Bruno the Mystic

Monday, January 13^th, 2025 – Safeway

We had a good start to our TrashWalking week. We came across no roadkill and picked up some money.

A dime and a penny at Janet’s favorite drive-thru. A nice start to the week. Let’s hope it ends as well.

We picked up another knit cap.

This one is a Carhartt in great condition. Unfortunately, we are up to our necks in knit caps. Okay up to our heads. Anyway, this is on it’s way to Goodwill.

We also found a nice pair of gloves.

We normally do not take photos of gloves, but in this case, it was a matched pair in good condition. We find a lot of single gloves and some pairs of discarded gloves discarded for a reason. But a matched pair in good condition is rare. See and believe.

At the top of the Tolt Pipeline, we found a bunch of trash.

A couple of pizza boxes, some used wiper blades and a bag of trash. “Okay, Sally. We replaced the windshield wipers, cleaned out the car and had dinner. What now?” “Hey, great idea!”

A used condom hanging on a bush. The bag contained mostly trash.

It also had three USB cables and some mail that may or may not have been stolen. When we find stolen mail, it is usually addressed to a few different households, but this was all to a single address in Lynnwood, about ten miles north, so it could be the address of the litterer. But nobody would be that stupid. Would they?

Tuesday, January 14^th, 2025 – Park-and-Ride

We found neither money nor roadkill today. But we did find a tool.

An 11/32^nd-inch socket at the park-and-ride. Yes, it is a very small socket, but given the stature of our recent finds, this will fit right in.

For the past several weeks, we have picked up discarded white plastic gloves at this bus stop.

Yesterday while driving home from an appointment, as Chuck passed this bus stop he saw a guy waiting for the bus drop some gloves. Chuck’s first thought was, “Did that really happen?” Then, “I’m going to turn around and talk the guy.” However, due to some miscommunication, our car did not get plugged in this morning and it was running low on battery, and Chuck continued home. Now that we know when he is there, we may stake out the bus stop. After all, we blend in with our yellow reflective vests, flashlights and flashing harness lights. It’s about as incognito as we get.

We picked up another tree air freshener, partially wrapped.

They are more effective when unwrapped, but last much longer when wrapped. Who knows? This guy may have found the right balance.

On the North-bound freeway on-ramp, we spotted a tractor-trailer rig parked on the apron. As we approached and started to head back, a Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Incidence Response truck slowed.

The WSDOT truck stopped, and the guy asked if it was our truck and if we needed help. Hastily, Chuck answered that we were fine. That was the wrong response. First, we were cold and a long way from our coffee. Second, if we had said yes, he might have helped us get the truck started and we would have our own truck. It was a nice truck, after all.

Wednesday, January 15^th, 2025 – Safeway & 100th

We hit paydirt this morning.

A penny. Okay, pay dirt might be overstating it.

But we did find a bracelet.

It looked like one of those cheap plastic-bead bracelets we find all the time, but it wasn’t. It was a cheap glass-bead bracelet. Much nicer.

So, yesterday we related the story about the guy at the bus stop who litters gloves. Evidently, he somehow heard about it because he left us a message today.

We had a nice meet-and-greet this morning. We have seen this lady a few times near the bus stop by the 7Eleven and have exchanged polite greetings. This morning, we engaged in a short conversation.

One of the wonderful things about TrashWalking is meeting new people.

Thursday, January 16^th, 2025 – 160th to 124th Street

We found no money today, but we did find a couple of tools.

A used paint brush but still in usable condition, and a quick-connect valve assembly. It consists of a male quick connect, a ball valve, a swivel joint and a female quick connect. This could be used for something like a pressure washer. We are guessing the parts alone are between fifty or seventy dollars’ worth. The ball valve alone is about forty dollars. Not counting the value of the paint brush.

We came across a can of Gravy Train dinner.

It looked to have been opened with a knife and the guy only ate about a third of it.

“Ground Dinner with Chicken.” It sounds good, but wait, it’s dog food! We would only have eaten a third of it too.

Friday, January 17^th, 2025 – 100th Ave NE

It’s getting colder in the mornings at 34°F (1.1°C) this morning and the forecast is even colder. We frequently travel Simonds Road and for the past few weeks there has been a bag of trash that someone tossed in an area where there are no sidewalks. We decided this morning to walk further uphill on Simonds Road to pick up the trash.

There was a lot of other smaller trash, but the bag was a normal trash bag about half full of garbage. We carried it down the road for about two blocks to our normal turnaround point and left the bag. We will pick it up with the car. However, bottom line, our walk was three hours and forty minutes long, up Simonds Road and over Norway Hill. We decided that this is pretty much our limit these days.

We normally don’t show photos of balls we find, but this one is different.

It’s a Halloween-themed dog ball depicting a caramel apple. It didn’t taste like caramel, though.

Here is this week’s mystery find.

It is a five-inch package of tubes sealed in cellophane. When we opened the package, it was a semi-transparent plastic tube in another white tube. We have no idea what its purpose is. Let us know if you have any idea.

We are not cigar smokers, but we have some friends who are, so this drew our attention.

We looked up the brand, “601 Green Oscuro.” At one site, these are $164 for twenty cigars. So, this one was worth about eight dollars. But this one looks to be about a fourth of the original. We’ll call it a two-dollar stub.

We picked up this laminated photo.

He looked familiar, like some character actor, but we couldn’t identify the person. But Google could. It’s a photo of Bruno Gröning, a German mystic who practiced as a faith healer. He died in 1959 of stomach cancer. Go figure. Obviously, he still has some followers.

Saturday, January 18^th, 2025 – Riverside Drive

It finally happened, the temperature this morning dropped to 27°F (-2.8°C), below our self-imposed limit of 30°F. We didn’t venture out, and the National Weather Service five-day forecast does not look good.

So, that brings an abrupt end to our week. Our take,

• 12 Cents.
• 3 Balls, one that does not taste like caramel.
• 3 Tools including an expensive valve.
• 2 Items of clothing including another knit cap.
• 2 Bags of garbage.
• 2 Long USB cables.
• 1 Condom in a bush.
• 1 Batch of incriminating mail.
• 1 Long-lasting air freshener.
• 1 Nice, but still cheap bracelet.
• 1 Rubber glove with a message.
• 1 Mystery tube.
• 1 Two-dollar cigar.
• 1 German mystic.
• 0 Nice trucks.

Have a great week and keep the frost off your pumpkins.