Cat Crap?

Monday, February 12^th, 2024 – Safeway

Last night we checked the weather for this morning, and it looked promising: warmer and cloudy. But by this morning it had changed its mind to warm with light rain for an hour. Well, it was warm, and the rain droplets were light but there were a lot of them. So much so we turned back after about a block to get Janet a visor to wear under her hood.

We didn’t find any roadkill but did find some money.

Chuck found a shiny nickel and Janet found two dimes and three pennies at her favorite drive-thru. Twenty-eight cents, not bad for the start of the week.

Soon after we left home, we came across a lost Honda wheel cover.

It was in excellent condition, so we left it propped up near a sign so the owner might see it. We’ll let it sit for a while, but it will most likely end up in our recycling bin at some time.

Janet does volunteer taxes on Mondays at the library during tax season and Chuck had signed up to donate blood at the local blood bank, so we were both on a timeline. And going back to get the visor didn’t help, but we kept up our pace.

We were still on track when, at the 7Eleven intersection, we heard a crash and turned to see some debris in the road.

Chuck looked down the road and saw a white utility van accelerating down Juanita-Woodinville Way with one of the rear doors flapping open. Chuck tried to use his flashlight to attract the driver’s attention, but to no avail.

We spent some time moving the stuff off the street.

There were two bags of grout, a first aid kit with a single cold pack in it, some empty paper bags, a beware-of-dog sign and three framed art pieces. What a combination of items. We did some research on the art pieces. C. Davis signed and named each animal. The giraffe on the right is named Mallory, the zebra in the middle is named Dusty, and the cheetah on the left is named Sirocco, obviously after the Volkswagen.

The pictures were framed, and glass covered. But that was before the accident, now the glass was in the middle of the travel lane. Chuck used the beware-of-dog sign as a scoop to remove much of the glass, but a lot remained. It will, appropriately, be ground back into grains of sand over the next few weeks.

One last word: why would someone who has such great respect for these animals display their images on the skins of animals. Just saying.

If you want to waste your time like we did, you can watch the video of this incident here:

Okay, now we are officially behind schedule.

Okay, evidently the continuing cold weather is making folks frisky.

Personal lubricant by Bed Game. At least we didn’t find any used condoms.

We’ve always wondered what cheetah piss smells like. And today, we got our chance.

It was a bit of a letdown. It turns out it smells just like hyena piss. We know, we were looking for something special too.

Tuesday, February 13^th, 2024 – Park-and-Ride

This morning was colder, and we had a surprise.

We had a smattering of snow overnight, just enough to coat the vegetation, but the streets and sidewalks were only wet. If we weren’t on a timeline, we could have built a three-inch snowman.

We didn’t find any roadkill, but we did find a nickel on the freeway onramp.

It was well-worn and didn’t really look like a nickel, but it is. If you squint, you can see Thomas staring up at the heavens. If you can see him, let us know. We will need help convincing the TrashWalking judges.

That was the only thing we found of interest, so we checked out Chuck’s vest pocket.

On the left, it was a bad week for credit cards. Nine pieces with no matches. We figure that this is the way folks are trying to get rid of inflation-related credit card debt, but trust us, this does not work.

The red thing on the top is a safety knife.

These are available on Amazon for $132 for a package of 100. We are not being judgmental, but they are used for places like prisons where knives might be a problem. The sellers do need to update their copy. The image states the blades are stainless steel whereas the ad copy states, “100 Pack Klever Kutter Safety Box Cutter Utility Knife With Carbon Steel Blade – Safety Package Opener Tool Box Cutter Safex – Utility Knife Cardboard Cutter Value Pack (100, Orange)” Afterall, prisoners care about these details.

Below the knife is an emblem for an engineering firm, but since their emblem fell off and broke, we can’t recommend them. Also a sprung keychain carabiner and a Hear-No-Evil Monkey keychain. It looks like it saw evil, though.

Back to the top, we found a small tube of lip balm. But on closer inspection, we found it was glue for applying fake fingernails. Glad our lips weren’t chapped.

In the toy section, another golf tee and a Wendy’s meal toy.

Blue #5, whatever that means. Then there was a small Santa left over from Christmas, and a very beat-up, grotesque bear.

Also, some stickers.

Why Yes, I do frequently Burst out in Song. So, how’s that working out for you? And, of course, a Frozen sticker and an astronaut And Forever Has No End sticker. That makes no sense. Forever obviously ends in ever.

Again, back to the top, another hair band and a couple pieces of jewelry.

A silver chain and a single earring. It’s too bad we didn’t find a pair. We know pirates wear single earrings, but we don’t think we want to hang around with those that would wear this one.

We picked up a badly run-over bottle.

What caught our eye was it appears to be Cat Crap branded lens cleaner. Yet another company that needs a new marketing department. They also make a lip balm. We don’t think they would sell many.

Then again, at that price they only need to sell one. Finally there is an appointment reminder.

“Dental mass removal.” We know why they tossed the note.

Wednesday, February 14^th, 2024 – Safeway & 100^th Ave NE

Today was a boring walk. We found no roadkill and no money. We picked up the normal amount of trash, but nothing picture-worthy.

Our favorite weather app was once Dark Sky. But then Apple acquired it and integrated it with their weather app then quit supporting Dark Sky. It seems to have gone a bit downhill.

The Apple/Dark Sky forecast this morning was for 32°F (0.0°C) and snow flurries. Our local thermometer and the National Weather Service showed 35°F (1.7°C). We have a flexible temperature of 35°F below which we wear our heated gloves. Today, Janet wore hers, but Chuck didn’t. We were both fine. Other than we were both bored of course.

Thursday, February 15^th, 2024 – 160^th to 124^th Street

After an interesting start to the week with the dropped cargo, the walks continue to be boring. Today, we found neither roadkill nor money.

On our way out of the neighborhood, we met an interesting guy.

We have seen him off-and-on for several years. We call him the Guitar Man because we often see him playing a guitar at the freeway offramp. He also works as a construction traffic flagger when he can get a job. Today he seemed to be heading into downtown Bothell to catch a bus to work.

When we first met him early in our Trashwalking career, he ignored us or scowled at us when we said good morning to him. Over the years, he has become more friendly and engages us in short conversations. So, that was the high point today.

For our low points, on our way out of our neighborhood, another lost lug nut.

It would have been more interesting if it had been found on the freeway onramp, but no, it was on a residential road.

So, can we go downhill from there? Of course. We found a sock on the freeway overpass.

Not a pair of socks, only one useless sock. Well, we could make a sock puppet, but we weren’t in the mood.

Friday, February 16^th, 2024 – 100^th Ave NE

This morning was cold again and even Chuck wore heated gloves. We didn’t find any money, but we removed two raccoons from the road.

Roadkill raccoons are relatively rare. We’ve previously removed twenty-one, but we’ve never encountered two in one day. These were about forty feet apart, so they were probably part of the same family.

Other than the raccoons, we found little of interest today. Soon after we left the house, we found a pair of glasses in a ditch.

It was dark and they blended into the rocks, so we may have missed them for several walks.

We picked up a major fuel cap, possibly from one of the vehicles working on the construction on 100^th Ave NE.

So, is the warning about the fuel spray or that it was made in China?

Saturday, February 17^th, 2024 – Riverside Drive

Today started out a bit warmer than yesterday but the temperature dropped to 30°F (-1.1°C) during our walk until the sun came up in a spectacular manner.

We didn’t find money or roadkill this morning but did find a nice tool.

A pair of locking pliers. We would call them vice grips, but that is a trademarked name owned by Irwin and these are Stanley locking pliers. But Irwin is a subsidiary of Stanely, so we’ll throw caution to the wind and call them vice grips.

At the park-and-ride, someone’s golf ball landed in the rough.

It looks playable to us. Also at the park-and-ride, Janet had to battle some crows for some cookies.

She won out, but crows don’t forget. She’d better watch her back.

That wraps up our meager TrashWalking week. Our take this week,

• 33 Cents.
• 15 Mikes Hard Lemonade cans .
• 3 Animal pictures.
• 2 Roadkill raccoons.
• 2 Car parts.
• 1.25 bags of grout.
• 1 Tool.
• 1 Surprise snowfall.
• 1 Nice sunrise.
• 1 Jar of Cheetah piss, but no urine bottles.
• 1 Empty Cat Crap bottle.
• 1 Box of raspberry cookies.
• 1 Murder of angry crows.

Have a great week and remember, don’t buy products named after animal waste.