Chuckb

Whew! We are in the summer in Seattle, and that’s like spring in the eastern part of the nation. Still, we do not handle hot temperatures well. The temperature in the morning at 4:30 am when we started out was in the high sixties, which is not comfortable at all. Yes, we are wimps.

The good news is we will be travelling on Thursday on a vacation.

The bad news is that after we leave, the high temperatures in Bothell will fall into the comfortable mid-seventies.

The good news is that we are visiting the Tanzanian Serengeti, where the temperatures will be in the mid-seventies.

The bad news for you is that part of this blog will probably be a travelogue of our trip.

Anyway, back to the mundane. The crow vigil from last week continued. We read that when the killed crow’s body is left in open view, some crows will remain. This is six days later, with the crow in sight.

At least six crows remained in the tree. So, we decided to remove the body out of sight into the bushes.

However, the next day, the crows were still hanging around the scene.

At this point, we’re not sure if they’re grieving, plotting revenge on us, or just waiting for the wake’s open bar to start.

A good friend alerted us that if we are awake at 4:00 am, we can get a glimpse of Venus and Jupiter rising together. The next morning we got this shot.

We wonder if their spouses are aware of this.

At the top of the Tolt Pipeline, someone teed off.

“Man, I got a great drive this morning, over 300 yards.” Yeah, now go find your balls in two meanings.

We found an unfit Fitbit in the middle of the road.

We have found these before in better condition. The problem is that there is no way to find the owner, even if it is communicative, which this one isn’t.

We found a McDonald’s bag with a crack pipe in the bottom.

This is taking the Happy Meal to a whole new level. Adult supervision required.

We now own part of a Tesla.

Okay, we own the tag that fell off part of a Tesla. This is exciting. Wonder how much Tesla stock we now own?

Tanzanian Safari. We didn’t know what to expect as we began our journey, but we had a great time. Here are a few photos of our trip.

This majestic herd of elephants approached the river then,

“Cannonball!”

A member of the Maasai community.

An elephant scratching its butt.

Sunset from camp.

“Dibs on the zebra leg!”

Sunrise from camp with a herd of zebras.

We arrived home on Saturday, totally exhausted after thirty-six hours of travel.

Back to reality, a jar of animal crackers.

Well, this is fitting, after our Tanzanian safari, we are treated to the Bothell Micro Safari Experience, bite sized.

At the bus stop, someone got nervous and started chewing her fingernails.

She went way past the nubs. It must have been her fist ride.

We have found severed CB antennas before, but not three in a row.

“Breaker, breaker, JeepJunkie, you copy?”
“Channel one’s dead. Switching to two.”
“…Nothing. Try three.”
“Still dead. Guess we’ll have to set up camp and wait for rescue.”

Uh, guys? This is Juanita-Woodinville Way. Safeway’s two blocks away.

We found s series of these small leaflets tacked to telephone poles. Starting August 21st and on all following Thursdays, “Don’t work & Don’t Buy.”

Granted, we were out of town on August 21st, but we didn’t hear about any global collapse. So how exactly does this work?

“Don’t Buy” — easy. Just stock up on Wednesday and skip Thursday. Problem solved.

“Don’t Work” — trickier.

Hourly Worker:
“Hey boss, I’m saving the world by not working Thursdays.”
Boss: “That’s fine, Greg will cover your shift.”
Worker: “But I still get paid, right, boss? …Boss?”

Salaried Worker:
“Boss, I’m saving the world by skipping work on Thursdays.”
Boss: “Great! You can use the extra time to find a new job with flexible hours.”

So who actually gets impacted? Looks like… the workers.

On the freeway off-ramp, we found a large piece of decorated nylon with some thin plastic struts.

After some research, this is a pop-up Dream Tent for kids. So, it fits in a small bag and will pop open when removed. This one popped open on the off-ramp, got run over multiple times, and will never pop up again.

Near the popped tent, we found this license plate.

Perhaps Canada is contracting Dream Tents to produce their license plates?

At the park-and-ride, we picked up a lost locket.

It is a 10 paisa Pakistan coin made into a pendant. It is no longer legal tender in Pakistan, so we don’t see ourselves making a special trip to Pakistan to redeem it. The value as a coin is between ten and twenty-five cents, but as an item of jewelry, it is worth between five and fifteen dollars. We still don’t see ourselves making the trip to redeem it. Of course, if you are interested, we can talk a deal. Only serious offers will be considered.

Clothes and Shoes. This is why you should never let a charity place one of these bins on your property.

“Surely, they could also use this pillow. And surely, they can use the bassinette, after all, there is a shoe in it. Oh, wait, as long as we’re here, grab that bag of trash out of the trunk.” “Wait, what? someone left a Safeway cart here. The nerve of some people.” Yes, the nerve.

We also found a second Safeway car near a bus stop and ran them both back to Safeway.

You know, we never got thanked.

As we were putting the carts back near the Safeway filling station, we found evidence of some other filling going on.

Does Safeway give rewards for these?

In a ditch, we found two discarded catalytic converters.

A couple of years back, there was a ring stealing catalytic converters to be recycled for money. They got busted, and it has been quiet ever since. After some research, we found that they can be worth anywhere from seventy-five dollars each to several hundred dollars.

Because stealing converters has become so rampant, you now need to show proof of ownership to recycle them. And we don’t think, “Yeah, they are ours, we found them in the ditch,” will work. Further research is needed.

A littered question:

Yes, we have asked ourselves that a lot.

Someone lost an Eddie Bauer Camp Chair.

It’s in good condition and goes for eighty dollars on the Eddie Bauer site. We go on road trips, but our idea of camping is Motel 6. Although it might be more comfortable than the motel furniture, I don’t see us carrying this in. It might be heading to Goodwill.

Someone purchased a Hootie Personal Safety Alarm.

She opened it and gave it a try. “Ack! that’s way too loud. It might disturb the neighbors.” She tossed it out the window.

Is this Bothell’s new ride-share program?

It’s certainly a step up from the Lime-Uber scooters.

We found this button.

Finally, something that describes the Bothell traffic.

During our Safari sojourn, we missed two Saturday walks, and we paid for it. We picked up a lot of trash and saw this.

Fortunately, this was about a hundred feet past the city limits in Woodinville, and we ignored it. However, up Brickyard Road, we found some garbage that some solid citizen tossed out.

They had meticulously cut out the addresses of almost all of the mail, but they missed a couple. We spent nearly half an hour cleaning it up. By the time we got home and finished sorting the trash and recycling, we had been out for seven hours. Woof!

That wraps up an interrupted week of TrashWalking. Our inventory: