Monday, November 20th, 2023 – Safeway
After raining all night, this morning was cold with no rain, but everything was wet.
Including this beach towel which kind of defeats the purpose of a beach towel.
We’ve found several flags on our walks, mostly the Stars and Stripes. But this is the first for this one.
We put it in our flag collection without comment.
Okay, we leave town for a few days last week and this happens.
All right, who broke the tree? We can’t leave you guys alone for minute.
Yes, the egg got a scratch, not like our broken tree!
Okay, as we crested Norway Hill, the sun gave us a rare treat.
Nice, but it still doesn’t make up for the tree.
Tuesday, November 21st, 2023 – Park-and-Ride
This morning was almost a repeat of yesterday including a nice sunrise.
We must enjoy these while we can before everything turns grey.
We found no roadkill but did find some money.
At the bus stop by the freeway on-ramp, someone dropped a dime. Then later, in the park-and-ride, we came upon a mess someone left.
But among the trash was thirty-five cents.
We like it when litterers leave us a tip.
We also found a tool.
A square screwdriver bit. We’re accumulating quite a collection of these.
One of the first things we found was some a piece of equipment that looked to be cable related.
A Corning Optisheath Multiport Splitter 1×8 Optitap Terminal 500 Foot Dielectric Tail. That’s a fancy way of saying a fiber optic eight-way splitter, $309. However, this one’s tail has been lopped off, so probably five bucks, and that is probably what you need to pay to dispose of it.
A destroyed, unidentifiable wheel cover.
We recycled it.
As we were exiting the park-and-ride, a car stopped.
The lady in the car thanked us and said she and her husband both see us often and wave. We thanked her and continued on our way.
We found this on the freeway off-ramp.
It’s part of a paper towel tube with a rubber glove tied in place on one end. Inside, part of the glove was tied to a string and pulled through the tube to the other end. So, it ended up as a tube with a rubber membrane inside. We have no idea what it is for, but someone went to a lot of trouble to make it. Yet another TrashWalking mystery.
Finally, near the freeway, we found this sign.
And someone removed the sign. This is serious. Then again, it might be a Halloween prop.
Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
Today was almost exactly like yesterday, but it wasn’t. We found no money and very little of interest.
Even the nice sunrise was gone.
We did see the first sighting of the Zombie Cat.
It’s the zombie of a robot lawn mower. Before it was a zombie, it wandered under an Amazon delivery vehicle and was crushed. And suddenly it came back to life, probably courtesy of Amazon and now wanders aimlessly in a zombie-like fashion around this yard. We keep our distance.
Fortunately, it’s time to check out Chuck’s vest pocket which was also pretty sparce.
On the left, a Home Depot store credit card with no credit left. It figures. Then a game card for “We’re Not Really Strangers” game. We weren’t familiar with this game. but we found this description:
- 2-6 players
- 2 pencils and WNRS notepads
- 2 transparent Dig Deeper cards
- 150 questions and wildcards
- Warning: Feelings may arise
First, it costs twenty-five dollars and only provides two pencils for two-to-six players. And second, when we play a game, we want to have fun. What fun is it to answer questions like,
How does one earn your vulnerability? Have I earned it? How can I earn more?
Why would anyone want to sell there vulnerability anyway? We don’t get it.
An unopened packet of “The Best Hot Sauce on Earth.” Wow! We’re putting this in our safe deposit box immediately.
A nice Scorchi Cigar lighter, fourteen dollars on Amazon.
Only ours has been run over and wouldn’t light.
A handle that has been run over and we don’t know what it’s for, so we don’t really know how to handle it.
A couple of writing instruments, mostly usable, a hair band and three coins from LivingWaters.com. According to this site, these coins are worth ten bucks apiece. Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, we’ll go to the bank on Friday and see what they say. Hopefully better than they said about our one-hundred-dollar bill.
Finally, there is the piece of plastic.
“Wildlife Committee of Washington.” Fine, we are all in for wildlife in Washington.
After some research, we found this was a gun safety feature to show a weapon is empty.
So, you put this in to let the wildlife know when it’s safe to move?
Thursday, November 23rd, 2023 – 160th to 124th Street
Today was cooler than yesterday, but not uncomfortably so. We removed a roadkill rabbit from the freeway off-ramp, and we found money all along our route.
First, there was a penny at the park-and-ride, then thirteen cents where someone else had emptied out their car. We got two more cents at the 7Eleven, another penny about a block down 145th Ave and finally, a nickel another block or so on the opposite side of 145th. Twenty-two cents the hard way.
We also found a tool.
It looked to be in good condition, but on closer inspection, the very tip was broken off. But it’s a Craftsman with a lifetime guarantee. All we need to do is take it to a Sears Store. But going to the nearest Sears Store requires fifty-mile round trip. It will go into our broken tool collection.
An unopened Rockstar Energy Drink.
Thanks, but we’d rather take our caffein in our morning coffee. In fact, coffee has more caffein per ounce than Rockstar. And this stuff is expensive, $3.29 at Safeway, whereas coffee is less expensive. Well, maybe not a Starbucks.
We found the printout of a Google map with a route from Puyallup Washington, about forty miles south of us to Port Angeles in Northwestern Washington.
If they lost this where we found it, they were already forty miles off course.
We picked up a combination baton and flashlight.
Unfortunately, it had been run over so now was only a baton and more than we would want to carry. It got recycled.
We saw something staring out of the leaves across the ditch on Juanita-Woodinville Way.
It was Kung Fu Panda, twenty bucks on Amazon. It cleaned up nicely, so we’ll let it go for ten bucks. Let us know.
We walked into a school parking lot to get rid of some fallen signs in the dumpster. On our way out, we met a man who began singing “I finally meet the famous clean-up people every day…” and transformed to talking.
He said the sees us by 7Eleven at 5:00 am on his way to work and that our efforts are appreciated. This is the second nice thank-you we received this week and the first singing one ever.
Friday, November 24th, 2023 – 100th Ave NE
This morning was clear and below freezing. We unstuck two squirrels from the road and found more money.
Another quarter laying along Juanita-Woodinville Way. And, for the record, it was not stuck to the road.
We picked up another tool.
It was only an 8 mm socket, but it still counts as a tool.
The only other thing of interest we found, or cared enough to remove our gloves to deal with was a ball.
But it turned out to be a balloon which we dispatched with a utility knife. Although balloons are inclined to pop easily when you don’t want them to, they can be quite stubborn when you want to fit them into you trash bag.
Saturday, November 25th, 2023 – Riverside Drive
This morning was very cold, dropping to 26°F (-3.3°C) during our walk. We removed two roadkill rabbits and didn’t find any more money. That means our total for the week is ninety-two cents which is a nice money week for us. In fact, if you discount the couple of nice paper-money finds, this is the most change we’ve gathered in eleven weeks.
We did find another tool.
A Craftsman 1/4th-inch socket extension and at 1-inch long, it’s the shortest socket extension we’ve seen.
Tis the season. The Iron Man has the Christmas spirit.
Don’t let the candy cane fool you. There is a sword in his left hand.
At the end of June, someone dumped a sofa and some yard waste at the Sammamish River Access and it was reported to King County.
The trash sat and grew as others took the hint and randomly dumped stuff. Today, we found that the barriers had been moved for some construction work, but the trash, including the sofa is still there. We’re sure after the work is complete, the barrier will be replaced, and trash put back in place.
Across the street from the apartments on Woodinville Drive, we found a urine bottle.
Then, on the apartment side of the street and unopened water bottle.
Probably the refill for the next urine bottle.
On Brickyard Road, we picked up an errant wheel cover.
A Nissan, not a Toyota. It looked to be in good condition, so we left it in plain sight so perhaps the owner might see it. This rarely works, though. We will probably pick it up for good next week.
We thought we saw another roadkill, but is was a piece of clothing, frozen solid.
When we got home we put it in the sun to thaw out.
It was a pair of Victoria’s Secret Pink pajama bottoms. There was also a pair of women’s panties inside. We can guess why she probably took them off, but you’d think at these temperatures, she would notice that she wasn’t wearing any pants.
That wraps up another TrashWalking week. Our take this week,
- 92 Cents.
- 10 Mikes Hard Lemonade cans.
- 5 Roadkill.
- 4 Tools.
- 2 Nice sunrises.
- 2 Wheel covers.
- 2 “Thank-yous”, one singing.
- 2 Articles of clothing, frozen.
- 1 Urine bottle.
- 1 Zombie cat.
- 1 Kung Fu Panda.
- 1 Broken tree.
- 1 Lost map from a lost person.
Have a great week and don’t forget your pants.
Trash Walking 