My darling niece Leigh, has a cousin on the other side of her family tree, Beverly and she and Nick, and friends Barbara and Aaron came last night to the Mouse. How generous of you to come and thank you for waving during applause, or I would have missed you!! It has been such a gift to me to have all these family and friends come to see the show. Thank you.
54 Degrees
Perhaps that is really what makes the TV show Portlandia work. It really is nuts here. A week ago it was freezing and a foot of snow on the ground. Tonight being outside was close to being balmy. Really messes with one’s mind. At least the City is socked in, and consistently cold and miserable. Tonight this was light jacket weather vs fur a week ago.
Thank you!
Tonights show was such great fun. We had four shows cancelled due to snow last week, and so the plot had thickened as we all experienced the actual weather of the play, and the words sunk in. It was a true happening. It was pure delight to see that niece Stephanie and grand niece Madeline were there. And with the most beautiful pink roses I have ever received. Annie and Dennis also made the supreme effort! That friendship goes all the way back to GPB!. And to prove it, Annie gifted a freesia plant, in an antique-looking box. I could see it had once been decorated with felt flowers. Low and behold if she had not hung onto a “giftie” from me to her, during our U of O days! Now that is history! In this city I am surrounded by history!
If I Ever
picked a time to be away from the City, it was this winter. Read that another foot of snow fell on Thursday. Kelly said that it looks like Russia: the snow lingers and gets dirtier and yellower. Never knew there were so many dogs, he said. You picked it as if you knew what you were doing, he said. Not to be here, astute!
From Monday Morning to Tuesday Night!!
The Odds?
This evening, meet up with Ann for a glass of wine. We head to 23rd Street. 23rd is a very hip, popular place in Portland. It starts at the bottom of hill called ‘Vista’ and a street ‘Burnside’ and runs, so to speak, all the way to the banks of the Willamette River. And I love going there because it is part of the neighborhood where I grew up. For example, there was a chic children’s clothing store named YoungLand at a place called the Uptown Shopping Center. Now it’s a Chico’s store. I think they should re-name it Chico’s YoungLand. The entire area is testament to the adage, ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’. 23rd and Johnson, a wine bar Ann hasn’t been to. Since that is such a rarity to find a place she doesn’t know, seems like a perfect choice. And indeed, it a converted house, kitted out to be an intimate little wine bar serving primarily Italian wines and tapas. While there, fashion models, representing two neighboring boutiques waltz through pressing between the bar and the tables. A few moments later, a gentlemen pushing his ‘pop-up-paint experience’. [You’ll have to get the explanation from him but it is based on the concepts of the painter Bob Ross http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MghiBW3r65M] comes in to give a pop-up prep talk and hold a raffle. When I turn toward the entrance to see what the next interruption is to be, I see him. A young man and his girl. I turn to Ann and say, “My nephew just walked through the door”. He doesn’t see me yet. But then the patron offers him a seat at the bar, and he looks to see with whom he will be seated and voila! What are the chances. I had not yet seen him on this visit and so it was a welcome meeting. But what are the odds!!
An Expert
Am becoming one about the weather. Schools were still closed here today, and nothing much in the way of snow, disappeared over night, so decided that around 1 pm would start the digging out process. I actually like shoveling snow. Hate vacuuming, but snow shoveling is satisfying because you can see what you have accomplished. And for 2 hours I accomplished a lot. 3 driveways, 3 cars cleaned off, 3 front porches cleared and a thumb and ring finger blister to show for it. Apparently no one in this neighborhood has heard of this new fangled plastic convenience called: snow shovel. Myself and other neighbors I observed are all using metal garden shovels. Hello! Not only is the snow wet and heavy, but the metal has its own weight. I don’t know if it’s because they think it doesn’t snow here, or a conservative mindset of what works in the garden, is fine for winter, or maybe it is about the use of plastic. These shovels do make a very specific sound however, up and down the street, as the metal scrapes over the pavement as the snow is scooped up. My shovel rang the longest. I rather like the sound. What occurs when shoveling for a length of time is: introduction to every dog being walked, watching the cars spin up the street, and last but not least, the conversation engagers. The best one was the knowledgeable male who asked which number ‘precious’ is. The worst, was ‘Will’ in his SUV who stopped right next to my shoveling to tell me that he ‘Wanted me to know that God loves me and is …. ‘ and on he went. At first, I followed my fine upbringing and listened, but after about 3 minutes, when he did not offer to help me shovel, or take me to the grocery store, but only wanted to save my soul, I returned to shoveling… he continued talking at me. Graciously I explained to his comments about how touched he was about this war movie he watched, that I was a pacifist. Then when he shifted to my spiritual life, I explained that I had had 13 years of a parochial education and then a lifetime of experiences and that I had figured out that god wasn’t really too interested in a whole lot of things about which he Will might think he was. [I believe he may still be trying to make sense of that.] When he said “Well God he….’ I said, ‘You know, you lost me right there with the word god and the pronoun ‘he’. He drove off. Later one of the neighbors whose driveway I did, came out and said, ‘Saw you were talking to Will. Notice he didn’t offer to shovel for you.’ ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘Noticed a few lapses myself’. ‘Oh’ she says ‘Many neighbors when they see him coming, go back in their house.’ Apparently he is not batting 1000 for his heavenly reward.
Now the temperature is on the rise, so cleared is not freezing over. In fact the weather report is for rain not only for the next 12 hours, but for the next six days. This is where the ‘creator’ concept begins to fail for me. We have had four days of snow, which shut the city down. Now we will have six [6] days of rain [according to the forecast] that will eventually wash the snow away. If ‘creator’ wanted to transfer liquid from above to below, just go with rain. The populous here can handle the rain, and in the end, rain is what it is going to be, only now with two intermittent days of the worst slush imaginable!
see forecast: www.oregonlive.com/weather/index.ssf?portland-or#incart_special-report
Fading Fast
Not the snow, but my belief that this will be gone enough in 24 hours from the time of these photos last night, for this city to function on Monday. I am holding my breath.
Believer!
The weatherman apparently has god talking to him. He called it and it has snowed, and snowed, and snowed and snowed and now it is raining down on all that snow. Don’t know what happens next, am curious to see how the clean up progresses. We lost a weekend of shows: Thursday through Sunday. Now all those ticket holders must be accommodated on other nights, and that is never easy. The theatre added a second show to Saturday and Sunday of the coming week, and are looking for a third evening. That of course wrecks havoc with the rest of life, but it will fall into place. So many ‘outside’ things did not get done, due to the weather, but it is always amazing how well we do with an altered schedule. Lots of popcorn and scrabble. Today, one of the neighbors had a birthday, but no way to get to the restaurant reservation, so we were invited to come and celebrate at their house. That was great fun. Terrific food, a new interior and getting to know the neighbors is always a positive. There is an expression: a good neighbor is better than a far away friend.
Batting 100
The weatherman wins again. It came down steadily and determinably and piled itself on top of the snow already in place. The result is another cancelled show. Means more shows next week to provide opportunity for the ticket holders to attend. But what really threw me is the lack of anything being done. Ann and Tommy graciously came to fetch me in a whopping large pickup with 4WD and studs and weight and we drove to Beaverton on the most surprisingly uncleared roads I have ever experienced. Major thoroughfares where buses run and traffic is usually steady are not plowed. The freeway I5 and 217 were catch as catch can. A car without cable/chains or studs did not stand a chance of traction and with all the hills and dales there were left over cars along every route. At the car rental, they were willing to have chains/cables put on, but the wait was 1.5 hours and the snow was coming down again. The service manager, said you can’t wait for that. Come back on Monday and you probably won’t need chains. With the cancellation of the show tonight, and the roads having no chance of being improved tomorrow, I suspect Saturday night will be a no go as well. In the end, the snow isn’t the surprise, as the lack of dealing with it.