I was on the bus from Redmond to Seattle last week (thus redeeming myself environmentally, at least for a day) and it was going very slowly because people don't know how to merge out of the bus lanes. I found myself staring out of the window at the hard shoulder in the sort of way that you can't do when you're driving (even very slowly). I'm quite amazed at the collection of junk that can be seen there. Amongst the things I noticed were:
A bolt (which looked like the sort of thing that I would be extremely worried about if it were to fall off of my car at speed)
Two pillows
Several (very tatty looking) books
A shoe
Cardboard boxes
A small plastic alligator
I can't help wondering who the owner of the plastic alligator was and how upset he (or indeed she) was about losing the alligator. Maybe a rival sibling tormented the owner by throwing it out. Maybe the kid just didn't like the toy and decided to do a scientific experiment to see what happened to plastic alligators that get thrown out of the window of a car speeding down the freeway.
I spent most of today writing a long email explaining the workings of a significant chunk of the code I've been working on for the past 2.5 years or so, so that my successor can (hopefully) understand it. Kind of interesting to reflect back on a large project like that.
Yesterday I fixed two things: a mouse which had been dropped one too many times and had some loose connections and the knife magnet which had fallen off of the wall due to my not knowing much about DIY. I always find fixing things very satisfying when the job is well done.