UPDATE and what I saw from the bus window on the way home from work

UPDATE: All day Tuesday I was a tad less exhausted--hooray! I slept fine last night and look forward to Wednesday going as well as Tuesday. I'd like that a whole lot. Thanks for your continued prayers, love, and concern.



Yesterday afternoon I missed the connection to the streetcar, so I took a 4 bus downtown and connected quickly with a 19 for the rest of the ride home. I got the first seat on the left as you enter the bus, one of my favorite seats because I can easily look out several windows. I noticed this new mural on SW 6th across from the Big Pink and the MAX stop. Excited to get a photo through the bus windshield! I figured it would be enough to look for it online to find out if it's one of 2015's Forest for the Trees murals, painted in August. Lo and behold, it is! Here's it's hashtag and its artists: #221SW6th BY SPENCER KEETON CUNNINGHAM, JAQUE FRAGUA as found on FFTT's Web site.

Also, here's a bit about FFTT from their Web site: Established in 2013, Forest For The Trees is a non-profit project dedicated to the creation of contemporary public art in Portland. The festival brings together local and international artists in a collaborative setting and provides them with the freedom and resources to create artworks in environments that are freely accessible to the local community.



Next, while we waited at the traffic signal at West Burnside and SW 4th, I could see this through the window across the bus from where I sat. I managed to zoom in quickly before the light changed--hooray! This lion is one of two at the China Gate entrance to China Town in Northwest Portland.




One final shot through that window, a quick one, of a section toward the top of the China Gate. Here's a bit about the area that I found online: Portland's Chinatown is the old area of town north of Downtown proper and just west of Old Town/Skidmore, although the lines between Chinatown, Old Town, and Downtown blur in reality and are somewhat arbitrary as the areas are all essentially "downtown" in character and location. The most obvious distinction is Burnside, the great north-south divider of Portland, which clearly separates Chinatown from Downtown proper.

Finally! A shot I've wanted to get!

Several times I've glimpsed this wall in Old Town Chinatown when I've been on the 17 bus, headed home after work. Needless to say, curiosity bit me pretty hard.

Saturday in the Buick, stopped at a traffic signal, I saw it again. "Oh, boy! I've been wanting to take this photo. I wonder why these two limos are here?" Click. After taking the photo, I continued around the corner, revealing the front of the building and the answer to my question.

Flexcar is not a car that bends in the middle.

Just last week I took these photos, one of the sign that designates the parking space for a Flexcar and one of the Flexcar itself, in the area known as Old Town Chinatown. Then on Saturday I found the Fall/Winter 2007-08 NW Portland Business Guide in our mailbox and read that Flexcar has over 200 vehicles in Portland, with around 60 in the Northwest. That explains why I've noticed more and more evidence of the car-sharing company in our neighborhood in the Northwest Hills.

Since I first became aware of Flexcar last summer, I've thought that someday in the far off future when our '96 Buick Lesabre kicks the bucket, it's Flexcar for Mama and me. I don't think I've sold her on it, yet. Do you have any experience with car-sharing? Preferably positive, of course.