Category: All (-ish)

The end of Powell’s 2, nee Powell’s Technical Books

Once upon a time Powell’s Technical Books was at the corner of NW Park and Couch in a big white brick building with a store cat named Fup. Time passed, Fup died of old age, things changed, Powell’s Technical moved a few blocks north and became Powell’s 2.  The white brick building was torn down to make way for student apartments and a coffee shop with incredibly slow service.  
Walking by today, I see that Powell’s 2 has moved back to the mother ship, and so I bid goodbye to another piece in what was once an empire. Which will survive, of course, but in a different form than before.

Difficult to follow instructions.

I’m walking on the left-hand side of the street and the blue sign tells me to cross to the other side, because the sidewalk is closed.  But the other side of the street doesn’t have any sidewalk access either. So I did what that guy is doing and walked in the road.  
I’m glad they are doing work on both the red brick building on the right and the one you can see on the left.  But I do need to walk on a sidewalk now and then.

Random Song: I Wanna Get Better

So catchy.  Good positive message.  Fun places for the melody to go.  Really good lines*, addictive back-up singer parts, excellent shredding-type guitar solo.  This video isn’t the greatest, but it does give you the words.  There’s another video with a plot and stuff, should you want that.

*See:
“Lost control when I panicked at the acid test.”
“Because the love, the love, the love, the love, the love, the love that I gave, wasted on a nice face.”
“Chase that feeling, of an eighteen year old ,who didn’t know what loss was, now I’m a stranger.”
“And I miss the days of a life still permanent, mourn the years before I got carried away”

Requiem: Food processor.

Oh humble and hard-working food processor, I’ve had you since 2001.  You were my first appliance purchased after I moved to Portland.  And now your top has disintegrated, leaving me unable to convince you to grate the Fels-Naptha to make the laundry detergent.
I’m hoping I can purchase a replacement, because your motor is still running like a champ, so this may not be a final requiem.

Postcards from Minnesota

This is a neighborhood-centric representation of St. Paul.  Alas, the sender lives in Minneapolis, so her neighborhood is not represented.  I’m interested as to why a chunker of land on the other side of the river is still St. Paul.  I would have assumed that the river would be the sensible dividing line.
I adore this postcard, from a bookstore.  It’s design makes me look again.  And again and again and again. It’s going to look great when it makes it to the wall display.
A very nice arty view of the Stone Arch Bridge, which I can’t wait to see for myself.
Sadly, the postcards were labeled 1, 3, & 4 and #2 has gone missing. It’s been a week and has not shown up.

Happenings at the City of Roses Motel Site.

What’s this?  A fence directly in my way on my walk to the train?
It seems that I will not be accessing this sidewalk at least through the end of the year.
Some establishing photos:
The sign as it stands now. 
I have had mental plans for this lot for years.  This area will be the garden, ringed on the outside by orchard trees.
This smaller section will be where the small house I will build will be located.
Opposite view of sign.  I wonder if the rose bush will survive whatever is coming.
Stay tuned.  Change comes quickly.

Progress on apron.

Sure it took me taking a personal day of vacation to finally get back to work on my apron.  But I did it.  I scheduled in “sewing” from 8-Noon and sewed for that entire time.  There was some seam-ripping (or “unsewing” as I’ve rechristened it.) and also I seem to have purchased half-inch bias tape rather than the quarter-inch the pattern called for, but I’m rolling with it.
Here’s where I ended up.