UPDATE and a quick look at the southernmost piece of public art across the street from work, with me also in two of the photos

UPDATE: I woke up at 5 a.m. and went back to sleep! I didn't wake up again until the alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. I cannot remember the last time that happened, y'all! Pleased as punch! I nibbled while at work--Ritz crackers, green grapes, Cacio de Roma sheep cheese from Italy, Sun-Maid Raisins, Mariani Prunes, and water. So, since I knew I'd be pretty hungry after work and that the food I had cooked last night ended up tasting all wrong although in the past it had tasted very good--chemo-induced-taste-changes rampant this time--I decided to stop by Subway after I got off the bus near home. I walked in and ordered a six-inch tuna on wheat with shredded lettuce and tomato, an individual-sized bag of Lays Classic chips, and a cup of Coca-Cola. I walked on home and enjoyed every single bite! Then, I had two milk-chocolate-covered-dried cherries for dessert. Now, almost five hours later, I'm not hungry again. Anyway, it's too late to eat anything now if I want to be healthy about it, right? It's after 8 p.m. So, I've had a pretty good day. I'm making sure that I stay awake until a decent hour because I'd like to experience another great night's sleep.



When I got off the 6 bus near work, I decided to take some photos of myself with the public art in the background. I've grown to like this controversial work named Inversion Plus Minus. I thought it would look good behind my gray, oh-so-Portland-hat, that Lamont bought for me the last time I had chemo. He walked from Kaiser on Interstate over to Mississippi Avenue in NE Portland, ate lunch, and then noticed a boutique. He found this very soft hat. Surprisingly, it is made of bamboo and spandex and gets more comfortable every time I stretch it over my big head. In this photo, I've stopped on the traffic loop that has a sidewalk alongside it--it rises some feet from below where MLK runs south, so I'm facing north and standing below street level for SE Grand which is the street on the west side of my work building and is the street where the public art stands at the corner of SE Grand and the eastbound exit ramp of the Hawthorne Bridge.



Another shot so that you get an idea of the height of this sculpture. I'm standing up on SE Grand beside it now.



So you get the picture, here's one that I took of the southernmost piece of public art back in August, 2013. You can see the railing alongside the traffic loop I stood beside to take that first photo. You can see the Hawthorne Bridge which crosses over MLK, the lower street I mentioned when trying to let you know what I meant when I said that the traffic loop rises some feet from MLK. The traffic loop continues in a circle and takes traffic straight onto the westbound ramp onto the Hawthorne Bridge which is not visible but is to the right of the photo, in real life.



See, there's the westbound ramp going onto the bridge, as well as the northernmost piece of this public art installation, Inversion Plus Minus. I took this photo in October, 2013.



And one more that I took in May, 2013, showing where I get off the bus down there near MLK which is the street with the two vans, the car, and the pickup on it. The sidewalk is up against the outer edge of the curve, along that wall which gets progressively shorter until it is waist-high when you reach the sidewalk seen at the base of the public art.

April 10, the movement of pigeons and automobiles. Where have they gone?

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On January 26, 2013, I noticed the pigeons once again swirling above the intersection of NE MLK and East Burnside, at the west end of the used car lot. I've seen them off and on since I moved to Northeast Portland in January, 2011, flying in all directions at this intersection, sitting on the wires between utility poles and on the billboard above the mid-century roof of the used car lot. Once I had seen the pigeons being fed by a man as I stood at the bus/streetcar stop just a few steps to the right, out of this photo. On this particular day, I happened to discover that the man feeding them came out of the office at this used car lot. See several photos on this topic, below.
 

The evening of March 23, on my way home after the members' party at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center which is south of here, imagine my surprise when I saw this sight  from the bus shelter on East Burnside. No used cars beneath the roof, just a few left at the back edge of the lot, far from the street. When had someone moved the cars? Why? A quick Google revealed no online evidence of going out of business connected with this business. A mystery.
 

Here's a photo that I took on March 29, trying to capture the vast emptiness of the lot. I like that the Big Pink towers in the background, several blocks past the other end of the Burnside Bridge, less than a mile from where I stood to take this photo.



Back to the pigeons and their movement. The original billboard, pigeons perched, taken on January 26. 
 

The pigeons take flight because the man who feeds them has come out of the office and is walking west, to feed them across MLK, just south of the bus/streetcar shelter where I had seen once while I waited to transfer from one bus to the other. Can you see him? He's towards the bottom left corner of this closely cropped photo, smack dab between two poles. 



Once he's tossed all of the bird food onto the sidewalk, the man crosses the street and goes back to the office. The pigeons ignore his movement, way more interested in eating  than in following him. I suppose the actions of these pigeons prove that they are capable of learning. 
 

The original billboard, minus the pigeons along its top edge--they're over to the right on the utility wires. I bet they're wondering what's happened to the man who used to come out of that yellow structure with the blue roof, carrying an orange bucket of bird food for them. 



Another surprise. The new billboard, photographed on April 2. One pigeon perched.