Tag: Portland

Walking in the snow.

I got up early for a walk in the snow.  Here’s the view from just down the road.  As you can see, there have been few cars, a few people and one bike out and about before me.

Walk sign covered with snow.

Partial obscuring of street sign by snow.

I think that no one will want this couch.

A rare sight in Portland!  A shoveled walk!

Portlenders are very good at hunkering down in the snow.  We’re stalwart through the worst driving rain, but everyone just gives up at the first sight of a flake.  Example:  it’s 7:15 in the morning and I was the first person to walk on this stretch of sidewalk.

It was a blowing snow, so there were some fun shapes.

I shoveled my walk, though.  When shoveling happens only every few years, it’s quite fun.

I set out later for another walk.  Here I cut through a pristine alley.  But you notice a bike has been here before me.

A van, but what’s this?

A bit of snow graffiti.  This was sweet graffiti.  My friend captured a picture of a car where someone had written “PENIS” and another passerby had amended the word to “DENTIST”
More drifts of snow.

Icicle.

Willy Vlautin author reading at Powell’s

Aside from being the lead singer and songwriter of Richmond Fontaine Willy Vlautin is also an author.  He was reading at Powell’s to promote his new book the Free.  Did I mention he lives in Portland, Oregon?

Mr. Vlautin is a happy-go-lucky sort of fellow, which made for a pleasant evening.  He told us he was a painter (the house kind) for twelve years and the happiest day of his life was the day he didn’t have to be a painter anymore.  “Of course, a couple of years later,” he added, “I had to go back to being a painter, but that wasn’t such a great day.”
My favorite gem I’m taking away from this reading?  Someone asked how he knew when he was done revising.  “I stop feeling sick to my stomach and start thinking about a new book.”

Go team?

I realize some people may look at the way I allocate my time and think I’m a bit crazy for, say, spending untold hours writing for a blog that about five people read on a regular basis.  However, I couldn’t help but be amused by this guy.  Yes the Seahawks are going to the Superbowl, but what sort of thought process brought him to be standing on an overpass on a Friday afternoon, giving thumbs up to cars that honked at him.

Go team?

Long walk home.

I took a walk up Mississippi on the way home from work today and took a few pictures of ghost stairs.

Judging by the staircases, there were at least three houses on this bluff.

Now it’s just grass and an “available” sign.

It’s times like these I fantasize about buying the whole swath with my millions and repopulating it.

I also came across this house, and felt worried for it as it looks like it is ready for demo.  But while photographing it, I realized it is the house that was moved from N. Mississippi Ave. a few months ago and that it is settling into its new home.  Hooray!

Goodbye to house.

I can’t say I’m sorry to see this house go as it has been boarded up since at least 2007, when I moved to the neighborhood.  Plus, once a gang of homeless people had a huge fight in the backyard while I was walking by and the bad vibes have never dissipated.

I felt compelled to make a record of its being though.  Poor house.  Too bad no one took care of you.
Any bets about what will replace it?  It’s sandwiched between a gas station/cheap tobacco store and a house that has a coffee shop.  I’m guessing it will be commercial rather than residential, but you never know.  Then again, it could just become a vacant lot.

Cold

Like I mentioned in the killing frost post, it’s been cold here.  And it doesn’t really get this cold here.  But temperatures insist on hovering in the 20s.  Here’s the thing about unseasonably (I should be using a word that means weather-not-in-the-normal-temperature-range.  Is there such a word?) cold weather.  We don’t have the proper wardrobe.  Pants are the big problem.  Normally, in Portland, I just wear the same kind of pants year round.  They serve me through the “heat” of summer and the “cold” of winter.  I’ve lived in places where it really does get cold and let me tell you, I had a separate part of my closet for winter pants.  But here it doesn’t make sense to do so.  The result is that I walk around with very cold legs until things return to normal.

But look!
 

Winter weather is also quite pretty!
 

Big Trimet day.

Wanna come along?  Well, you missed the first part, because I didn’t think to take pictures.  Imagine the Lombard Transit center, where I picked up the #4 and rode it over to Vancouver street.  There, I disembarked and went to the Dishman Community Center to swim.  Finished there, I walked to MLK to grab the #6.  Here we can switch to photos.

Across the street from this stop for the #6, are two houses, both alike in dignity/ in fair Portland where we lay our scene.  They are also apparently owned by the same person, who painted them the same color.
 

Where I came from:  Dishman.
 
I disembarked at Burnside and MLK to switch to the #20.  I probably had enough time to walk up to the theater, but was hungry, and wanted to leave time for a lunch more substantial than popcorn.  While at this stop the gentleman waiting with me asked me what I took the picture of.  When I explained it was for my blog he asked, “Who reads it?”  I told him that friends did and his reply was “Oh” and he ceased talking to me.  This amused me.  I guess I wasn’t a famous enough blogger for him.
 
I went with Tapalaya for food and had a very good pulled pork sandwich with two sides:  collards with bacon and a black-eye pea salad.
 
My movie destination was right around the corner.
 
Waiting for the #20 again.  This was my longest wait of 20 minutes.  O! Sunday schedule, why must you thwart me!  Happily, my time was taken up by watching a disaffected youth cross Burnside, forcing cars to stop for him while he flipped them off.  He then stood behind a pole that was part of the building across the street and in short order a police cruiser pulled up, parked and talked with him then searched. him.  A second cruiser arrived to help with the search and a third cruiser showed up, searched him again and then took him away.  He didn’t seem to be opposed to the idea and I wondered what story I missed there.  Of note:  the first police officer was a man, but the other two were women.
 
The #20 deposited me a block from my work, where I ran a quick errand.
 
Then walked to the Yellow Line and had to wait another 10 minutes.

From the Yellow Line, I disembarked and walked the final four blocks to my home.  Thanks Trimet for ferrying me around.