UPDATE - Woke up way too early. I'm about to take my first nap of the day, y'all.

--> UPDATE:

Made it through all that went on yesterday without any problems. Got my ride to the hospital for the chemo port placement--thanks to a sweet friend. The doctor who placed it was the same guy who did my needle biopsy on June 17. I really like that guy! And his crew was top-knotch!

I will be able to take off the bandages over the two incisions tomorrow. So far, I have had no pain associated with either incision, although I have no desire to lie on my right side in bed, nor do I want to do jumping jacks or reach too high, period.

Still no nausea, taste alterations, and thankfully less peripheral neuropathy. Thank you for your continued prayers, love and concern.



I fell asleep between 10-10:30 p.m. Woke up at 2:45 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. So, by 4:52 a.m. I had eaten some oatmeal and prunes and finished off several ounces of water. I decided to go outside since the sun had not yet come up. I checked the temperature on my phone--59 degrees. Wow. I put on my Mickey Mouse sweatshirt jacket, zipped it up, pulled up the hood and walked out the building's front door. At the end of our sidewalk, I could hear the sprinklers to the south doing their thing. They cut off within a minute or two, and then the ones to the north cut on. So, I walked down the still dry front steps and across the street to the front yard at Albertina Kerr's. I sat on the bench for a few minutes because I heard the sprays of water begin to hit the banana tree leaves which are right up against our sidewalk and its steps. I knew I needed to wait for silence before walking back inside my building. When I got across the street once all was quiet, I saw this image and knew that I had to photograph it and share it with y'all. Who in the world wouldn't want to call this building home?

Taking steps, out and about inside my building - I live in a studio which is absolutely perfect for me, space-wise and location-wise.

I'm standing on the level of my front door, around the corner from it--this loop in the hallway is 67 of my steps around. I could take the steps down to the vestibule seen through that closed door or up to the second floor landing. I knew yesterday that it's time to take a walk up those stairs. Right at my fingertips, well, at my feet, the perfect way to get moving more and more on this road to recovery from surgery a week ago yesterday! To put some variety in my work out, complete with the safety of a handrail.



Ever curious, I decided to find online a diagram of wooden staircase parts so that I would know the exact name of what my hand grasped, of where my feet landed. I like a sturdy handrail connected to well-installed balusters. To tell you the truth, my all-time-fantasy hiking trail in the outdoors would come with just such a set up. I believe that my fear of heights would be negated as I held onto such a handrail.



Here's a direct look up the eleven treads in this riser, counting the landing at the top as eleven. Is that the way you count, officially as a carpenter? It's how I count as a walker.



At the top I turned left, looked out through the screen and took this photo. You can see the tile roof on the building's entrance, there to the right. The windows on the lower level on the left are mine! I have a total of eight, four in each room.



The first three you see are part of the four that make up the bonus room's outer wall--my twin bed, a narrow storage unit; a waist-high,long, narrow bookcase; and a chest of drawers are in there, too. This is a photo I took of the bonus room that first day, checking out the apartment. FYI, that silver vehicle across the street is the one whose alarm went off yesterday from approximately 3:30 p.m. until 5:09 p.m. when it ceased. Hallelujah!



There is an extra-wide opening with no door straight across from my bed which opens into my kitchen. I've gotten used to sleeping through the occasional refrigerator gurgle and/or electronic whir. Here you are looking through that opening and out the windows. You can see the building's entrance and the gutter. When we get a lot of rain, it sounds like I'm sleeping behind a waterfall. I love it!



In that photo taken from the upstairs landing, the one window you see at the start of the bow-window area is the first of the four in the living room. There is a bit of wall in between first one and the center two. That bit of wall is repeated between those center two and the fourth one at the opposite end of the bow. These windows grabbed hold of me when I first walked through the apartment's front door, sunshine streaming onto the hardwood floors. This is a photo of the center two windows and the fourth one--I took it on that same day when I first saw what turned out to be my new home.

Mama and Duncan, back in the day.

One of my favorite photos of my little Mama and Duncan, the darlin' dachshund. I took it July 1, 2007. We'd been in Portland since, June, 2006, and lived in the Presidential Court Apartments at NW 22nd and NW Everett since October, 2006. Our first apartment, in Southeast Portland, had sold in September, 2006, to be converted into condos. Not what we wanted, period. We lucked out and found this great place where we lived until Mama died in January, 2011; Duncan preceded her in June, 2010. They're out for a walk, as you can tell. Mama's a responsible dog owner, as you can see. Love those two so very much and still miss them to this day. Thank goodness for my camera and all of the chances that I got to take photos of them!

That's our building they're walking towards, with the trimmed green hedges alongside NW 22nd Avenue. We lived on the top floor, the fourth floor, in the corner apartment that looks down onto the intersection of NW 22nd and NW Everett. All three of us thoroughly enjoyed our lives in that apartment. I drove by in the last few months and noticed that all of the hedges are gone, replaced by wimpy looking, sparsely placed cedars, I'm guessing, with some sort of shorter bush in between them. I'll show you other landscaping that is gone in an upcoming post. I'm partial to the way it was.

Sunny Saturday! Been to a lecture and walked around taking photos. About to go out again into the sunshine, just as soon as I get this posted!

Walking from The Circuit Bouldering gym just of NE Sandy at NE 18th, on my way home today at 12:46 p.m. I had stopped for a few minutes to visit with Lamont and Leland who were in there bouldering. Lucky for me, they had a few minutes to stop climbing and visit with their little ol' Mom! Lucky for me also to get this photo of the two buses that I ride home from work--the 12 and the 19. That's my usual stop that the 19 is at--it's named NE Sandy and NE Flanders. The 12 is at the traffic signal at NE Sandy and NE 20th. The multi-browns brick building is the triangular one that houses Halo Salon, on the tip, and right behind it, The Blue Diamond PDX, my practically-perfect-in-every-way neighborhood bar. Depending on whim or weather, I can walk either direction at the tip of that triangle to get to my building--there's a side door if I go right, and there's a front door on the street parallel with NE 20th. Often I go to the front door so that I can get in a few more steps.

My home

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My home comforts me when I walk towards the front door and . . .



. . . when I turn to look out at the world one more time before I walk inside, turn right twice, and open my front door. 

I believe without doubt that my Mama, who passed away on January 7, 2011, approves of my new home, the place I found with the help of my two sons and to which I had moved by the end of January--with the help of my two sons, my brother who flew up from Mississippi, and numerous friends from work who helped pack, clean and move all of my stuff. She knew I couldn't stay in our apartment, not after she took an afternoon nap in her bedroom and did not wake up. She is happy that I found a studio apartment of a suitable size with a bonus room which works brilliantly as a bedroom and a closet large enough for 95% of my stuff--the rest is on display. And the fact that it's an apartment closer to my two sons which actually has nearby or right-out-the-front-door street parking for when they visit serves to increase the smile I know is on her sweet face. 

Romance, seen from our living room windows, an unusual sight on NW 22nd

Yep, it's a TriMet bus, the 15 to be exact, as you can tell from the sign atop its windshield--Belmont/23rd means it's the bus that goes from NW 23rd across the river to SE Belmont.

Back story. We heard a news story on KGW Channel 8, explaining that from at least 7 p.m. on until we knew not when NW 23rd would be closed between Hoyt and Irving for a street event centered around Escape from New York Pizza.

Hence we soon began to hear the distinctive, memory-inducing squwish, whoosh, sound signaling the release of brakes and the diesel-infused acceleration of a 12-ton bus heading north, first right outside the living room windows above NW 22nd. Then we heard the deceleration of the southbound bus, the squeak of the engaging brakes, followed by the beep-beep-beep of the kneeling bus. Kneeling? At the corner of NW 22nd and NW Everett? I quickly looked down from our 4th floor window and saw an older woman walking west, away from the stopped bus. Yep, the driver had pushed the button that makes the door-side of the bus lower itself a few inches which makes for an easier exit--or entrance--for older persons, disabled persons. Oh, and there's a ramp that folds out and sits itself onto the sidewalk for wheelchairs, scooters, walkers, and those wire baskets you can fill up with groceries, etc.

So, why in the world you're wondering would I get a photo of one of the buses that went south over the next few hours? Why would I be so excited about having buses outside our windows? Believe me, Mama was wondering about it, especially as we kept hearing the squeak, the squwish, the whoosh, and the acceleration and deceleration. She said more than once, "I'm glad we don't have this outside every day."

Here's what excited me, the fact that changing from one street to another parallel one causes not a single ripple in the functioning of TriMet. I didn't go out on NW 23rd to look, but I can just about guarantee that TriMet had signs and/or employees at the regular bus stops on NW 23rd, telling folks to go east one block to board their bus.

It's so Portland to be able to adapt to changing circumstances like this, like when the bridges have to lift for river traffic, like the upcoming Providence Bridge Pedal when folks can choose to ride their bikes on 11 bridges that cross the Willamette in Portland because lanes will be closed to vehicle traffic--you could ride across fewer bridges or walk across two of them, I could go on and on.

These changes are not your run-of-the-mill construction-induced changes. Don't get me wrong, those are here just like everywhere else. But to me these so-Portland-changes brim with romance and make me fall even more for this city I've now called home for three years.

Mama's Home!

Remember the asparagus and sheep's cheese? The sweet potatoes? Here's a plate of it along with some boneless, skinless chicken tenders and a glass of sweet iced tea. I took this photo of my Tuesday evening supper.


Mama's home! She's in her recliner, trying to keep up with the teens on Jeopardy and eagerly awaiting Wheel of Fortune. We've eaten supper, I've washed the dishes, and we're going to watch Trackside on the Speed Channel after Mama's two favorite shows.

We had leftovers for supper. I am extremely proud to report that Mama ate almost all of her asparagus, saying, "It's good, but it's green. You know me and green." She ate one chicken tender and about three quarters of a cup of sweet potato. Then she said, "I'm good and full!"

Tomorrow I'll give you the latest on Duncan. The vet said today that he's continuing to improve and that I surely can come to get him tomorrow. Yippee!

Thanks again, everyone!