I really miss seeing these transit shelters downtown on SW 5th and SW 6th. All but this one, gone but not forgotten.

There's a stalled bus alongside the curb, apropos of the fact that this shelter, back before Portland's Transit Mall was revamped in 2007, would have served many buses throughout the day and the night, for untold numbers of commuters. I used this particular a lot myself when I first started commuting from Northwest Portland to Southeast Portland in October, 2006. Since November, 2006, set records for rainfall totals, it came in very handy.



While I'm glad that at least one of these iconic shelters was saved and turned into a coffee stand, it makes me sad as all get out to think about the many that disappeared, their unique shapes gone forever, replaced by generic glass and tube shelters which do little to protect us from blowing rain. I heard that TriMet did away with these--which always remind me of hats that might have been worn by China-men of yore--because their closed-in design led miscreants to use them for nefarious reasons, as well as others who took advantage of not being able to be easily seen to relieve themselves, hopefully during the night when few commuters were on the streets. I myself never witnessed either activity.

UPDATE and they'll need a change in clothing, if the predicted weather comes true.

UPDATE: I felt a bit better today than yesterday. I'm going back to work on Monday at 10:30 a.m., four hours a day. I'm really looking forward to it! My next chemo is September 10. I hope I'll do as well after it as I am doing now.



These young ladies enjoyed their summertime clothes back in July, 2009--no rain in sight. Now, if the weather report turns out as predicted, they'll need protection from the rain tomorrow. Not that the weather has done as predicted pertaining to rain lately, at least in Portland. I hope it does rain because we need it!

UPDATE and let's go for when Portlanders needed umbrellas for Throwback Thursday

UPDATE:

My hair is loose, y'all. If I run my fingers through what's left after that short hair cut on July 21, I have hairs between my fingers. I don't feel them leaving my head, there's no tugging or pulling or pinching. It comes out while I'm sleeping, too. I'm OK with this because I know why it's happening. What if I didn't know the reason? I'd be panicking right and left. As it is, I'm centered by knowledge.

Yesterday, since I took a several-hour-nap, right after noon through 3:30 p.m., I was wide awake until 12:45 p.m. Then I managed to sleep until 7:15 a.m. although I woke up twice during the night. 

I've got to get this sleep thing worked out because two weeks from yesterday, I'll return to work part-time, August 26 through September 8, then have Chemo Round Three on September 9.

That's what I expect to happen, that's what I'm planning for. It all depends on what sort of whammy Chemo Round Two is on August 19.



Cars in the Park, June 18, 2011--theme of the day, Chevrolet. Folks came out to enjoy the vintage vehicles on display in the South Park Blocks in downtown Portland, umbrellas and other rain wear at the ready. We're in front of the Portland Art Museum--inside it there was an outta sight wonderful exhibit, The Allure of the Automobile. Every week throughout the summer, cars shows with a particular theme took place. A vintage vehicle lover's paradise, let me tell you.



Every which way, pedestrians with umbrellas. I remember when I moved here, the guys told me I'd want a raincoat with a hood so that rain wouldn't run down my neck at the collar, dripping there from a rain hat. They also said that umbrellas proved to be a pain. I took their advice and never looked back, until I realized that sometimes I'd be OK with my little travel umbrella given to me by British Airways on my last student/teacher/stray adult trip to Europe in 2001 when some of us got upgraded to Business Class--wow, that was superb! I love that little umbrella which easily slips into one of the water bottle pockets in my everyday purse. Very seldom do I have to use it because when rain is predicted, I wear my hooded raincoat. It's a back-up I'm blessed to have with me.



I like this one a whole lot. You can see the raindrops on the Chevy.



Nope, this car show's not going to the dogs even though this dog came prepared for the weather.



One more photo that gives you an idea of the rain.

Throwback Thursday, March, 15, 2012--four short videos from my first ever NCAA March Madness experience.

What a blast I had in store for me as a basketball lover! Here's the first video I shot outside as I waited to enter the arena and find my seat. The rain between the bus stop and the arena soaked my coat, then the wind dried my coat. My fun actually started right then as I stood outside beneath the overhang, protected from continuing rain and at the mercy of the gusty wind!



Still entertained on this particular Thursday!



Final video shot before I entered the arena.



And here's the video that I shot on the way home. What a great Thursday to share with y'all on Throwback Thursday!

Woke up just before 5 a.m. and heard the weatherman say that we'd had or were having measureable rain! For the first time in 39 days, measurable rain at the airport!

Thank you to everyone who commented with encouragement after reading yesterday's post. I appreciate each of you. It's important to me to know that I am not alone in cyberspace, just like I'm not alone right here in Portland.



I walked out the front door before sunrise because I wanted to feel the rain. Alas, it had stopped falling. However, the sidewalk and the light in the arch above the sidewalk give evidence that my part of Portland did get some rain! I could hear it dripping from the gutter, too!

How's this for irony? As I stood there taking this photo and thinking about going to the end of the sidewalk so that I could get a look at the street, the apartment's sprinkler system came on. I could hear fast-spraying water hitting the banana leaves! Am I ever glad that I hadn't walked on out there first! I'd be wet right now 'cause I am not moving fast, y'all!

Will Portland get almost five inches of rain between Friday morning and Sunday evening? Hmmmm.

All of these are archived rainy weather photos which I've decided to share today, due to the weatherman's dred-filled excitement about what the models predict for the Portland metro area.


I imagine it will begin much like this--in fact, I'll bet it's already like this outside right now. I'll find out soon, when I head for the bus stop.



At some point during the next three days, it will look like this, and worse, if we really do get the predicted five inches.



I took this photo over in Portland's Alphabet District, where I used to live on the top floor of a four-story apartment building. Rainy night, then.

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.

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.

Rain protection.

Recent rain brought out these colorful umbrellas and their ladies, a couple blocks from my building. Umbrellas, not the norm in sometimes blustery Portland--I hardly ever use one although I have a travel one in a pouch on my backpack. Instead, I followed the good advice my sons gave me back when I moved to Portland. "Mom, get a raincoat with a hood. You don't want rain dripping off a rain hat down your neck. You don't want an umbrella blowing inside out." Thanks, Lamont and Leland.

First-round, NBA Western Conference Playoffs, Portland Trail Blazers, 122. Houston Rockets, 120. Overtime win for my guys! Hooray!

Spring, in our future. BLT, in my past. Well, some time again in my future, to tell you the truth.

Spring really is on the way, despite the fact that I came home from the Sunday night Portland Trail Blazers' game an hour or so ago in a cool, moderately heavy rain. I took today's photo on Saturday at 12:52 p.m. while I walked from visiting Lamont and Leland at The Circuit Bouldering Gym to the Blue Diamond where I ate lunch and checked my lottery tickets--won $4.00. Lunch was fantastic, a BLT and fries, with an RC Cola.

While cold and blustery weather lingers, I'm dreaming and knowing this too will come, No. 8

Although this is in my old neighborhood, the Alphabet District in NW Portland, I have every hope that I shall find such pink-blossom-covered sidewalks, streets, and parked vehicles somewhere here in NE Portland, where I now live. I took this photo April 7, 2007, at 11:20 a.m. Notice the person approaching on the sidewalk, umbrella in hand? April showers sometimes bring April flowers! Mama and I lived in the beige brick building you can see through the flower-draped branches, there on the left side of the photo.

A break from the Nature's Beauty series--rain has returned

Never mind that I took this photo last February, it perfectly portrays our current weather. Through the rainy Portland Streetcar window, the PICA building looks cool to me. PICA equals Portland Institute for Contemporary Art--it's located at 415 SW 10th Avenue in downtown Portland.

To me, this vintage stepside Dodge pickup looks short.

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A somewhat worn paint job still shines when wet with rain. What year is this Dodge pickup truck? I'm thinking somewhere in the 1960s, but that based on a feeling, not knowledge. Has it been chopped?

Cooler air outside, warmer bodies inside, large windows opaque as a consequence of those differences--the 20 bus on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

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Wearing a quilted black satin brimmed hat, my multi-colored polka-dotted black rubber boots, and with my thigh-length raincoat completely zipped up and the hood pulled up over my hat, I boarded this 20 bus Sunday, September 29, at 12:49 p.m. on my way to a fundraiser tour for the Architectural Heritage Center. I had my Nikon secreted inside the upper left side of my raincoat and my over-the-shoulder black, rain repellant, many-pocketed handbag hanging outside my raincoat on the right side. I left my backpack at home because I had no idea how much turn-around space I would have on the tour. I certainly didn't want to knock anything off of someone's table or wall.

Seeing folks dressed in coats or hoodies, some with their belongings wrapped in plastic bags, didn't surprise me. All of us knew that it had been raining and blowing for hours and hours and would continue to do so.

On my way home after the tour, the 20 bus filled with thoroughly wet Portland Timbers' soccer fans who gave no clue as to the outcome of the game. It wasn't until I got home and checked Facebook that I learned the team had beat the LA Galaxy 1-0. And that 20,000 filled the stadium in the rain. Guess those who managed to quickly fill the 20 bus felt too water-logged to be excited about the victory. The hordes left on the sidewalks waited for the next bus in the downpour.

Seen on the street, February 16, 2013, No. 8

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The man's hooded jacket has not been streaked with watered-down white paint. Those streaks are the falling rain, better visible after I altered this photo with PicMonkey's HDR. I wanted you to be able to see the rain. I took this photo downtown a block east of Pioneer Courthouse Square.
 

This is the unaltered image--very little rain visible. Rest assured, at its original size at Flickr, you can see rain drops in more parts of the image than his jacket.