Seen outside near the building with the mural, yesterday's post

After I noticed that mural and took those photos, I decided to sit down on the bench nearby so that I could look at the photos to see if I had some good ones. That's when I notice the words on the bench. I tried to hold my phone up high, parallel with the bench and take a photo without wiggling around and ruining the focus.

I think it turned out pretty good. I cropped and changed it to HDR at Befunky so that you could see what had been penciled in beneath the painted on message.

Seen at Overlook Park

Today I rode the 12 bus and the MAX Yellow Line train to a Kaiser Permanente seminar, Thrive with Cancer. I made certain to get there early, just in case there was a Steel Bridge lift at some point during my trip. With time to spare, I sat down at a landscaped area in front of one of the Kaiser buildings--azalea bushes, other shrubs and plants, plus benches and picnic tables make the site inviting. As I looked around, these limbs visible beneath the greenery on that tree across the street caught my eye. The railings, post and attached chains are part of the pedestrian barricades alongside tracks at the stop for the MAX Yellow Line.

My morning commute bus stop. Hallelujah, it is not like this every winter day.

On Saturday I bundled up, put on my rubber boots with the YakTrax attached and went out for an around-the-block-slowly walk. I took several photos and made 19 videos, ranging in length from 1:26 to 20 seconds. I believe this is the best photo to show you the way it was snowing right then. Taken February 8 at 10:41 a.m.
 

Almost the same shot, taken Thursday, February 6 at 5:24 p.m. I had finally made it home after a couple of hours, well almost home. I had about 600 feet to go. Whew. On top of the shelter, notice the difference in the amount of snow.

For some reason, this photo will not stick to the Blogger page. Sorry. I've tried various sizes, over and over. 

Finally, inside the bus shelter on Friday morning, February 7 at 6:36 a.m. Notice the difference in the amount of snow here on the sidewalk, about 12 hours after the second photo in this post. Usually I stand up at the bus shelter, especially in the morning. However, last Friday I had no idea how long it would be before a bus came, so I wanted to sit. I did not expect snow to have completely covered both sections of the bench. What to do? I remembered that Thursday the Portland Tribune street box was always filled, so I looked inside. Although snow had blown into the box, I grabbed three dry newspapers from the middle of the stack and spread them carefully on the bench. I sat down, quite pleased with myself. Then I stood up to take this photo which I posted to Facebook. In a few minutes the bus came, I got own, happy to get a seat because it was packed. A couple of blocks away, I realized I just may have been a dummy because I did not pick up and shake the snow off those Portland Tribunes and bring them with me. What if I needed them at the next shelter where I transfer to the second of the two buses that make up my commute? Luckily, when I arrived at that next shelter, it had been shoveled and all that was left on the bench was a bit of ice, so I tucked my raincoat beneath me and sat right down. I looked to my left and saw the bus! Yea! The snowy morning commute neared its end.

First visit to Disneyland! Day One, Post No. 7

After we learned that the Monorail was down, we knew we'd have to walk back to the gates to Disneyland. On the way we stopped to look at this store window which we had noticed the day before--so many different styles of Mickey Mouse ears. In another window of the huge store I saw a T-shirt, one that I really wanted to take a closer look at. The three of us ended up wondering around in the store, the World of Disney, for so long that it got dark. Tired feet, never found the T-shirt. Couldn't find Sharon and/or Jenna. So, I headed for this smooth, low wall, decorated with a scroll shadow. A few minutes there and I was ready to go again, especially when Sharon and Jenna found me. Our ticket allowed us back inside Disneyland itself because we followed their security guidelines. I cannot remember for sure, but I think before we entered the first time that morning, we signed the back of our tickets and showed our photo ID. And we had our photo taken, too, so that there would be a photo of each of us associated with our tickets. And at some point we had the back of our left hand stamped--I think it was when we got off the Monorail and walked out into Downtown Disney. I felt pretty good about the security, and I heard someone talking with the handsome Estaban (while I waited to ask him my question) about having lost a ticket which had been found and all would be well very soon. Those folks at Disneyland thrive on first-class customer service. Number of visitors to Disneyland in the 50 years that it has been open: over 650 million. Number of photos taken here beside Mickey Mouse in flowers with the Disneyland Railroad Depot in the background: easily over 650 million, especially now that most folks either use their phones or their digital cameras which make it so easy to take more than one shot until you get the perfect one. I took this photo at 6:09 p.m. on my first day, ever, at Disneyland. Once we walked back inside and made our way around to the front of the railroad station, I cannot remember where Sharon and Jenna walked, but I stayed on the sidewalk, thinking to myself, "I do believe it is just about time for the night-time version of the Mickey's Soundsational Parade." I remembered reading on the park map that it was supposed to start at 6:30 p.m. I turned to my left, saw a bunch of empty benches just outside the station's entrance, up a few steps and right at the center of the view down Main Street USA. Oh, boy, I thought. Seats for the parade! Well, those seats were roped off for I-know-not-whom. However, just to the right of them, I spied a half an empty two-section bench! I asked the man who sat there with a lady, "Is this saved?" He replies, "Yes, for you!" Yea! Sharon and Jenna came back soon and sat to my left and before too long, the parade began. I took this photo with my iPhone 5 when I realized that I had better check-in on Facebook before Mickey Mouse got too far past me. Was I ever happy to be sitting on that bench at 6:41 p.m.! So cool. So exciting. So real. Remember when I said that the fact that the parade was going left to right in that photo yesterday would turn out to be beneficial? Here's what I meant. Every single element of the parade went from a gate where we were that afternoon by It's A Small World all the way to Main Street USA and out another gate to the right of the Disneyland Railroad Depot, where we were for the start of the night time parade! I'm not sure how that got turned around, reordered so that first was first again and ready for that start--I've looked at the Google Map image of that area and wonder if every single element turned into a building that looks huge on the image. I probably will never know, but I don't care. It's part of the magic that is Disneyland! I'll have parade photos tomorrow and a bit about where we ate our second meal of the day soon--thought I'd get to it in this post, but I'm out of energy. Gotta get to bed, y'all.

I found a note about found objects--all due to Good Samaritan serendipity.

Saturday I got off the MAX Red Line at the wrong place in downtown Portland and ended up catching a Blue Line so that I could then catch a Green Line to make it closer to my ultimate destination, the Park Blocks in front of the Portland Art Museum. More about that tomorrow. If I had not made that mistake, I would have missed this amazing note, taped to one of the benches at the MAX shelter.


The wide shot of the bench, altered in Picnik to zoom in on the note.

Sidewalk Session No. 1

To set the stage for this series of photos/events that I've decided to call a Sidewalk Session, here's a photo I took as I walked from the streetcar towards Kenny and Zuke's where I planned to eat supper. See the silver car's brake lights? There to its right you see a bicycle chained to a barricade. And there's a shiny metal metal sculpture on the corner; it's got three legs. I wish the car had not been there because you could see the bench where I sat later. When I took this photo, I had no idea what would happen on the sidewalk. Well, I suppose I ought to say what might have happened. Was the threatening sky a portent of things to come?


After finishing supper, I walked to the intersection seen in the top photo where I sat down on the bench to wait for the bus. I was on West Burnside, across the street from Powell's Books. The narrow blue pole with the signs is the bus stop. Naturally, I had my camera around my neck. I took this photo and felt someone closing up behind me. I didn't turn to see who it was, but I did hold my camera so nothing on the view screen could be seen from over my shoulder.


I heard the rumble of a motorcycle. When I glanced to my left, I saw a bit of yellow and wondered if this could be the motorcycle that Mama and I used to hear rumble by our apartment over on NW Everett--a few times we actually happened to be looking out the window and saw it. It certainly sounded like the same one, a distinctive, deep-throated, rhythmic rumble which its rider coaxed from the engine. I took this photo, and the person behind me sat down at the opposite end of the bench. Once again, I didn't actually look. As I glanced peripherally, I felt that I had seen her at another time. She just sat there, picking up a discarded newspaper from the seat.


I looked to my right, behind her, and noticed the intersection. I thought I could get a good perspective between the legs of the sculpture on the corner (more about it in another post), so I stood up and walked behind the bench, past where she sat. Here's the one of the first few photos I took. The woman on the bench heard the camera or turned and saw me taking photos. I don't know which. All I know for sure is she started to speak loud enough for me to hear, something along the lines of "Stop taking "profanity" pictures!" I quietly and slowly moved farther away from the bench, never looking back.


Here's the last photo I took before I stepped closer to the actual bus stop. In a moment, the bus pulled to a stop. I got on and sat facing the bench, wondering if she would follow.


When she didn't, I took this photo, hoping she would not notice. I have used Picnik to blur her features, not only to hide her identity, but also to protect myself in some fashion.