Bad Investment

November 4^th & 5^th, 2024 – Sojourn to Spokane

We periodically journey to Spokane for a brief visit with Chuck’s uncle and cousin. We typically try to get a walk or two in, but the weather did not cooperate this time. Or perhaps we are getting old or soft. Or both. Whatever. We did find some money.

A dime. Okay, it was at a gas station in Ritzville, Washington, but given the last few weeks, this was a treasure trove. However, since we weren’t on a walk, we can’t count it as found money. Wait, does walking to the restroom count?

Then, not exactly a treasure trove, while walking to a restaurant near the hotel, we found a large lug nut.

And that’s about it. We expected more from Spokane, but if you don’t walk the walk, you can’t talk the talk.

Wednesday, November 6^th, 2024 – Safeway & 100th

Back home. Today was chilly and dry. We didn’t find any money and removed a roadkill squirrel from the road. We chased a raccoon up a tree, though. Not really, we startled it, and it climbed the tree to get away from us.

We almost found a tool, though.

A bun cord. The -gee part was missing, so it does not count as a tool.

The first thing of note this morning was a key.

It looks like a house key, but we don’t know any way of finding the owner. It would be smart if people would attach a tag to their house key like “If found please return to 123 Elm Street. I get home at six in the evening.” But folks are not that smart.

At a bus stop near Safeway, we picked up a bunch of candy wrappers, then score!

A bag of five unopened mini-Snickers candy bars. We prefer Butterfingers, but beggars can’t be choosers.

We found this in the middle of an intersection.

The city glues these to near storm drains that drain directly into the Puget Sound. We picked it up. If we had left it, it would have ended up in the Puget Sound. That was sound thinking.

So sad.

A pumpkin literally gives its all for Halloween and this is the thanks it gets. It couldn’t squash the feeling of being discarded, and after carving a niche for itself.

We found some clothes.

A pair of women’s jeans and then a thong with eyes. Someone is having a more interesting day than us.

After which she slaps him answering, “How dare you? Look but don’t touch!”

Thursday, November 7^th, 2024 – 160th to 124th Street

Today we came across a cache of urine bottles.

Were these souvenirs of a long road trip? Yea, probably from the Jackson’s up the street. We should have left them for when he comes back to collect them. But we emptied and recycled the bottles. Are there any rules about recycling urine bottles? And what if they are full? We need to do some more research.

In the park-and-ride, yet another used condom.

The bus was running late, and their phones had no signal. What to do? What to do?

We found a charging case for some ear buds.

As usual, there were no ear buds. We keep finding ear buds without a charger or, like this, a charger with no ear buds. One of these days we will find a match. But probably with only one ear bud. Monophonic is so old school.

We spotted some trash under a bush off the sidewalk.

At first, we thought we found some empty marijuana packages, but they turned out to be empty game card envelopes.

There were four types totaling over 130 envelopes. After some research, these were sold around the year 2000, so these are nearly twenty-five years old. They were then priced at about $3.50 per pack. On the Internet, unopened packages of these are going for $30 to $100 or more. So, they paid about $460 for them. If they had kept them and sold them today, they would be worth about $4,000. If they had invested that money in the stock market, it would be worth about $1,200. Good move buying the cards, bad move opening them. Hope you enjoyed the game.

So, were these really tossed into the bushes twenty-five years ago? We also removed the shopping bag that had contained them.

It was a Walgrens bag with a partial message about batteries for your Walkman. Yes, we think the envelopes have been hiding there for that long.

Friday, November 8^th, 2024 – 100th Ave NE

Finally, we acquired some money today.

Janet teased a quarter out of her favorite drive-thru. More people are using credit cards and Apple/Android paying apps. We find a lot of lost credit cards, but we just shred them. We do accept Apple Cash, and PayPal though. Just saying.

We found a badly damaged hubcap in the construction site on 100^th Ave NE.

However, there was a recycling bin that was not badly damaged that accepted the hubcap. The green tint is a reflection of a traffic light, not moss like most things around here.

Someone lost a Zulu water bottle in the bushes across from a school.

We’ve got plenty of water bottles, so we set it up in plain sight and left so the owner can see it.

Also, an Eddie Bauer wig.

Okay, it might be a hat. We have plenty of hats and it looks good on the cone. So, we left it in plain sight so the owner can see it.

Also, a pair of sunglasses.

We can always use another pair of sunglasses, so we took them. However, we found that they were cheap and badly scraped up, so they got recycled. We’ll keep an eye on the water bottle and the cap, though.

Saturday, November 9^th, 2024 – Riverside Drive

Today was a cool walk with a light mist throughout the entire walk. We removed a roadkill mole from the street and found some money.

In front of the apartments on Woodinville Drive, we saw some trash by the curb near a parked car. Amid the trash was a dime and a penny and, in the gutter, we found a red-stained nickel. Then, near the freeway, we found a badly run over nickel with Monticello barely visible, but it counts. So, our total today was twenty-one cents.

At the Sammamish River Park, it appears a kid exploded.

At the Bothell parking lot, there are several dumpsters that serve the nearby businesses. But each week there seems to be new items dumped behind them. Today there were some cabinets that had been removed.

A tip for you illegal dumpers: When you dump something, don’t leave your address on it. Just trying to be helpful.

We found a tee shirt under a tree.

After examining it, we decided it was not fit for Goodwill. The thing that looks like a leaf on the sleeve is actually rotted through. A really bad case of perspiration.

More run over and broken up credit cards.

One part of an American Express and one an Amazon VISA. We think this is the first Amazon credit card we have found. We did some checking and if you purchase a lot on Amazon, it might be worth getting one.

Janet was out running some errands yesterday and passed through the construction zone where we picked up trash today. She saw a workman toss a tin of chewing tobacco on the ground.

She honked her horn and shook her fist at him. He was probably thinking, “What’s wrong with her?” And yes, Janet claims it was her fist she was shaking at him.

We picked up several things at the park-and-ride.

A “SquishMallows” McDonalds Happy Meal toy. A spoon, a pair of socks and the remains of a Panda Express meal. The meal had an unopened bottle of Wasabi sauce, package of Teriyaki sauce, and two fortune cookies. When we got home, we each selected a cookie to check our fortunes. Janet’s is on the left and Chuck’s is on the right.

“They” say you should add “in bed” after fortune cookie fortunes to make them more meaningful. Chuck is particularly proud of his.

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

• 46 Cents. Not counting the ten cents from Ritzville.
• 136 Game Card envelopes worth not very much.
• 7 Unopened food items including a bottle of Wasabi sauce.
• 3 Urine bottles.
• 3 Kid’s toys.
• 2 Roadkill
• 2 Fortunate fortune cookies, in bed.
• 1 Key
• 1 Down-the-drain sign.
• 1 Abandoned pumpkin.
• 1 Condom.
• 1 Addressed cabinet.
• 1 Chewing tobacco can, shaken, not stirred at.
• 1 25-year-old Walgreens bag suitable for carrying your Walkman.
• 0 Tools, not counting the half bungee cord.

Have a great week, and remember, don’t store your water bottles with your urine bottles.