Category: To Occupy my Time

Post-Election Walk

Everyone was pretty raw at work.  I did some stuff, and then left early to take a long walk to the Hollywood Library, where I was volunteering with Teen Book Council.

Look at this blast-from-the-past mural/advertisement for radio station 94.7!  Usually it’s covered by an official billboard.

I’ve take a picture of this building before, but on a happier day.  It seems today the building is sad.  Sorry building.  I feel sad too.

The footprint of Farm restaurant, which I always wanted to eat at, and never did.  I guess I won’t ever get to now.

Tracking apartment rental prices.  For reference, when I got my first studio apartment in Portland in 2002, I paid $500/month to live downtown.  If Matt and I rented this apartment, we would pay $850 each.  Yikes!  

Here’s the house where the unit is.

I loved the green of this house.

And look!  It’s a very specific green.

Very nice vintage four-plex.

I love the neon sign with the brick.

Bit of grey cloud hovering.

The day after the election, not much was happening at the Multnomah Democrats headquarters. The building was dark.  (The cars are from the business next door.)

I had a sundae at Baskin Robbins and a very nice Teen Book Council meeting.  Then there was square dancing.  It was a raw, but good day.

Hike at Tom McCall preserve

Here we are at the parking lot at Rowena Crest, with the Columbia River in the background.  I love this picture because it looks like I’ve got a white stripe in my hair, which has always been a dream of mine.  (I don’t actually have a white stripe in my hair.)

Informational sign about the Missoula Floods, a topic which always inspires feelings of panicked boredom.  Even while typing the letters I need to remind myself to breathe deeply.  Geology.  Not for me.

See that peak up there?  That’s where we are headed.  We’ve done this hike before, in 2013.  (Thanks blog, for keeping a record of this stuff.  Comparing the two posts is also fun.)

Pretty landscape.

That white car on the right is our car.

Mountains peeking through.  We’re at the apex of our hike.

Acorn survivors.

This time, we added the second half of the hike, which took us closer to the river.

These birds were HUGE!  I took a picture, wondering if they were ravens.  Googling in the interim has told me that there’s not really an official line between crows and ravens.  People have also told me ravens are bigger than crows.

Columbia River.

Self portrait.

Nicely tiered landscape.

Where the building exploded

A little past 9:30am on October 19, I heard a noise, which was loud enough to rattle the windows at work and cause some computer thing to beep as it reset itself.  It happened a second time and then there were many sirens.

My co-worker, always quick to find answers, found the news on the Fire Department’s twitter feed.  There had been a gas explosion in Northwest Portland.  Firefighters were on the scene and reporters were told where they should go for updates, and the best route to get there.

Though there were injuries, amazingly no one was killed.  You can see pictures and video by going here.

A week an a half later, we drove through the intersection, on the way to my Birthday dinner.  This the corner with the building that exploded, as well as the apartments next door.  

The plate glass blew out of the building across the street.

Saying goodbye to Videorama

When I moved to Kenton, Videorama took up 4/5 of this building, and the gym (also owned by the same people) was 1/5 of the building.  At some point, the two reversed themselves. 

And now, my last video store opportunity has gone.

I will miss having the opportunity to walk in, browse, rent new movies, find old movies.  I will miss the employee picks.  It was because of them I discovered All the Real Girls and other good movies.

It feels weird to realize that one of my jobs (video store clerk, Blockbuster Video) has completely disappeared. 

I cast my historic vote!

When I was 18, I cast my first vote ever in the US Presidential race for Bill Clinton and he won!  Growing up in a household of Democrats during the Reagan and Bush administrations, this was a very big deal.  I began my adulthood with a president I voted for.  I’m excited to be 42 and casting my vote for Hillary Clinton.  I never really had a guess as to when I would be able to vote for a woman for US President, because it always seemed so far away.  I’m happy to be casting this historic vote.

(I also voted for everything else too.  Running this country isn’t just about who is president.)