Dropped Drawers

Monday, December 16^th, 2024 – Safeway

With the start of a TrashWalking week, new riches. Not. The temperature today was moderate, as was the rain. Not a good walk, but not a bad walk either. Mediocre actually.

We found no money, but we picked up a socket wrench case with three sockets.

The sockets were slightly rusty, but otherwise in good condition. Then we noticed the logo on the box.

Montgomery Ward! We remember Montgomery Ward and its catalog which started in 1872, before Sears and went defunct in 2001. One-hundred-and-thirty years, not a bad run. Unsurprisingly, the early 2000’s was when Amazon expanded. At least we got three sockets out of it, probably more than the stockholders of Montgomery Ward.

In the past Christmas seasons, the main car decorations we picked up were lost car reindeer antlers. This year, it seems to be refrigerator magnets that stick very well to refrigerators, but not to cars.

And yes, lights and other decorations.

We did find an eraser in case we ever make a mistake which we never do.

Okay, perhaps Chuck, but never Janet. Chuck is aware of this because that’s what Janet says.

This is ominous.

We picked up another McMess of the McLitterers. We used to find two or three of these weekly, then they became sporadic. Now we have found two in the last three weeks. Learn more here if you really want to.

We find a lot of empty cigarette packages. But strangely, we find many with several unsmoked cigarettes in them for no reason.

The reason we found one today was they were waterlogged and are really hard to light.

Then we found a flattened Amazon box with a drawing on it.

At first Janet thought it was an attempt to draw the Amazon arrow. Then Chuck guessed a snake. Then Janet guessed a… Well, let’s just say she came up with something else. Go ahead, take your best guess.

Tuesday, December 17^th, 2024 – Park-and-Ride

This morning was very mild for a December day, threatening rain that never came. That was the good news. The bad news was we removed a roadkill bird and found little of interest, but here goes anyway.

At the dumpsters, folks toss everything but the kitchen sink.

Well perhaps not today, but normally they do.

In the park-and-ride, we found a baby’s toy their parents bought for him.

A disco-playing panda bear. Obviously, the parents like disco music. The toy’s snap was broken, so the kid ripped the toy from his car seat and tossed it out the window. Smart kid. Apologies to those of you who look back on disco as the high point of your life.

At the top of the Tolt Pipeline, we found an empty lighter and two empty vials of Clear Eyes Redness Relief.

From the Internet, “Marijuana causes blood vessels, including those in the eyes, to dilate. This is why people’s eyes often appear red after using marijuana, this is in addition to the normal smoke irritation.” And there were two vials, one for each eye. This was an organized pot head.

Wait, what?

This is a name tag sheet for a local middle school soccer team. This is about soccer, right?

It’s soccer. How about “I identify as a soccer star. Teach me that.”

Wednesday, December 18^th, 2024 – Safeway & 100th

Today was a wild walking day. The temperature was relatively warm 51°F (10.6°C), breezy with no rain. Just before we reached Safeway, the skies opened with a deluge of very heavy rain, strong winds and even some lightning. The gutters were flooded, and we got thoroughly soaked. We continued to the far point of our route at 100^th Ave NE and NE 132^nd St. As we passed Safeway again, the weather tantrum subsided. It was bad, but things could have been worse.

But could it get worse? Well, we removed a roadkill rat from the street. But we also picked up twelve cents at Janet’s favorite drive-thru.

So, that made all the rain, wind, thunder and rats worth it.

Okay, but this might have tipped the scales the other way.

Yes, it appears that each week, we are required to find at least one urine bottle whether we want to or not. We would prefer not.

Thursday, December 19^th, 2024 – 160th to 124th Street

This morning was much calmer with none of that thunder, wind, and rain of Biblical proportions. It was perhaps a bit too calm with no roadkill and no money.

Okay, we have a rule that if we find money on our walks, it goes in our “tip jar” a Munich Hofbräuhaus mug that we found. Any money we find on our own while running errands or shopping goes into our own piggy banks, which since Janet is the one out-and-about, her piggy bank grows. Come to think of it, Chuck doesn’t even have a piggy bank.

Today, Janet found three cents while shopping at Home Depot, then later in the day found twenty-three cents in the Fred Meyer parking lot. During our walks, Janet routinely crosses several parking lots and seldom finds any money to contribute to the tip bar. Chuck is getting suspicious.

We see these bins show up and disappear.

It sounds like a good idea but then two things happen. First, too many items are donated, and the bin is not emptied fast enough. The other thing is people don’t or don’t want to read the sign and general items are dumped. We have even seen washers and dryers left. Eventually these bins seem to disappear and reappear at another location leaving the washer-dryer combo behind.

We picked up two hats that the park-and-ride.

A black knit cap and a stylized American flag hat. We’ll send the knit cap to Goodwill and add the baseball cap to our TrashWalking Museum collection.

Brick yard park-and-ride, someone lost their work badge to the Seattle Attorney’s Office.

Bad move. They will be required to clean homeless encampments for a week while the new badge is processed. And, if it takes too long, you could become homeless and live in an encampment of your very own.

Friday, December 20^th, 2024 – 100th Ave NE

Today we removed a roadkill squirrel from the street but found money.

Seven cents, but it was found by Janet while shopping at Safeway. So, yes, more money in Janet’s piggy bank, not the TrashWalking tip jar. But we did find a tool, so there is that.

Okay, it was run over and probably useless so, it does not make up for the seven cents.

On Juanita-Woodinville Way, we came across a heavy plastic-canvass sign.

It was a sign stating, “SHOW HER THE MONEY.” Searching Google, it immediately came up with a website for a movie with local screenings.

Okay, good luck with the local screening without your backdrop. We rolled it up and put it in a parking lot to be picked up later.

Not much farther, we found some bags of what looked like food for a banquet.

Yes, it seems the “SHOW HER THE MONEY” screening audience is going to be hungry also. We kept looking, but as you already know, we did not find HER money either.

We picked up two articles of clothing.

A pair of socks and a scarf that probably had nothing to do with HER money. They will be washed and sent to Goodwill.

A Giant Coloring and Activity book

It was giant and colorful but waterlogged and got recycled.

Along NE 145^th St., another condom.

There are two churches along this street, but it’s difficult to determine the condom’s denomination.

We picked up a laminated tag.

So, this person evidently took the tag without contacting Junior or Rob. It would be nice to know why the tag was so important for Project “No. I.”

Another urine bottle.

But this one is different from the others. Yes, there was urine, but also gravel. Probably a bad case of… wait for it…”Kidney Stones.” You’re Welcome.

Saturday, December 21^st, 2024 – Riverside Drive

Today started strangely. We use an Amazon Show as an alarm clock and when Chuck awoke and checked the time, Alexa showed 11:57. What? We only slept two hours? After thinking about it for a couple minutes, Chuck checked his phone which showed it was 4:03, about twenty minutes before the alarm should sound. A few minutes later, Alexa check her watch, and the time corrected itself. The alarm went off on time.

When we got up, we checked the National Weather Service for the temperature. A very warm 51°F. Then we checked Siri for any rain. Siri indicated rain starting later, but showed the temperature was 47°F. Then we asked Alexa, and she agreed with Siri. We have two outdoor thermometers and they both agreed it was 45°F. There might be a solar storm underway. We checked Google and Gemini said there was only low-to-moderate activity today. Right, like we’re going to trust Gemini.

Our walk today was fine, probably because we ignored our electronics. We did not find any money and did not come across any roadkill.

We picked up two pairs of sunglasses, both smashed.

The ones on the left were cheap safety glasses found at the freeway construction area. The ones on the right were on the freeway on-ramp. This person was kind enough to leave the cleaning cloth with them.

And we found a couple more hats today.

A tossed Seahawks knit cap. They must have watched the last game. A toddler’s Star Wars hat that probably meant to make him look like an Grogu.

Pretty realistic, we think.

We picked up a towel at the park-and-ride.

Google identified it as a tea towel. Chuck thought it was a dish towel, but what does he know?

Across from the apartments on Woodinville Drive, another urine bottle.

The third one of the week, but not near our record of five in February of this year.

Right in plain sight of everyone, someone dropped their drawers.

Literally. Four pairs of new men’s underwear.

Then we found this, a deer whistle.

No, it’s not a hunter’s deer call, it is meant to be attached to a car and produce a whistling noise to warn deer away. Do they work? From the Internet,

“Several studies, including those by wildlife experts and universities, have found little to no evidence that deer whistles effectively reduce collisions with deer. Deer behavior varies widely, and their response to whistles (or other noises) is inconsistent. Some experts argue that deer might not even hear the ultrasonic sounds emitted by certain whistles, as their hearing range differs from what these devices produce. Even if a deer hears the whistle, it might not react in a predictable or helpful way. Deer can freeze, dart unpredictably, or even move toward the sound.”

But they are only fifteen bucks for ten of them at Walmart.

That way, if it gets knocked off when you hit a deer, you have plenty of extras to replace it.

That wraps up another TrashWalking week. Our take,

• 12 Cents for our tip jar, 31 cents for Janet’s piggy bank.
• 10 Articles of clothing including dropped drawers.
• 7 Balls of various sizes and shapes. Actually, the same shape.
• 4 Tools, three sockets and a wrench.
• 3 Urine bottles, one with stones. It must have been painful.
• 3 Roadkill, a bird, a rat, and a squirrel.
• 1 Identity Journal.
• 1 McMess.
• 1 Obscene box.
• 1 Kitchen sink.
• 1 Flood of Biblical proportions.
• 1 Lost employee badge.  The badge, not the employee.
• 1 Condom.
• 1 Erratic deer whistle that might be good for hunting deer.
• 1 Hungry audience for a showing of “Show HER the  Money.”

Have a great week and remember to keep track of your drawers.