Trash Walking

March 11th, 2019 – Safeway Route.

We are slowly regaining normalcy.  With the warmer weather, we are more comfortable walking and we are getting more honks and waves, including a honk from Mr. Handyman.

We found this. Paul McCartney and Wings, Band on the Run.  It’s a pretty good album, unfortunately the disc was gone.

We’ve been picking up small pieces of blue plastic at a busy intersection.  Something got dropped and run over many times.  Today we found out it was a Makita 18v power tool.  There was not enough information to fully identify it.

We found another errant ball. It had no obvious home so, we adopted it.

Another rubber glove. 

Also, another partial pack of cigarettes. They were too soggy for us to light, though.

We found a fried egg. It must have been a hard egg to crack.

Someone else lost their keys. They are a bit rusty and must been there a while.  We tried to find the owner, but nobody came forward to claim them.

At the top of Norway Hill, we were rewarded with a nice sunrise. It’s the first we have seen on our walks in a long time.

 

March 12th, 2019 – Park and Ride Route.

This morning was a little warmer and we got a honk from Mr. Handyman.  We didn’t find much along 112th Ave NE other than random trash.

Well, except for a rubber glove.  

A windshield wiper wiped of a vehicle. This was probably another victim of the cold weather.  Don’t turn the wipers on until they’re unfrozen from the windshield.

We found another perfectly good bungee cord. It was not run over.  It is now added to our burgeoning collection of bungee cords.   Well, we recently had fantastic news that we were to be grandparents again.  We are very happy.  The bungee cords will be useful for babysitting.

Along the way, we found a slightly rusty pipe wrench in a mud puddle.  It probably slid off someone’s truck.  Now it has slid into our found tool collection.

We found a small Jeep hubcap. This is the first Jeep hubcap we have found.  When I was in the army, we didn’t want our Jeeps to have shiny hubcaps like this.  Like on our walks, if a beer can didn’t want to be found, it wouldn’t be shiny.

Our toenails get dirty on our walks, especially when the weather is wet. We found this finger-toe nail brush that got discarded.  We’ll spare you detailed photos of our toes.

The heavy snow we had has depressed the foliage and uncovered a lot of items, mostly more trash to retrieve.  Today we spotted some items about thirty feet off the road.  After pulling it out, it was a pair of heavy shorts and a work shirt.  There was also a vinyl case.  We have found items like this before, and most likely it was stolen and dumped.

The clothing was waterlogged and very heavy, so we set it aside and picked it up later with the car.  The items were probably there two or three years, so were not salvageable.  The clothing went into the trash.

The vinyl case contained a lot of makeup. Chuck is glad not to be a female.  Most everything in the makeup case went into the trash.

In the bottom of the case was a watch. The watch is too corroded to get any model numbers, but it is an Anne Klein watch.  Probably about $35 worth in its day.  It’s not worth much now.

Also in the case, there was this. A Lock-It.  Get it?

 

March 13th, 2019 – Safeway Route.

The weather was overcast with a temperature of 37F.  We are definitely on a warming trend and it’s about time.  We got a honk from Mr. Handyman and met this fellow as we started our walk. He posed patiently while we snapped the photo and we went on our way.

We found another lock today. Not a Lock-it, like yesterday, just a lock.  In fact, it had been run over and bent and wouldn’t lock.  It’s an Unlock.  We recycled it.

We found a lot of toys today. Outside the KinderCare, we found another toss-ring. We tossed it back over the fence.  We have the feeling the kids are playing a slow game of “Catch” with us.

We also got a toy scoop, 

a dog toy, 

and three balls. The dog ball on the left is the size of a tennis ball.  The soccer ball is the size of a golf ball and the golf ball is the size of, well a golf ball.

Someone discarded a Peeps box. We are in the Peeps season, after all.

We found four gloves. The pair on the right are kid’s size.  We left them on a rock for about a week, but nobody claimed them, so  they are headed for Goodwill.

We picked up the remnants of a hubcap. Not enough pieces to identify the make.

Another lost makeup case. All-In-One Egg Mellow Cream.  It didn’t taste like egg.  “Too Cool for School.”  What a great message for our kids.  The manufacturer probably thinks that if people are educated, they will realize that, unlike aloe, random dairy products for skin care are a marketing ploy.

 

March 14th, 2019 – Park and Ride Route.

Today was 37F and overcast.  We got a honk from Mr.  Handyman again.  It’s starting to get light toward the end of our walks and we can see drivers waving at us.  When it’s dark, all we normally see is the glare of headlights.

This morning near the Park and Ride, we found this. It’s a piece of a work vest like we wear.  It’s made of Trilobal Rip-Stop material.  It didn’t seem to keep it from ripping.  Wonder what happened to the person wearing it?

Maybe he was wearing these: 

We did find the usual balls. 

And gloves. 

We found a woman’s debit card. It looked like she was trying to destroy it, but it was not a very good job.  We did a better job of it by shredding it for her.

We visited Gatorade Gully again. Only two Gatorade Butt-Bottles.  The beer cans are taking over.  There is another gully with a lot of beer cans in it, mostly Bud Light.  It is much steeper and deeper than this gully, so we haven’t ventured into it yet.

We found a J-Clamp. It doesn’t work quite as well as a C-Clamp.

We found the boxes of a bunch of over-the-counter allergy remedies stuffed together. Whoever tossed this was in bad shape.  They deserve it.

As we arrived home, we saw the last of the snow from our snow storms melting from our driveway. Good riddance.

 

March 15th, 2019 – Safeway Route.

The weather today was similar to yesterday.  Both traffic and trash were light which made for a pleasant walk.

We found another set of keys. We added them to our key collection.

Another ball for our ball collection.  There was no obvious place this belonged, so we collected it.

We found an unendorsed check. This was probably from some stolen mail.  We mailed it back to the payer where is might be stolen again.

At the party spot near the Safeway, some partied with a six-pack.  Six Coors cans and six-pack rings.

That’s it.  We said it was a light trash day.

 

March 16th, 2019 – Riverside Drive.

It was another cold morning hovering around 39 degrees.

Our first find was a Toyota hubcap.  It was deposited in a recycle bin along the way because it was early in our walk.  Too bad, it was it good condition.  Oh, well.

Tools. A whole set of run-over, rusty saw blades in the road, along with the smashed plastic container.  The blades were recycled – not even good enough for our “found tool” collection.

This drill bit made the grade.

Found at the Sammamish River Trail parking lot. The two mini-wine bottles we normally find here.

And a few feet away: Two used condoms.  Someone must have been on a break from a bike ride.

An almost useful tie-down.

This is very creepy! We don’t even want to know the story here.

Lucrative walk. Nickel, quarter (really), smashed penny, and an unsmashed penny.  The third coin was pressed into a souvenir.  However, it was repressed by cars into something we couldn’t recognize.

Various balls. A small bouncy ball, two baseballs and a tiny glass ball.  All went into our ball collection.

Japanese sheet music going down the drain. We captured it so that we could end our week with a Japanese Folk Song and a dance.

Definition of song and dance
1: a theatrical performance (such as a vaudeville performance) combining singing and dancing
2: a long and often familiar statement or explanation that is usually not true or pertinent

Synonyms
bafflegab, double-talk, gibberish, gobbledygook (also gobbledegook), rigmarole (also rigamarole)

This video from YouTube demonstrates the story of Soran Bushi with images of fish swimming by, pulling in the nets and reaping the harvest.

We spent the last part of our walk trying to do this dance, but ended up with even more sore muscles and a lot of weird looks.  It didn’t bother us.  We always get a lot of weird looks.