That was the Week that Wasn’t

We are starting the week with some catch-up, not the hamburger kind, the we-are-way-behind kind. The real stardate today is May 20^th, one week ahead. We had some good friends visiting, but we got up early and walked, but did not have time to work on the TrashWalking blog. So, this is sort of a time machine, beginning last week.

Monday, May 13^th, 2024 – Safeway

Today we removed a roadkill bird and rabbit from the street, but we did find some money.

A bright shiny penny in the gutter on Juanita-Woodinville Way and two dimes and seven pennies in Janet’s favorite drive-thru. A very nice start to the week.

At the Tolt Pipeline Trail,

A used condom neatly repackaged in the wrapper. Very thoughtful leaving it for someone else to use.

We have been accumulating balls of all kinds and sizes and they are becoming a nuisance in our garage. Goodwill will not take them, and we hate to just throw them in the garbage. Also on our walks, we pass KinderCare and routinely toss toys, including balls back over the fence into their playground. Well, hey. They shouldn’t notice a few extra balls, so we have been carrying a couple of balls on our Safeway walks and discreetly tossing them over the fence. Everything has been going smoothly until today.

They have a new goalie. It stopped our shot but fortunately, did not kick it back.

Someone lost the shirt off their back.

It was a dirty, nondescript tee shirt, so it went into the garbage.

Juanita-Woodinville Way passes over a small creek and we routinely go down a path to the creek to see what has accumulated.

Three empty Bud Light Chelada cans. We find these cans here often. It would be a good spot to set up a trail camera. But how would it help? We could give videos to the police of the notorious Bud Light Chelada serial litterers, but they probably have more important things to do. Like drinking Bud Light Cheladas.

We have a new mystery. About two-hundred feet up Norway Hill from the curve where we have reported three cars off the road, we came across some old litter.

We find this type of trash often when we go down a bank for something obvious and start finding trash that has been buried for years. Someone pulled this stuff out and left it by the side of the road. We also noticed something large, like a vehicle, slid down the bank which would have uncovered a lot of trash. So far, we don’t know what happened. We hate being out of the loop.

Tuesday, May 14^th, 2024 – Park-and-Ride

Today was a nice clear and sunny day. We removed a roadkill squirrel but found no money.

We found little items of interest. We did find a nice hair barrette.

With Google Lens, we easily found sites offering this with prices ranging from two dollars to twenty-three dollars. Caveat Emptor.

We have passed this fellow a couple of times, either on a mailbox or in the grass.

He looks a bit forlorn. If we see him again, we will adopt him and place him in our TrashWalking Museum.

We also found a nice USB-C cable.

We tried to call it a tool, but it was no deal. It is really irritating to be laughed at by the TrashWalking judges. It must be political.

Wednesday, May 15^th, 2024 – 100^th Ave NE

Since we were going to be out of town on Friday, we decided to walk our usual Friday route today. It was another nice walking day and we picked up some money.

Janet found a moth-eaten penny at her favorite drive-thru and Chuck found a bright shiny penny in the gutter along 100th Ave NE. Chuck rules! For today, at least.

We also picked up another tool.

A very nice 12mm socket. The judges can’t argue with this.

Along Juanita-Woodinville Way, we found a credit card and driver’s license.

They belonged to a young teenager. We mailed them back to his address on Mercer Island, about ten miles away, with a note about where we found it. We can imagine how that went. “Well, Gregory, you told us you were studying for your math final with friends. What were you doing in the Bothell slums?” Yes, that’s where we live compared to Mercer Island. Another of life’s lessons for Gregory.

We found a lost hat today.

A child’s sun cap headed to Goodwill.

On 100^th Ave NE, we stumbled upon the 7Eleven Book Club library.

“Shakespear’s Sonnets.” Okay, sorry we interrupted. We left them.

In the middle of the street, we saw an unopened package.

It was a two-pack coat tree, eighteen dollars on Amazon. We put it in our Goodwill pile. They are not our style, but they would make a nice set of car antlers for next Christmas.

On Norway Hill, the forlorn bear was again on the ground.

So, we adopted it, and it now has an honored place in our TrashWalking Museum. Open by appointment only. Entrance fee is five pop tabs.

At the construction on 100^th Ave NE, we saw this.

Chuck really wants one of these. He’s not sure why, but he really wants it. What man wouldn’t?

Thursday, May 16^th, 2024 – 160^th to 124^th Street

We walked this morning before embarking for Spokane. It was a pleasant walk that started out with a money find.

A slightly beat-up nickel but we’ll take it.

We had one of these a long time ago.

It’s a cassette module that fits in a car cassette player and allows an audio player to play sound through the car audio system. According to the Internet, the last car to be delivered with a factory-equipped cassette player was a 2010 Lexus. So, it’s time to think about a new car and get rid of this. Just don’t toss it out the window.

Another lost key.

It is probably a Jeep key, but it doesn’t matter, it will end up in our found key jar with the other lost keys we’ve picked up.

In the middle of 112^th Ave NE, we found what appeared to be another walkie-talkie.

However, after some research, we determined it was a portable ham radio set. $330 dollars on Amazon. It had been run over and was completely dead. Ouch!

Friday, May 17^th, 2024 – Spokane, WA.

Yesterday afternoon, we drove to Spokane, WA to visit Chuck’s uncle and cousin. After a nice visit, we were able to take about a two-mile walk down the busy street our hotel was on. We didn’t have our usual walking gear, so this was mostly observances. Well, except for the money.

A penny by the sidewalk. What other treasures are there in Spokane?

We saw some roadkill.

A squirrel. Part of the route was more of a path with a cement barrier between us and the traffic. This fellow was on the wrong side of the barrier. Lesson learned. We stayed on the path side.

This was at the entrance to our hotel.

A weird fake fingernail. We used this entrance several times and it never moved. As far as we know, it is still there. We’ll check on our next visit.

And this was weird too.

Who knew?

A pair of men’s Calvin Kleins and a pair of kid’s socks.

A miniature pair of sunglasses.

Yes, we did keep these for our Trashwalking collection.

A dropped load of clothes, toys and other trash.

We left all this beause we were not prepaired for TrashWalking.

This was cool.

Parked in front of our hotel were two DeLorean cars, one with a trailer made from a third DeLorean. We figure Doc was visiting from the thirtieth century.

Saturday, May 18^th, 2024 – Riverside Drive

Today, we travelled from Spokane to Othello, WA to attend the memorial for a very good friend’s mother. It was a well-attended, beautiful service.

Monday, May 20^th, 2024 – Safeway

Okay, now on to the current week. The weather today was cool, but fine. We removed two roadkill rabbits from the streets and found some money.

One penny at Janet’s favorite drive-thru and the other in the gutter on Janita-Woodinville Way. A good start to the week. Not a spectacular start, but a good one.

And we found a tool.

It is a ladder strap used to secure ladders, so they do not slip and slide when climbing up and down. This was a new one to us, and now we seldom climb up and down ladders, but it’s never too late to learn.

We picked up a discarded CD.

When we got it home, we learned why it was discarded. It was a companion CD for a 1995 documentary by a photographer, Charles Peterson.

Evidently, it is somehow protected because the CD shows one track and it does not play.

We are coming up on the Memorial Day weekend and the annual Seven-Hills of Kirkland Kiwanis bicycle ride. This year they have three routes, Strawberry, the easiest is marked here.

The traditional Seven Hills of Kirkland route is over seven hills, of which only four are in Kirkland. The others are in Bothell and Woodinville. Norway Hill is the second steepest and highest with a climb at 475 feet, but Bothell doesn’t get any billing. We do get to harass the riders as they struggle uphill past our house, so there is that. Then there is the metric that goes a hundred kilometers. Wimps. It should be a hundred miles.

A couple of tree segments fell.

Fortunately, they fell parallel to the street and did little damage. Well, there was the fence, but it needed taking down anyway.

We picked up a kid’s toy that we’ll send to Goodwill.

It still had the price tag on it, $14. Goodwill won’t even need to reprice it.

Yet another key to add to our key jar.

It has been laying in the bushes for a while, so it is probably long forgotten.

Well, this is interesting.

By a banner, we found a ticket of sorts for an illegal sign. We didn’t know cities have these rules. Maybe they can deputize us. We’ll check into it.

Tuesday, May 21^st, 2024 – Park-and-Ride

Today we had a little mist on our walk, but the rain held off until we got home, then it turned into a very wet day. We came across no roadkill and found more money.

A nice shiny quarter along Juanita-Woodinville Way.

We also found a couple of tools.

Two paint roller tools on the freeway south-bound on-ramp, probably part of the same spill. And yes, they are considered tools. Even the TrashWalking judges agree with us.

Uh oh. Lately some local high school kids have been parking in the Tolt Pipeline Trail parking area where folks park to walk their dogs and someone complained. No, it wasn’t us.

The city put up a new sign declaring no dumping, no camping, no RV camping, and no parking. The no parking is a bit tough. It should have a two-hour parking limit or something. This prevents people from legally parking and walking their dogs, which has not been an issue.

On the freeway off-ramp, a porch pirate left his trash.

An Amazon shipping bag filled with more Amazon shipping bags, all empty of goods.

At the park-and-ride, we picked up a toilet paper roll in a plastic bag.

It is probably remnants from the early days of the pandemic. Yes, we remember the day. We went from Stay alert and keep your powder dry to Get your shots and keep your toilet paper dry.

Wednesday, May 22^nd, 2024 – Safeway & 100^th Ave NE

Today was mostly clear with no rain, no roadkill, and we found more money, a nickel in the gutter.

We’ve had a fair money week thus far, thirty-two cents. Actually, said that way, it sounds pathetic.

We saw some effects of yesterday’s storm.

A small tree was down along 112^th Ave NE. It blocked our walking path. We did say it was small. And a soccer canopy set up by the new food truck was damaged.

We had discussed that we expected to see the tents across the street after the first big wind. Evidently the wind was not strong enough yesterday.

We also picked up some stolen mail.

This happens periodically. The mail thieves grab the mail, scan through it to keep the interesting items and toss the rest. Most of the mail was junk mail that we recycled, but the more important/official items were dried out in front of our fireplace and returned to the post office. However, there was also an Amazon envelope. A mail thief who is also a porch pirate. A modern-day Renaissance Man!

Thursday, May 23^rd, 2024 – 160^th to 124^th Street

The weather today was great, but we found no money which broke our money streak. However, but we did find a tool.

Along NE 160^th St., we picked up a funnel. However, it had been run over and was split down the sides, so it was a “no-fun-nel.” [Editor’s note: Send pun complaints to getbent@trashwalking.com. Please allow 437 business days for a response. Thank you.]

We found a lost sweatshirt from Forks, Washington.

We would normally pick it up to take to Goodwill, but Forks is not only known as the rainiest town in Washington, but the town where the vampire series, Twilight took place. So, we decided it was better to not get involved with vampires and left it.

Some middle school drama.

At least she ended with a punctuation mark.

Friday, May 24^th, 2024 – 100^th Ave NE

Today was another nice day like yesterday, but unlike yesterday, we picked up money.

A quarter in the gutter along Juanita-Woodinville Way and two pennies at the drive-thru, twenty-seven cents. We also picked up more tools.

A 13 mm socket and an almost six-inch steel ruler. It was originally six inches, but the zero end was broken off, so it didn’t quite measure up.

A wall at the construction on 100^th Ave NE.

That is a lot of nice timber. Just to be clear, we are talking about the wall on the bottom, not the fence on top.

A lost headband.

It looks like it was made out of a neck gaiter, but it may be by design like all the jeans with factory-made holes.

Janet thinks these are stupid, but Chuck, being more open-minded is okay with it.

We found a Birdieball.

It’s a practice golf “ball” that is supposed to act like a real golf ball but over a shorter distance so you can use it in your backyard, as long as you have a forty-yard back yard.

Finally, another used pregnancy test along Juanita-Woodinville Way.

That’s quite a feat taking the test then tossing it out the window while safely driving the car. But the test shows negative. How would she behave if it was positive?

Saturday, May 25^th, 2024 – Riverside Drive

At 4:30 am this morning it was overcast so we checked the weather. It indicated to expect rain at about 4:00 pm this afternoon. We had plenty of time for our walk, so we left our raincoats at home. Of course, it started raining about an hour into our walk. We were out of town last Saturday, so there was a lot of trash to address today.

We removed a roadkill rabbit today but found more money.

Two pennies in the Bothell parking lot and another along Woodinville Drive in front of the apartments. We also found two more tools.

An Allen wrench and a pair of scissors. Unfortunately, a lawn mower found the scissors before us, so a handle was missing. But they still work as long as you are cutting thin paper.

At the Sammamish River parking lot, someone emptied their car.

The two large bags, mainly containing some bedding, but also some car seat covers, a file and a purse.

The file contained some wrapping paper, and the purse was empty. Most of this will go to Goodwill.

We came across some discarded clothing.

Well, the sweater could have been lost, but it would be hard to lose your pants without knowing it, so they are probably discarded. Both are headed for the Goodwill pile.

We found two shoes, but not a pair of shoes.

A toddler’s shoe on the freeway on-ramp and a one of a pair of flip-flops, this one being the right foot, so it is the flop. Most folks start walking by pushing off with their right foot so the first step is with the left foot, the flip.

At the corner at the bottom of Brickyard Road, we picked up some more nails in the road.

You are welcome.

Half way up Brickyard, we picked up another driver’s license.

We’ll mail it back to the owner. You’re welcome again.

And this is a sure sign that the weather is warming up.

Four condoms in one day. That wraps up our extended walk week. Our two-week take,

• 98 cents which is pretty bad for two weeks of walking.
• 11  Mikes Hard Lemonade cans.
• 9 Tools including a ruler that didn’t measure up.
• 7 Items of clothing including a vampire shirt.
• 6 Roadkill including four rabbits.
• 4 Balls including a strange golf ball.
• 5 Condoms.
• 2.5 DeLorean cars.
• 2 Batches of stolen items.
• 2 Drivers Licenses for different people.
• 1 Write-only music CD.
• 1 Radio in radio-silent mode.
• 1 Pandemic roll of toilet paper.

Have a great week and remember, do not lose track of your weeks.