News from Tualatin
News from Tualatin
I'm afraid I may have given the wrong impression of Tualatin. It's really a very nice town. It's mostly an upscale bedroom community for people working in other areas of greater Portland, but there is also plenty of small primary industry on the west side so that people who live in Portland can come here for work.
Morgan and Aaron are the best man and bridesmaid (wait, turn that around) for their friends Todd and Julia's wedding today. Morgan says her bridesmaid's gown will see a lot of use. This fellow Todd is a loon ... go see his website at:
You may have seen Todd interviewed on cable TV as the "Twinkie Scientist" who tested Twinkies' legendary ability to stay fresh forever (not true), and lesser-known quality of high flammability (true,) among other physical attributes (bounce when dropped from high buildings, etc.)
I am officially on the Kunze family greylist until I correct my reporting that Morgan's due date is the 17th of September. As much as she wishes it were the 17th, Morgan reports, it is actually the 27th. 27th my foot. I'm gonna have a talk with that kid in there.
The layout of everything here is very water-dependent. All the streets meander around in harmony with the wiggles of the rivers. Great for getting lost, but very scenic.
There are many bridges (Portland in fact is called "the City of Bridges".) Not enough bridges, however - the ones that are here are choke-points for traffic on both sides.
Portland is unusual among river-front cities that I know of, in that there is just as much city on either side of the river(s) (although the other side of the Columbia is Vancouver, Washington, not only a different city, but a whole 'nother state! One of the things I learned since we first visited Portland is that Vancouver, Washington is across the river from Oregon, not Canada; I had though it was like Laredo Texas and Nuevo Laredo Mexico.) Most of the other river-straddling cities in the west I'm aware of are pretty lop-sided, one side of the river being the lion's share, the other side being kind of a withered afterthought: Kansas City, St. Louis, Mobile, Sacramento, etc., although I imagine I'll soon being hearing otherwise.
But, as a result of being split so evenly, cross-river traffic is very heavy. This is complicated by the fact that the Willamette (say will-lamb-ett with the emphasis on the lamb) is a deep-water port. As a result the bridges up to a certain point along the river have to be very tall (which requires real long, traffic-disrupting approaches), or moving bridges like drawbridges or lift-bridges to allow the big ships to go under. This is a really cool thing to watch, but totally screws up traffic.
The names around town are full of water references that Colorado Springs would be unlikely to have: Marine Drive, Island Dr., Harborton, Rivergate, Pacific Highway, etc. Before all the bridges, apparently, there were numerous ferry boats. There are several fairly long, wiggly arterials through and radiating out of Portland named after the historical river-crossing ferry sites they led to: Boones' Ferry Road, Taylor's Crossing, Scholl's Ferry. There were a couple of other old ferries, too - Hopkin's Ferry and the Stark Street Ferry. Can you imagine the howl that went up from the ferry-boat operators when the city began building bridges? In Colorado Springs, we don't have any old ferries except maybe Doug Bruce and James Dobson.
My favorite historical place/feature name in Portland (besides "Portland" of course) is "Sellwood," the name of both a small community and a bridge. Can you think of a better name for a river town in Oregon than "sell wood?"
One final factoid or possibly a myth is that the founders of Portland, both from the Eastern Seaboard were divided whether to name it after Boston, Massachusetts or Portland, Maine. A flip of the coin decided "Portland."
By the way, when buying plane tickets, and then when boarding your plane, be sure it's headed to Oregon, not Maine.
More later -
Love ...
Mike and Karen Riley
RTAH Friday
Real, True, Actual Headlines
... and the comments that they richly deserve.
MSNBC.com
Dangerous additive found in U.S. heroin
Popular drug may be dangerous!
"Housewife" star Longoria hit by pole on set
Assailant deported to Gdansk.
Gas price fluctuations frustrate consumers
No, it's not the fluctuations so much ... just the increases.
BBC.co.uk
Jordan missile attack on US warship
But oil-poor nation will not be attacked in reprisal.
Singaporean accused of maid abuse
Slow news day.
Eminem treated for drug addiction
Maybe he got some of that tainted heroin?
Star says rap is "too homophobic"
Kayne West suggests it be toned down until it's "just homophobic enough."
NYTimes.com
Youthful throngs cheer Pope at Cologne Faith Festival
Oh, that's disgraceful! A man in his position getting excited about young people's underwear!
Bad Iraq war news worries some in G.O.P. on '06 vote
Heaven forbid the war should cause politicians any problems!
News from Tualatin
News from Tualatin
We are being seduced by the cell phone.
I admit up front that, in spite of my well-known affinity for gadgets, I am not a fan of cell phones. Although I generally agree with all the normal objections (that they somehow make people thoughtless and rude, that they make people drive as if they're drunk, and they make people walk down the street apparently babbling to them selves like those loons we used to cross the street to avoid), my main objection stems from a fear instilled in me by Martha Mitchell.
No, not Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With The Wind, Martha Mitchell, wife of Richard Nixon's indicted co-conspiritor and attorney general, John Mitchell. Margaret, for those of you who don't remember (or were unborn at the time), was infamous for a number of reasons, one of which was having a princess phone installed in her bathroom. I thought at the time, "Oh, my God! Are we to have no place, no time, where we can be LEFT ALONE?!?" The cell phone rings to tell you that the answer to this question is now clearly, "no."
Nevertherless, we are living here in Tualatin without any traditional "land line" phone at all, depending entirely on our cell phone to carry the entire telephonic load. And it's working amazingly well!
At home, weeks literally go by without any cell phone calls incoming or outgoing, and very few "land line" calls, either.
But, since we're here in Tualatin, we've been hearing from people we only rarely hear from at all, and the phone has been busy indeed. People call our number, and because the signal here is strong, they think we are in Colorado Springs. This has led to some weird conversations, like an invitation to go out to dinner in C.S. one evening, and an offer to teach at Pikes Peak Community College this up-coming semester, each caller thinking we were at home. It's nice to hear from people for whatever reason, but it's a little dis-orienting until one or both parties realizes we're in Portland, and they're in CS or wherever.
Not that you can count on that, though. Yesterday, we got a call from a cousin of Karen's who lives in Nebraska, and was staying with mutual relatives in Denver last week. When she called, to ask if we would like to go out to dinner, we explained that we are now in Portland (we never say Tualatin, 'cause who the hell knows where Tualatin is?) She said, "Yeah, me too!" She is here temporarily for a conference at Portland State. So, you can't assume anything.
(It was a nice dinner, though. We went to the South Park Restaurant. No connection to the skanky tv cartoon show. This is a nice restaurant in downtown Portland that features a gigantic bronze salmon exploding through the bricks above the entrance. Ah, Portland!)
Last night, we went with the Kunzes (i.e. Morgan and Aaron) to the taping of the radio show "Live Wire," which I mentioned earlier. It was a hoot - kinda like the Portland version of "A Prairie Home Companion." The featured act was the singer and pianist of "Pink Martini," one of our favorite bands. There was also a klezmer house band, and an audience haiku contest. Ah, Portland.
Afterwards, Karen and I headed back to our apartment in beautiful Tualatin (which apartment, by the way, I now know to be located equidistant between the previously-mentioned Wanker's Corner and "Jiggles" nightclub for men, featuring live dancers.) We are learing our way around town, so we have sketched out a few reliable routes, experimenting a little bit each day with small variations.
Unfortunately, our typical route was blocked by a terrible accident, and the interstate was closed down for what turned out to be twelve hours. We're flexible, so we turned around and joggled over to familiar, but less direct, route "B." Which was subject to a 45-minute delay due to night construction activities.
So we turned around and attempted to find alternate route "C;" less familiar, but doable. Yeah, right, maybe in the daytime and with a map!
For the last several days, there have been front-page stories about a series of shootings in a particular area of downtown Portland. I can now drive you right there. As we circled one block for the third time, trying to find the dag-blasted on-ramp for the freeway, a police car stopped suddenly, immediately in front of us, and the officer jumped out and started hollering at a group of profoundly lubricated young people on the sidewalk. These may have been the same young people we saw on a previous orbit exchanging money and packages of some sort. Or maybe not.
Karen called Morgan on our cell phone and begged her to tell us how to get the hell out of there at about the same time that I saw a sign for a street I actually recognized. So, we found our way home.
Unfortunately, we neglected to call Morgan back to tell her we were okay. As a result, both Karen and I received e-mails from Morgan and Aaron which had a slightly worried tone. Ah, Portland.
Today went much better. We went to pick up our pickup, to the tune of nealry $1000, only to find that the problem we took it in to have fixed was unchanged. This confirms Riley's Rule of Auto Repair (and why you'll always be unhappy about it):
We hire mechanics to FIX our car; they think they have been hired to work on our car.
Big difference.
Love to all.
p.s. If you haven't seen Morgan's picture with the baby on board, please go immediately to:
(just click on it.)
News from Tualatin
Photo of the Day:
Morgan with Smidgen
Some thoughts about gas prices:
Our trip here to Portland from Colorado Springs was about 1500 miles.
Our gas-guzzling V8 pickup truck, hauling a heavy trailer was getting maybe 11 or 12 miles per gallon on the highway. Assume the worst, and for simplicity's sake, say 10 mpg.
1500 mi. / 10 mpg = 150 gallons.
Gas last year at this time was $2.15/gal.
Gas on our trip maxed out at $2.65/gal.
That's 50� / gallon more, or $75 for the whole trip.
People are saying they're cancelling their vacations or thinking about buying new, smaller cars because gas is so expensive. Are they nuts? You'd cancel your vacation for $75? If you drive 12,000 miles per year, it will cost you an extra $600 to drive this year, compared to last year, even if you're driving a gas guzzler like mine. You can't buy much of a car with an eight-year-old trade-in and $600.
If you do a lot of highway driving (super-economy cars, especially hybrids, don't really do much better than a regular economy model around town), say 60% of your 12,000 annual miles, you might save $300 or so going from, say our Audi @30mpg to a Prius @60mpg:
60% of 12,000 = 7,200 miles
7,200 mi. / 30 mpg = 240 gallons (Audi)
7,200 mi. / 60 mpg = 120 gallons (Prius)
----------------------------------------------------------
Savings in gas per year: 120 gallons
120 gallons x $2.65 = $318 annually, or under $30 / month.
Kinda hard to justify a new car payment on that basis, isn't it?
People are driving across town to save 5� / gallon on gas. If you buy 20 gallons to fill up your car, you'll save a buck, total. In my truck, that cheap gas should be no further away than 2 miles (four miles there and back again), or I'm coming out behind. In the Audi, I could drive no more than 6 miles before I'd lose money trying to save a nickel a gallon. In the Prius, I could go no more than about 11 miles to save that dollar (can a Prius even hold 20 gallons?)
If gas continues to go up, of course, these numbers will change. But the cost of a new hyper-economical car would likely go up, too (as they already have), and the value of your trade-in would go down. You still might want to have a more economical car, on the principle of the thing, because it's the right thing to do, but as a way of saving money, you need to be a long-haul trucker for it to matter much.
Don't panic. Yet.
News from Tualatin
News from Tualatin
August 16th 2005
(Yesterday)
Yesterday was our 36th wedding anniversary. We have kept our marriage fresh by always doing something new and odd - like moving to Tualatin for 3 months.
We took a turn around our soggy little park again, and the loon was there again. But he wasn't on his skateboard this time. Also, though, the blue heron (?) was there, and this time, I got a picture! See him? Just above and left of center? No, really! That's not just a stick, I swear!
You can see from this picture, though, one of the big differences between Oregon and Colorado. Plant life.
In the afternoon, we took the truck to the Dodge dealer. It (the truck) had picked up a bit of a knocking noise on the trip here, and I'm thinking it would be good not have the engine blow when we're on the way back. Taking the truck in required renting a car, too, so we shuttled back and forth on old highway 99w, which is the Portland equivalent of west Colfax Avenue in Denver ... ex-urbs strung along a former US highway. Just the opposite of "limited access" - unlimited access. Fast food outlets and farmers' fruit stands battling it out in the linear market place for your colonic health.
Anyway, all's well that ends well, and we ended up eating dinner outside on a beautiful cool Oregon evening at a nice Italian restaurant nearby that we found in spite of thinking we knew where it was.
We also made arrangements to go out with Aaron and Morgan this evening to the taping of "LiveWire" - the "live taping" (?) of an Oregon NPR show.
In answer to numerous requests, Morgan's due date is the 17th or so of September. We have a couple of pictures of her, but they don't really show her burgeonosity well enough, so I'll try again tonight.
In the meantime:
Real, True, Actual Headlines
... and the comments that make you chuckle if I'm lucky.
BBC.co.uk
Soldiers clash with Gaza settlers
Camo fatigues against orange t-shirts and yellow blouses just make my teeth hurt!
Bush hails Iraqi constitution bid
Notes that he's not the only one who can't fulfill his promises.
Migrant boat found off Canaries
A small skiff looking for a better life has been discovered in a pet store in Cleveland.
Yudoyono backs Aceh peace deal
No, I don't know who backs the peace deal!
Catholics throng Cologne streets
Most popular: Frankinscense.
Nun stages DaVinci Code protest
"The character development was poor," says Sister Olympia, "and the plot is really lame!"
Terminator leagal action approved
Governor can be sued, CA state courts say.
Thin skin will help robots "feel"
Scientists attempting to re-create Marvin from the Hitchhiker's Guide.
Web trade threat to rare species
Toe transplants threaten endangered ducks.
Australian missing in croc attack
Tourist from down under devoured by rampaging rubber shoes.
Britain 'needs stronger identity'
Wimpy national image likely vistim of identity theft.
MSNBC.com
Big Roberts fight unlikely
Big Roberts likely to be confirmed.
Study explains why garlic 'hurts so good'
One of the few foods that you eat that causes other people pain.
Study finds high rate of erros in condom usage
Wouldn't be a problem if they'd use 'em right instead of screwin' around with 'em!
Nights, weekends risky times for heart patients
With this information, one should ... uh ...
NYTimes.com
Leaders in Iraq extend deadline on constitution
So it wasn't really a deadline, but more of a suggestion, like the Pirate's Code.
Doctor's links with investors raise concerns
Golf, golf, golf! Is that all they think about?
Meese's influence looms in today's judicial wars
From his "influence looms" came todays "security blanket."
News from Tualatin
News from Tualatin
... or,
'If they're following our progress
from a satellite,
this'll confuse 'em.'
Today was a good day for playing in traffic. (Kids, that's just an expression - don't try this at home!) After we pried our eyelids open this morning and did our little household chores, we decided it would be a good day to run some errands around town, and maybe try to figure out some routes.
I had some reservations about driving the pickup truck around in Portland, because some of the streets in the older parts of town are quite narrow. For example, there are streets where it is actually too narrow for two-way traffic to maneuver past parked cars. Quaintly, Portlandiers pull to the side behind the parked cars and wait until you've gone through the tight place! They, like, take turns! How strange is that?!?
Anyway, it hasn't actually been a problem slinging our truck through these little neighborhoods. So I've gotten quite a bit less timid since we've arrived. It probably doesn't hurt that the truck is kind of intimidating.
So this afternoon, we set out to:
1) Figure out the best route from our apartments in Tualatin to Morgan's house, using I-5, which I otherwise avoid. This would be step one if we were called to take Morgan to the hospital when Aaron is at work. Step One: go pick up Morgan. Took about 20 minutes. Have to work on that - maybe rely on the intimidation factor more?
2) Go to Powell's book store on Hawthorn, and have lunch at The Cup and Saucer (slogans: Same Day Service and Serving Portland for 15 Flippin' Years.) We realize that this is something we probably wouldn't do if Morgan were at her house having contractions, waiting for us to come take her to the hospital, but we were flexible today in as much as this was just an exercise.
3) Try out route 'A' from Aaron and Morgan's house to the hospital. Now, we're smart enough not to go to just any old hospital, but to the hospital where she actually would go for the delivery of the baby. We just got on Burnside and headed west. This may not mean anything to those of you who don't know Portland, so let me explain that, while other streets may seem more direct, Burnside is a better choice in as much as it has a bridge across the Willamette River. Also, for us, it's good because it doesn't require any turns.
Again, about 20 minutes. Total elapsed time from Tualatin to hospital (with no stops for books or lunch): 40 minutes. Add maybe 10 minutes more for actually getting Morgan from the house into the car ... pretty good, depending on the timing of those contractions. We can do better, people! We would strongly encourage Morgan to start having her baby when Aaron is at home.
4) Go get a replacement light bulb for Karen's sewing machine. Again, something we probably wouldn't do right after dropping Morgan off at the hospital. If we needed another light bulb, we'd probably wait until we had walked her into the building. Anyway, just in case, we bought two. This required us to find Beaverton Town Cneter, and within it, the sewing store. Score.
5) Get Mike's glasses fixed. The temple piece had fallen off earlier this morning. I thought about using the traditional masking tape to fix it, but I already am wearing shorts, and Crocs with Sox, so I don't think my dork quotient could stand the hit. This required us to find the nearest Lens Crafters, which was located in the Washington Square Mall in Tigard, which we accomplished in only three tries.
You may shocked to learn that this mall looks almost exactly like Chapel Hills Mall in Colorado Springs! What are the odds? There are even many of the same stores there! Unfortunately, Lens Crafters doesn't service what they sell, but they referred us to a little old man who fixes spectacles. Unfortunately, his shop was back in Beaverton, only about a mile from the sewing machine place. Oh, well. I am now wearing the successfully-repaired glasses, so apparently, all came out okay.
By this time, end-of-work rush hour was underway, and the temperature had reached 95 degrees. So, I intimidated my way into rush-hour traffic, and pretty soon, we were back in our apartment, sweating profusely (I knew you'd want to know that.) We hit the pool, and we were cool.
And that, as they say, was that.
Pretty long "News" today, so no headlines.
Love you all ... more later!
News fromTualatin
News fromTualatin
We are beginning to get settled in here and to take in some of the local activities and culture.
This weekend is the annual Tualatin Crawfish Festival. These people take their crawfish seriously; besides the things you might expect at a crawfish festival (you DO have crawfish festival expectations, don't you?), Tualatin has the little crustaceans as a part of their Chamber of Commerce logo, and their image stamped into their sidewalks and delineated in ceramic tile.
The festival started off with a street breakfast, and to our relief, they didn't serve crawfish then. Later, yes, but not at breakfast. Later, there were (and are today, too) crawfish booths and a crawfish eating contest. Personally, I prefer my lobster a bit larger, but everyone to his own taste, I guess.
There was a crawfish parade around the Tualatin Commons. The parade consisted mainly of little kids and folks driving old cars, but there were a couple of horses, some emergency equipment, and many, many paintings, drawings, sculptures and so-on depicting crawfish. (By the way, what exactly is the difference between crawfish, crayfish, crawdads, doodads, and dewrags?)
There is a crafts fair, and the local model boat club put on a flotilla in the pond in the Town Common.
After all that fun and frolic, we went up to Morgan's house, and went out to dinner with the Kunzes. Cool ... that's why we're here! They're doing great ... if anything, Morgan looks bigger, readier than last week.
In the meantime:
Real, True, Actual Headlines
... and the comments that refuse to go away
BBC.co.uk
Scientists aim for lab-grown meat
1) ... but they miss, and the meat is still on the loose.
2) Mmm, mmm, mmm, that sounds really yummy.
3) Tatses like chicken ... a fifty-foot tall purple chicken.
Gaza settlers face tough decision
Leave peaceably and be compensated for the loss, be evicted by the army, or be killed by furious Palestinians? Tough one.
Cuba marks Castro's 79th birthday
... with a cake with 79 burning cigars on it.
Search engine race gets personal
New search engines do full-body pat-down, draw the line at cavity searches.
MSNBC.com
Maytag board backs Whirlpool bid
Will put under-employed repairmen to work selling competitor's products.
DeGeneres tapped to host Emmies
Dance routine, together with soft-shoe, convinced Academy officials.
New drugs shows promise in tackling HIV
Drug shows! The next network reality programs!
Colonel Sanders kicks the habit
Nearly twenty years after his death, Ole' Harlan agrees to stop smoking.
Limbaugh wants to reconcile T.O., McNabb
Why not ... he has demonstrated an interest in McNabb's good fortune before!
NYTimes.com
Britain says it bar return of firebrand muslim cleric
Little-known sub-sect of the Shiia, Firebrands often most hostile to the west.
Ex-Klan figure in 1964 killings is freed on bail
Having hung around for over forty years since the crime, he doesn't seem to be a flight risk.
Lutherans reject plan to allow gay clerics
They will continue as before: morose.
Delta said to explore bankruptcy financing
Now, there's a great investment opportunity!
