What color is my sweater?

I asked this question to several people. They gave me different answers. What do you think?

Did you say black? If so, that’s the color I thought it was when I ordered it.

Did you say navy? If so, that’s the answer I kept getting.

It took some time before I noticed that the sleeves (left) were different from the front area (right).

More Input about the North Portland Aquatic Center

I attended the next meeting about the future of the North Portland Aquatic Center. Unlike the first one, this included a presentation and then small group discussions with reporting out.

The groups ranked the five remaining sites (St. Johns Park, Northgate Park, Charles Jordan Community Center, Columbia Park, and Columbia Annex) using a variety of criteria and then ranked overall our top three sites. We also weighed in about what kind of features we would want in the play area, and what we want to prioritize in the fast water (a.k.a. swimming) and fun water (a.k.a. water for playing in)

The Pier Park site was knocked out due to grant funded reasons. I stayed to the end of the reporting out because I was curious how the St Johns Park location would rank. Aside from the table where a person insisted that the circle around the St. Johns Park location was drawn incorrectly, no one ranked the St Johns location in their top three.

I think that the St Johns location, while convenient for residents of St. Johns, is inconvenient for the rest of us in North Portland. It’s almost as far away from me as Dishman is.

My quibble with this process is that Columbia Park has been split into two sites. Columbia Annex is right across the street from Columbia Park. They are the same site. By splitting that vote, it’s much more likely that Northgate or Charles Jordan will be chosen. Those are fine sites, but the Columbia Park split annoys me.

I’ve got my fingers crossed it won’t end up in St. Johns. That site is too far for me to be a regular.

Secret Message at PCS

The seat next to mine had an envelope tucked into it. I was super curious as to what was this theater note passing.

I managed to restrain myself from opening it, but I did give into nosy parker reading out of the corner of my eye when the couple claimed their seats and opened it. It seemed to be a thank you of some sort. Probably for subscribing or donating, is my guess.

Also! I didn’t realize the seats aren’t all the same color. That’s fun.

Texture Clothing’s Personal Touch

In December, at Crafty Wonderland, I bought a pair of legwarmers from Texture Clothing. In doing that, I opted into their mailing list and that got me a two-for-one deal on gusset shorts.

They arrived with a sticker, a sucker, and a handwritten note that referenced my previous purchase. Well done, Texture Clothing, well done!

Travel Trends 2022, Via Google

Here’s what Google has to say about how I got around in 2022.

Without trying, I almost did one mile of walking per day. And I essentially did the equivalent of a cross-country journey via car. I wish I could mark the carpool trips. Carpooling to square dance seems to be a lot of the driving I do.

The post-pandemic transit lull continues. I think November is so high because I took a bus to Sisters. But how did Google know I was on a bus?

It was a good cycling year, with July being the best cycling month.

Thanks to Leonard Pitts for His Many Columns

I was sad to read that Mr. Pitts will no longer be writing a weekly column, as he is one of my favorites. But I appreciate he will have more time to write novels, especially because I enjoyed the Last Thing You Surrender.

His final column was full of thanks. I enjoyed hearing how Dave Barry mentored him as he became a syndicated columnist and especially appreciated the shout-out to his copy editor. Come to think of it, he also gave more than a few words of thanks the copy editor of The Last Thing You Surrender. He’s a man who appreciates a good copy edit.

Thanks for the 1.6 million words, Leonard Pitts!

North Portland Swimming Planning Meeting

The Columbia Pool isn’t coming back, and that means I have a very long wait until the new aquatics center opens in 2029. But perhaps by attending ALL the meetings, the time will go by quickly. Today’s meeting involved wandering through the displays and giving feedback via post-it notes.

There were a variety of professional people to chat with. I learned from a swimming pool builder that Olympic sized swimming pools are very expensive to heat, and very large. There was a diagram showing that an Olympic size pool is bigger than Pioneer Square.

Knowing that, I could give the feedback that it wasn’t super important to have an Olympic sized swimming pool. Though I would like to swim in one at some point.

Bunheads Postcard E1

Our journey begins with the arrival of Ariel’s postcard reacting to the first episode.

In it, I learned that she liked Sutton Foster much more than I thought she would and that she is not a fan of the four teenagers.

Unlike me, who hate-listened to the first Bunhead Bros podcast, she found it a welcome distraction from election returns.

And So It Begins Again

After spending my winter, spring, summer, and fall with Gilmore Girls, I’ve headed off in a different Amy Sherman-Palladino direction: Bunheads. But this time I’m watching with my friend Ariel, she of the Gilmore Girls encouragement.

We’ve reversed roles this time: I’ve seen all 18 Bunheads episodes and loved them, and she stopped watching after the first three because she wasn’t a fan.

We’ve got our schedule set and each week we will watch one episode of Bunheads and then listen to the Bunhead Bros episode brought to you by Kevin and Demi, the Gilmore Guys.

This time, we have stretched an 18-episode season from November to March. It will bring some balance to my schedule.