Monday, November 27th, 2023 – Safeway
The week started out cold at 28°F (-2.2°C) and even though Saturday was two degrees colder, this felt more uncomfortable. We didn’t find any money but did remove some weird roadkill. We removed an opossum from the street, our forty-fourth to date.
But the weird part is we found a white rat near the KinderCare on the way to Safeway. This was the first white rat that we recall finding. Then, on our way back on the other side of the street, we found another white rat about two-hundred feet from the first one. We figure it was a lab rat prison break from a nearby secret government lab trying to determine why white rats litter. Well, duh, rats make litters all the time, that’s why they make good lab rats. Your tax dollars at work.
We found a book by the side of the road.
It was a King County Library book in Russian. Google translated the title as “Divorce.” After some research, the book
“explores the life of a man who maintains an optimistic outlook, believing in seeing the glass as half full rather than half empty. This character is depicted as someone who finds joy in the small things, like a cheap purchase at an expensive resort or the arrival of summer.”
Or a divorce?
We spotted a lost key fob on Juanita-Woodinvill Way,
It was in good condition, and we posted it on a social media site. Alternately, we could stand by the side of the road and keep pressing the button until we see someone’s trunk lid open.
Tuesday, November 28th, 2023 – Park-and-Ride
Today was again cold with no roadkill and no money. But we did find a tool.
Yes, yet another small socket.
Actually, we did find some money today, we just couldn’t keep it.
But it was inside what Chuck calls a wallet, but Janet calls a clutch. That makes no sense to Chuck because a clutch is part of a car with a standard transmission. Whatever it is, it was zipped up and frozen. We unzipped it and saw a thick stack of bills, but we were really after a driver’s license to see if the address was in the neighborhood. We found no license, so we put it in a separate bag to keep it clean and continued our walk.
When we got home, we were able to find a name from a health plan card, and the name was unique enough that we were able to find the person on Facebook and message her. We were ultimately able to return the wallet/clutch to her which made our day. Since we didn’t find any money today, Janet wanted to take a penny from the wallet/clutch as a finder’s fee, but Chuck overruled her. This was the fourteenth wallet we have found during our walks. And, yes, Chuck still thinks it’s a wallet.
Wednesday, November 29th, 2023 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
Another cold, dry morning today with no roadkill, but we did find some money we could keep. On 112th Ave NE someone left a mess.
Food items including an unopened half-gallon of chocolate milk. They also left us a tip of three cents for cleaning up the mess. We thought that was fair.
Farther along our walk at the gas station, we found two nickels just laying by the air pump.
So, our total today is thirteen cents which is not too bad for a day, but not good for the three days of our walk this week. We’ll see what the rest of the week brings.
What’s a TrashWalking week without a urine bottle?
A good week, of course. Strangely, it wasn’t frozen so we could empty it. And don’t even bring up popsicles.
We found a ball.
Ordinarily, we don’t take pictures of balls we find, but this is the first one that we found made of metal. It turns out to be part of a kid’s magnetic construction kit, Magtastik Mega Bloks Magnetic Balls Sticks. However, we know why they tossed the ball. They were recalled as a choking hazard because the magnets could come off and be ingested by a kid and the kid could become a refrigerator magnet. Okay, we made that last part up.
Another half-full can of Reddi Wip.
We find an inordinate number of these. Why? Possible answers:
- Making emergency ice cream sundaes while driving home.
- Doing your hair on your way to work.
- Doing something kinky last night.
Choose your own ending.
It’s time to check out what’s in Chuck’s vest pocket. He collects stuff during the week that is not worth a picture, or he is too lazy take one.
Starting with the cards on the left, another lost and broken credit card. Go Dawgs! A business card for a professional “Licensed Massage Practitioner.” We could use this after some of our walks. Then a business card for a Salon.
Evidently, they don’t like eyes.
Then, this is a new one on us. An invitation to a dog’s birthday party last month. Sorry we missed it, but we were there in spirit. A Lyft gift card. We found this at a bus stop, so the card must have been empty. Then some stickers from Trader Joe’s. We hope these are not real: “Pickle Dog,” “Mashed Potato Cone,” and “Stargazy Pie” with a fish in it.
Then some jewelry. A hoop earring, only one. A Minnie Mouse keychain with a rhinestone glove. A pacifier from an unpacified kid, a couple of unopened cough drops and a small toy.
This is a toy from a Kinder Joy egg and is an LA Clipper’s mascot. If we were the LA clippers, we would sue.
Thursday, November 30th, 2023 – 160th to 124th Street
Today was warmer with a little light rain and mist. Much more comfortable. And we found more money.
A dime in the park-and-ride and a well-run-over penny near the freeway on-ramp.
We also found another tool.
We have not seen one of these before, but it’s a drywall dimpler tool. The idea is that if you are putting up drywall, you drive in a lot of screws. This bit has a collar that theoretically drives the screw in to the perfect depth. If it is too shallow, you have trouble covering the screw and if too deep, it weakens the hold on the drywall. Anyway, we spent way too much time investigating this and now you have spent too much time reading about it.
At the park-and-ride, we found a small pillow.
It’s claim to fame is it’s a tiny pillow.
We can attest to that.
This looks to be the second urine bottle this week.
But it has a straw in it. NOT Smart.
On 116th Ave NE, the road that parallels the freeway, we found a bunch of 14Hands wine bottles and cans.
Eight bottles and about twelve cans. Most rest stops have coffee. This one has wine.
We came across a delivery truck that was having a difficult time pulling into the Jackson’s convenience store.
Each time the lights dimmed, he had to restart the engine. Gatorade must weigh a ton, but not very strong.
We had our first TrashWalking run-in with a police officer this morning. As Chuck crossed the freeway overpass and headed down the southbound on-ramp, there was a vehicle stopped. As Chuck approached, a police officer stepped out.
All was good, he was concerned that Chuck was headed for the freeway.
Nearing the end of our walk, the traffic was picking up. As we were walking past the 7Eleven, an idiot cut the corner by speeding through the parking lot.
He probably gained three car-lengths. If we were another thirty feet along, we would have given him a few 14Hands wine bottles as a remembrance.
Okay, we did have another run-in with a police car.
We picked up a toy police cruiser in the ditch near where we found the Kung Fu Panda last week. Are pandas connected to police cars? After all, they do share the same paint job.
Friday, December 1st, 2023 – 100th Ave NE
The temperature was moderate this morning in the high thirties, but at this time of the year that means rain and we got thoroughly wet. But that’s okay, we prefer wet over cold. We removed a very large rat from the road and found some more money.
Janet harvested a penny from her favorite drive thru. Not much, but better than nothing. Not much better, but still better.
We also picked a new tool.
An eighth-inch drill bit still in the package. We were really happy about that until we got home and found that it originally had two bits in it, so one was used. Yes, we are the tool-is-half-empty kind of people. And that’s our two bits worth.
We came across a mostly-destroyed wheel cover that could still be identified as a wheel cover.
Someone placed it against a post in case the owner came by. What a sick sense of humor. We recycled it.
We found a lost Wix Filter still in the box in the middle of the street.
It’s an air filter, but at this point it was filtering rainwater which it absorbed very well. It also got recycled.
Saturday, December 2nd, 2023 – Riverside Drive
So, last night’s forecast for this morning was for rain, gusty winds and warmer temperatures. Right, like that will happen. Well, it did. The temperature this morning was 48°F (8.9°C) which was ten degrees warmer than a week ago. However, it was negated by the wind and rain. This image shows the weather at its worst.
Two inches of standing water in the gutter and raindrops from every direction. Fortunately, both the wind and rain abated during the last hour of our seven-mile, three-and-a-half hour walk. Needless to say, we were soaked to the gills when we arrived back home.
We removed a rabbit and two large frogs from the road (we think the frogs drowned), but we found money.
Wait, what? This can’t be happening again.
On the freeway on-ramp, we found another one-hundred-dollar bill. It was too good to be true, and it was. The bill displayed “Copy” and “For motion picture prop use only.” You can buy hundreds of these on Amazon for ten bucks.
However, about anther fifty feet farther up the ramp, we found this.
And this one was real. What are the odds? Like, a hundred to one? This almost made up for the wind, rain, and cold. Almost.
We also picked up another tool.
It’s a claw grabber like this one on Amazon:
Chuck has one that’s about fifty years old and it has come in very handy whenever we drop something like a screw down a crevice which happens from time-to-time when working on cars. And unlike this one, Chuck’s has never been run over and still works. How’s that grab you?
Someone left us an unopened beer.
Warsteiner Dunkel, a German dark lager. Thanks, we’re wet and cold right now, maybe later.
Last week, we left a good wheel cover on Brickyard Road and we noted, that it would probably still be here this week, and it was.
So, it ended up in the recycle bin along with the white piece of plastic that had accumulated.
Someone lost their sign.
Hope they inventoried it before they lost it.
Well, that wraps up rather eventful and wet TrashWalking week. Our take this week:
- $1.25 plus a fake $100.
- 7 Roadkill including three rats and an opossum.
- 6 Mikes Hard Lemonade cans.
- 4 Balls.
- 4 Tools.
- 2 Urine bottles, one with a straw.
- 1 Divorced Russian book.
- 1 Key chain.
- 1 Bad mascot.
- 1 Police car, toy.
- 1 Police officer, real.
- 1 Frozen clutch/wallet, returned to the owner.
Have a great week and keep your head above water.
Trash Walking 