Monday, July 22nd, 2024 – Safeway
Today started our walk with a weak week. The weather cooled with a high of only 65°F (18.3°C), we needed to remove a rabbit from the street, and only found a little money.
Janet’s drive-thru yielded a quarter and a penny and the gutter yielded another penny. We are hoping the money will pick up. Literally.
Clothes, you idiot.
We have three of these donation stations on our routes, and they always accumulate trash. And dryers. We left the dryer.
We found a loose sunshade that is designed to stick on a car window and shield the wee ones from the sun.
This one’s center suction cup is missing. It’s still on the car window. These work better when they are placed on the inside of the window.
We passed some balloons laying down on the job.
It must have been a rough night.
A tossed invitation to Grant and Megan’s wedding.
They should have invited us. We would have shown up at 3:30pm. Actually, we wouldn’t. They would have wanted us to pick up the trash.
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2024 – Park-and-Ride
Today was a bit cooler than yesterday, but still comfortable. We picked up no money and we removed a roadkill rabbit from the freeway on-ramp. Yes, it was merging improperly. Early in the walk, we found a small flag on a three-foot rod.
We carried it to a nearby trash can and left it. Later, when we were on the top of the hill nearing home, we saw where the flag came from.
It’s not our fault. The kid shouldn’t have been playing in the street. We did set the kid upright.
[Update] We started feeling bad about tossing the flag, so this evening we drove over and retrieved it from the trash bin.
Tomorrow, we will carry it on our walk and return it to the kid.
This morning at the intersection with Brickyard Road, we saw some trash under some bushes with four identical wine bottles.
Four bare feet. Four bottles of Barefoot Pink Moscato, about $6.50 a bottle. This last Saturday, we found two more of these in the same area. Across the street at the entrance to Jackson’s, we found two bourbon bottles, Booker’s and Wildwood, The Dark Door Bourbon. Both priced at about $100 apiece. This is obviously the rich side of the street. The Wildwood still had about an eighth of it left that we dumped out, so like ten dollars’ worth.
We picked up another spent cartridge from Juanita-Woodinville Way.
We put this in a jar with the other ammo we have picked up, mostly spent shell casings, but we do have some live bullets. Now if we only had something to shoot them with…
At the park-and-ride, another urine bottle.
Our first of the week, but the week is young. We also found these.
Two small plastic containers. We had no idea what this was so googled it. We got a hit on eBay that had this description, “JOYRUQO Bifid Yeast Anti Wrinkle Firming Wrinkle Lightening Essence jiaorunquan.” But then, we found this video calling it “JOYRUQO SERUM”.
We would know what it is if we could read the closed captions that flash on her head.
Something’s afoot atop Norway Hill. As we approached the bend in the road that marks our descent to our home, we saw several trucks at a house.
One of the neighbors we know was there and explained what was happening.
They were filming an Albertson’s grocery store commercial. This is an Albertson’s store? Who knew?
Wednesday, July 24th, 2024 – Safeway & 100th Ave NE
We are not going to talk about money or roadkill for personal reasons. Okay, we found neither, are you happy now? Besides that, it wasn’t a bad walk. We found a tool.
Okay, half a tool. A broken drill bit, but it wasn’t run over, and it counts as a tool.
This is a bit eerie. Four years ago, a drain-related construction project was started and abruptly stopped. After months of inactivity, we contacted the city to see what was up. The contractor had gone out of business, and they were working with a new contractor. Finally, the work finished, but a small pile of dirt was left from the first contractor, so the city placed a construction cone on it.
Soon, it became background to us and just sat there. Yesterday when we passed by the cone, for the hundredth time, we thought about contacting the city about the ever-increasing amount of construction debris. We did not contact them, but today the cone was gone. We knew it, the government is reading our thoughts. Now, where did we leave our tin foil hats?
In the middle of the street, we saw a small broom.
Yes, we whisked it away. You saw that coming, didn’t you.
We found a piece of paper with a Google map route printout.
It’s a map to a local hospital. We hope this wasn’t printed by the ambulance driver. “Don’t look at the light! Stay with us, stay with us! The printout is almost finished.”
We put the flag back.
But this kid is still where we left him, so he’s still an orphan.
We picked up a torn piece of clothing.
It must have been one wild wedding.
The alcohol theme seems to be sticking with us this week.
At the top of the Pipeline Trail, a vodka bottle with about an inch of vodka left. Then, halfway down the hill toward home, we found an empty mouthwash bottle. So why is this strange?
We found two more empties in the same area last week. These things are 21.6 percent alcohol (43 proof). It’s probably under-age kids. They didn’t feel too good after downing these, but their breath is minty-fresh.
Thursday, July 25th, 2024 – 160th to 124th Street
This is more like it. Today we removed a roadkill opossum and rat from the street and found some money.
A lone nickel in a crosswalk. This is turning into a miserable money week. But we also found a nice tool
A Pedro Allen wrench set that appears to be aimed at sizes used on bicycles. However, the individual wrenches were very loose, and you need an Allen wrench to tighten it. But how…?
We picked up another Toyota wheel cover on the freeway overpass.
It was in great condition except for a missing plastic tab on the back that helps hold it onto the wheel. Which is why we found it. Recycled.
Along part of our route on NE 160th St., some repaving is in progress. The streets are marked up with the location of water lines, sewers, electrical, etc., but this was a surprise.
No, really. It’s a surprise.
We may be staggering by the end of the week. The booze theme is ongoing.
A full Espresso Martini and it’s time for our coffee. Cheers!
Friday, July 26th, 2024 – 100th Ave NE
Today was another nice day and we removed a flat crow from the road. Our money finds over the last week has been spotty, so we hired a new guy to scatter money along our routes. Today was his first day, but he does not have the hang of it. He dumped all the money in a single spot.
These were all found within fifteen feet of each other, but we grouped them together for this photo. Three quarters, a dime, three nickels, and a penny for a dollar and one cent total. We’ll work with our new scatterer.
We also found a tool.
This looks to be the leftovers from an Ikea build. There were about a half dozen screws and four Allen wrenches, so technically four tools, but the judges only let us count them as one because they were in the same container like the Pedro tool we found yesterday.
We picked up a toy bear and some frilly undies for it.
But alas, no garter belt, black stockings, and mask to complete the costume.
Steve lost his bracelet.
We found this near the 7Eleven. The clasp is worn out and won’t stay closed which is probably why he lost it. We spent some time searching the web for him in the area with no success. So, if anybody knows Steve Matson, let him know we have his bracelet.
We really wish you would use urine bottles.
This is a urine bag. We would rather find neither, but with the bottles, you can easily dump them out and screw the cap back on. With tied bags, we need to use our knife to slice a hole in the bag, let the bag drain, and finally put the leaking bag into our garbage bag. What? TMI?
We found this in the construction area on 100th Ave NE and we think the photo turned out quite good.
We are thinking about entering this in the Nature Photography Contest. This photo exemplifies nature, at least where we walk. We call it Glasses and the Butt. We were considering Glasses in the Butt, butt it didn’t have the right ring to it.
Finally, Janet’s favorite drive-thru didn’t give up any money, but there was this.
Their drive-thru service must be really slow.
Saturday, July 27th, 2024 – Riverside Drive
Today we removed a medium-sized, roadkill raccoon from the street, but we found more money.
A penny, a dime, and a quarter, thirty-six cents scattered along Woodinville Drive. The guy did a little better scattering the coins, but we still need to work with him.
We picked up a dirty shirt at the big construction project at the freeway interchange.
The patch is for Schindler Elevators and Escalators which is strange because an interstate interchange normally doesn’t require elevators. Maybe they are providing us a way to get up to the freeway to pick up trash?
Another urine bottle across from the apartments on riverside drive.
Good job! Much better than a bag.
We picked this up on the freeway on-ramp.
It’s a motorcycle helmet sticker. We don’t think that is a good thing to advertise. He was going so fast it blew off his helmet.
A few weeks ago, a large black bag fell off a vehicle on the on-ramp. We left it thinking the Washington State DOT would see it and pick it up. Silly us.
Today we took it home, sorted it out, and put it in our trash and recycle bins. It was construction trash left over from a kitchen remodel including the plans. Their company website claims they specialize on fire and water damage restoration, but there is no mention of littering.
We found another cell phone today, our twenty-second.
It was well run over, bent, and the case was split open. Surprisingly, when we plugged it into power, the screen partially lit up and seemed operational, though we couldn’t read the screen. There’s no way to get it back to the owner, if they even want it back.
At the park-and-ride, someone dropped a head mosquito net.
We found them on Amazon at $13 for a pack of four. Sure, your pretty face is protected, but what about your neck, arms, and legs?
Nearby, we found this bunch of first aid boxes.
It looks as though someone was frantically looking for some antiitch ointment.
That ends another TrashWalking week. Our take this week,
- $1.69, not bad for a spotty week.
- 11 Booze containers, including three mouth washes.
- 9 Mike’s Hard Lemonade cans.
- 8 Budweiser Chelada cans, attempting to outpacing the Mikes.
- 6 Roadkill including another crow.
- 6 Balls.
- 6 Lazy balloons.
- 3 Tools, but should have been 6. Damned Judges.
- 3 Urine containers.
- 2 Missed wedding parties, one wild. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride.
- 2 Japanese serums.
- 1 Commercial in the making.
- 1 Whisked broom.
- 1 “X ” marks the spot, maybe.
- 1 Photographic work of art. We think.
- 1 Zombie cell phone.
Have a great week and remember, next time you make a Mint Julep, you can replace the bourbon and mint with mouthwash.
Trash Walking 