The Collectors

Monday, September 23^nd, 2024 – Safeway

We started this week with relatively warm weather of 59°F (15.0°C) which was a nice surprise. We found the normal amount of random trash, but were looking forward to starting the week with another big money find, like last week’s ninety cents, but the first thing we found was a bagel.

In tennis slang, a bagel means a zero score, which we took as a bad omen for finding any money today. Plus, a bite was taken out of it. However, we did find some money at the drive-thru.

Seven cents. Not as good as last week, but we’ll take it. And we did. We also found a tool.

It looks like a rope, but notice there is a pulley on it, so it’s a tool. The TrashWalking judges foolishly went on vacation again and left Zeke the janitor to fill in for them. Zeke agreed with us whole-heartedly that this is a tool. We like Zeke.

We struggled with this.

This is a destroyed cell phone with part of the case, part of the screen and the battery. We’ve found twenty-two cell phones on our walks and are tempted to ask Zeke to approve this as our twenty-third. But if the judges return and find out, they might fire Zeke. We couldn’t do that. We like Zeke.

Hiding in the weeds was a bag disguised as a rabbit.

It didn’t fool us, we pulled it out by its ears and hauled it home. It was filled with the trash from someone’s lunch and it didn’t look like rabbit stew.

As we neared home, we passed a downed speed limit sign.

The wood post had rotted so it probably got knocked down by the gust of the wake of a car speeding up the hill. We entered a ticket to the City of Bothell. They are pretty good at responding to these issues. We would like to give a ticket to the speeders on the hill.

Tuesday, September 24^rd, 2024 – Park-and-Ride

Today was another warm morning and later the temperature rose to 79°F (26.1°C) which was great, but it may have been the last grasp of Summer as Autumn rolls in with the “Big Dark.” From the Internet,

“Seattle’s ‘Big Dark’ is caused by a combination of its high latitude, which results in shorter daylight hours during fall and winter, and persistent cloud cover from moist air masses driven by the Pacific Ocean and surrounding mountains, leading to prolonged periods of overcast skies and limited sunlight.”

And rain, don’t forget the rain.

So, yes, we walked in the foggy dark this morning, and were on the freeway off-ramp when Janet picked up a small nail but dropped it. As we looked for it, we spotted a coin.

A nickel. Sure, it looks easy to see here but try it in the dark with bright flashlights in the fog.

This is Janet looking for the nail and finding the nickel. The nail was forgotten.

We keep finding these.

It is a discarded container for a male enhancement pill we have investigated in the past. It contains the drug components for the prescription Viagra or Cialis. This article from the U.S. Justice Department states that the person responsible, Daniel Lee, was found guilty in 2021 and sentenced to serve nearly four years in Federal Prison. He also “… has agreed to forfeit his $1.2 million residence in Fullerton, nearly $458,000 seized from eight bank accounts, $346,324 in U.S. currency, and a 2018 Cadillac Escalade.” So, the question is, why are these still being sold? Well, duh, they took all his money, and he’s working “hard” to make it back.

As we walked down Juanita-Woodinville Way, we saw something out of the corner of our eyes.

A raccoon. We stared at each other and thought,

On our walks, we wear Brooks Adrenaline GTS shoes. The recommended distance limit for shoes is 400 miles. We thought 400 miles was too short, so we tried 800 miles and that was too long, then we tried 600 miles, and it was just right. So, yes, we have been walking in Mama Bear’s 600-mile shoes. According to our Garmin app, we had surpassed the limit of our current shoes.

As is our tradition, we took a photo of the retirement party.

In the back are the retiring 18th pair of shoes, and in the front, our new recruits.

Wednesday, September 25^th, 2024 – Safeway & 100th

Today was warm again, but threatening rain. We decided against our rain jackets and, of course, got rained on. However, the rain started out significant but then quickly died down and stopped. We removed a roadkill rat and a large rabbit based on the bits of fur. But it was very messy, so we cannot be sure it’s a rabbit, just our best guess.

However, we found some money at the drive-thru.

Yes, only a penny, and blurry at that. People are bad tippers these days. They don’t drop near enough money.

At the apartments on 112^th Ave NE, we saw a bicycle and some bags laying in the trees.

As we approached the area, we started to discuss what we should do about it when something in one of the plastic bags started to move. It was the owner of the bicycle. We made a quick retreat back to the street.

We found a chain with a padlock.

The lock is a combination lock. In the past, we have been able to determine the combination by some amount of patience and persistence, so we were willing to give it a try. Then looked closely and lost interest. Yes, we could have determined the combination and unlocked the lock, but when you locked it again, it would still be unlocked. Are you locked into our logic?

Thursday, September 26^th, 2024 – 160th to 124th Street

This morning was a bit chilly, but tolerable. It had rained overnight and stopped, but everything was still wet. We found no money and came across no roadkill, but we did find a very nice tool.

A 5/8ths inch combination wrench in very good condition. The curious thing is, it was found on the freeway off-ramp, not the on-ramp. Normally, accidentally lost items are found on the on-ramp as vehicles accelerate. The off-ramps mostly contain refuge like the beer cans and bottles that the drivers finish before they enter the city.

At the park-and-ride, someone dropped a Hawiian-looking shirt.

It had a stylized map of several locations around the world including Maui, Tripoli, and Paris, but it ended up in Bothell. No wonder the guy tossed the map.

As we topped Norway Hil, a school bus passed us and stopped for some kids with their parents. Before we caught up with the bus, it continued with its route.

We walked for a brief time with the parents. They told us that as we turned the corner, the kids said, “There are the collectors” and asked the parents what our names were. The parents replied they didn’t know and that the kids should ask us. But the bus came taking the kids with it. We are considering changing our name from The TrashWalkers to The Collectors. It sounds more evil.

Friday, September 27^th, 2024 – 100th Ave NE

Today, we removed small bird and a rat from the roads and found some more money.

Eleven cents mined from Janet’s favorite drive-thru.

In the gutter, we picked up a golf hat.

The patch on the hat has some golf symbols including hole flags, golf ball, etc. The only words are “Est. 1968” which does not help much. A bird had pooped on it so the bird didn’t think much about it either. The bird probably made the guy miss his putt, though.

Someone’s chugging Cheladas again.

Behind the tree where we intermittantly find one or two cans, today there were four. Must be his version of a three-martini lunch.

We found some Gellets in a bus stop.

We didn’t know what they were, but assumed they were some kind of fertilizer. They are, in fact, ammunition. After adding water and letting them soak for a while, they expand to about 7 to 8 mm or about 0.3 inches in diameter.

The package claims it contains 10,000 beads. We counted them and did not come up with that many, so, we’ll do a recount. It’ll be good practice if they need volunteers to do a recount in November.

Saturday, September 28^th, 2024 – Riverside Drive

We are having our hardwood floors refinished and needed to be out of the house while the finish cures. We are staying at a hotel about a mile from our house. It was tempting to sleep in this morning, but we took our walking clothes to the hotel with us, got up at our normal time, drove home, got our walking gear out of the garage and proceeded on our Saturday route. After returning home, we reversed the procedure and showered and had breakfast at the hotel. It worked.

We were rewarded with some money.

A dime in the park-and-ride. The money finds this week were not good, thirty-four cents, about a dollar less than last week.

We did find two tools, though.

A wood drill bit, or rather a steel bit for drilling into wood, and a Craftsman utility knife, both in excellant comdition.

We came to two spoons in the road.

Unlike forks, spoons do not provide directions because they are pointless. The spoon on the right was trying to give directions, but was pointing off the side of the road.

We got flashed this morning, but not the way you are thinking.

A police cruiser passed us and lit up his lights for a few seconds, thanking us for picking up trash. Or he was warning us to get the hell off the road.

A couple weeks ago, we reported some apparently abandoned vehicles and trash to the City of Woodinville. They were still there last week, but this week, the vehicles were gone.

Now let’s see if they do something about the trash.

Someone rewarded us with an unopened can of Modelo.

The reward was to pick up the other seventeen empty cans and food trash found with it.

We picked up two articles of clothing today.

A nice tee shirt and a shoe. Okay, the shoe is really a McDonalds Happy Meal toy Croc keychain, but we are counting it as a shoe. If the shoe fits, wear it.

Now we have two bonus photos, just because. Later in the day, we had a rain shower and the conditions were perfect such that we were rewarded with a double rainbow in downtown Bothell.

The City of Bothell had a Sustainamania where they have booths and displays mostly related to ecological displays. Janet realized one of her TrashWalking dreams.

She got to sit in a real garbage truck! It was a bit embarrassing to Chuck, though. She cut in line in front of several kids awaiting their turn.

That wraps up our TrashWalking week. Our take this week:

• 34 Cents.
• 10,000 pieces of ammo, unverified.
• 7 Mikes hard Lemonade cans.
• 4 Tools, including a block and tackle, a.k.a. a rope with a pulley.
• 4 Roadkill, two rats, one bird, and one rabbit, we think.
• 4 Balls.
• 2 Food items
• 2 Spoons that weren’t spooning.
• 1 Unaccountable cell phone.
• 1 Smart Alec raccoon.
• 1 Retirement  party.
• 1 Awakened bicyclist.
• 1 Unlockable combination lock.
• 1 Lost cloth map.
• 1 Article of clothing.
• 1 Flashing cop.
• 1 Old McDonald’s shoe.
• 1 Nice rainbow.
• 1 Garbage truck.
• 0 Abandoned cars.

Have a great day and remember, it’s never too late to achieve your dreams.