The snow starts again

The storm started a little later than predicted. We should have awakened to snow, but it was clear and the sunrise was stunning, throwing fire-bright orange light onto the trees and leaving the sky ablaze in color. I was just waking up and didn't get out of bed to get my camera, though probably should have. It fades so fast, it was paler by half within a couple of minutes. In the afternoon the snow came, starting slowly and building for the next few hours. It didn't leave much on the ground, but was fun to watch. I was inside working at the computer all day. It's a bad habit. Maybe tomorrow I'll get out and walk. These were taken at the house. The pic above shows the houses directly across the street.

Signs of the times: empty restaurants in Bend

I'd spent all day on the computer (again) working, and we were going to have dinner out with friends. It was a really pleasant interlude, despite signs all around us that times are getting bleaker. Everyone is struggling. The housing market in Bend fell apart hard, and with it went other businesses, such as Merenda, a restaurant we'd enjoyed on occasion. Merenda was expensive, so I suppose it would be one of the first to lose patrons, along with "Deep," a really interesting avant-garde sushi place with a price tag to match. It's sad to see businesses close. I've been there before, and run a business now. It hits close to home. Also, working at Merenda was Adam's first job in Bend, so it has associations for all of us.

It looked like the Tower Theatre faced its own struggles in the 1990s, but is open and functioning. Tonight the marquee reads, "Joe & Kate Get Hitched."

We moved along to the Thai restaurant and had a teriffic dinner with great company, and had the restaurant nearly to ourselves - something I've never seen there before.

Sounds like loos have a winnner

PE = Riverside Press-Enterprise (southern California)

My mom sends me envelopes of newspaper clippings that she thinks will interest me, so the other day I was reading through a pack of them, and this one caught my attention. I like travelling. I don't always want to buy food to use a cafe's bathroom, and sometimes public facilities are hard to find when you're walking around a city. I once thought of writing a guidebook to the restrooms of Europe.

Just for kicks, today I typed "bathrooms" on the GPS on my phone, but no luck. There wasn't a single result. I then tried "restrooms," and learned that within 3.4 miles of where I am right now in Bend, there's a place called "Advanced Systems Portable Restrooms." Interesting, but not totally helpful. Then there's a "Rest Area" in Antelope, 60 miles away. Also good to know, but it won't work in an emergency. Seventy-seven miles away there's the "Restoration Fellowship," possibly good in other types of emergencies. If that doesn't meet the needs, there's "Restoration Life Ministries" only 83 miles away, and maybe more in my line of interest, "Restorecology" whatever that is, but it sounds promising, a mere 85 miles from here. I wonder what happens if I type in the word "toilet" as the article suggested. Hmmm? No, I don't have too much time on my hands. Inquiring minds need to know.

Pens and tapirs - Wow, thank you!

Oops, I just posted this on the wrong blog. It happens sometimes when you have six or so blogs! Anyway, the Tapir and Friends online gift shop is a huge part of my life and so are tapirs. I'll leave the post here instead of moving it :) I'm in Bend today working online for the gift shop and tapirs, and Sue is in Astoria working in the gift shop (which means also for tapirs). This has become part of the pattern of my life. Below my next comment is a letter that made both of us smile this morning, for sure!

The other day I blogged (on the gift shop blog) about our carved wood animal pens, and today we received a wonderful "Thank You" letter from a customer who bought quite a number of them. He wrote:

I just wanted to let you know that I received the order, and I am absolutely THRILLED. The craftsmanship and painting is remarkable, and I'm sure my little cousin will love all the stuff I got for her! (She's 9 and loves animals!) I'm so impressed by everything that I will definitely be ordering things for myself, and probably more for my family and friends! I loved reading your story about how you became interested in Tapir's . . . and how you raised Stanley in your house! You sound very passionate about Tapir's and helping endangered animals, and I think what you're doing is truly great!

Thanks so much, and I'm sure we'll be in contact again soon!

~ P

I e-mailed back (among other things):

We so appreciate your order. It all helps so much when we're trying to help the tapirs and keep up with the economy! And, we especially love to hear that someone appreciates the products we've chosen to sell. There are a lot out there, and we have particular standards for what we want to offer. So, it was heartwarming to hear how much you like them.

An evening on the Deschutes River

I took this photo earlier in the day while Lee was doing an errand downtown. There were tables outside the bakery/cafe, and I loved the idea that it was a non-smoking area, even outdoors. I've come to detest cigarettes and cigarette smoke, even though I have lived with smokers in the past and it didn't bother me. As I've gotten older and as more damaging reports have come out, it seems to be a combination of personal disgust and intellectual awareness that convince me I would be happy if everyone on earth quit smoking today and that was the end of it. Anyway, it's nice to see the area designated as clean air space.

I'd been working all day, and I needed to get out. In the late afternoon, we went down to the Old Mill district for an early dinner or snack or something on that order. The old mill used to produce plywood, I think; anyway, it was lumber-related, and now it's a very cool REI store. The stacks are sunning to look up at. They seem even taller in person. And speaking of clean air, I'm sure it produced its share of pollutants even as it brought money into the local economy.

These storefronts are located right near the old mill. It's the next building to the left of the photo. It's a pleasant, clean, upscale, nicely designed area of town. There's nothing left of the industry that created the area in the first place.

A beautiful scene on the Deschutes in evening light near a row of restaurants.

Another scene on the Deschutes with mountains on the horizon.

Mountains in the evening light. The Deschutes River is in the foreground.

Interior of the Italian restaurant, where Lee and I went for appetizers, which turned out to be big enough for dinner. We had a nice window table with a view over the river. As you can see, the place wasn't exactly packed, but then it was still early. Even so, people are simply not buying and spending the way they were. You hear it everywhere because it IS everywhere. The economy is scary right now. I've been off bread, trying to eat low glycemic, and I was dismayed when Lee ordered an entire plate of bread baked on the premises, to be dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. "Oh, well," I said, "I guess for this one day I'll just go for it." I'm glad I did. It was SO good, and although I got full, I didn't feel bloated. I'm not sure why not. Anyway, it was incredibly good and I recommend it highly. I wish I remembered the name. We also had shrimp in some kind of thin sauce, which were also excellent. There were beautiful black and white photos of Italy on the walls, especially in the bathroom and the passageway to it. The bathroom was perfumed. It was all very nice. Apparently it's a chain, and there's one in Portland. It's not Bella Cucina, it's the other Italian restaurant right there on the river.

The day was clear, and the light was gorgeous and calming as evening grew later. When we left the restaurant, I saw ducks in the distance. I'm used to the birds that hang out near my office in Astoria, and I wanted to be quiet so I could get their picture before I scared them away. Little did I realize at that moment that these ducks were not going to flee.

When you emerge from a restaurant in that sector of the Deschutes, the ducks are ready for handouts. These came cruising toward us without fear. I love this picture of ducks and patterns in the muted colors of evening.

Sorry, ducks! We didn't bring food. In any event, they should not be eating bread and pasta, popcorn and other non-ducky handouts. They don't seem to know it, thought. Hey, ducks, you should be eating plants. You're supposed to like grass seeds, aquatic plants, and a few insects. Yummm. There's a nice article on mallard ducks here on Nature Works.

It's really pleasant this time of evening on a warmish day walking back to the car. The temperature drops fast when the sun goes down, but it's unseasonably warm for January, and we weren't freezing or anything.

This is also near restaurant row in the Old Mill District of Bend.

If you can't see the planet in the upper left, click on the photo to enlarge it. I was jazzed that I got the moon and planet in focus. :) It's probably Venus, but I know and care a lot less about the sky than I do about other things. I like Earth and underwater studies better. Maybe because animals live there.