I return to Portland to find I’ve entered some sort of hell.

Having spent five lovely days in breezy Minneapolis, Minnesota I returned to Portland and found:

The Gorge was on fire.  A teenager being irresponsible with fireworks started a fire that burned through large swaths of everyone’s favorite hiking destination.  Multnomah Lodge was only saved due to an all-night battle by firefighters.  I-84 was closed for more than a week, Hood River lost a chunk of their tourist season, towns had to evacuate, hikers were stranded overnight, and many people posted pictures of their favorite Columbia River Gorge sites on social media.  The sorrow was immense.

Ash was everywhere.  The Gorge isn’t far from our North Portland home, and there was a light dusting of ash in the fifth quadrant.

It was friggin hot.  You know how when you’ve been having lovely cool summer experiences and you find yourself plunged into triple digit temperatures and it just doesn’t feel very good?  That was Portland in the week after I got home.

My work computer was stolen.  While I was enjoying my Jucy Lucy at Matt’s Bar, my office was being broken into by people who used the fire escape.  They took two computers, a projector, and a favorite throw to wrap everything in. This meant that I spent my first day back at work with a brand new laptop, which had none of the same ports as my old laptop. So instead of working from three screens (one laptop, two monitors plugged in) I worked with one tiny laptop screen.  It is very hard to do my job with one tiny laptop screen.  Plus all of the installing of programs and getting everything up to speed.

It was probably the bumpiest re-entry I’ve experienced.

6 thoughts on “I return to Portland to find I’ve entered some sort of hell.”

  1. Oh goodness. I have heard about this through multiple venues and communication tools and it has yet to get less icky. I’m glad that this is now in your past.

    Not the kind of excitement you want in your life! 😉

  2. Oh man, I feel your fire pain. Even from afar, it really hurt my heart, what happened to the Gorge. And, as you know, Cali has had its own fire troubles recently, including the one that was far too close for my comfort.

    I’m really sorry to hear about your work break-in. Better one at work than at home, but still that must have felt very violating.

    1. This is the second time I’ve been burgled (the other time was at home) and so far I’ve never felt violated. What I feel is massively annoyed at all the thing I have to do to get things back to normal.

      I’m sorry to hear the fires were so close to you. I would really hate to lose my home to a fire. Talk about a lot of things to do to get back to normal.

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