Monday, December 18th, 2023 – Safeway
We’re off to another exciting TrashWalking week. We didn’t find any roadkill but did find some money. As you may remember from last week, Janet lost her favorite tool used to mine coins from her favorite drive-thru. It fell into the crack that she mines the coins from. Today we came prepared with more tools designed to recover the lost tool and we were successful.
During the process, we were also able to recover a quarter, two dimes and a penny, forty-six cents. A nice start to the week.
In the drive-thru, we also found another lug nut.
We’re not sure how you lose a lug nut in a drive-thru. Perhaps they were driving very fast because [are you ready?] it was a fast-food restaurant.
Picked up another one of these.
We always thought these were for people learning to operate a motor vehicle. But it could pertain to golf.
That’s it for today. Guess it wasn’t that exciting of a start to the week.
Tuesday, December 19th, 2023 – Park-and-Ride
We had a slight rain today, and the walk was fine, but again relatively uneventful. We found no money and no roadkill. However, we did find some tools, and not bungee cords.
Okay, the tie-down strap is close to a bungee cord, but it’s not. We’ve found a lot of these in pieces and parts, but this one is the only one we can recall that is in perfect working order. Usually, the rachet part has been run over and flattened. Now we can figure out how these things are supposed to work. The other tool was another drill bit socket. Also in good working order, but these pretty much always are.
At the park-and-ride, we found a moderate mess.
There were several random pieces of trash plus a bag of half-eaten food from Panda Express. Their philosophy is “Where the way we wok inspires a fresh, flavorful combination of Chinese regional cuisine and technique with bold American tastes.” Well, according to these litterers, they are half right. We emptied the mess into the bus stop trashcan. We also found an unopened tube of construction adhesive. It could come in handy, after all, we should all stick together.
On our walks during covid, we seemed to find a lot of neck gaiters. We haven’t counted but we probably have over a dozen. Since then, they seem to have become scarce, but we found one today.
An official Nike neck gaiter, twenty-three bucks on Amazon. At this price, we need another pandemic to increase our finds. Not really, like most folks, we are so done with pandemics, and lockdowns, and masks and…
Wednesday, December 20th, 2023 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
Today we finally had some excitement. We didn’t find any roadkill but did find some money, and not a penny or two.
Yep, a ten-spot across the street from the 7Eleven. A nice addition to our tip jar.
Okay, that was a great find, but this one is downright embarrassing. Chuck found one of those styluses used to manipulate phones or other touch-sensitive electronic devices.
In fact, we both carry one of these because we are routinely wearing gloves that are not conducive to touch-screen usage. So, Chuck decided to take a photo and discovered that this stylus was dropped by him yesterday when he took the photo of the drill-bit socket. He borrowed Janet’s stylus to get a picture of his stylus. Embarrassing.
This was on Juanita-Woodinville Way.
Evidently, someone got an early Christmas present.
Let’s check out the contents of Chuck’s vest pocket.
On the upper left, half a credit card. That’s pretty meager for two weeks of walking. A Seahawks light-up pin that does not light up because of batteries. Of course, we don’t have the right size on hand, but we’ll check out the availability. Then again, given the way their season is going, we may wait until next year to use it. A metal skull, a drill bit that should not have been in the pocket and another small tool that we are unable to identify.
A pair if bent reading glasses and an extra lens in case the sun comes out. Below that some kind of broken dope pipe. We know what kind of dope, but not what he was smoking. A piece of glass that initially looked interesting, but now just looks like a piece of glass. A snap ring and a small piece of a piece of jewelry.
Back to the top, two writing utensils. Then, two key chains, one an EVS keychain bottle opener that is no longer available. We found one on eBay for seven bucks, but it was sold out. Okay, seven bucks, but that’s as low as we’ll go, shipping not included. The other is a souvenir from Awa. Okay, it Might be Hawaii.
A fearful-looking sticker of a Disney Pocahontas. So, who was Pocahontas? According to this article, her real name was “Amonute.” Evidently, Pocahontas was her Disney stage name. Her agent probably came up with it.
A piece of dog jewelry that is supposed to light up, but we have yet to succeed in getting any reaction. A couple of plastic clips and a small poster of Vinsmoke Sanji wanted dead or alive, 330 million. We don’t know what the currency was, but if it is Japanese Yen, it’s 2.3 million dollars. For that money, they could have made the wanted poster a bit bigger.
Thursday, December 21st, 2023 – 160th to 124th Street
Today was a comfortable walk. We found no roadkill and got more money.
We found a penny along NE 160th St. and a dime in the crosswalk of the freeway on-ramp.
We also added more tools to our collection.
Another tie-down strap and, something we have not found before, a Cable Cuff. We didn’t know what it was, but from the name we assumed what it was for. It’s for holding bundles of cables, coiled extension cords, etc. We found a positive review on YouTube.
It shows a car running over a Cable Cuff without damage. However, the one we found was run over and damaged. However, we were able to snap it back together and it appears to be serviceable.
At the park-and-ride, more illegal dumping.
We didn’t look inside so it could be a dead body, a bunch of money, or yard waste. Wanna take a guess which? We left it for the Metro maintenance crew.
People keep dropping perfectly good locks without the keys.
This is such a waste.
We found this in the ditch on Norway Hill.
“Tampering with INKMATE releases ink and could cause injury.” If this is so dangerous, why do stores put them on the items they sell?
Friday, December 22nd, 2023 – 100th Ave NE
We had a light rain our entire walk and just after we arrived home, the skies opened up. We can live with that.
We removed a mouse and a squirrel from the road but found more money.
Janet mined her favorite drive-thru and pulled out another thirty-six cents from the crevasse. And didn’t lose any tools.
We also found another tool.
Yet another saw blade on 100th Ave NE. This is the third saw blade we saw in the last three weeks. Too bad we didn’t see a seesaw to saw.
Very early in our walk, just a block or so down Juanita-Woodinville Way NE, we came across these.
We have been hearing about burglaries in some of the neighborhood and these may be the perps. We would have notified the authorities, but we couldn’t recognize them. [Are you ready for this?] They were wearing masks.
We picked up a mostly-empty box.
It contained the shortest USB cable we’ve seen and a user manual. The Lookah Snail was gone but we didn’t know what it was. Nothing on the box or the instructions, identified what it was for. Weirdly, the box and the instructions had logo,
We are not sure what “original design only” means, but according to their website,
“Lookah Snail 2.0 is one of the best 510 thread batteries for cartridges designed to utilize oil concentrate carts such as Exotic Carts, Smartcart, and other vape carts. It is smaller than most vape pen-style batteries and compatible with most types of 510 thread vape cartridges and is ideal for use with THC or CBD oil carts.”
But we still don’t know exactly what it is.
Saturday, December 23rd, 2023 – Riverside Drive
Yesterday’s rain continued throughout the day stopping toward evening. The overnight temperature plunged to 33°F (0.6°C) and we ran into a few slippery spots and some frozen trash.
The holiday spirit took hold. We had a few folks stop to thank us and wish us a Merry Christmas including two Metro bus drivers. One couple gave us a Starbucks gift card. Overall, it was a cold but rewarding walk.
It was foggy and when the infrared lights of the camera activate in low-light conditions, they light up the water droplets in the fog and we especially liked the light up of the very calm dog’s eyes making him look like a hellhound.
And speaking of rewarding, we found yet more money.
We found a penny on Woodinville drive and a quarter on Juanita-Woodinville Way near the park-and-ride.
We found things in twos today. Two tools.
A drill bit and some heavy-duty zip ties. Okay, calling zip ties a tool may be stretching it a bit, but the TrashWalking judges may let it go in the spirit of the season.
Two kitchen utensils.
A large splatter guard and another pointless spoon in the road.
Two articles of clothing.
A hair band and a knit cap. Janet pronounced the hair band not-fit-for-Goodwill and deep-sixed it, but the knit cap will be washed and sent to Goodwill.
We found this note by the side of the road.
“Dear Vic, if you don’t want golf balls hitting your house, don’t build a house at the end of a f**king driving range. The driving range was here first. Signed – Most Golfers would agree.”
We’re not golfers, but we would have to agree also.
On the freeway on-ramp, we found a heavy-duty dog leash.
Someone probably put it on top of the car and lost it as they accelerated onto the freeway. Sounds like they need a leash for their leash. And, yes, that is ice on the leash.
In the Bothell parking lot, we found someone was screwing around.
We don’t know if it’s connected, but a farther down the road, we found a pregnancy test.
Fortunately, NOT pregnant. We don’t like seeing the type of people procreate who take a pregnancy test while driving and then tossing it out the window.
That wraps up our TrashWalking week. Our take,
- $11.19 Exactly ten dollars more than last week.
- 15 Mikes Hard Lemonade cans.
- 8 Tools.
- 3 Articles of clothing.
- 3 Balls.
- 2 Roadkill.
- 2 Unlocked locks, permanently.
- 2 Curious Raccoons.
- 1 Starbucks gift card.
- 1 Cracked crack pipe.
- 1 Pocahontas sticker.
- 1 Negative pregnancy test, whew!
Have a great week and remember, don’t build a house within range of a driving range.
Trash Walking 