and opened it, we found that it was trash. What did you expect we’d find, another dime?
Wednesday, October 25th, 2023 – 100th Ave NE
Earlier, we saw some extra trash on 100th Ave NE, so we decided to switch our normal Wednesday route with Friday. Still, no money, though.
Along the construction zone on 100th Ave NE, we found some workman’s trash neatly tied up.
There were some Brown Bear Carwash air fresheners, some food wrappers, ear plugs, etc. But the guy tossed his OMA paycheck. OMA is the contractor for the road construction. $2,037.36 for a week’s work. That’s about fifty dollars per hour after taxes. Please don’t tell us that his job is to pick up trash during the construction.
We did find a tool today.
A discarded saw blade that does not fit any saws we own, so we recycled it. But it still counts as a tool per our TrashWalking Bylaws.
We picked up a cap.
The University of Washington Medical Center. Wonder what they cure with that? The common cold?
This is very strange to us. Evidently the plans for the construction project require that the telephone/power poles be move closer to the new road?
The old pole is on the right up the bank. The freshly-planted one is the dark one left. We’ll see if both poles remain or not, but just seems weird. But then, it is a government job.
It’s time to check out Chuck’s vest pocket collection.
A VISA card that is so badly runover that it got the chip kicked out of it and a PlayStation gift card that we didn’t bother to check for any credit left. If it does have money left, we’d need to purchase a PlayStation. A Christmas card either early or very late.
Two run-over writing utensils. The top one is a nice Zebra F-701, six bucks on Amazon. An envelop labelled “Fuse” with, surprise, a fuse inside. A multibarreled, bubble-shooting wand and a luggage tag with the inscription “and so the Adventure Begins.” This was wedding swag for a couple’s wedding who evidently planned on going on a big trip. And, no, it was not near the balloons.
Two mismatched runover earbuds. Then there was a small, smashed can.
Bio essence bio-water. We did some research and found it’s an energizing water spray. For seventeen bucks an ounce, it better be really energizing. One of the ingredients is euglena gracilis and according to this NiH article, “Euglena gracilis extract protects from tobacco smoke carcinogen-induced lung cancer by altering gut microbiota metabolome.” Okay, that sounds good. It went on to state, “Extracts from Euglena gracilis have been shown to prevent cancer growth in mouse models.” Wait, what’s a mouse model?
Thursday, October 26th, 2023 – 160th to 124th Street
This morning we found another magnetic student driver sign.
They really need to work on their acceleration.
At the park-and-ride, someone lost a Nike hand warmer.
It’s on Amazon for thirty-five bucks. It would be nice to use on our cold morning walks, except our hands are full holding bags, pickers, and flashlights.
We picked up another urine bottle on the freeway offramp.
It could probably be considered a hand warmer of sorts, but we got rid of it.
We did pick up more money today.
Okay, we thought, the change keeps trickling in.
But then we found this:
It must have been hidden for a while because it was wet and faded, but it is also real, we checked the U.S. Mint site. During our years of picking up trash, we have found a few twenties and tens, and even one fifty, but this is like winning the Powerball Lottery of TrashWalking. We take back all the bad thing we’ve said about you guys being stingy.
Friday, October 27th, 2023 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
This morning temperature plunged to 33°F (0.6°C). We layered to the max including a warm vest, a rain jacket for warmth, neck gaiter and heated gloves. It helped, but it was still uncomfortable.
We did find some more money, nothing like yesterday, though.
One beat-up and bent dime. We don’t mind piling on the points of a record week.
The only other thing of mild interest was a small cloth bag with the name, Kannastör on it. When we searched the name, we found it was a bag for an herb (pot) grinder.
We have found a few weed grinders in the past, but none as nice as these, and to be clear, we only found the bag.
Saturday, October 28th, 2023 – Riverside Drive
This morning the temperature dipped to 30°F (-1.1°C) but we were bundled up with our heated gloves, so it wasn’t too bad.
Around June of 2021, this iron man appeared halfway down the hill and folks started adding to him. We added the red bow tie that we found. Eventually, the stuff started to rot and he got cleaned up, but our bow tie remained.
Today he was decked out for Halloween with spider webs and a mask.
At the Sammamish River parking lot, someone left a nice sweater.
We’ll wash it and, as with most clothing we find, take it to Goodwill.
At the apartments on Woodinville Drive, more discarded furniture.
Two sofas. Such good tenants and citizens. We’ll see if the management takes care of it before we bother the city.
We found another lost car key.
This one has no markings on it to identify the car make and looks like it was ready to retire.
A runner lost one of those self-wrapping, reflective armbands.
He must have been running damned fast.
Seagram’s Ginger Ale.
What the heck does “naturally flavored with other natural flavors” mean?
Thus, we end our TrashWalking week with another unanswered question. Our encounters this week:
- $100.30. A spectacular week and our hourly pay was three dollars per hour each, our highest pay rate yet.
- 22 Mike’s Hard Lemonade cans.
- 4 Balls, about average.
- 2 Articles of clothing.
- 1 Roadkill. Way below average
- 1 Spooky Iron man.
- 1 Unhappy crow.
- 1 Bad parking job.
- 1 Paycheck for much more than we get per hour.
- 1 Urine bottle.
- 1 Anxious wedding couple.
Have a great week and remember, money doesn’t grow on trees, you need to look on the ground.
Trash Walking 