Weather Delay

Friday, January 24^th, 2025 – 100th Ave NE

We have been experiencing a cold spell this week with morning temperatures hovering in the mid to upper twenties. In past years, we have walked in temperatures of 28°F (-2.2°C), but it’s a painful experience. This year, we set a hard stop at 30°F (-1.1°C). As a result, we have not ventured out so far this week. But today, the morning temperature was 31°F (-0.6°C).

It was not a happy walk with a LOT of trash frozen to the ground and the cold temperatures. However, we did find some money.

We picked up a very beat-up penny in the gutter on 100^th Ave NE and another penny at Janet’s favorite drive-thru.

We also found a tool.

A dirty, slightly rusty 10-mm combination wrench, but still serviceable.

We picked up some items of apparel.

A lady’s top laying in the gutter. It was ripped up, but we won’t speculate on how that may have happened. Also, we found a pair of kid’s socks and shoes. These were all together, so we decided to leave them in plain sight in case the parents came by. We’ll pick them up on our next pass if they are not removed.

In the construction zone, we found this sign.

This is like, “Hey kid, get off my lawn. Go play in the street.” But we understand, and we wear reflective vests, so the cars aren’t allowed to hit us.

On NE 145^th St, someone lost a bag of unopened groceries.

Mushrooms, lettuce, cheese, chicken and more. “Oh, thank goodness you’re home. I just need to get the salad made. It is so important that we make a good impression when you first meet my mom and dad…”

Every once in a while, we find a bunny scut, but this one is ridiculously coifed.

Prices of everything is going up and we hear there is a new bunny salon in the area, Le Lapin Luxe, but we had no idea.

Tuesday, January 28^th, 2025 – Park-and-Ride

The mornings remained cold, but we couldn’t stand seeing the trash pile up. We decided to take a rare afternoon walk when the temperature was in the mid-thirties. We left the house at about 2:00 PM and started on a shortened Tuesday route to the park-and-ride then back along Juanita-Woodinville way to NE 145^th St and over Norway Hill. It was daylight so we didn’t need flashlights or vests. Easy-peasy, just like Summer. But there was a lot of traffic, both vehicle and human. The vehicle traffic meant waiting for traffic to clear to pick up a beer can in the middle of the road and the human traffic meant listening the neighbors thanking us for what we do and asking questions about our routes, etc. Both slowed us down, the vehicles were annoying, but we enjoyed talking to our neighbors. Bottom line, we arrived back home three-and-a half hours later in near darkness.

However, we were rewarded with some cold hard cash.

Well, cold anyway. At the Park-and-Ride, we picked up a dollar bill laying on the grass. They say money doesn’t grow on trees but evidently it does on grass.

And we sort of found a tool.

A piece of a run-over screwdriver handle, but the TrashWalking judges rejected it as a tool. And for once, we agreed with them. Now, if we had found the screwdriver shaft, we might have an argument. As it is, we’re screwed by the screwdriver handle because we didn’t get the shaft.

We came to another fork in the road.

And it’s pointing backward, telling us there is more money back at the park-and-ride. We decided to ignore it and will place it in our found flatware collection, though this fork was not run over and so not flat. We will wash it first, and fortuitously we found the right product.

Some unopened dish washing soap. Sorry, this is not soap, it’s Finish Powerball Ultimate “their best clean and shine.” Our flatware collection deserves this kind of treatment.

This is interesting, we found three pairs of glasses today.

That’s kind of cool, but this isn’t. We also found three urine bottles, not.

One was normal, if any urine bottle can be normal. The other two were gallon jugs. Some Amazon drivers are drinking way too much coffee.

Friday, January 31^st, 2025 – 100th Ave NE

The temperature this morning crept up to 34°F (1.1°C), so we were able to venture out and were rewarded.

A penny at Janet’s favorite drive-thru. It wasn’t much, but we also found an unused, five-dollar Lucky Stars lottery card.

After we got home, we checked it out and, nada. So, just a penny today.

The only other thing of interest was a photograph of a group of people.

We don’t know who, where or when the photo was taken. One guy appears to be wearing an apron, so it may be at an eatery. The only thing we could identify was the marking on the knit cap.

It is an icon of the punk rock band, Bouncing Souls. We listened to a couple of their tracks, but not our cup of tea.

It was raining during our entire walk, and when we got home, we had an early-morning Amazon delivery waiting on our porch. Here’s the photo sent from Amazon of the delivery.

The delivery was okay. A little wet, but okay. Another foot toward the door would have been better.

Today is Janet’s birthday and she received a card from a friend.

Our friends know us too well.

Saturday, February 1^st, 2025 – Riverside Drive

The temperatures held for the second day in a row, so we went on our normal Saturday walk. Due to the weather, we missed two Saturdays, so we were faced with three times the normal amount of trash. For example, the number of pop tabs we collect from the cans we pick up averages about fourteen per day. Today we came home with seventy-one, meaning we defanged (removed the pop tab), crushed, and carried home seventy-one cans.

This is not a record haul, though. Our current record is ninety-eight in September of 2023.

We found more money along the way.

A nickel at the Jackson’s on Brickyard Road and then a dime and four pennies at the park-and-ride. Nineteen cents, a good day for a Saturday, a bad for this Saturday plus the two Saturdays we missed.

But we found a discarded piece of 3/4-inch electrical cable.

When we got home, we weighed it: 1.7 pounds of copper. According to the Internet, this is currently worth six dollars. Great, we’ll take it to Starbucks and see if we can buy a Latte with it. We’ll let you know.

In the heavy construction area on Woodinville Drive, we usually come across a lot of discarded trash in this spot, but since we missed some Saturday walks, it was more evident today.

This is a photo of the visible items, and we came back and pulled more out of the ditch and bushes. This is where a flagger stands during construction times, and he is obviously a practiced litterer. We are going to complain to the construction company. Overall, for a large construction project, they keep the site fairly clean, but this is an exception. We’ll let you know if we get a response.

Someone cleaned out their car leaving a mess including Esther’s driver’s license.

It expired in 2016, but you still shouldn’t just toss it out, some miscreant might use it for nefarious purposes. No, not us, some other miscreants.

On the freeway off-ramp, we picked up some trash where someone dumped a bunch of food wrappings and other stuff including this.

Yes, it’s human. Much worse than a urine bottle.

Finally, at the park-and-ride, another lady forgot her undies.

You’d think that would be hard to do, but evidently not. We find a lot of them.

That wrapped up the Saturday walk. After that, the temperatures dropped and hovered in the low twenties and even dipped to 19°F (-7.2°C). Then it snowed for two days and the only exercise we got was shoveling our driveway.

At one point during our lull, a friend sent us a picture and wondered if we knew what it was:

We are well aware of what it is. We have picked up a lot of vaping devices like these:

They all have batteries in them and some have electronic displays. We have been collecting them hoping to find a way to recycle them. So far, nothing.

One of the side effects of TrashWalking is we tend to be aware of things on the ground. One evening as we returned to our car in the dark, we spotted three rings in the parking lot.

They are not expensive rings but not toys either. We were able to find some rings similar to the coffin-shaped one for around fifty-dollars. The stone is Labradorite and, according to one website, has the following perceived benefits:

Transformation: Labradorite is believed to help individuals through change, imparting strength and perseverance.

Protection: In mystical realms, the stone is seen as a protective barrier, deflecting unwanted energies.

Enhances Intuition: Many believe that labradorite can awaken one’s innate intuitive abilities.

Balances Aura: It is thought to balance and cleanse the aura, raising consciousness and grounding spiritual energies.

We don’t know who Aura is or why she needs balancing, but our enhanced intuition tells us the Labradorite is just a mineral.

Saturday, February 15th, 2025 – Safeway Route

The weather finally warmed and even though there is still snow on the ground, the streets are generally clear. There was a lot of wet trash to pick up, and we ended up emptying our trash bags four times along our route. Normally we only need to empty them once. With high hopes, Janet checked her favorite drive-thru for spare change, but nothing. However, we did find a tool.

A 10-mm combination ratchet wrench. It had some light rust but it otherwise was in good condition.

Folks were busy while we were cooped up.

The condoms on the left were in front of the apartments on 112^th Ave NE. Uh, guys, it’s a no-parking zone. The other was outside of “Safeway.”

A Valentine’s greeting:

Or not.

We found it in the gutter along Juanita-Woodinville Way. The wording is interesting. Did she select him at the ASPCA?

For the past month, we have only walked five times. However, the current weather forecast shows a general warming trend with rain, so we should be back on our regular schedule next week. We shall see.

Have a great week and, if you know Aura, let us know if she’s balanced. If not, we have a ring for her.