Financial Jigsaw

Monday, September 2^nd, 2024 – Safeway

Today was warm and muggy and we had three or four exceptionally large rain drops rain on our parade. Also, since it was Labor Day, there was little traffic on the road. But this is just the calm before the storm. School starts this week, which will cause a twenty percent increase in traffic, on average.

On Juanita-Woodinville Way, we picked up some discarded clothing on the shoulder;

There were two pairs of pants and a jacket. There were also three single socks with a yellow 3-pack tag. We always buy socks in pairs, but obviously this one meant three single socks. That’s a sure way to get you to purchase more, like a two-pack, or six-pack or… Never mind, just sock it to us.

Anyway, we noticed some change had fallen out of the pants pockets, thirty five cents, more than we made all last week. But wait, there’s more.

At the top of Norway Hill, we found more money.

Two dimes and two pennies, nice. However, on the left, look at the object half buried under the set of black rocks. We pulled it out and saw it was a badly tarnished nickel that had been there a while. We need a metal detector. Anyway, our total money finds came to sixty-two cents, which totally eclipsed last week’s total take. On the negative side, we removed a roadkill crow.

We also picked up three tools.

First, a carbide scraper, a butane torch in pristine condition, and a Sawzall blade that was run over but is very usable. We understand the torch and the saw, but what would you want to scrape carbide off of?

Rats! No, not roadkill. Our barbeque grill of twenty-plus years finally needed replacing and got recycled. We ordered a new one which will be delivered tomorrow but then we saw this pellet barbeque.

We may try to refuse delivery. However, we have a natural gas feed to our patio for the barbeque. We need to check what it would take to get a natural pellet feed installed.

We picked up an empty pint bottle of vodka.

It was not quite empty. There was about a quarter inch of vodka left in the bottom. We admire the litterer who knows his limits and stops drinking before driving home.

Tuesday, September 3^rd, 2024 – Park-and-Ride

Today was another warm day and we had an early appointment so we walked fast, but we still removed a roadkill rat from the road and found more money.

We picked up a dime on the freeway overpass and a quarter on Juanita-Woodinville Way. They were both very beat up, but they are authentic. Trust us. We don’t want to jinx ourselves, but we have now broken our weekly take for the last few months.

At the park and ride.

Someone was parking and riding. We’re not above using the same joke over and over. If you don’t like it, go park-and-ride yourself.

Also at the park-and-ride, for the past several weeks we have been documenting tossed, partially-full cigarette packs.

At a price of ten to twelve dollars a pack, this represents about forty bucks, and all are Marlboro. So, we have a few theories: The person remembers the old “Marlboro Man” commercials but cannot stand the taste;

The person is an investor in Marlboro and is trying to drive the price up but cannot stand the taste; or the person just has money to burn and does. Let us know if you have another theory and we’ll add it to the list.

Thoughts.

We saw this box by the side of the road. Our first thought was, “Someone lost their new TV box while driving down the street.” Then we noticed it was neatly set up against a post and our second thought was “Someone didn’t want to deal with the large box from a new TV and left it for someone else to deal with.” Then we noticed their old Samsung TV in the box and our third thought was “This person is just an A**hole.” We thought this through.

Wednesday, September 4^th, 2024 – Safeway & 100th

Today there was a slight fog during our entire walk. It didn’t hinder us except that we may have missed some money. Unlike the last two days, we only picked up a single penny.

But it was in good condition, so we checked how much it would be worth. According to this website it is worth five cents, so there is that.

We also found a tool.

A pair of scissors. We’ve found several pairs of scissors, but none like this. They must be for professional, fashion-conscientious gift package wrappers.

“Now, where did I put my scissors?” she says as the FedEx truck leaves.

Well, hey, the Roku TV box from yesterday has been removed.

But they left two large blocks of Styrofoam packing. Who does that? We hauled it home for recycling.

“Well, I’ll be a dirty bird.”

We picked up another duck that fit the quote by George Gobel, a comedian. We couldn’t find any videos with the quote, but it became a catch phrase in the 1950s. He had a popular weekly show of which there are several on YouTube, but we couldn’t find that quote. But here is a sample of his wit on the Johnny Carson show in 1969 with Bob Hope and Dean Martin.

Thursday, September 5^th, 2024 – 160th to 124th Street

Today was much like yesterday without the fog. We found no roadkill and the good news is we doubled yesterday’s money find.

The bad news is it was only two pennies.

We picked up three heavy machine parts.

From our research, they are flexible shaft couplings so each pair mesh with each other until they look like the one on the left with the teeth worn down. We’ll hang on to them for a while until we find a flexible shaft that needs its joint replaced. This sounds like an old man’s radio ad.

As they say,

“There’s a sucker born every day.”

This ticks us off. Sign Pros is a company that puts up signs for Real Estate companies. They have small flags that the agent places where he wants the sign.

The Sign Pros put up the sign and leave the flags. Why not remove them when the sign is up? We picked them up, but if we had left them, no doubt when Sign Pros removes the sign after the sale, the flags will still be there. Next time, we will try that.

Friday, September 6^th, 2024 – 100th Ave NE

Today we removed a roadkill rabbit and squirrel from the street and found money if you can consider a single penny money.

If the money finds don’t pick up, we’ll need to sell our lost socket collection to make ends meet.

On 112^th Ave NE, there is a tree where things get stashed, so we periodically check behind it.

Today, there was a three-door nightstand with an Ashley Furniture brand on it. The nightstands on the site appear to sell for between $150 and $350. We suspect this one is nearer $150. And yes, we checked the drawers for change. Nothing.

We found a large hubcap that appears to be for a Ford 350 truck.

It was in very good condition, but was heavy, so we placed it in a nearby recycling bin.

We found a pager that notifies folks when their table or food is ready.

We don’t know who lost this, but so far, your food is not ready.

Saturday, September 7^th, 2024 – Riverside Drive

This morning the air quality was degraded due to smoke from the wildfires. It wasn’t significant, but it caused the sun to have an orange hue. We removed a roadkill squirrel from the street and picked up three tools.

A 10 mm socket on Woodinville Drive, another Sawzall blade, used but serviceable and an Allen wrench.

We found some more keys.

These were at the Sammamish River Park. We will post a notice online, but we are not hopeful. They look like they have been there a while.

We picked up several pieces of credit cards which really helped our credit score.

They were mostly found near service stations and the freeway ramps. It was a financial jigsaw puzzle. We did find a whole one, but it was from a real Mickey Mouse bank. When we publish photos of credit cards, we obscure the account number and names. Give us credit for that.

Someone had a party at the park-and-ride.

A bunch of empty Corona beer bottles, but they did leave some full ones, one for each of us for breakfast. That’s a lot of beer, but at least they had something to eat.

Now if they would just do the dishes. More stuff for Goodwill.

We found more money today.

A penny on Riverside Drive, a nickel at the freeway bus stop and another penny on the street in front of our house. This week, we picked up more money than the last six weeks. And, at the bus stop where we found the nickel, there was also a crack pipe.

So, we ended our week on two high notes, so to speak.

That’s it for the week, our take:

• $1.08.  Barely breaking a dollar.
• 8 Mikes hard Lemonade cans.
• 7 Tools including a floral pair of scissors.
• 7 Partial packs of Marlboros.
• 6 Articles of clothing including  a three-sock pack.
• 5 Roadkill including another crow.
• 5 Balls.
• 2 Sign Pros flags.
• 1 Pellet barbeque.
• 1 Little finger of vodka.
• 1 Uncracked crack pipe.
• 1 Dirty bird.
• 1 Nightstand standing behind a tree at night.
• 1 Pager.  It still has not buzzed.
• 1 Set of keys with 4 keys on 3 rings.
• 1 Mickey Mouse credit card.
• 1 Credit card jigsaw puzzle.

Have a great week and remember to give credit where credit’s due.