Vacillating Over Vaseline

Monday, March 10^th, 2025 – Safeway

Our week started with the temperature in the high thirties and off-and-on misty rain. We found neither tools nor roadkill but did score two balls and money.

Great. This is starting out like last week’s five-cent week. And, yes, we are a bit pessimistic. Can you blame us?

We did pick up a tool, though.

A camouflaged winch strap. We almost missed it. Unfortunately, vehicles ran over it and it was destroyed. But the strap is fine, if you could see it.

Someone set up a wheel cover against a barrier in hopes the owner would find it.

However, it was run over and useless as a wheel cover. We put in a nearby trash can.

We came across some pot.

Actually pots. They were probably left for free, but there was no sign. We left them. [Edit: On Wednesday, they were gone, so either taken for free, or stolen depending on the frame of mind of the recipient.]

We picked up a baby attempting to escape from KinderCare.

It looked surprised to see us. It was a tangled, waterlogged doll and we sent it back over the fence with a realistic sounding squish. Perhaps we should have just set it by the door. But it wasn’t high enough to reach terminal velocity when it hit the ground, so it wasn’t terminal.

An almost-full jar of Vaseline.

Coincidentally, last weekend, we cleaned out a cupboard and tossed out a jar of Vaseline we’ve had for thirty years and not used. This could be a sign that we should hang onto this new jar. So, what is Vaseline used for? We found 101 Uses for Vaseline on the Vaseline website. Number 66 is a bit weird, but they left out another use: Many, many years ago when Chuck was a bit younger, he overheard his dad tell a friend a joke something like, “Do you know what happened to the woman who confused Vaseline with putty? Her windows fell out.” Years later, Chuck got it. After his windows fell out.

Tuesday, March 11^th, 2025 – Park-and-Ride

Today we found neither roadkill, tools nor money. But we did find a bit of jewelry.

We were able to track it down as an Angle Spiner Charm, $15 apiece. They are designed to be used with other jewelry like a necklace. We assumed that you can make, for example a necklace of the year you were born, but evidently Angel Numbers are a spiritual thing. So, what happens if your spiritual number is 666?

In early October, some signs were erected with black plastic covering them. There was already a lot of construction about, so we were wondering what it was about.

Today we noticed it was unveiled.

Really? We would never have guessed without these signs. We know of the existing construction to the right and to the left, the construction earlier this year behind us and the construction a mile ahead. Oh, perhaps it is warning of the construction of more construction signs.

We picked up a Nintendo game near the freeway on-ramp

The Chuck E. Cheese Party Games. We know nothing about these games, but this one is seventy bucks from Amazon as a renewed game for $68. We’ll let this one go for say, $30. Okay, it’s on Prime, so yes, we’ll throw in shipping also. Let us know, there’s only one left in stock.

We picked up a baggie filled with rubber (Nitrile) gloves.

Alright, we can use these. But when we got home, we found it was a Ziploc bag with a pair of gloves and a filled doggie bag in it. Really?? Some people should not own a dog. Oh, wait. Perhaps it was a professional dog walker and OSHA was involved.

Wednesday, March 12^th, 2025 – Safeway & 100th

Again, no roadkill, tools or money today. Well, we did find this.

A Camel Cigarette C-Note, presumably the ‘C’ is for ‘Camel.’ It was used to redeem Camel-branded merchandise. The promotion was started in 1991 and ended in 2007 due to increased advertising restrictions. However, it has become a collectible going for a couple bucks or so depending on condition. Okay, we’ll let this go for a buck. Shipping not included. Remember this?

Well, we walked about five miles today for a Camel Note.

Another gas cap.

We found this in the gutter near the Safeway Gas Station. The owner probably tossed it out because it was blurry. No, really, the photo is sharp.

This is becoming a weekly find.

Another McUrine cup. A McCafe coffee cup with a couple of urine-soaked napkins inside. Hopefully, it is only the flavor of the month. Just bring back the McRibs.

Okay, we weren’t sure we wanted to talk about this, but here goes.

This is a male self-pleasuring device. It’s a hollow, soft silicon cylinder with a texture inside. And yes, we used rubber gloves and our picker.

We often see a paper girl delivering newspapers on Norway Hill. This morning, we saw her coming up the road as we neared a driveway she delivers to. She drove by at about 20 mph and tossed the paper.

She has some arm. Guess if we had been a few steps ahead, we would have had some breaking news.

Thursday, March 13^th, 2025 – 160th to 124th Street

After we were out walking, we discussed that we could have slept in this morning, and it turned out, we could have. The only thing of interest we found was a tool.

A 10mm socket by the freeway, and that was it. Okay, we did pick up some trash, but we could have slept in.

Friday, March 14^th, 2025 – 100th Ave NE

Last week, we made a big deal about getting a Superfecta, picking four horse race winners in a row. We did it again today. First, we removed a roadkill squirrel from the street, then we found some money.

A dime at Janet’s favorite drive-thru.

Third, we found a tool.

A very nice utility knife in excellent condition, not run over at all. It even had some blades in it.

Finally, on the downside, we picked up another urine container.

Yes, our second McUrine of the week. We have picked up several of these now, always in the same general location. This shows new meaning to the Golden Arches. Or is this their new streaming service?

We picked up a mystery device.

It had been run over and the back plate was missing, so there were no markings on it we could see. However, with some searching, we determined that it was a $45 dehumidifier available on Amazon. It looked much more interesting.

We found a tire innertube cap.

The N₂ means that the tire is filled with pure nitrogen and should be refilled with it. Otherwise, if you add air, you might end up with N₂O, laughing gas in the tire. Then when you skid, they would giggle rather than squeal. And that’s no laughing matter.

Saturday, March 15^th, 2025 – Riverside Drive

Woof! This was a wild morning with cool temperatures, rain and wind. It was an overall uncomfortable walk. We removed two roadkill rabbits from the streets but found some money.

Another penny bringing this week’s total to twelve cents. “Woohoo,” said in a sarcastic tone. But we also found this.

Yes, another “Motion Picture Prop” $100 bill. We have gathered several of these. They are available from Amazon, Ten-Thousand dollars for about ten bucks. Nice rate-of-return.

With the rain, everything was waterlogged and heavier than it should be, but this was ridiculous.

A sponge, busy soaking up water. It wasn’t making much headway.

Talk about being frugal.

The pencil is a bit short for us, but the eraser is still good. Either this person over sharpens their pencils or they seldom make a mistake. They certainly don’t do crossword puzzles.

Another nondenominational wheel cover.

It was broken and we only needed to carry it about three blocks to a trash bin.

We picked up a couple of cards.

Another lost credit card with an expiration date of 10/29 and a Sun Bucks card. We looked up this card and it provides money to students who get free school lunches. This card covers the summer months when they are not in school. And they say there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

We missed the freeway ramps last week and they were a mess. There were lots of trash, cans, food wrappers, and a long tie-down strap that had snapped and fallen off.

We rolled it into a 6-inch diameter roll and carried it to our next dump point across the freeway.

We picked up two items close to each other.

From the symbol on the bag, we know it is from lululemon, a very pricy “sportswear” shop. Pricey as in $148 for a long-sleeved tee-shirt. We are not sure if the stuffed animal came from lululemon, but if it did, it would cost $50, at least.

We picked up a couple of keys today.

First, an easy-to-identify house key, and yes, also easy to find. The other key was a hotel room key for McMenamins Hotel in Bothell. According to the folder, this person is in room 305 and checks out tomorrow. McMenamins has a couple of pubs in the hotel, so we may pop over and put a couple of beers on their room tab for keeping their lost keys out of the hands of shady characters.

That wraps up another TrashWalking week. Our inventory:

• 12 Cents.  Unfortunately, as of late, this is a fair week.
• 6 Balls, all returned over fences, except for a golf ball.
• 3 Roadkill, a squirrel and two rabbits.
• 2 Tools including a very useful utility knife.
• 2 Tie-down straps, both destroyed.
• 2 Wheel covers.
• 2 McUrine cups.  Flavor of the month.
• 2 Colorful keys.
• 1 Waterlogged baby.
• 1 Vaseline of many uses.
• 1 Psychic bead.
• 1 Disappointing sign.
• 1 Chuck E. Cheese game.
• 1 Double-bagged doggie bag.
• 1 C-Note.
• 1 Giggling tire cap.
• 1 $100 movie prop.
• 1 Loaded sponge.
• 1 Free lunch card.
• 1 Expensive stuffed animal.
• 1 Single-person sex toy.

Have a great week, and did you ever wonder if Macgyver knew about Vaseline?