A good day in Portland

This is the day I found out I DO NOT have atherosclerotic degenerative disease (also called hardening of the arteries), or intermittent claudication of the arteries in my feet. YESSSSSSS!!!!!! I've been living with that diagnosis and some disgusting medication that took me six weeks to adjust to initially, as it caused headaches, nausea, and depression. It felt toxic and harsh, to say the least. I'm now RID of it, and of the worry about the diagnosis. To my chagrin, I'd put off a second opinion for two years. I didn't want to hear bad news. As it turns out, the news was fantastic. More on that later, maybe. I still have to deal with whatever IS going on with my feet, which apparently is the tingling, partial numbness and occasional pain from a chronically pinched nerve in my back. But at least I can focus on fixing that now. I've been working on it for awhile with some success. Onward. So Lee and I realized we each had a doctor's appointment in Portland on the same day. His was his regular check-up.

The top photo is crossing the bridge into Washington. Obviously, a foggy day. It was supposed to be 80 degrees in Portland today but the coastal fog seems to have crept up-river faster than expected . . . or something. I love the way the bridge looks in fog. You cross the Columbia here at Longview, then travel on the Washington side of the river till you get to Portland and cross back into Oregon as you enter the city. Portland has something like seven or nine bridges.

We picked up Ashley and had Chinese lunch at a great dim-sum place where there is little English spoken and they bring everything around on carts. So, how much was the bill? I guess we need to learn to read Chinese. Ashley said she had tried to learn it one time, but the "Learn Chinese in 10 Days" CD was inappropriately named.

We didn't spend much time on the ground. Most of these pix are from a moving car as the mood struck me. Above - I do like the tree-lined streets of Portland with its interesting buildings. This street (above) is not as pretty as some, but it's not untypical, either.

I forget the name of this pinkish reflective building. Its outside is all glass.

Color and pattern in both these photos.

And, NICE AFRO. It's fun to see the assortment of people on the streets these days. This 'do was very picturesque.

More design. I never tire of looking at the varieties of color and shapes in Portland's downtown. There's a piece of a crane above. They're always working.

Powell's Books is a landmark - a warren of stuff to think about. We bought a book on Paris and another on the Loire Valley. We'll be in Paris in about 11 days. I hope we get a chance to see the Loire. We'd love to get out of the city, and we'll see if the time frame makes it feasible to see both. I've never been in the country outside of Paris. I know it would be incredible.

Powell's parking garage is almost as famous as the store. It was made for what, I'm not sure. Just don't get stuck on the ramp driving a stick-shift like I did on one visit, and be prepared for tight turns and oncoming obstacles.

The ubiquitous street scene. The sign says, "Even pennies help."

This was my destination today - St. Vincent's Hospital, and a vascular surgeon who has an office there. Oh, my god. What a relief! I can't believe I avoided this appointment for two years! WooHoo! Fantastic news!

This was along Highway 26 coming home. Fall is beginning in earnest. I should have taken pix of the trees in Hillsboro after the sun finally came out. They were spectacular with the yellow and red leaves and the glowing sun on and behind them. At that point, I had other things on my mind. We were looking for dinner (not finding what we wanted), and I was affronted by the reception in a Verizon store. I'd been looking for a case with a hand strap for my new BlackBerry like the cases they make (or did make) for phones and small cameras. I couldn't find one online, so we went into a Verizon Store. Talk about feeling like bait in a cage. There were about 6 or more sales people standing around with phones on their heads, most of them doing nothing but looking pseudo slick in their mandatory sales get-up and pouncing on anyone who came through the door. There was a lot of noise and activity for so few people who appeared to be customers. But the catch was, you had to sign your name and who-knows-what else into the computer before they would answer a single question. I'm not paranoid. Verizon already has all my info, since I'm on their plan, but I was totally repulsed by the idea of filling out a computer form before they would even TALK to me. One of them said, "It's just like taking a number." Don't give me that. It is NOT like taking a number. Numbers are anonymous. What the heck e-mail or phone list was I going to end up on, and how was this sign-up thing going to make it easier for them to apply pressure while I was in the store? I know there was a system. I'm not interested in being a pawn, so I asked again if they could just help me find a case. They would not, unless I signed in, and I told them it was weird and I walked out. Yeah, I know they would like to upgrade my plan or some nonsense, but I just did that. Phooey. Goodbye.

Some cool clouds on the way home. The drive is through forest, and we saw little sky as the sun was setting. The clouds looked serene. We stopped at Camp 18 (below) for dinner . . .

. . . and ate 'midst carved bears and antlers. It was kind of hard finding something that wasn't greased, buttered, or heavily sugared and gravied, but I found something and we had a relaxing dinner. It tasted good. We came home and watched the rest of Pride and Prejudice, the old BBC video version I like so much. It had been a pleasant day.

Movie trailers on my portal

Hi Everyone,

This is fun! If you go to my Market America web portal, you can see long trailers of the new movies that are out. Better yet, you can TYPE IN YOUR ZIP CODE and see trailers of the movies at your local theater (or any zip code you like). Check it out! On the right-hand side of the page scroll down a couple of inches to the Entertainment section. Below the listing of movies, there's a box to enter your own zip code. They have a short review and nice, long selections from the movie. I'm not too picky about the movies I see within certain genres, but I'm enjoying this. If I were going to the theater, I think this could make a difference. Usually I wait until they're out on DVD. Did anyone see Be Kind, Rewind with (and by) Jack Black? Omigod, it was so terrible we stopped watching right in the middle. I'll usually stick it out, but not for that one. I loved School of Rock. I guess he thought he was titanium-clad after that. If I'd seen the trailer I would have avoided it! I don't usually fill in those "favorite movie" lists, because there are so many I like I can't remember names, let alone favorites.

So, what's the leaf about? A few days ago I stepped out the front door and there it was. We have a lot of trees that turn yellow around here, and they're just starting to turn. Some are more than just starting. We don't have a lot that turn bright red, so it was a nice surprise to see the leaf. After a bit of a search, I found the tree up on Marine Drive not too far away, but it was behind some other trees, and not readily apparent. One of the seasonal changes I enjoy is that first day when you feel like, "This is Fall. It's Fall weather today." I felt that on the day I saw the leaf, but it was actually one day after the official first day of Fall. The white bits are junk from the work on the roof and siding of the building.

Bye bye Lemon Grass, hello Divine Calm

The lemon grass ginger bath and shower gel (a gift from Kate) has been one of my totally most favorite-ever scents and bath products. It's about gone now, and I'm packing my gym bag with Divine Calm, which seemed like a good choice for a busy world. I got it at one of Laurel's Body Shop parties. Mmmm. Lavender is nice. It seems a little weird mixed with camomile, but maybe it will be relaxing.

I was going to some artwork today after avoiding it for months and months (maybe years), and I avoided it again. I put up more dog pins in the gift shop and on the gift shop blog, cleaned up papers in the office that had been in horrifying stacks for way too long, hand-washed a blouse and dried it on the deck, organized and filed stuff on my desk, moved a lot of file folders, hung up t-shirts (although I need to find a way to fit another hanging rod in here somewhere) and then went to work out at the gym and take a shower. I stopped in to see Margi for a bit, came back and got my credit card info organized (again, after months of avoiding it), got my character in Fate down past dungeon level 40, and then made a couple of posts on this blog, including some older photos of the day I came to Oregon. It's weird how I'll go for so long without organizing things until I'm completely freaked and feeling out of control. I like organizing, but I'll pitch into work or almost anything instead. It felt so good to get it done. I can find things now, and it didn't even take that long. I have to remember that! I still need to move and wash/dust all of the surfaces and the stuff on the shelves once the construction is done in a few days. Most of the remodeling was outside or upstairs, but it knocked things off the shelves and brought down bits of the ceiling. I was surprised one day to find a tapir skull in the middle of the floor. Fortunately the floor was carpeted, and no damage was done. A ceramic tapir on wheels was toppling, and I caught it just in time. I had no idea that replacing siding would be so violent. It seems that buildings on pilings sway more than the average structure. I hadn't considered that! Also, our windows were all replaced and the walls partly re-cut, so there's sawdust in the books, CDs, telephones, printers. . . . Everything. And tomorrow? Maybe after work I'll make a collage. We'll see.

What kind of bird is this?

The bird on the left is the one in question. I don't know. It looks a lot like a cormorant, but the cormorants we normally see are black like the one on the right. In the bent position of the black one it's hard to tell for sure, but the black one clearly appeared smaller and the beak is narrower. There were two of the gray birds on the old railroad ties, and both were bigger than the normal-looking cormorants. The wing feathers have a pretty design in them, and in my bird book the cormorant (which looks like the black one) also had similar designs, a little lighter than the black wings. So, I don't know. There was nothing in the Birds of Oregon book that looked like the gray bird. Any ideas? I took the photo from Pier 39 in Astoria, Oregon.

Acceptance and the Star

I went down to the docks on the west side of Astoria to take photos of the huge cruise ship Norwegian Star, when I noticed the seagulls. After the post of September 9, I thought I'd move in closer and look at some seagull feet. One seagull looked different. The photo was taken at the extension of the zoom, so Ms. Duck was not as clearly differentiated to the naked eye. Click on the photo to enlarge it. It's a nice picture of the duck. I love it that they are all hanging out together not seeming to notice their differences that much. I remember early on in my life here in Astoria in the parking lot of the old Safeway, I came across a flock made up of seagulls, sparrows(?), and one starling. There may have been some other bird as well. I enjoy the memory of that grouping. And yes, these seagulls also have white feet and legs (see the post from September 9).

The Norwegian Star from the west. You can see a bit of the Astoria-Megler bridge - the 4-mile span between here and Washington. It's hard to show how huge this ship appears in real life. When the ships come in, sales in our local shops go up and it's hard to find seating in the restaurants. Needless to say, Astoria's economy enjoys this. What I can't figure out is the hugely increased number of cars on the streets, unless friends have come in from Portland to visit. Actually, we did meet a couple in our store the other day who had come to meet friends who were visiting by ship. Does it really happen that often? I guess it must.