UPDATE and a decision being made at Dutch Bros, corner of SE Grand and SE Belmont

--> UPDATE: Made it to work, worked four hours, made it home from work. Very tired after work. Stopped at the Blue Diamond for a great deli sandwich and salt-less tater tots--I only ate half of it, the rest is in frig for tomorrow. I'm watching Mets v Dodgers on TV now. When I finish this post, I'll head for the recliner. I don't work again until Monday, but I will figure out some walking opportunities the next three days, for sure. Thanks for your continued prayers, love, and concern!



After work today I took two photos through the Portland Streetcar window as we waited at a traffic signal. I captured a slice of life. This Dutch Bros coffee stand stays busy, drive through window opposite side of it from this walk up window. The man in the doorway works there and stepped part-way out as his opinion on what to drink is needed. The first man in line asked; maybe the second man in line is gaining info, too--that's what his body language says to me.



The girl  with the white and blue braid (Elsa, anyone?) stepping through the door behind the guy helping the customers carried a tray filled with something I didn't get a good enough look at to decide what it was other than small and light enough that she easily carried a sort of bread loaf tray like you see at bakery outlet stores filled with whatever it was. Maybe bags of flavored coffees or flavorings to add to base coffee choices? I have no idea--I don't drink coffee. Anyway, by the body language of the two men in line, I believe they've both made a selection and are happily either telling the guy or are about to tell the guy. Slice of life, y'all, reflections and all.

UPDATE and a lamp post detail in need of some TLC

UPDATE: I made it better going to and from work. In fact, I went on an after-work field trip in search of fried chicken by catching a bus across the street from work--it let me out in the same block as my destination, then I caught one later on right across the street that took me downtown a little over a block from where I caught my last bus of the homeward commute. I found a fried chicken breast on the side at Pine State Biscuits, as well as a biscuit with butter and strawberry jam. It satisfied my craving but wasn't really what I was looking for--I'll have to keep looking around Portland for it 'cause I'm not gonna be cooking it myownself. After I got near home, I stopped by the Blue Diamond to visit a while and was there long enough to get hungry again, about four and a half hours after the chicken. So, I decided to see if I could satisfy another craving I've been having, for a steak. I ate almost all of a tasty small sirloin strip steak, nice-sized baked potato and a side salad. I haven't done anything like this is weeks. I walked on home and don't feel sleepy yet which is good since it's just after 8 p.m. I'll be walking in the building's hallway over the weekend and on Monday. Thanks for your continued prayers, love, and concern. Y'all mean so much to me!



Earlier this week I noticed this when the streetcar stopped to pick up or drop off. I thought it certainly worthy of a photo to share with you.



Here's a bit of a wider shot.



And one still wider which also includes the sign for the business on the corner. I hope you've enjoyed these three photos on the blog today.

UPDATE and if I were to need floor coverings, I'd include this business in my search

UPDATE: Well, I can tell you one thing for certain-sure. Even with chemo-induced fatigue, you need to get up and walk as often as you are able to make yourself because you won't do your so-called stamina any good otherwise. I found out for sure on my way to work and on my way home. Since the chemo last Thursday, I've taken a lot of naps, slept all night every night, but not walked much. I made it today, there and back, but I could tell right away that I should've been making myself walk in the hallway of my building, if not outside because some days it was in the 80s out there. Now, I'm smarter than ever, y'all, because I'm learning from my own experience. Thanks again for every single prayer, for you love, and for your concern!



Today on the way home, the first leg of the commute, I rode the Portland Streetcar north on SE Grand until I arrived at East Burnside where I got off and transferred to a 19 bus. While riding along on the streetcar, I took a few photos out the fabulously large windows. I decided, when I looked at this photo of Paulson's Floor Coverings that, if I were to ever own a house again--which will only happen if I win a big ol' lottery, y'all, and it won't be a house, it will be a building with a parking garage in the basement--that I'd have no qualms shopping here. Look how neat the building and parking lot look. Wouldn't you find that inviting? There used to be a Paulson's on NE Sandy so I'm familiar with their multi-colored sign which was on top of that store. I consider it to be mid-century in design--they've been in business since 1921, so it might be something introduced in the 1950s. What do you think? When the store on Sandy closed, I wondered where it would end up, if anywhere. Lo and behold, on my home bound commute, if I am able to catch the streetcar in a timely fashion.



By the way, here's the sign on the store on Sandy, painted over unimaginatively by the tenant at the time I took the photo, March 22, 2014. I haven't been by there lately, but whenever I do get close enough to take a photo, I hope it's been revived somehow, at least with some bright colors, for goodness sakes!

UPDATE and a few random photos to share with y'all

UPDATE: Made it OK today despite being somewhat exhausted. I have places where I am able to rest, thank goodness. Not that resting builds up stamina, it just allows me to get from A to B. I am grateful for that, let me tell you. I slept all night, another thing for which I am grateful.



The sky over the West Hills, seen from the rooftop garden at work, yesterday morning while I rested before my work began. Lovely.



Another Forest for the Trees 2015 mural, seen from the Portland Streetcar on the way home last Thursday. The building faces 524 SE Ash, but the mural faces SE Grand Avenue. Here's the hash tag for it, #524SEAsh. The artist is Jade Rivera.



Today after work when I rode by on the streetcar, I saw another mural right beside this one which is listed on the FFTT Web site as being on a building with the address of 525 SE Pine Street--Pine and Ash are a block apart. I hope to get a photo of the entire mural soon, but it may be difficult since there is a shorter building that abuts it that faces SE Grand, making it difficult to see unless you're making an effort to do so. In fact, in this wide shot of #524SEAsh that I took last Thursday, you can see the left-most section of the other mural. If I end up frustrated with my effort, Leland has said that we'll ride around in his car some time soon and take photos of FFTT from 2015 and 2014, maybe even 2013. Sweet! Depending upon where we stand to try to get a photo of this one, though, I may have to have Leland take mine for me--I'm currently just a bit taller than 5'2" while Leland's right at 6'which means he'll have a much better chance at a photo.



By the way, here's the streetcar I rode last Thursday. I enjoy it very much, mainly because the windows are huge, and it doesn't go too fast so you are able to look and look. Plus, one of these days I'll have the stamina to ride it all the way around Portland, from the Central Eastside over to Downtown then the South Waterfront and back! I just might get off here and there and take photos and then get on the next streetcar to continue making the loop. You should come to Portland and ride with me, sometime in 2016!

UPDATE and Portland's newest bridge over the Willamette

UPDATE: The appointment went fine with Dr. Da Graca. We talked about the fatigue side effect and how it is having more of an impact than it did between the other rounds of chemo. We've got a plan in effect which I will share later on this week; suffice it to say that I am pleased with what he decided. I got home, ate my leftovers and am headed to the recliner in a little bit. I hope that I am able to stay awake for all of Dancing With the Stars, but, if I don't, no skin off my nose. Thank you for your continued prayers, love, and concern.



I got to my work building early this morning so that I could rest a while before starting work. I sat outside on the rooftop garden for a few minutes and took a few photos of the Tilikum Crossing Bridge. I have yet to ride over it, but once I get back some stamina, I'll be riding over it on either the TriMet MAX Orange Line or the Portland Streetcar. I'm excited at the prospect!

Here's some info about the bridge that I'd like to share with you: Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People is a cable-stayed bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. It was designed by TriMet, the Portland metropolitan area's regional transit authority, for its MAX Orange Line light rail passenger trains. The bridge also serves city buses and the Portland Streetcar, as well as bicycles, pedestrians, and emergency vehicles. Private cars and trucks are not permitted on the bridge.

Construction was begun in 2011, and the bridge was officially opened on September 12, 2015. In homage to Native American civilizations, the bridge was named with the local Chinook word for people.

Tilikum Crossing has its western terminus in the city's South Waterfront area, and stretches across the river to the Central Eastside district. In the 21st century, these two industrial zones have been evolving into mixed residential and commercial neighborhoods, and new transit accommodations are required by the growing populations. Both districts, however, are limited by antiquated road infrastructure that was deemed incapable of handling the increased traffic that could be expected from a conventional automobile bridge. The primary rationale for the bridge was thus "first and foremost as a conduit for a light-rail line."

The bridge is south of, and approximately parallel to, the Marquam Bridge. The west "landing" is mid-way between the Marquam and Ross Island Bridges, and the east landing is just north of Southeast Caruthers Street, with the east approach viaduct reaching the surface at the west end of Sherman Street, which the tracks follow to a new Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) MAX station located near an existing Portland Streetcar station and the Oregon Rail Heritage Center.



I cropped one of the photos so that you could see this MAX light-rail train, the MAX Orange Line, as it heads east--look toward the bottom of the photo at the right edge. The yellow truck you see above the MAX is on the Ross Island Bridge which is south of the Tilikum Crossing Bridge. The blurry bar across the photo is the guard rail around the rooftop garden at my work building.

The crossing opened for general use on September 12, 2015, becoming the first new bridge built across the river in the Portland metropolitan area since 1973. The first public access to the bridge was given on August 9, 2015, in the morning for the 20th annual Providence Bridge Pedal and in the afternoon with a three-hour period in which the bridge was open to everyone.

UPDATE and a look back

UPDATE: Slept until 5 a.m. and have been awake all day, tired but not as exhausted as other times lately. Achy knees are back and peripheral neuropathy. I hope that I will be able to sleep tonight with all of this aching and humming/buzzing going on from my knees down. There's some in my right hand, too. We'll see. No nausea, thanks to the anti-nausea meds. I haven't had much of an appetite today, but I've made myself eat, not too much, but eat. All's well with the other bodily function, too. Leland came over today; I think he'll be back tomorrow to go to Fred Meyer for me. Lamont's coming over tomorrow, too. I am thankful for these sons of mine and for all of your continued prayers, love, and concern.



I took this photo on September 15, 2012. 3S Consulting LLC, chemistry demo, as seen at the Portland Mini Maker Faire. I had been attracted to this booth because I noticed the man's old Aladdin Thermos, just like the one that my dearly departed husband LeRoy used to have. Then I started watching and listening. By the time the man asked, "Does anyone want to strike a match?" I hollered, "Leland does!" My son stepped right up and followed directions as his brother Lamont, in the solid red T-shirt and the sunglasses, looked on and I took photographs which turned out well, despite the loud pop.

Straight out of the camera, cropped only. Here's Leland holding the bottle in which something just ignited. Leland and I remember it as oxygen and hydrogen. I know you don't have any trouble understanding just how excited I was to see this photo of the explosion and the flame inside the bottle, as well as flying out the neck of the bottle. So was the man in the booth, wearing the red shirt and holding the match.

I'm revisiting this photo because, if I were well enough, I would've said, "Let's go, guys!" to the 2015 Portland Mini Maker Faire today; we'd have ridden there for free on TriMet and the Portland Streetcar, a special perk connected to the opening of the TriMet Orange Line and the brand new Tilikum Crossing Bridge. Alas, chemo and side effects made other plans for us. However, back then, those two sons of mine agreed instantly when I said, "Let's go!"

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.

Public Art - a vivid mural on the corner of NE Grand Avenue and NE Broadway Street

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.



I took this photo on Saturday, April 27, while waiting for the Portland Streetcar so that I could go to the Farmers Market at Portland State--I decided to take the scenic route on it instead of a couple of buses. I got off the streetcar for a quick stop at Walgreens, looking for a wristwatch. They don't sell wristwatches at Walgreens! Gosh! Anyway, while I waited for the next streetcar, I finally got to take a photo of this mural. Next time maybe I'll have enough time to walk across the street and try to get one without parked vehicles covering up a bit of the lower border.

Naturally I'm curious about the subject of the mural, so I went Googling.

Found on another photographer's Flickr: Sponsors of this mural are the Portland-Mutare Sister City Association and Africa Aids Response. It was hand painted by the people of Portland in 2007. It is located at NE 6th & Broadway.

Also found on the Internet:

• Hope is Vital, 2007 Artworks: Mural (painted) 
•  Artists Matt Bellingham, Heidi Schultz 
• Collection City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection courtesy of the Regional Arts & Culture Council Materials 
• Latex paint on concrete 
• Dates: Installed, 2007 
• Description: This mural's purpose is to create global solidarity and educate the Portland community about Portland's sister city, Mutare, Zimbabwe, and humanitarian efforts there. Underneath the inspiring message, "Hope is Vital," the sun shines on a yellow medical clinic Portland helped build for its sister city. In a show of support, persons from both Portland and Mutare hold hands, dance, and drum to celebrate life, above the text "it takes a planet to save a village."

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

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.



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!

Streets at Night, February 26, 2013, intersection of Burnside and 10th

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.



When I walked from Kenny & Zuke's back to West Burnside to wait for the bus, the Sizzle Pie lighted letters tempted me into stopping for a photo. Across West Burnside from it, you can see the Doc Martens, store. The tracks in the street, shining in the foreground of the photo, serve the Portland Streetcar. Since it wasn't cold or raining and I had 12 minutes to wait for the 20 bus just to get to the stop at SW 4th and West Burnside where I would need to transfer to the 12 or the 19, whichever arrived first, I decided to walk the six blocks. All of the books I'd bought earlier at Powell's Books fit into my backpack, so the walk was nothing but interesting--photography-wise. More coming soon.

Seen outside the Oregon Rail Heritage Center

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.



Saturday, February 16, I enjoyed visiting the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, going in through the front door, a regular-sized-people-use-door, through the building with gigantic steam locomotives on each side of me (more photos soon), and out the back doors which are huge because the locomotives use them! 

Out back I finally got a photo that I've been wanting to take since last September. Here's the Portland Streetcar crossing over the whole area on the bridge built especially for it. That streetcar was made at United Streetcar which is in Clackamas, Oregon, southeast of downtown. United Streetcar is a subsidiary of Oregon Iron Works. On the tracks in front of me, the Nickel Plate Road 324 switcher, not operating at this moment, so I'm completely safe. To the left, those ramps are part of the Marquam Bridge, I-5 north and south. The buildings in the distance are in downtown Portland.

An intersection which I frequent

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.



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. 

Seen from the Portland Streetcar

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.



I'm in the streetcar on a bridge that goes over the railroad tracks, taking this photo through the huge window. The slanted-roof white building is the Oregon Rail Heritage Center. The orange vintage rail cars are part of its collection. Inside that building stand three gorgeous, huge, unbelievable, vintage steam locomotives--seems like there are other vintage railroad pieces in there, too, not as large but still impressive, but I can't remember exactly what they are or how many. Anyway, it's a great place to visit for anyone who loves trains and/or steam locomotives. Only thing was, on this particular day, I got there 45 minutes early and couldn't wait around--cold, brisk wind and no nearby public bathroom. Anyway, I'm ahead of myself in relating those two facts--more about what I did when I first got off the streetcar in an upcoming post or two.

I really like this photo, all of the lines and angles, the slightly curved bridge known as the MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) Viaduct. I love how the oranges and reds on the vintage rail cars match the oranges and reds on the triangle flag barrier strung on a fence parallel with the vintage rail cars--it also has yellow triangle flags on it. Both the rail cars and the flag barrier match the word BETTER printed on a billboard there on the right edge of the photo. When I looked the image in its largest original size, I could see that those yellow letters spell BETTER BUTTER, so that means the ad is for a product I assume to be known as Better Butter Better--the yellow letters look like their top layer was the same red-orange as the last word, and that top layer has been peeled off those two words, all except for the bottom bit of the right leg of the R. 

Taking photos and then checking them out thoroughly is so much fun! I altered this one at BeFunky with the enhance, sharpen, fill light, and HDR effects and at PicMonkey with the contrast and highlight effects.

Seen from the Portland Streetcar

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.



Public art #1, wide shot from MLK, looking east at the recently installed public art on the corners of SE Grand and SE Hawthorne--to the right--and SE Grand and SE Madison--to the left. The art is the brown metal structures through which you can see the sky.



Public art #2, close up of public art at SE Grand and SE Hawthorne, seen from MLK. It's supposed to make the viewer think of a building which used to stand here.



Public art #3, close up of public art at SE Grand and SE Madison, seen from MLK. I have to admit that I find the public art in Portland rewarding, and this new one very near where I work has grown on me until I now enjoy looking at it from all sides. What you're seeing in these photos is the public art at Hawthorne Boulevard. See below what I found on the Internet about it.

Information found about this public art online:

Inversion: Plus Minus (below) is a set of towering site-specific sculptures created by artists/architects Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo of Lead Pencil Studio. Using weathered steel angle iron, the artists are presenting “ghosts” of former buildings at two similar sites along SE Grand Avenue. One site, at Hawthorne Boulevard, will feature a matrix of metal that almost appears as a solid building. . . . In the artists’ words, “The sculptures reference the outer shells of ordinary industrial buildings found in the Central Eastside Industrial Area like those that once existed on the project sites.”

A shared mass transit stop on SE MLK

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.




January 26 after the lecture at the Architectural Heritage Center, I decided to ride the Portland Streetcar down to the Oregon Rail Heritage Center to visit the steam locomotives. As you can see from this photo, the streetcar and the TriMet bus share this stop. That's the Morrison Bridge westbound approach you see there above the streetcar.





I waited while this lady boarded the bus. I think it's fantastic how that little ramp automatically folds out of the bus floor once the driver activates it. Once the bus drove off, the streetcar moved into place beside the yellow strip of ADA truncated domes which serve as a detectable safety zone, a system of textured ground surface indicators which assist blind and vision impaired pedestrians. Personally, I find them helpful, too, especially when it's been raining. I feel like they're less slick than a wet sidewalk. Anyway, the doors on the streetcar slid open and I walked on, took a seat and looked out the huge windows as we continued southward are MLK, going underneath the eastbound exit ramp of the Morrison Bridge. I love mass transit!