UPDATE and a quick bit of fall foliage, well the beginning of it on these particular trees

UPDATE: Felt like myself until 1 p.m., then the fatigue came back, making me out of breath after walking 12-15 feet. I have places to rest no matter where I am, be it a bench or a chair, a wall or a post. In other words, I make it. I continue to make it.



This morning I transferred from the 12 to the 4 at the shelter downtown at SW Pine and SW 5th. Sitting in one of the seats, I noticed this autumn-leaves-tipped trees and zoomed in for this photo. When I uploaded it to Flickr, I saw that I have one of my favorite things in the photo, too, what I call a street-level-matching-accessory--the orangey bronze Honda parked on SW 5th. Love it! You'll find lots of leaves that it's color matches very well. Plus, y'all, take a look at the bricks on the sidewall of the service station. Orangey! Double SLMA!

Rainy autumn in my neighborhood, No. 6

On Halloween, I took the photo of the street that runs beside my apartment building through the windshield of my Zipcar. I was stopped at the intersection, nothing dangerous going on with the camera and the car. The other three photos are ones that I had taken last Sunday on my short walk.

Never expected to see this among the autumn leaves.

On Halloween after I had parked my Zipcar where it lives over on SE Ankeny at SE 20th, I did a walk around, checking it out before walking home. As I stepped up onto the curve, look what caught my eye. Someone's lost Zipcard had been found and carefully placed so as to be seen.

Gosh, I hope that person who lost it comes back to get it. One cannot open your reserved Zipcar without one's Zipcard. You must place the card on the card reader at the top left of the windshield to unlock the door and start your reservation's clock ticking. When I'm out and about in a Zipcar, I continually reaffirm the location of my card.

And guess what extra benefit I got with my card on Wednesday? I drove to the downtown Zipcar office, parked in front of the Multnomah County Central Library next door, walked into the office and showed my card to get $10 driving credit. All because I had a Halloween headband on my head, complete with a couple of bats on springs. Way cool, Zipcar. Thanks!

Finally, I have to say that I love this space because beside the two parking spaces where two Zipcars live, you find at least one bike rack--notice the back tire on the right side of the photo. And one block north on East Burnside, you find on diagonal corners bus stops for the 20. Alternative modes of transportation abound!

Rainy autumn in my neighborhood, No. 3

When I decided to take a short walk Sunday afternoon, I couldn't hear any rain from inside my apartment, nor could I see any falling when I looked out the window, so I walked from my front door and across the hallway to the building's side door in my Crocs and socks. All it took to hear the rain was to open that side door. Went right back to my apartment for my rain boots, pulled the hood on my raincoat up over my cloth hat and walked on outside into a shiny, colorful wonderland of autumn leaves.

Rainy autumn in my neighborhood, No. 2

Friday a week ago, the day that my brother arrived in Portland for his visit, we walked from the bus to the apartment; we'd had a full afternoon out and about in Portland, either on mass transit--MAX, bus, and Portland Streetcar--or on foot. As you can tell from the amount of water trapped at this corner, it had been raining hard earlier. In fact, the two of us got soaked walking from the Oregon Rail Heritage Center to the Portland Streetcar stop. Everywhere we went, we managed to avoid puddles in our path.

As we approached and I noticed this man engaged in a regularly occurring autumn activity here in Portland, I grabbed my camera from inside my raincoat and took a few photos. I didn't realize I had the bicycle in the shot until I had downloaded them to the iMac. Yea!



The bicyclist made it through the puddle, while the man with the rake diligently continued his work. We crossed the street out of view to the left where there was good drainage, avoiding our final puddle of the day.

Rainy autumn in my neighborhood, No. 1

Near my apartment this afternoon, water stands at the junction of a sloped driveway and a street. Brightly colored leaves float in the water until wet through and through--then they sink.