Last little bit from Friday.

This great neon marquee is off out balcony, to the right--wonder who that is in the photo? Must be a comedian who's playing at the Improv, assuming it's a comedy club.

These men in the next photo intently competed in the Ford Pit Stop Challenge, utilizing airguns to change left-side tires on a Ford Infinion. It seemed that a never ending stream of men fulfilled their wildest dreams and hoped to win tickets to next year's Ford Homestead race events.

The second photo shows some of the myriad opportunities provided for one to part with one's money, plus you can see the Goodyear blimp overhead. NASCAR fans are nothing if not loyal consumers. buying all sorts of stuff to label themselves as supporting this driver or that driver. It's fun and colorful.

The second photo shows some of the Nextel Cup cars lined up for practice Friday evening; my favorite driver is Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8. In the last shot, Junior had come to a stop after making one lap--the Nextel officials had everyone on the track stop when one of the car's oil lines broke. I couldn't believe that he actually stopped right in front of us; Leland took this photo for me. My little camera doesn't have much of a zoom or flash, so anything I get that is a decent shot is purely an accidental gift. Someday I'll go to another race and have a bigger camera, but until then I'm quite satisfied with serendipty's visits.

More of Friday's fun.

There I am on the 8th floor of the Sonesta Coconut Grove Hotel & Suites--our room is on 17th floor. That's the Biscayne Bay in the background. I look just like a tourist, don't I?

What I want to know is what would tropical spots do without that hue of blue! The umbrellas here, the lamp posts there, it calls to mind fun in the sun.

Couldn't resist that gorgeous Buick with the Rhode Island plates! It was parked across from the park on the beach where I could envision Crockett and Tubbs in their Miami Vice duds, lookin' all smart and sexy while solving crimes.

That's the Goodyear blimp as it flew over our car while we were parking--first time I've ever had a sunroof!

Friday's fine for sightseeing and truck racing!

It' a treat to put your feet in the warm waters of the Atlantic. Just think, if'd I turned to my right, I would have been looking towards New York City! I picked up a few pieces of creamy-colored coral as we walked back towards where we'd parked the car.

I still haven't figured out how to finesse this blog stuff, so the photos are not in sequence, but as y'all know, I tend to ricochet while telling tales, so it fits just fine.

We went to South Beach, Miami Beach, and ate lunch at Johnny Rocket's before taking a short walk along the sands that aren't really sand. While we were eating, Leland realized we were in front of the building where MTV's "South Beach" is filmed. In fact, one of the twins came down the stairs, got some money from the ATM and caught a cab right behind us.

The second photo is a close up of the Track Scan from Nextel that we rented for the weekend. With two headphones and one Fan View, we're able to see close up shots of the race, hear the radio broadcast of it, and listen to drivers and their spotters and/or pit crews. It's so much fun. That photo is of Mark Martin on the way to the checkered flag in the Ford 200 last night. That was his last truck race with Roush Racing since he's changing teams next year. The first thing he said after winning was to his crew, thanking them, saying something like "I don't know what I did to deserve you--thanks." I thought that was pretty neat. Oh, and we heard no profanity last night which I have to admit surprised the hell out of me. I did hear one "freakin'" but otherwise, it was all business, especially during the Busch and Cup practices. There's one other photo of Martin with three laps to go--he had to go to the front three times during the race due to cautions and pit stops before finally winning. One time when he got the lead, his spotter told him "You the man."

There's my darlin' 28-year-old son Leland on our balcony yesterday morning, all freshly showered and ready to face the day with his mama. Little did he know that the day would include an unreal amount of regular Miami traffic as we made our way through the streets and over the causeway to Miami Beach.

We are in Miami! Land of Latin music and warm breezes!

We made it to Miami! The flight from Portland to Dallas was pleasantly uneventful, filled with crossword puzzles. In Dallas we learned we'd be delayed in taking off due to another flight's delay. We endured. The presence of two groups of semi-drunk NASCAR fans didn't make it too painful, but truly we were glad to leave them behind at the airport here in Miami.

The photo is from our room on the 17th floor, city view side of the Sonesta Coconut Grove Hotel & Suites. Having eaten nothing but peanut butter and crackers all day, what we in the South call nabs for reasons I've yet to discern, we walked over to the establishment called Cafe Tu Tu Tango to get something to eat and drink, around 11:30 p.m. Miami time. The cafe's outside bar is located in that pinkish-colored strip running across the center of the photo. There was an excellent but extremely loud DJ spinning CDs. His mix choice pleased both Leland and me, oldies and old rap, not too much cussing and such. All I really wanted was some French fries--they were just right. As was their award-winning red wine sangria.

Off to bed in a few and off to the truck races tomorrow night. At the track earlier there will be all sorts of practice sessions and qualifying for the truck race which begins at 8 p.m. NASCAR under the lights. Sounds great to me.

Gotta get some sleep now.

November 6, two shots from my window

The traffic is on the approach to the Hawthorne Bridge, heading west over the Willamette River. The reason it is backed up is that the bridge had been raised to allow some sort of large vessel to go up or down river. Portland's quite the port city.

I took this picture around 10:30 a.m. About an hour later, it was pouring rain.

These sweet gum leaves and balls blew in the wind all day long; aren't they beautiful?

November 6, Grand Ave. between Clay and Madison

There are so many trees in Portland that when it rains during the fall, leaves plaster the streets, the vehicles parked on the streets and the sidewalks. Those cars there must have been in covered parking or not underneath trees; you should see ours!








Since we've had 3.56 inches of rain in the last 48 hours (with another 2 forecast by noon on Tuesday), the storm drains are blocked, all backed up, with massive amounts of soggy leaves. Flooding is already happening in parts of the city, in businesses, at intersections, on roadways. The weatherman says it hasn't been like this since the '90s. Over on the coast, rivers are flooding in places where they've never done that before; somewhere over there went up 10 feet today. Newscasters have been standing in the water, shoving pushbrooms inside businesses, sticking their hands into water on the street to show how deep it is or pulling at clumps of soggy leaves to show the build-up at the drains. What a job.





These leaves are on the sidewalk beside the county parking garage which is across Hawthorne from my building. By lunch, a man was out there with a leaf blower strapped to his back, blowing them from the sidewalk into the street. I couldn't understand that at all, but hopefully a crew with some sort of big sucking hose on it was scheduled to come by after rush hour, which is hilarious because it lasts way longer than an hour. Where those beautiful leaves were piled up at the base of a tree, only dirt and bits of mulch remain.

You can see by the flag over the Burger King how hard the wind was blowing. It did that all day, so much so that if I caught a glimpse of the twisting trees, I felt ill, like I was on a ship in a tossing sea. I almost had to put my motion sickness bracelets on again; I usually take them off once I'm in the building--they really save me on the bus before and after work.

That shot of the traffic is from the BK parking lot, looking at my building. The lower part is where I am, on the third floor at the opposite end. That light gray line is actually the top of the wall that encloses the rooftop garden you can access from the 5th floor.

The photo with the one way sign is of the Grand Ave. side of the building, my side of the building. That blue trak is just below my window. In the background, above the hood of the truck, you can see a large white vehicle with dark windows. That's a bus at the bus stop where I catch it after work.

Today at 5 p.m. I calmly joined the citizens of Portland who walk in the rain, layered to withstand the wet. I stood beside that building with rain dropping onto my head, my shoulders, my hands as I grasped my vinyl bag close so that no water could seep into the zipper. I had on my rain parka and my grandma-style rain hood, tied tightly to keep it from blowing off my head. It was dark by then, not light like this shot that I took about 7:20 a.m.

By the time I got on the bus, my skirt was quite wet from the blustery, blowing rain. By the time I had sat down for the ride to where I get off to catch my next bus, my underwear was wet, too. Thank goodness it was in the 60s today. Tomorrow I'll wear my longer raincoat beneath the rain parka; maybe I won't get so wet in the seat that way. If the longer raincoat had a hood, I'd just wear it, but Lamont pointed out that rain would drip down my neck inside my coat if all I had on my head was my rain hood. Ah, life is good when your kid can help keep you dry and up-to-date in Portland.

I'll be going on Saturday to look for a longer raincoat with a hood.

Monday, November 6, on SW 5th, waiting for my next bus

First, you're looking north, into the headlights of oncoming traffic, including a bus closest to the curb to the left. The granite building with the big windows (one dark, one lit) is the county courthouse. Next you're looking south. 5th is one-way, south. You can see a bus, crossing at the next street, heading west. The bus I'll catch, either the #4 or the #14, will continue south on 5th until it comes to the next block after that bus, where it turns east onto Madison for the trek across the Willamette on the Hawthorne Bridge. That odd-looking shape on the right, behind that person, is a covered waiting area that I liken to elongated Chinaman hats. They'll keep you dry, I'll give them that. To the far left, that green vehicle is a Multnomah County Sheriff's Office prisoner transport truck. Prisoners have to be brought from the jail way out at 122nd so that they will be in the courthouse for their court dates.

Look! Down in the street, it's a heavy truck! No! It's an earthquake!

Last night at 9:34 p.m., I sat complacently on the couch, watching TV while Mama snoozed in her recliner. Suddenly, I heard a sonic-boom sort of sound and the room shook, causing collectibles on the parsons table to shake and rattle. I jumped up, pulled up the blinds on the window at the end of the couch and looked down into the street, hoping I'd see a great big truck stopped right there in street in front of the building. No truck. I quickly walked over behind Mama's recliner, turned off her floor lamp and pulled up that blind so that I could get a look into the street on the side of the building. No truck.

Mama woke up and said, "What are you doing?"
I said, "Did you feel that?"
"What?"
"You didn't feel that?"
"No, but something woke me up," she said.
"The stuff on the table rattling woke you up, Mama," I told her, frantically wondering if that was an earthquake, was another one, a bigger one, on the way.

I walked to the front door and opened it, to look into the hall and to take a sniff, just in case something had exploded downstairs somewhere. Just after I got the door open, another one opened one door down on the right and a young woman stuck her head out.

"Did you just feel something?" I asked.
"We did. Do you think it was an earthquake?" she asked.
"Honey, I don't know; I'm from Mississippi!"
"We think that's what it was; we're going to turn on the TV," she said, and said that if they discovered anything, she'd come tell me.

I got on the computer and googled the US Geological Survey. Several clicks later, I was on a page about Mount St. Helens, since we can see it from our living room window. On that site I found "seismic information" with a Web site, so I typed it in and found that indeed I'd just experienced my first (and it'd be just fine with me if it's my last) earthquake. Turns out it was a 2.6, 10 miles down, with it's epicenter just over 4 miles away, on the other side of the Willamette River. I went down the hall, knocked on the door, and we talked a bit about how alarmed we were at that point.

No damage, thousands of people responded to the "Did you feel it?" survey at a link on the USGS Web site--I was one of them, answering their questions the best I could. I couldn't get over how my hands, my fingers tingled, like I'd been lightly shocked. What is that about, I wondered?

Well after midnight, I finally fell asleep, trying to concentrate on what the weather was supposed to bring on Monday--loads of rain--trying to forget that utterly strange feeling, that quick yet intense movement.

Mama's new jammies.

Last Wednesday night, Mama and I decided to forego the results show of "Dancing with the Stars" for a trip to Kohls who had a big sale advertised. I used Mapquest for a map and met Mama at the car; actually, she was waiting in the car because it was cold and windy and rainy. Through gobs of traffic, we persevered to our goal. Hours later, Mama had found five tops, two pairs of pants and some flannel PJs--with polka dots. You've got to understand something about Mama and sleepwear--in my entire life, almost 59 years now, I've never ever seen her sleeping in anything but nylon PJs. I just about fell over in Kohls when I found her looking through the big display of flannel ones. She's a cutie pie in them, isn't she? And the shopping trip wasn't a bust for me either 'cause I found two nice pairs of pants that just need hemming a little bit.

We took what my bud Jean Prather calls a cultural diversion on the way back home. In attempting to back track, I took a wrong turn, swooping to the right and going for miles and miles through who know where, down steeply curving roads through neighborhoods and beside businesses. People from here have shook their heads in wonder that we actually found our way home. Here's how we did it. We saw a sign that said "To Portland" and we went that way until we saw a sign that said "Barbur Blvd." and we went that way 'cause we've been on Barbur Blvd. enough to be familiar with it--it's a way to avoid interstate traffic on the way to the penny machines out in Grande Ronde, Oregon. In fact, we stopped to get the car washed one day, at Kaady Car Wash, touted on their Web site as an environmentally friendly car wash. Lo and behold, after about 30 minutes, we came out right at the car wash. Unreal.

Donna, Mama and Duncan ... in Portland

Donna was in Portland on an AAN board member trip, the last weekend in August. We picked her up at her hotel and rode in the Buick over to Three Doors Down where we ate some scrumptious food and wine while we enjoyed some good company. We got her in the apartment for a few minutes afterwards, before the two of us went off for a quick trip to Powells Books. If you come to Portland, you just about have to go to Powells. Take a look at their Web site, http://powells.com, and you'll see why.

Mama and Duncan are at the top of the steps at our front door. This was about two weeks ago, before it got a bit cooler and then started to rain in earnest.

Look at this. Can you believe it?

The top picture is out the living room windows that look north. Barely visible behind that power pole is what's left of Mt. St. Helen's, over in Washington. It's the same height at the pole, in the picture, and just a bit darker than the glorious blue sky.

The next picture is the same view, pulled back to show the cross street, too. Can you believe that tree? We think it's a sweet gum.

Here's the crane and a bit of those apartments or condos from the other picture, the one I took out my office window. It's up the street directly west of our apartment. I took this picture by opening the living room window, putting my camera strap on my wrist, bending down a bit, and sticking my upper body out the window. Four flights up! I've gone bananas in my old age.

That's our car, behind the blue one. You can see the tag on the front; Oregon requires tags on both ends of the car. When I found that parking space, I had been lucky three days in a row, finding ones right next to the building or just across the street. I took this photo out the bathroom window, but I didn't hang out of it.

Last is another shot of the trees across the street, through the living room windows. Enjoy.

Looking from my work window towards our new neighborhood

Just outside my cubicle, windows line the entire floor, looking southwest, west and northwest. Our new neighborhood is in the Northwest, just before the Northwest Hills begin to rise quickly a few blocks away. I decided to take a photo focused on the Northwest. Later on I realized I was able to see a landmark of sorts, just up the street a couple of blocks.

If you're standing in the bedroom or living room and decide to open a window and stick your head out a bit, up the hill to the left you can see a tall yellow construction crane and up on the steep hillside, tan apartmens or condos with dark brown roofs, stacked almost on top of one another. I think there are eight of them.

In the center of the photo, you'll notice a dark reddish-colored building, with two white satellite dishes on top of it. Dimly in the background above it, right between the two large white round dishes and just a smidge to the right of a trapezoid-shaped, rusty-brown roof, you can barely see the yellow construction crane and the buildings, looking a little bit like eight teensy beehives.

I find it totally cool that I can sort of see where I live from where I work.

I'm eatin' my oatmeal four stories up!

Good morning from PDX.

We made it. We're exhausted. We've got boxes all over the place. We've been sleeping fine. We haven't missed an episode of "Dancing with the Stars." All is right with the world!

The rain held off. In fact, the sun shined some of the time. The guys and their girlfriends worked and worked and worked. They stayed pleasant, even laughing now and then. Mama and I were good girls, too. I didn't stop to take any photos of all of their hard work, mainly because it took all of my brain power to contribute to the moving process.

I've made it to the office and back just fine, taking the 15 in the mornings and going the other way in the afternoons which means one transfer from the 4 or the 14 to the 15--not too much of a walk. This morning I believe I'll transfer on the way to work, though, because it's raining out. My shiny black rubber boots are not made for walking blocks and blocks, so I want to depart the bus across the street from my building. I'll take the 15 to the bus mall, then catch either the 4 or the 14, whichever comes first.

Finished my oatmeal, so gotta go get ready now. Bye.

Something Ken Patterson told me about my blog AND an update on our move

I was on the phone with Ken one day, thanking him for the umpteenth time for helping me select my Nikon Coolpix camera and discussing his blog vs my blog. Curious, I asked how did he get his photos to have text in between them? He explained that he uses Wordpress instead of Google. He then pointed out that viewers could click on my photos and enlarge them which you cannot do with Wordpress. I didn't know that about the photos, but I like it. So, in order to put yourself at the beach, in our apartment, on the streets of Portland, or where-ev-er, click on the photos.

Leland and I, mostly Leland, moved a great many boxes yesterday (that my sweet little Mama had packed while I was at work every day).

First, I filled up our car, for the trip to sign the papers, get the keys and have Duncan's photo taken. Round Hill Pacific (our owner and property management company) keeps a photo of renters' pets on file with all of the paperwork. He posed splendidly at the end of his leash. Leland met us there and held the leash while I talked sweet to Duncan, getting him to look up at the me. What I couldn't believe is that he stopped when I told him to, like a trained model. I held my hand up, palm facing him. I felt like Rudd Weatherwax with Lassie! Now that I think of it, though, Duncan is good about stopping when I say, "Wait, Duncan," when we're out walking, like wait at the corner with us while we watch for traffic or wait while we put your deposit into this little blue bag.

We drove over to the apartment from the leasing office, emptied the car and left Mama and Duncan in No. 414. Then Leland and I drove back over the river, on the Steel Bridge, a new one for me; there are 11 bridges over the Willamette River and two over the Columbia River, right here in Portland.

We filled up both of our cars. That was the easy part, comparatively speaking. We staggered our arrival times at the new apartment so that he could pull into the No Parking Zone right in front of the entrance, unload all of his car into the foyer, then move his car to a proper parking place, and find another parking place for me. He called and told me where he was standing in the parking place and I arrived and parallel parked, something I've been doing so much here that I'm getting better at it, not perfect, just better.

Anyway, then he would unload my car, putting all of the boxes in the foyer. My job was to load the elevator, propping the heavy metal door open with a box, catching the folding metal door with a small chain attached to it, and stacking away until Leland got finished unloading the car. He then quickly finished loading the elevator (ah, the joys of youth and strength) so that we could ride to our apartment on the top floor. Mama's been coyly telling people that we're in the penthouse! She's a hoot.

Leland then proceeded to unload the elevator into the hallway so that we could release it for other tenants. I carried as many boxes as he would allow me to carry into the apartment.

We did all of that twice. Whew.

Mama was emptying kitchen boxes as she felt like it, then resting at the card table, looking out the windows or into the apartment, visualizing how it will eventually look. By the time we left yesterday, just as it was getting dark, we had the path clear for furniture on Monday, so we felt pretty good about our efforts.

Speaking of Monday, the weather forecast is for showers. I certainly hope those bigger drops decide to fall somewhere else instead of on our furniture. I get OregonLive.com's Your Weather & Travel Forecast every morning (doncha just love the Internet?), complete with tiny illustrations of the sun, clouds and rain. Today it's raining (I can hear it now and then actually, so I know it's more than wet air), and the illustration for Light Rain shows a puffy cloud with five elongated rain drops, with empty space between them. Later on today, when the temperature should get to 56, the illustration for Rain shows that same innocent looking cloud with eight of those elongated drops, jammed right up against one another. Monday's illustration is back to the five drops, so maybe we'll luck out and make it in between the drops; it's supposed to be 58 then, which won't be too bad.

Lamont moved in September to Lindsay's house, which I forgot to tell you in the other entry. One of her other roomies left, so it's just the three of them, Lindsay, Lamont and Brody. They all used to work together at the River Place Hotel. Lindsay's still bartending there, although she's added another restaurant three days a week and hopes to someday work her way out of the hotel. While Lamont and Brody were there, they discovered, just by accident during a conversation, that they had the same birthday, a couple of years apart. While that happens now and then, this doesn't. They were both born in Bethany Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas! And ended up working together in Portland, Oregon. Wild coincidence.

Howard and Vanessa visited Lamont and Leland August of 2005, while Lamont was still at the hotel. They had toured extensively in their rental car once her convention was finished (it was up in Seattle). One of the places they loved was the Oregon coast. In fact, they drove right where we had driven and stopped in Depoe Bay, too. Vanessa said there was so much fog they couldn't see anything, so she was happy we'd had good visibility and could see the whales. She got a warm jacket in the whale watching center, one with a whale on it naturally, because it was so cold. You could see from Mama in her shawl that it was cold this September, too.

The last of our neighbors in this building is moving out today. You should hear the sounds of furniture going down the stairs and the empty two-wheeler going back up. Makes me appreciate even more our elevator at the new place!

Gotta go get busy. More later, plus photos of other neat stuff (at least I think it's neat).

Dressing room with built-in closet, drawers, and the entrance from bedroom window

Bedroom, trees across the street, and Bathroom

Kitchen and Storage Closet

Big change in where we're moving, and when.

This apartment building is in the Northwest, across the river from where we are now. I'll need to change the bus just once when the weather is bad, but otherwise I'll walk about 7 blocks after the bus crosses the river which won't be bad at all on the glorious weather days that happen around here.

Our apartment is the 4th floor one, on the corner. Mama's bedroom windows are on the right, in the sort of stucco part. The living room windows are in the brick part, and the one kitchen area window is in the stucco to the left of the brick part. There is an elevator, or we wouldn't have even been looking at this great apartment. Mama and Duncan are in the living room.

I'll still be sleeping in the corner of the living room, behind my screen, but who cares? Not I. Look at the built-in closet in the dressing room; that's my closet. Look at the humongous closet that runs right beside the entrance hall. Look at all the wonderfully empty walls. Yes, the kitchen is narrow, but that won't be a big problem.

Mama and I are thrilled with the hardwood floors--no allergy problems for yours truly. We're thrilled with the fact that there are no odd height steps or stairs, that the front steps have a handrail in the center. We're thrilled that the laundry room is on the first floor.

Here's a bit about our new neighborhood: Nob Hill/Northwest

Nestled into the base of Portland’s west hills, Nob Hill/Northwest is “the sophisticate” of Portland’s neighborhoods. Sharing more than a passing similarity to its San Francisco namesake, “Northwest,” as locals call it, enjoyed a renaissance in the 1990s. Turn-of-the-century Victorians line the narrow streets, offering visitors a glimpse into the city’s rich architectural past. Storefronts were restored to their original splendor, transforming Northwest 23rd Avenue (“Trendy-third”) into a shopper’s heaven. Scores of whimsical, independent and sophisticated boutiques offer everything from tiaras to topiaries. Restaurants, pubs and cafes, many of which open to the street in warmer months, offer perfect vantage points for some of the city’s best people-watching. Rounding out the atmosphere of Northwest are the many trees lining the streets – an unusual site in most urban landscapes, but par for the course in Portland.

Northwest’s City Market and Zupan’s are urban neighborhood markets with a Pacific Northwest twist. Local farmers and seafood purveyors supply the markets – as well as Portland’s best restaurants – with Oregon hazelnuts, Marionberries, pears, salmon, oysters, cheeses and mushrooms. The majority of these items are grown, caught or made within an hour’s drive of Portland.

For a taste of Nob Hill/Northwest: Try the tempting Thai at Typhoon! and delightful desserts at Papa Haydn, both of which are found along Northwest 23rd Avenue. Nearby 21st Avenue (“Restaurant Row”) is a mecca for gourmands seeking to sample the local cuisine at some of Portland’s finest eateries, including Paley’s Place, Lucy’s Table and Wildwood.