Week 40 – Neighborhood Cleanup

As usual we had a busy weekend so we headed out to pick up litter after work tonight. Lori had the great idea to head down the hill to an exceptionally dirty spot in W. Seattle on 35th near the bus stop, Redline, and KFC.

We pulled out of traffic and were immediately staring at more than two buckets full right in front of us! We like finding these nasty spots because our efforts are quite noticeable.  Another added bonus is that we both drive by this location on the way to work so we can admire the clean spot every morning (well, every morning until it gets trashed again).

You would be amazed at how quickly you can fill a bucket with litter, today we spent no longer than five minutes and cleaned up a particularly littered place in our community.

Week 39 – New Found Glory

Happy 4th of July everyone!  We celebrated in style as our founding fathers did with food, flags and fireworks.  Ben found a bunch of flags at a garage sale for $.25 and littered them throughout the yard so he could watch Old Glory wave as he slowly grilled the essential BBQ ribs.

Later that evening as we watched the fireworks display downtown from our deck we heard fire trucks and police cars with their sirens blaring.  We could hear fireworks nearby and assumed the police were after the illegal  celebrations.

In the hopes that we could pick up buckets of firecracker litter we headed to Dragonfly Park where we assumed people were lighting firecrackers.  To our surprise we found old litter  throughout the streets and a few pieces of rubbish in the park but no firecracker remnants.

As we disposed of our litter in the park trash can, lo’ and behold… it was full of exploded firecrackers and bottle rockets.  It’s nice to know that even though they might have been illegally setting of fireworks, they were kind enough to dispose of their rubbish in the appropriate bins.

Let’s keep America, The Beautiful!

Week 38 – Gandhi Baby Gone

Gandhi wrote, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”.

Lori and I attempt to change the world every week but we need your help. We’ve been doing this litter clean-up thing for almost a year and so far we’ve only had three Earth lovers join our cause.

I promise you that filling a bucket will (sadly) only require 10-15 minutes of your time. Today is a great example, we headed out to the local big box hardware store to buy a couple bags of bark and stopped on the way to pick up litter. We seriously improved a trashy area in only 10 minutes and left feeling like we make a difference. Won’t you join us?

Week 37 – A New Outlook

After a very productive weekend of helping Ben’s parents put in a new patio, we cautiously took a breather and picked up litter on Monday instead of our usual Sunday.  The patio looks great, by the way…there is something about hard work and seeing something tangible at the finish line.  It was worth every blister and ache.

We limped about today after work adding to our bucket collection.  We visited a usually dirty spot near the old high school but with all the overgrown grass and bushes we could barely find anything.  It took some effort to fill our buckets… but then again, “The difference between try and triumph is a little umph!” (unknown)

Week 36 – Hertz Donut

After an exhausting weekend moving the college kid back home, Ben and I decided to go to Costco and stock up.  We hoped to pick up litter near Costco and kill two birds with one stone.  We didn’t  have to go very far and stopped at the Hertz rental company which is adjacent to Costco.

We previously had picked up in front of Hertz awhile ago and had hoped that they were pleasantly surprised with their clean area and kept it up!  Unfortunately it looked just as disgusting as last time.

Our tired bodies were happy that it took about five minutes to fill two buckets.  Hertz..don’t it?

Week 35 – Computer Clean Up

Sorry for the delayed posting this week, we’ve had horrible trouble with our computer. After many virus scans, spyware cleanup, and a Windows update we finally realized that our ISP was at fault. The techs at Comcast managed to fix our issues today BUT we lost all our pictures from this week’s cleanup.

Please take our word for it that we filled two buckets of litter earlier in the week. We revisited a particularly dirty spot in West Seattle and left it looking better

Glad to be back online!

Ben and Lori

Week 34 – Picked Clean

Ben and I revisited the High School in West Seattle.  The usual condoms, bottles of water and beer cans littered up and down the street overlooking the track field.  It felt good to look back and see a big (clean!) difference. 

We’ve also noticed the many commercials on the radio lately regarding the legalities of litter and calling in the litterers that you see while you are out in traffic.  Unfortunately, with the recent budget cuts, the radio spots will cease and the decrease of hired help to pick up our littered roads will lessen.

So if you live in Washington State, please make sure you call in to 1-866-Litter1 to report violaters.  Hopefully this will deter more people in the future in these tough economic times. Also we’d love to have you get out there and fill a couple buckets.

Week 33 – Home

In our travels we realized that it was good to be home.  It’s beautiful in Washington.  It takes seeing other amazing places to appreciate our own wonderful place.  And though we went to pick up rubbish in the industrial area of West Seattle we kept looking at the mountains and all the greenery and were awestruck on how pretty it is here.

So we happily continue to do our part by making Washington just a tiny bit prettier.  We had to come home to find what we were looking for…litter!

Week 32 – Vacation!

Ben and I took a wonderful camping vacation through Oregon and California down to San Francisco and back up the coast.  We were thoroughly impressed with the constant signs on I-5 threatening $1000 fines for littering.  It seemed every few feet there was a warning.  We give kudos for their litter efforts.  We had every intention of picking up litter while on vacation (we even brought a couple of bags that could substitute as our buckets, but they weren’t necessary).  What a wonderful surprise!

To see the rest of our pics of our vacation, click here.

Week 31 – Mother Lode

Driving for 3 hours to see my punkin-noodle for a dinner that I paid for was more than worth it on Mother’s Day.  According to him, he should be celebrated as well since without his presence I would not have the pleasure of being a mother.   Ah, that higher education is coming in so handy.

Earlier this morning Ben and I helped Mother Earth by celebrating at Alki Beach.  It was sunny and pretty and the clouds threatened soon so we picked up as quickly as we could.  It was fairly clean except for the usual bulk head.  Ben crawled over the fence and tossed all the garbage over to me on the sidewalk.  He even saw a torn kite at the bottom of the rocky hill and maneuvered to claim his reward.  I think she was very happy for the gift we gave her.

As we took the pretty picture of our filled buckets with the Seattle city skyline in the background I noticed a memorial of Jon Eggers.  It was a small monument almost hidden by bushes.  I also noticed how young he was…all of 27 years old.  Underneath it said, “A man walks along the beach…picking up things that he can reach…reaching not only with his hands…but intellectually when he can.”  Jon’s mom must have been very proud.

Happy Mother’s Day