Monday, May 29th, 2023 – Safeway
The weather today was a continuation of last week, almost perfect.
It was Memorial Day and other than the occasional vehicle, we had the road to ourselves.
Uh-oh. Some0ne’s going to get ticketed.
But they might be able to beat it. Afterall, the sign is obstructed by the foliage. Also, the driver was probably too short to see it.
Another piece of silverware.
A spoon in the road. We have learned to distrust spoons. They do not typically point in a direction like a fork. But this one was pointing slightly right. We looked up and it was a dead-end road. And that’s why we do not trust spoons.
Memorial Day is when the annual 7 Hills of Kirkland bicycle event is held. Since we keep the hill clean, they put up some signs for us.
For Janet, a slow down sign. What? She’s Janet and going uphill. Then there is Chuck at the top. Yes, Janet was ahead of him taking the photo.
We picked up what turned out to be a baby’s teether.
Loulou Lollipop Navy Beaded Silicon and Wood Teether. Wood? What about embedded bacteria? And splinters? And if the band breaks, those navy-blue beads will taste just like grapes. This just sounds like a bad idea. But for twenty-five bucks, it’s a good idea to someone.
Tuesday, May 30th, 2023 – Park-and-Ride
The week is not starting up well no money and no roadkill. We could handle some roadkill if there was money involved.
On the freeway onramp, we picked up a piece of plastic that had survived remarkably well with only a few chips.
So, what was it? The label on the bottom identified it is as a new soap dish. Okay, it was plastic, new and only slightly chipped, but it could be worth something. But wait, Greenbrier International – that’s a Dollar Tree store brand. Great. Okay it might be worth a little more than a dollar, but still. We’ll stop carping, this is starting to sound like a soap opera.
We spent a long time at the park-and-ride. The park-and-ride is divided into two lots. In the “clean” lot, someone had a Coors Light party.
Two six-pack cartons and nine bottles. They obviously saved three bottles to take home for dessert. Anyway, it required a trip back to the trash can. The second “dirty” lot had a lot of random trash, mostly cans and plastic bottles, but required a second trip back to the trash can. Whoever empties the trash cans is not going to be a happy camper. No, the campers we periodically encounter in the parking ride do not pick up trash. It is probably a King County Metro worker, but they probably won’t be happy either.
Also at the park-and-ride, we found a small pocket-bong.
Unfortunately, the bowl part was broken but it’s so small we’ll probably add it to our collection.
Last week we discussed this cat fish detour sign.
Someone added a commentary. The saga continues.
On our way back home, we pass the 7Eleven store.
We noticed what looked like a survey crew in the parking lot, but after some discussion, it looked like cameras. So we came to the conclusion that they were getting ready to shoot a commercial or something. However, we later found out the 7Eleven had earlier been held up and this was part of the news crew to film a report. In the report we heard on a news source, four local 7Eleven stores were robbed in the early morning within three hours by two young men and the police officers think they may be connected. Duh, ya think?
Wednesday, May 31st, 2023 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE
It was a bit chilly this morning at 47°F (8.3°C) but we braved the cold. Again, we found no money but did remove a very large rat from the street.
It was so large that we had a discussion as to whether it was a rat, but in the end, the tail gave it away. At least, we assumed it was a tail.
We found an unopened package of Safeway Cinnamon Flats.
Yes, they were Cinnamon Rolls, but after laying in the street, they are Cinnamon Flats.
So this was cruel.
The KinderCare hoodlums tossed Fireman Mickey over the fence. At least they didn’t behead him like most of the other toys they toss over.
A smashed LG beverage container.
This sucks. We recently purchased a new LG television, and we didn’t get one of these. Of course, if we had we would want an unsmashed one.
Heading up the hill, a cat was watching us.
We kept a wary eye on it, it looked like it could go for our throats. However, it just watched while we continued up the hill. It must have known that curiosity killed the cat.
Someone had lunch near some construction.
A Pastrami and Cheese Sandwich and a Pineapple Colada Chiller. “That was refreshing. Now back to operating some heavy equipment.”
We also picked up another urine-filled water bottle and we should have had a photo, but one of us had a lapse of procedure. We won’t say which one, but she forgot to take a picture.
Thursday, June 1st, 2023 – 160th to 124th Street
It was another cool day, and we found the first money, the first of the week.
Four nickels and a quarter scattered along today’s route. We were getting worried. We are halfway through our walking week, and this is the first found money. We’ve had some weeks with very small money finds, but we haven’t been shut out since mid-January.
We removed a roadkill crow from the street and at the park-and-ride, a crow, not the one we removed started squawking at us.
It followed us across the freeway to the Chevron station then left. It may be coincidence, but it may have seen us remove the roadkill crow. “Crows remember the faces of humans who have threatened or harmed them, and these memories last for the bird’s lifetime (probably). Crows scold dangerous people and bring in family members and even strangers into the mob.” We need to watch our step, after all, they are called a murder of crows.
We picked up a do-rag with a patriotic theme.
Yes, it was made in China.
It seems nobody takes pride in workmanship these days.
Really, what would it take? But we have encountered worse.
This was about five years ago.
The guy walked across the freeway offramp toward us.
We thought he wanted to compliment us on our vests, but he asked if the nearest gas station was the one across the freeway. We’re just guessing, but he had probably run out of fuel. His vehicle, we mean.
For a couple of years, we have been passing this abandoned Big-D Construction pylon.
We emailed them about it and were ignored. A few weeks ago, some more construction was taking place, and we carried the Big-D pylon over to where they had stored more cones. Sure enough, when the construction ended, they took the pylon. Of course, they left two cones.
Friday, June 2nd, 2023 – 100th Ave NE
This morning was a very nice walk with cloudy skies and warmer weather. We removed another roadkill crow. It’s been a bad couple of weeks for crows. We also beat yesterday’s money find.
A quarter, two dimes, a nickel and two pennies, all found spread along our route. Keep it coming.
We found Mike’s wallet today, the seventeenth wallet since we started walking.
This one seemed to have all the contents, but no license or money. We were able to find Mike’s phone number and contacted him. Later in the day, we were able to return it to him. He said that the license was missing and that he had about a couple hundred dollars in it. And no, we didn’t take the money.
[Update: The owner of the wallet texted us again on Saturday: “Thanks so much for returning my wallet to me. Quite funny to me. I lost that wallet over 2 years ago. I don’t know where it was hiding, somebody must have had it somewhere. I have since lost two other wallets that were black. I don’t know. Keep an eye out. thanks again.” We told him we would keep an eye out for the other two wallets.]
At the park-and-ride, someone had a large bucket of popcorn, or at least the plastic bucket.
We were about to recycle it but decided we might be able to use it for something. Out of curiosity, we found it on Amazon for twelve bucks, it’s a good thing we didn’t recycle it. Then, upon further inspection, we found it was from the Dollar Tree store for a buck-twenty-five. Okay, we may recycle it.
It’s Friday, time to check the contents of Chuck’s vest pocket.
First the cards. Two of Michelle’s credit cards on the freeway onramp, a Proliance Orthopedics business card, and a business card for Nana J’s. Nana J’s offers “fast casual indian inspired fusion” with several curry dishes on the menu. About thirty years ago, there was a big flap about Cold Fusion. Nana J’s must be the Hot Fusion.
A Hilton hotel key card advertising a phone app that can be used to in lieu of a key card. It had the statement, “It’s time to let me go.” It looks as though someone took it “litter-ally.” And a Renovapro business card, a local home renovations company.
Then there is a jewelers estimate for something totaling $29,560. However, the jewelry is in Secunderabad, India and the price is in rupees, so about $355. Someone tried to make a combination pen-and-pencil set with tape and failed.
A couple of car parts. A Nissan emblem and a cigarette lighter of unknown origin. The contents of a keyring without the ring. A keyring screwdriver stamped with “Sacramento Securities”, three regular keys and a proximity key. All were found within a hundred feet in the middle of NE 160th Street between two service stations.
Two survey markers labelled “Do not remove”, but we did. No, we didn’t detach them, they were just lying in the road. If that’s where they were supposed to be, it’s pretty shoddy surveying if you ask us.
A sharp razor blade, which is how they are supposed to be and a Lip Smackers Strawberry Frost lip balm. Lip Smackers went out of business, but it wasn’t big news. It certainly wasn’t on everyone’s lips.
A metal plate stamped with “MAN VN584 M 3 354.” We don’t know, but Google did, it’s from a Ford catalytic converter. An attaboy from a teacher at a local middle school. It’s nice to know that the teachers take the time to recognize the students’ strengths. The student and class is not filled in, and the signature is a stamp, but still.
Finally, a wristband verifying that someone is over 21. We’ll hang onto this, we never know when we’ll need to prove we are over 21.
Saturday, June 3rd, 2023 – Riverside Drive
On today’s walk, we removed three roadkill, a rat, a rabbit, and a bird. But we also found money.
Three quarters, yes, the second coin is a quarter, George is just a bit beat up. Two pennies and a dime for a total of eighty-two cents. Not bad, but we were thinking it would be nice to have some folding money and voila!
With about a quarter mile to go, a dollar bill. Next time we’ll keep thinking about a twenty.
We also picked up some tools.
A set of hex keys and a four-foot tie-down strap both run over and in bad shape. Also, a Torx head drill bit. It’s probably also been run over, but there’s not much to damage on a drill bit.
Speaking of run over,
someone ran over a sign. We didn’t find any car parts, but it had to hurt.
This may explain it.
A bag with one full can of Red Hook Big Ballard double IPA, 8.6% ABV. Five cans missing and presumably empty and awaiting our attention.
This is a first. We found another credit card.
No, we find lots of credit card, the first is that this one belongs to a friend of ours. We’ll return it to her, for a reward, of course.
This was outside the apartments on Woodinville Drive.
A bunch of unused masks and half a bottle of hand sanitizer. We wouldn’t have seen this three years ago when everyone was scrambling to find these.
We found some kid’s schoolwork.
- What are the parts of a goldfish?
Top fin, tail fin, bottom fins, mouth, eye, and gill. Very good. - Make a Goldfish Observational Drawing.
Okay, they probably wanted a drawing of the goldfish, but the kid observing the goldfish works too. -
What do worms do?
- Can a worm go over? Yes.
- Can a worm go under? Yes.
- Can a worm go around things? Yes.
- Can a worm go forward? Yes.
- Can a worm go backward? Yes.
- Anything else interesting? — . Come on, kid, they can feed goldfish.
We missed a milestone for us a few weeks ago. According to our Garmin activity tracker,
Our lifetime distance surpassed 15,000 miles (24,000 km). By lifetime it means since we started using the watches in 2016. That would be enough to go around the world if we walked along 70th parallel. We have a ways to go to do it on the equator.
With that, wrap up another walking week. Our take this week.
- $2.79. Another good week.
- 12 Mike’s Hard Lemonade cans.
- 7 Roadkill.
- 5 Balls.
- 1 Very quiet walk.
- 1 Teething ring, with splinters.
- 1 Armed Robbery.
- 1 Package of Cinnamon Rolls, flat.
- 1 Cat, beady-eyed.
- 1 Wallet, lost, returned two years late.
- 1 Jewelry Estimate, 29,560 rupees.
Have a great week and keep an eye out for two black wallets.
Trash Walking 