You see the most interesting things when you look down, after you're safely seated on the low brick wall at the bus shelter.

At least I believe that I see the most interesting things. This is a TriMet ticket, an adult two and a half hour ticket from June 7. I took the photo early on June 8 while I waited for the bus to work. I believe the two dark gray blotches and the light gray one are chewing gum, stuck for eternity to the sidewalk unless someone is hired to remove them someday. I don't see that happening. TriMet does have someone do what I'd call light cleaning of the bus shelters, with a power water sprayer, but that probably won't move that gum. Actually, I've only seen those cleaning crews in downtown Portland. I wonder if they go elsewhere at different times of the day?

More sun, shade, sidewalk. I do look up when I'm out and about, promise, but these shadows lately have been fascinating.

Some mornings as I head for the bus shelter, I walk out the front door of my building--variety is the spice of life, so said my 8th and 9th grade social studies teacher, Melvin Kellogg Bruss. I'm happy that I did the other morning because I got to see another great sun, shade, sidewalk combo.

UPDATE and the credit union building next to my morning commute bus shelter, current photos and vintage photos--enjoy!

UPDATE: Friday and I made it through all five days of half time work and only needed that one 15 minute nap yesterday. I am so proud of that. Plus, I didn't need a nap after work until today when I got home, but, then, I often needed a nap on Fridays after work, something about the end of the week--it's finally here--I can rest now. I have not overdone it at all, y'all. Thanks for your prayers, love and concern.



Here's a photo of my morning bus shelter, the one TriMet locates as at NE Sandy Blvd. and NE 20th Avenue which is the cross street you don't see in this photo that I took last November. I love the look of this sunny morning! Plus, I wanted you to get a look at the credit union building prior to its recent remodel.



In contrast, here's the building after the remodel. I took this photo on Tuesday. I like how it turned out looking modern and together.There are more windows than I expected--I'll bet the employees are glad of that.



I do miss the plants that used to be in this planter, though. Right now this is flat out boring.



Here's a look across the boring planter and along the front of the building. You get an idea of what I meant when I said more windows. I've even seen people sitting in those yellow chairs--I think they are customer chairs in front of a credit union employee's desk.




Finally, two vintage photos. This one is actually a photo of a photo that I took so that you could see the building that used to occupy the eastern most part of where the credit union building used to stand. Absolutely would love to have seen it, up close and personal!



The other vintage photo allows you to see NE 20th crossing NE Sandy Blvd. where the man is working on the traffic island. The Richfield service station is about where the credit union parking lot is today. Just to the right of the Richfield sign is the giant shoe building. That building with all of the windows still stands today--it's home to KATU TV Channel 2, the local ABC affiliate. I think the current day bus shelter is located right in front of the service station building with the windows. I love this vintage photo--well, both of them, to tell you the truth!

Sun rise and public art at my work building.

One January morning I walked my usual route from the bus shelter across the street, up to the corner to await the walk traffic signal, crossed and walked toward the building's entrance. Then, I say this lovely sight.



Here's the reason for the rosy glow on the brass panel and the brick wall.



This is the same bronze panel, photographed from across the street on February 20, 2009, during another swell sun rise.



Here's the reason for the golden light on the panel--I took this photo four minutes before as the bus headed across the Hawthorne Bridge towards my work building.

Read about the public art at my work building when you click here.

The other side of the coin--winter in Portland--it's either brilliant or wet.

Saturday, November 15, cold and a little windy at 9:14 a.m. Who cares? Look at that brilliant sunshine! I should have worn my sunglasses while I was out and about before my lecture at the nearby Architectural Heritage Center. This brick and wrought iron wall surrounds an entire city block occupied by a Shell service station and its accompanying convenience store. This block is bordered on the south by SE Alder, on the east by SE Grand, on the north by SE Washington and on the west by SE MLK. The AHC is across SE Alder from the station, at the diagonal from where I stood to take the photo, so I see it every time I go to a lecture because the bus or street car takes me south on SE MLK. When it's brilliant out, I get off a block before the Shell and get in a bit longer walk.



Wet morning on Saturday, November 22, as I waited for either the street car or the bus to arrive so that I could get closer to the AHC for that day's lecture. The man who walks across carrying the large white item had just randomly announced to another man who stood to my right and me that he was going to the large, cylindrical, concrete trash receptacle to "steal a plastic bag." You see the evidence of his success. Just before saying that and going on his quest, he'd told us that he'd gotten soaked the day before, so he wanted to get under the bus shelter with us, that he needed/hoped to be able to go to a laundromat to dry everything he had that was wet. There's the justification for his decision because he could put that huge bag over his rolling bag full of his belongings. I must say that listening to him and the rainy sounds around us made me even more thankful for my job, my apartment, my mass transit pass, all of my blessings. When it's wet out, I get off at the SE Morrison stop so that my walk to the AHC is a block shorter--I'm interested in being less wet, just like the man at the bus shelter.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: People on the Street

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I've made a collage for Theme Day because I couldn't resist sharing with you the coincidence of movement, expression, and stance between these two people waiting at a bus shelter on a Portland street. I took these photos on February 28, 2009, five years and one day ago.

Here are the close-ups of each photo so that you can see for yourself what I find to be so interesting--their movement, expression, and stance. Then there's the rest of the serendipity all over the place, the similar mustardy yellows on his jacket, the folded-shut street barricade, and her leopard print skirt. Plus, several of the faces on her stockings have blonde hair. And her lace-up boots match the sidewalk's color.
 

They appear to be looking at each other.



They're both looking the opposite direction, at the same time.
    

They're both reaching up to the side of their heads, at the same time.
 

They looked down at the same time.

Can't stop sharing these photos of my snowy neighborhood, even on Valentine's Day!

It's just that this particular bus shelter means so very much to my life. And to see it blurred by the falling snow sort of tickles me. Not that I want it to snow like this again any time soon. I took this photo on Saturday, February 8 at 10:37 a.m. The colorful building in the background houses the Oregon Children's Theatre. An abandoned car, in the drive-through, going against the actual direction for service, at the Community Consolidated Credit Union. Club 21, also within walking distance of my building, but across NE Sandy Blvd., so I have never been there. I see no reason to cross a busy street on foot to have a good time. Here's my favorite neighborhood spot to walk to for a good time--The Blue Diamond PDX--which is on the same side of NE Sandy as my building. I took this photo on Thursday, February 6 at 5:24 p.m. Lots more snow fell during the night and on Friday and Saturday. Finally, here's the Blue Diamond on Monday morning at 9:14 a.m. Look at all of that snow beside the sidewalk. I took this photo standing to the east of my bus shelter while I waited for the first bus of the morning commute. I had waited to go to work so that the ice on my sidewalks--which had fallen from late Saturday afternoon, through the night, and into Sunday--had a chance to melt a bit. We were above 32 degrees and had a light rain falling. By the way, I have no idea when NE Sandy was plowed because I didn't go outside at all on Sunday, and the last time I saw it on Saturday at 3:02 p.m., it looked like this. It's obvious that no plowing had happened--the street is practically the same level as the sidewalk, only tamped down some by the vehicles that managed to get from Point A to Point B, wherever that may have been. You can't see it in the photo, but take my word for it. The freezing rain and/or sleet had started to fall, so I walked on home.

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!

My morning commute bus stop. Hallelujah, it is not like this every winter day.

On Saturday I bundled up, put on my rubber boots with the YakTrax attached and went out for an around-the-block-slowly walk. I took several photos and made 19 videos, ranging in length from 1:26 to 20 seconds. I believe this is the best photo to show you the way it was snowing right then. Taken February 8 at 10:41 a.m.
 

Almost the same shot, taken Thursday, February 6 at 5:24 p.m. I had finally made it home after a couple of hours, well almost home. I had about 600 feet to go. Whew. On top of the shelter, notice the difference in the amount of snow.

For some reason, this photo will not stick to the Blogger page. Sorry. I've tried various sizes, over and over. 

Finally, inside the bus shelter on Friday morning, February 7 at 6:36 a.m. Notice the difference in the amount of snow here on the sidewalk, about 12 hours after the second photo in this post. Usually I stand up at the bus shelter, especially in the morning. However, last Friday I had no idea how long it would be before a bus came, so I wanted to sit. I did not expect snow to have completely covered both sections of the bench. What to do? I remembered that Thursday the Portland Tribune street box was always filled, so I looked inside. Although snow had blown into the box, I grabbed three dry newspapers from the middle of the stack and spread them carefully on the bench. I sat down, quite pleased with myself. Then I stood up to take this photo which I posted to Facebook. In a few minutes the bus came, I got own, happy to get a seat because it was packed. A couple of blocks away, I realized I just may have been a dummy because I did not pick up and shake the snow off those Portland Tribunes and bring them with me. What if I needed them at the next shelter where I transfer to the second of the two buses that make up my commute? Luckily, when I arrived at that next shelter, it had been shoveled and all that was left on the bench was a bit of ice, so I tucked my raincoat beneath me and sat right down. I looked to my left and saw the bus! Yea! The snowy morning commute neared its end.

An intersection which I frequent

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Photos taken on Saturday, February 16, 2013, on my way home from a good Saturday out and about. 

Top photo, a Portland Streetcar waits at the corner at a shelter/stop shared by it and the #6 TriMet bus. The streetcar is on SE Grand Avenue. When the traffic signal changes to green and it crosses the intersection, it will be on NE Grand Avenue. The street is crosses at the intersection is East Burnside, the thoroughfare that divides north from south in Portland. Those two young women are walking on the south side of East Burnside, heading west across SE Grand Avenue, toward the Burnside Bridge over the Willamette River--I didn't turn to watch them see where they were headed.

Of the two photos at the bottom of the collage, the one on the left is of a pedestrian whose red clutch bag, red poncho, and red socks caught my eye. She's waiting to cross East Burnside, walking south on the west side of SE Grand Avenue. Once the light changed and she started to walk, she stretched her legs out and stepped out with determination, but I didn't watch her to see where she was headed. The photo on the right is the empty bus shelter/stop, waiting for the next bus or streetcar, passengers for either one. The Plaid Pantry behind it is a convenience store--when I first moved here from Jackson, Mississippi, I found convenience stores without gas pumps to be quite strange. Back home, such a sight was few and far between. 

A. E. Doyle's Bank of California Building, No. 5

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An eatery, The Original Dinerant, occupies the street level of the building to the north of the Bank of California. The BOC is just out of sight at the right of this building, next to the black-faced wall visible near the current-day TriMet bus shelter you see lit up for the night-time users of mass transit. Someone waits for a bus and appears to have a bicycle to place on the bike rack attached to the front of the bus.
 

Here's the Bank of California, just south of The Original Dinerant--notice the black-faced wall.

Vintage photos, part of the documentation used to place architect A. E. Doyle's Bank of California on the National Register of Historic Places. The application is dated as received on February 15, 1978, and approved on March 14, 1978.
 

Vintage photo shows the Guaranty Building which was adjacent to the Bank of California and north of it. The back of the photo says that it was taken in 1924. Since the grand opening photos are dated 1925, it may not have actually been occupied at the time this photo was taken. I wish I had a photo of the north end of the building, which was exposed with the demise of the Guaranty Building, complete with the drive-up window and the canopy. Below is the next best thing.
 

The north end of the Bank of California, taken during 1977 probably. Note the placement of the older style TriMet bus shelter here on this section of SW 6th Avenue--part of the then brand new Portland Transit Mall. In the second photo on today's post, a bench occupies this spot, put there when the Transit Mall was rebuilt. And you've already seen the style of bus shelter which replaced these iconic ones, in the top photo today. 

From the paperwork submitted to the National Register of Historic Places:

Since the Bank of California's move to a new building in 1970, the structure has been occupied by The Security Bank of Oregon and, subsequently, the Oregon Bank. In 1977, ownership passed to Bankside Investors for occupancy by Durham and Bates, Inc., an insurance firm of pioneer beginnings in the Portland area. Since its construction, the exterior of the building has remained substantially unaltered, the only significant change being the addition of a drive-up banking window and canopy at the north end of the building. This was made possible by the razing of the six-story Guaranty Building which occupied the property immediately to the north until the mid-or late1950s. At this time, the newly exposed north wall was plastered in a rusticated stonework pattern simulating the west and south building elevations.

The imposing west facade of the bank building has five large arched windows which extend from the ground floor to a height of 28 feet above the sidewalk in recognition of the two-story banking lobby inside. Centered above these arches are smaller rectangular windows which serve the second floor office space almost 35 feet above the ground floor. Window frames are of painted steel. Above the second floor windows is a marble frieze and bracketed cornice which supports the Cordova Terracotta tile hipped roof typical of the Pallazzo style. The imposing rusticated "stonework" of the exterior walls and cornice are, in reality, cast terra-cotta executed with excellent craftsmanship. Only the marble base course and frieze are genuine. 

The entrance to the building is through a handsome bronze portico set in the middle arched window opening at the west facade, and boasts a pair of bronze gates which can be slid in front of the double entrance doors. The original bronze-framed doors were removed a number of years ago and replaced by automatic tempered glass doors.

Recent modifications to the building, made just prior to occupancy by the present tenant, include the removal of the added drive-up window and canopy at the north wall, and the filling in of a door which was cut through to the parking lot.

A new entrance was installed in the northern-most window of the west wall to provide access to a new lobby serving the upper floor
tenant spaces. Presently, theTri-Metropolitan Transit District has contracted for the widening and brick-paving of the sidewalk on SixthAvenue. The brick texture and color, together with soon-to-be-installed trees and street furniture should further enhance the handsome building.