UPDATE and some fall foliage

UPDATE: I didn't work today which was planned; I work on Monday and Tuesday next week. I rested every time my body told me to take it easy. I didn't want to go outside, so I walked in the building hallway some. I enjoyed watching the Royals beat the Blue Jays 5-0 on my big ol' TV. Thank you for your continued prayers, love and concern.



The Saturday that Leland and I went out taking photos of Forest for the Trees 2015 murals, we saw these beauties south of East Burnside. I imagine they all been blown off the trees by now. I'm glad that I got the photo through Leland's windshield .

UPDATE and I finally felt like sitting outside in the shade!

UPDATE: Slept pretty good last night, too. I am so pleased with that! I have felt OK in the brain and the body today, too. I am amazed that for two days in a row I've felt that way. Amazed! And oh so thankful! Y'all are a big part of this progress, with your prayers, love and concern. Thank you so much!



While I sat outside in my folding aluminum lawn chair, watching all sorts of vehicular traffic and pedestrians, I noticed my neighbor Birdie and her Daddy walking back to the building. I said, "Hi!" They walked over for a visit. Birdie's Daddy asked, "Do you want a picture with her?" after I kept on praising her coloring, her shiny coat, her sweet personality--which I always do because they are all true. Naturally, I wanted a photo, so I handed him my phone. Here's the last one he took; right afterwards, she gave me some sugar on my chin! Y'all not from the South may not realize that means a kiss, but, I promise, that's what it means. I'm a lucky ol' lady, y'all!



Here's the first photo, with her sweet face looking up at me. It is wonderful to have such good neighbors!

Sidewalk, sunshine, shadows and shoes

A photo like this is so much fun to get the chance to take! I'm enjoying the photo and the fact that those shoes are not on my particular feet!

First visit to Disneyland! Day One, Post No. 2

When I realized that the train pulled to a stop at a station and our railcar stopped in the midst of the It's a Small World attraction, I just about lost it. I had no idea that the would happen. No idea. Naturally before we made it back to the station, I asked Sharon and Jenna if we could ride all the way around again, one more time. They agreed, thank goodness, because if you saw my post yesterday, that allowed me to get in a very short line for Mickey Mouse and my photo with him! Yea!

An orchard near the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, Earth Day

After a couple of hours immersed in vivid color, my newly-moved-to-Portland-from-Minnesota friend Julie and I turned the wrong way in her little red Kia, at my urging because I misread the Google Map. Serendipity, it turns out because we saw this orchard. And Julie, game gal that she is, agreed to pull off somewhere close and safe so that I could get a photo, which turned out to be a decent Earth Day image.

Much farther away the shadows were even more impressive, but I'm quite happy to have only walked far enough to get this one. My muddy Crocs held my tired feet, muddy from the fields of tulips, tired from the lumpy ground in the fields of tulips.

Come back tomorrow for photos to the fields of tulips and those of us humans drawn outside by the sunshine to seek beauty.

Smooth

Taken through the closed door, on May 6, 2009, of John Helmer's, Haberdasher in downtown Portland.



Taken through the open door on June 13, 2009.

Which perspective do you like best?

Seen on the streets of Portland, No. 12

I go out to walk Duncan on May 27. We follow our usual path on our mostly deserted early morning sidewalk. Before crossing the street, I look to the left and the right--we've seen too many drivers going the wrong way on our one-way street. Whoa! What? What's that? An ironing board! On top of a white van! Huh?

We finish our walk and go back to the apartment. I put his food down for him, grab my camera and head right back outside to take photos.

What's the strangest thing you've ever seen atop a parked car?

Rite of Spring, High School Style

Exit the limo

Pose for the photo

Have an unforgettable night with your best friends.

What memories does this conjure up for you?

Too choice to pass up

Saturday, still on that trip to get Duncan's dog food--hey, it's 17.4 miles as the MapQuest flies from our apartment to PetSmart--I'm stopped at a traffic light, looking around, the camera on the seat beside me. I'm thinking, "I wish I had had the chance to take a photo of that jewelry store before ... oh my! That man's scratching his back on the support of that TriMet bus shelter, right beside that advertising poster for the Oregon Lottery!" I grab my camera and get a single photo before the light changes. I hope it's a decent photo because the situation was just too choice to pass up.



Here's why. One of the Oregon Lottery's campaigns involves Scratchercise, a totally tongue-in-cheek, advertising program to get your fingers in shape, using coins to scratch cards and find out if you've won any money. And there stood that man, right beside that big ol' word, Scratchercise, rubbing his back from side to side on that metal pole holding up the frame for the poster!

Har-tee-har-har!

In the seconds that it took me to get the camera focused on him through the windshield, naturally he stopped scratching to check that hand-held device, but I know y'all trust me. Thanks!

Matching street-level accessory

On the corner of SE 55th and Belmont, I first noticed the butter-yellow vehicle, mostly hidden by the green hedge. With the help of Google Images, I believe it's a 1963 GMC Suburban Carryall. Anyway, I wanted to walk closer and take a photo, but I wasn't sure how accurate the bus arrival time I had gotten from calling TriMet's Transit Tracker really was. So, I stood there. Then I noticed that the house was the exact same color as the vehicle. Click! It felt mighty good to be taking a photo just because I liked the looks of what I saw.

Duncan and I were on our way home from visiting Mama Sunday afternoon. Both of them continue to slowly improve, praise the Lord.

Before the bus came, this wonderful old pickup truck came rolling by--I'm pretty sure that it's a Chevy. Anyone know what year? From the 1950s?

Flat Stanley wants you to meet someone.

Flat Stanley and I stopped by Fred Meyer after work today, to shop for deviled-egg-makings. Back at the bus stop on West Burnside, we settled in to wait a few minutes, standing beside the yellow metal newspaper box a few feet from the curb.

"Look!" Flat Stanley cried. "Look at that alien! Let's take a picture of me standing beside him 'cause I think the kids back in Florence, Mississippi, at Steen's Creek Elementary will get a kick out of that! I'll bet the CDPBers will, too! I'll bet we've got time before the next bus!"

He talked so fast that in just that few seconds I went from looking right, left, up and down, to unzipping my rolling bag and pulling out my camera. Somehow in all of that movement, I managed to find the alien on the top part of the newspaper box. Great idea, FS! Click, click--quickly--here comes the bus.

Back at the apartment, when he looked at the photo after I downloaded it, a thoughtful look came over Flat Stanley's face.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Where do you suppose the rest of his body went?" he said to me. "I'll bet he's got that look on his face 'cause he's wondering the same thing."

Then he looked and me said, "I know. Let's ask the CDPBers what they think happened to him."

Another great idea, FS.

I missed the show, but I got the photos!

Mama and I are in the car, driving east on Everett, headed for the Steel Bridge. Our goal? Cross the Willamette River and head for Marsha's, to pick her up for the Hood River Fruit Loop Tour. My camera and Flat Stanley rest in the backseat of the Buick, safe inside a tote bag.

We hadn't gone two blocks before I spied something odd on the street in front of us. Well, not so odd for Portland because I've seen this sort of rolling sign here other times. I've even seen (and missed the chance to photograph, doggone it!) a rolling Ikea room.

"Oh," I groan. "My camera's in the back seat." Mama looks over her left shoulder and calmly states the truth: "I can't reach it."

Instantly I realize that when I stop at a stop sign, I should be able to jump out and grab the tote bag, as long as there is no vehicle right behind me. And that's exactly what I do, seven blocks later. Above you see the photo that I took a couple of blocks after that when I stop at the next four-way stop.

And here's the photo I took just before we drove up onto the approach to the bridge.



One of the things I love about Portland, among the many, many things, is being in the street in the car alongside mass transit entities--bus, streetcar, MAX--or approaching an intersection where mass transist is about to cross in front of me. At this particular intersection, here's the Buick, behind a bus. A block in front of us, the MAX lines cross the street and continues to the left, up onto the Steel Bridge.

It may sound silly that such a mundane thing as mass transit makes me love Portland, but it does.

Fall Colors, on NW Everett Street in the Northwest Hills

This evening the television weatherman said that Portland's weather is more like November than October, as much as ten degrees cooler than it ought to be. When I was a kid growing up, October meant cooler weather and the leaves changed color, so I think it's just right.

On our street you can see reds beginning to overtake greens in one of the trees in front of the Manhattan. I first saw the change in the tree when I looked out the bathroom window. Then I noticed the yellow and black car with the For Sale sign in the window, and continuing on up the sidewalk, I saw the red car and the other yellow car. Ah. A perfect fall foliage photo, with street-level accessories. I leaned out one of Mama's bedroom window to get the shot I wanted.

P.S. I took the close-up of the leaves resting on the sidewalk in the rain Thursday evening after shopping for groceries at our nearby Fred Meyer. I couldn't resist that vivid red.