Waiting for the 6 on SE Grand Avenue

For those of us who frequent mass transit through TriMet, this is a well-known situation. You go to the bus stop and you wait. I've been doing it since July, 2006, happily and thankfully. I got the perk that I wanted when I got my job, a handed-to-me-yearly-mass-transit pass. When I need a car, I reserve a Zipcar, by the hour, without having to have my own driver's insurance, without having to pay for any gasoline. I'm spoiled by TriMet and Zipcar.

Murals around Portland, Forest for the Trees NW, seen on Sunday, August 31, my mural find #1

Forest for the Trees, August 18 through 23, is a not-for-profit public mural project in Portland, Oregon. (Seen on their Web site.)



The first mural I located while out and about in my Zipcar Kia Soul, named Greer. Artist: Rather Severe of Portland, Oregon. Location: 3602 NE Sandy Blvd. On their Web site: Murals and Artworks by Jon Stommel & Travis Czekalski. This mural is part of Portland's 2014 Forest For The Trees Mural Project. The wall is at 3602 NE Sandy Blvd on the side of Pulse PDX, painted over a 6 day period. It was such a great honor to participate in the project and represent local artists in Portland!



It's a miracle that I found this mural as easily as I did, since I was driving Greer east on Sandy, and the mural faces west. I knew I was close, from what the iPhone GPS I had plugged in was telling me, so I decided to pull into the lot to turn around and go back west on Sandy. As soon as I entered this empty parking lot, I saw this beauty out of the corner of my eye. Wow. Wow. Wow.



Something about its colors and shapes and vivid-self made me slowly shut the car door, staring at it and  deciding subconsciously not to shut the door all the way, not to make a sound to interrupt my mural-induced reverie.



More from FFTT Web site: Forest for the Trees is a not-for-profit public mural project in Portland, Oregon. The mural project promotes public visual expression; collaboration; and community engagement with contemporary art and the creative process. In August 2013, FFTT united seventeen artists from around the world to paint ten Portland murals.

This August, twenty local and international artists will come together for a week in Portland to paint more than a dozen pieces on public walls. FFTT aims to bring opportunity for local and visiting artists, and to share their gifts on a large public scale in Portland—a city already known as a creative hub and home to many talented artists.

Rain protection, again. It's Portland, y'all. You should have heard the rain a few minutes ago, Monday night as I prepared this post. Wow!

I took this photo while parked in a Zipcar. I rolled down the window--well, I pushed the button and the window went down--and took the photo quickly so that not too much rain came inside the car. Not the best conditions for taking a photo of this innovative bike rack at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, but since I'm rarely in The Pearl, I threw caution to the wind. This photo is straight out of the camera. Serendipity that I got another umbrella in use.

Splash #2

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Here's the black lab jumping and splashing and swimming collage that I had promised. I've been doing to much outside activity for the last week, so I'm behind with posts. Just got lots more uploaded to Flickr, so I should be able to get back in the groove real soon.

Here's some info about the dogs' competition. At the Oregon State Fair the most action I saw was at this platform and water tank set up for the 2013 NW K-9 Challenge National Championships. As best I can remember, what I got to see competing were some dogs in the Amateur Finals. I  witnessed utter excitement on the part of each dog who jumped from the platform, swam across the tank, grabbed the target from where it hung just above the water, and then turned and swam back to a ramp where he or she walked up out of the tank, pausing for a good water-shedding shake or two.

Thanks to my Zipcar, here's something I saw at the Oregon State Fair, the Slingshot!

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Just released, speeding upward on some sort of giant rubber bands! Holding on and smiling. I took this photo at 2:43 p.m. on Sunday, September 1, 2013, in Salem, Oregon.
 

In no time at all, physics takes hold and spins the seat so that the occupants are heels over heads and still speeding upward. I didn't count the number of ups and downs, but I can tell you that one would be more that I could take. Have you ever been on this ride? What makes it a ride? More like a jolt.
 

My Zipcar, Toyota Prius Islidur. We're at my on-the-way pit stop at the Fred Meyer in Canby, Oregon. It's the best place to stop for the deli counter and the restroom, bar none, when leaving Portland and heading south to Swan Island Dahlias, Bauman's Farm and Gardens, Schreiner's Iris Gardens, the Oregon State Fair, and/or the Sublimity Harvest Festival.

And, remember yesterday's post with the sign? Today there are signs, too. Folks, pay attention to these if you're trying to decide if you ever want to submit to the Sling Shot. I didn't even have to read because I knew beyond any doubt that I would never find my boo-tay strapped into the capsule. No way, no how.

I've typed what the one one the left says for you here:

Rules
1. Please remove all loose articles: Hats, Sunglasses, Keys, Cell Phones, & Loose Change.
2. Everything must be removed from your front pockets before riding the sling shot.
3. You must be at least 48" tall to ride the Sling Shot.

Restrictions
1. You ride the Sling Shot at your own risk!
2. You cannot ride if you have back, neck, heart, or other medical conditions!
3. YOU CANNOT RIDE IF YOU ARE PREGNANT!
4. You cannot ride if you are under the influence of drugs or alcohol!
5. By going on the Sling Shot you agree that you have read all the Rules & Restrictions and will          abide by them!
6. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone!
7. NO TICKETS, NO RIDE, NO REFUND!

But here's where it gets down to brass tacks, on the sign on the right:
SLINGSHOT Riders
$30 per person (the squares with the prices on them have been attached to the sign because, dontcha know it, the prices have changed, gone up, I'm sure--it's the slingshot, they're not gonna go down, are they?)
Single Rider $30
Video $the stair rail is in the way, so I cannot tell if it is $30 or $20, but I'll lean towards $30, for consistency and continuity of pricing.

DO NOT RIDE IF YOU ARE PREGNANT DO NOT RIDE IF YOU HAVE BACK, NECK, HEART or HEALTH PROBLEMS

Hot Shot Thrill Rides
TOWER HEIGHT: 190'
CAPSULE HEIGHT: 250'
APPRX. SPEED: 100 MPH
MAXIMUM G'S: 5

RIDERS RIDE AT OWN RISK Needless to say, all I did was take a couple of photographs.

It pays to pay attention to signs.

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The sign. All about the zipline ride at the Oregon State Fair.



One of the low flying people. And lots of people watching her.

Seen in the neighborhood, rotating sign #3

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Since I moved to Northeast Portland after Mama died in January, 2011, every work day I've gone by this sign twice a day, going to work and coming home from work. Most of the time I've been on a bus, but now and then, I walked along the sidewalk. I often looked up at the sign on top of what was the Portland Bottling Company building and wished that I could have seen it in its heyday, when it said a bubbly 7Up on all three sides and had a bottle of that drink on its top, back when it rotated. Imagine how excited I was one night when I had a Zipcar and stopped at the traffic signal, looked up and ealized that a recent strong wind had blown loose some of the material covering the sides of the sign. I could see enough to realize that if the wind blew just a little bit more, at least one side of the sign would once again say 7Up.



I parked and took a few photos, grinning the whole time. Later at home I looked up the 7UP sign on Google and learned this about the sign and the building, in a 2010 story in The Oregonian: Workers make changes to the sign atop the old Portland Bottling Co. building near the intersection of Northeast 12th Avenue and Sandy Boulevard. They were converting what for years was a sign advertising 7UP to one publicizing a Guayakí yerba mate drink. Only time will tell if that's going to happen, but one local sign buff is sorry to see Portland lose a piece of its past.

The sign dates back several decades, said Jeff Kunkle, who co-owns Vintage Roadside with his wife, Kelly Burg. The two research and document mom-and-pop roadside places from the 1930s to 1960s and sell T-shirts with vintage graphic designs.

The bottling factory was built in 1941, and the sign was likely built at the same time, he said. It originally could rotate, but the owners at the time decided to weld it in place following the big Columbus Day Storm of 1962.

Kunkle is sorry to see it change, saying it's a sign that "makes Portland, Portland."



On another walk on the way to work, I had the chance to take photos with our fabulous summertime blue sky. The architectural style of the building is what's known as streamline moderne.



Here's a photo much like the top one, taken in the daytime so that you can see the motel across the street--remember seeing the neon vacancy sign in the top photo?
 

And here's a wide shot. Enjoy!

Heading for Labor Day. Workers, working, NE 20th and East Burnside.

July, 2012, while I waited to cross East Burnside, I watched these two men who were almost finished repainting the brown background of the Willoughby Hearing Aids neon sign. The center, left side Hearing Aids sign gives you an idea of just how faded the brown had become. I believe that they repainted the white behind the neon letters, too.
 

After I parked the Zipcar hours later, I took this photo of the finished work before I finished my walk home.

Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers -- doing what they do best!

I lucked out on Saturday and managed to park about 100 feet from the corner where my sons live in SE Portland. You see, I had been driving around, looking for a way through the blocked streets so that I could continue doing errands in the Zipcar McMinnville last Saturday. My original plan was to drive by their house and holler at them, then I heard the drums through the open driver-side window, just before I noticed a parking space on the opposite side of the street and saw a Portland Police Bureau motorcycle officer directing traffic at the upcoming traffic control circle. He gave me permission to reverse my direction around that circle so that I could park. I grabbed my camera, stepped out and started taking photos.

I had happened upon the Division Clinton Annual Street Fair & Parade! Well, the parade part of it at least. So happy to hear the approaching Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers! Right after I took this photo, they changed from a sort of rhythmic drumming and stick clicking into a booming, loud, wonderful drumming that set off nearby car alarms! Whoopee! On the far left, Greg Odell, LRSD founder and the man who gave me my drumming lesson last October, a perk for my support of the LRSD's Kickstarter campaign. What a fun thing to get to do!

Happy 4th of July

A poppy, a dogwood, and an iris provide me with the proper patriotic, Happy Birthday to America! colors for today's collage. I found these beauties on my Zipcar trip to Schreiner's on Memorial Day, 2013.

Allium, Memorial Day, Schreiner's Iris Gardens

One of the many things I enjoy about Schreiner's Iris Gardens is the mix of flowering plants on display. Every which way you turn, you see colors, shapes, textures. All that to say, this will not the only photo of allium that I will share with you.

It had been raining most of Sunday night and into Monday morning. I decided, what the hey, I'll get in my Zipcar McMinnville, the Mazda 3, and head on down to spend some quality time among the gardens and to enjoy the superb chicken lunch, cooked by the Gervais Knights of Columbus.

Here's some info about allium that I found on the Internet:

Allium is a monocot genus of flowering plants, informally referred to as the onion genus. The generic name Allium is the Latin word for garlic. The genus, including the various edible onions, garlics, chives, and leeks, has played a pivotal role in cooking worldwide, as the various parts of the plants, either raw or cooked in many ways, produce a large variety of flavors and textures. The genus contains hundreds of distinct species; many have been harvested through human history, but only about a dozen are still economically important today as crops or garden vegetables. Many others are cultivated as ornamental plants.

Onions, shallots and gardlic are members of the allium family that belong in the vegetable garden. But there are many ornamental alliums that deserve a hearty welcome in your perennial gardens. Alliums are plants of exquisite beauty in both flower and leaf, with tough constitutions. These easy-to-grow bulbs come in a broad palette of colors, heights, bloom times and flower forms. They make excellent cut flowers for fresh or dried bouquets. Even crowded gardens can accommodate a few alliums because they don't take up much space. What's more, alliums are relatively resistant to deer, voles, chipmunks, and rabbits.

Fuschia, Memorial Day, Schreiner's Iris Gardens

I count myself blessed by the grace of God when I see such beauty. But I have to wonder, "How did this pretty flower end up with such an odd name?"

So, I looked and found some info on the Internet.

• Fuchsia (/ˈfjuːʃə/, few-shə) is a vivid shade of red, purplish-red or pink named after the flower of the fuchsia plant, itself named after the German scientist Leonhart Fuchs. Fuchs' name is preserved by the plant Fuchsia, discovered in the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean in 1696/97 by the French scientist Dom Charles Plumier, who published the first description of "Fuchsia triphylla, flore coccineo" in 1703. The color fuchsia is also named for him, describing the purplish-red of the shrub's flowers. 
• Leonhart Fuchs (1501 – 10 May 1566), sometimes spelled Leonhard Fuchs, was a German physician and botanist. His chief notability is as the author of a large book about plants and their uses as medicines, i.e. a Herbal Book. It was first published in 1542 in Latin. It has about 500 accurate and detailed drawings of plants, which were printed from woodcuts. The drawings are the book's most notable advance on its predecessors. Although drawings were in use beforehand in other Herbal books, Fuch's Herbal book proved and emphasized high-quality drawings as the most telling way to specify what a plant name stands for.

Mother's Day Mini-Vacation, No. 24 - Happy Mother's Day to Me!

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Why I enjoyed Mother's Day. No, it's not the Anthem Pear Cider. Leland on the left, Lamont on the right. We're waiting for our Sunday morning breakfast at Brother Jon's Public House in Bend, Oregon.
 

Leland, leaning back so that I can get his brother Lamont into the photo without feeling like I just might fall over the split rail. (Have I explained that I have a fear of heights? That said fear of heights fills me with thoughts highly irrational?) We're at Smith Rock State Park, Terrebonne, Oregon. More photos to come from Smith Rock State Park.

Mother's Day Mini-Vacation, No. 23 - Deschutes River at Old Mill District, Jackson's Corner for a really late lunch, and Dakine Grindz for shaved ice delights

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Old Mill District on the Deschutes River, Bend, Oregon.
 

Water-lovers on the Deschutes River at Old Mill District.
 

The view from our table at Jackson's Corner where we ate a very late lunch--hungry trio.
 

So hungry that I completely forgot to take a photo before we had all cleaned our plates! Trust me, Leland's plate is as empty as mine and Lamont's.
 

Jackson's Corner--took this photo on the way back to the Zipcar. I wanted you to see the building because I'm wondering if you get the same vibe from the exterior that I did when I walked towards the building. I immediately thought, "I believe I'm going to like this place a whole lot." And I did. Of course, it helped that both Leland and Lamont had eaten there in the past and knew the food to be good.
 

As we passed this school playground the first time, I exclaimed, "Did you see that? A bouldering wall!" Then I asked Leland to drive around the block so that I could take a few photos.
 

How cool! Plenty for kids to climb! And the entire playground is paved so that if it rained before recess, the ground won't become a muddy mess. Smart.
   

Next Leland and I knew right where we wanted to go--for a shaved ice at Dakine Grindz, just a block or so from Brother Jon's Public House, our favorite weekend breakfast place in Bend. Lamont's not interested in shaved ice, so he sat down on the grass to watch people, including these "cyclists" peddling away on The Cycle Pub. Serendipity that I got this photo just as they wheeled it by the No Parking, Bike Lane sign!
 

The young man carefully prepared my huge-sized treat--I think it was called the Big Beach.
 

She's finishing my three-flavored delight: strawberry, kiwi, and honeydew. Leland had told me on Friday when we rode by this place that we needed to come back at some point on the weekend because he knew how good these cool treats taste--was he ever right! And it stayed good from first bite to last.
 

We drove over the Deschutes one more time, passing through this pretty park and neighborhood on our way back to the Writer's Retreat for a well-deserved rest. Hours later we ate a mediocre supper, watched a bit of TV and went to bed. We had lots planned for Sunday before driving all the way back to Portland.

Mother's Day Mini-Vacation, No. 22 - Across the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway--the Deschutes River--an old dog knows all the tricks.

Little dog, six or seven months old. Big dog, 13 years old. Stick and man, ages unknown. Fun for old dog--ageless. Learning for young dog--ongoing. Photos of old dog having a blast--priceless!
 

Shower time!
 

Help an ol' dog get outta the river, please.
 

Throw it again. I'm just about ready.
 

I see it. Thanks!
 

I love to make these big splashes!
 

Stick, you belong to me!
 

Son, you've got a lot learn and the energy to do it!