Love Spalding.

First, I'm standing there with my iPhone, making a video and talking about how the tracks I'd made a few hours earlier had disappeared in the latest snowfall. Then, my phone rang--my brother and sister-in-law in central Mississippi wondering how I was making it in the snowy conditions, laughing when I said that I was out walking in the snow for fun. Finally, I notice this lady skiing along the sidewalk across the street. By the time I asked my brother to hold on, found the camera on the phone and held it up to take a photo, she had turned left on NE 20th Avenue. My brother and I continued our conversation, said good-bye, and I continued my walk around the block. When I got around the corner, I found a spot out of the wind and beneath a small overhang at the front door of the Sandy Blvd. Clinic, cropped and uploaded the image to Facebook. I figured that would it for the serendipitous sighting of a skier on the snowy sidewalk. Oh, before I forget, more serendipity in the matching colors of the car, the band on the Musicians Union building and the compatibility of the color of the skier's jacket and the rest of the wall color on the building. I love it when unexpected color combinations reach out and grab me.
 

Later that evening, cabin fever appeared again--it had been coming and going since I got home from work on Friday. Anyway, I decided to walk downstairs and look out the window in the side door of my building. My reward, one more serendipitous sighting of ski accoutrement. Left to right: ski poles, ski pants, skis. The icing on the cake, so to speak, the LOVE hanging on the apartment door, put there no doubt for Valentine's Day. I'm guessing that the word describes very well how the two skiers felt about their outing, skiing the neighborhood and beyond. The green door to the left served as their portal to the winter wonderland that Portland had become, beginning on Thursday around noon and continuing until around 4 p.m. on Saturday when the only thing falling from the sky was either freezing rain or sleet or both.