UPDATE and Friday serendipity in downtown Portland

UPDATE: Friday at work went well--in fact, so did getting there and getting home. I am thankful for every single prayer because I feel the power of each one. Now I have a weekend like a regular employee! Sunday, if all is well, I'll be taking at least the group photo of my workplace Race for the Cure team, before the members of it take part in the variety of races available to them. I hope I'll be able to stay to take photos as each one passes me by on their way to the finish line. One or both of my sons will get me and my folding aluminum lawn chair there and then to Pine State Biscuits not too long after noon. Our beloved friend, Pat Musburger, will be at the end of her trip to Beaverton, so we're meeting for lunch before she drives on back up to Seattle. I'm so excited to get to hug her, talk and laugh with her!



Yesterday morning I rode the 12 bus from home to downtown at SW 5th and SW Madison. Then I walked across the street to the bus shelter at SW 4th and SW Madison, to wait for the 4 or the 14 or the 10. All three take me to the bus stop diagonally across the street from my work building's front doors. Just as I walked up to the empty seat at the bus shelter, I noticed these roses out of the corner of my eye. I got my camera out of my purse--I've discovered that it fits in there, plus I wear its strap across my chest just like I do my purse strap--stood up and zoomed in. Click. Imagine my total shock when I uploaded this photo and discovered how the focus had held for more than the top rose which is where I pointed for focus before I pushed the button. Talk about serendipity! I don't know enough about my camera yet to understand how this happened, that the lowest rose is in focus behind the out of focus leaves. Do you have any answers for me?



I heard a bus approaching to my right as I sat waiting for mine to arrive from my left. When I looked that way, I noticed the Benson Bubbler and a few pedestrians. I decided to zoom in on the water fountain. Then I decided to wait for the bus to turn right onto SW Madison--I knew that's where its route would take it--and use the side of the bus as a backdrop for the photo. I tried to focus on the four bubblers, then, lo and behold, I read the sign on the side of the bus and pushed the button without moving the camera. Serendipity, out the wazoo! I watched that man holding the white object walk on across the street, thinking that I had not only gotten the water fountain and the sign about water in the photo, but also a water bottle in his hand. As he walked, I realized he carried a short piece of PVC pipe. I'm not the least bit sad to have missed a hat trick, nope. In fact, I got so excited looking at the photo in the camera that if the person beside me hadn't stood up to get on the bus, I might have missed that chance to go east across the Willamette to my work building.

I am beyond happy to share these two moments of serendipity with y'all!

Bicyclist and pedestrian--interesting head-gear and hair-do choices

Once again at lunch time, someone, no, two someones, passed by and I took a photo that I like. One of the many things that I like about Portland is that you find it easy to be yourself. You can be a man and wear a colorful, striped bicycle helmet. You can be a man and wear your bleached hair, roots visible, in a topknot.

By the way, the last 10 days or so, my allergies have been hammering me, so much so that I've missed some sunny, blustery lunch hours and their attendant photo opportunities. Drat it. These allergies have been worse than any other year that I can remember in Portland, except for when we had just arrived in June, 2006.

Salvador Dali Ankle

At first, I thought I'd title this post Accidental Frame so that I could mention the serendipity of the juxtaposition of the pedestrian and the yellow metal framework near the bus door. However, as I looked at the photo in PicMonkey where I uploaded it for resizing, what appeared to be an unnaturally shaped and angled ankle, combined with the wavy curves of the calf, made a different decision for me. I would be remiss to miss out on the chance to compare the waviness I saw--brought about I believed by the perspective of the pedestrian's leg as photographed--with those wavy, melted watches of Salvador Dali.

When I clicked on the photo at its largest size, the actual reason became easy to see. A wide streak of sun-glare obliterates the outer half of her foot and washes out the outer half of her blue shoe. So, you can rest easy. This woman's right foot is regular and doing a good job helping her wait patiently for her own bus.

April 11 movement--a pedestrian in my NE Portland neighborhood

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April 2 I stopped after I had passed this young woman so that I could take a photo of her as she crossed NE Sandy at NE 20th. Can you guess what first brought her to my attention? Was it the heavy shopping bags? Her jacket that says Devil Woman on back? Her hat? Nope, it was those platform shoes. I used to wear platform shoes, open-toe sling-backs. Never platform boots. Oh, did you notice the home of Oregon Children's Theatre in the background? Or the yellow Mini Cooper?
 

Here's the original photo, for comparison.

Seen on or from mass transit on Saturday, March 9, 2013

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Seen on the 12 TriMet bus: Usually I sit where this little girl sits, or across from her in the parallel row of seats beneath the windows on the passenger side of the bus. This particular morning the mother and daughter had spread out over these three seats, and across from them a couple of loud, out-of-the-ordinary women took up those three seats, so I sat here instead. I'm glad that I did, because I had the chance to snap this photo, not taking enough time to focus properly. To me, her face and hairstyle take me back to the 1950s. When the 12 stopped at the intersection of NE Couch and MLK, I got off and walked a block east, then a block south to wait for the streetcar. My goal, Memorial Coliseum and the Oregon FIRST Robotics competition, my free access to the building itself, as well as a chance to witness high-school-student-produced-Frisbee-flinging robots!
 

Seen from the Portland Streetcar CL Line: For a few minutes I watched this man who had stopped where I waited at the bus/streetcar stop on the corner of SE Grand Avenue and East Burnside, bus transfer grasped tightly in his left hand. All the while I hoped that I would get the chance to snap a photo. Finally, after I boarded the streetcar, I stood up as we slowly pulled away and got this one. I can't figure out what fascinates me the most--the two-tone shoes, the black-and-white striped socks, the Mr.-Green-Jeans cuffed just so below the knee, the matching-toned-plaid jacket with the black fur collar which looked too warm in the sunshine, the multi-pocketed mossy green satchel, the white-collared, long-sleeved dress shirt, or the burgundy and gold tie. To tell you the truth, I've decided that the well-thought-out components of his outfit fascinated me most of all, as they combined to create just the look he was after. Even more fascinating, every single item he wore appeared to be brand-spanking-new. 

I love Portland 'cause you never know what you're going to see next!

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. 

Music moves.

Early. Meandering? Hardly. Focused. Ready. Drum. Tambourine. Somewhere. Music!

Red hat, red hat, where you at?

On her head, on her head, red hat said.

Red sunglasses, red sunglasses,
Who dat reflecting in the door, passing?

Why it's a pretty woman, blonde
And slender, hon.

Backpack on and steppin' out
Ready for the day, there's no doubt.

She matches the crosswalk signal.

Walking south on SE 7th Avenue, towards SE Belmont. I saw her coming and waited to take the photo until she'd gone on by last Saturday while on my way to the Architectural Heritage Center for a lecture on Portland's concrete houses, both form-to-look-like-stone and poured-in-forms walls.

Here's what was on their Web site about the lecture: Concrete Houses of Portland
In the early twentieth century, concrete challenged Portland’s ubiquitous timber as the building material of choice for “modern” residences. As early as 1906, Portland architects and builders had begun constructing homes from solid concrete blocks formed to look like stone. In following years, other local builders experimented with the “Edison mold”—houses built entirely of continuous poured concrete panels. Concrete houses never became the norm in Portland, but numerous examples can still be found in all quarters of the city.