Portland Trail Blazers, 3-0. OK, we've got 63 more games to play until the play-offs begin. But I'm a happy season-ticket-holder!

Thursday night after the game I waited for the 70 bus across the street from the Rose Garden Arena. First time I noticed this light-show-sort-of-sign on the building. Cheers! That's what we'd been doing inside that great big building!

By the way, those two police cars and their officers are always outside the arena, before and after the games. I think it's a good idea in a crowd of around 20,000, some of whom have been drinking beer for several hours, to have them visible; most of the 20,000 had already made their way far from the building. The flashing light bars help folks find their way once they've exited the arena--people like me because I'm still learning my way around the place.

The story of two photos, pure amazement and serendipity for me!

Monday night, December 26, the Trail Blazers played Philadelphia in our season opener. Fans and those whose employment depend upon the games taking place, as well as the players and coaches, feel pretty good about basketball being back in Portland.

Lots of Trail Blazer fans count #12, LaMarcus Aldridge, as their favorite player.

One of the photos in this short, short story is this one that I took from clean across the entire arena of LaMarcus Aldridge as he scored. Totally excited to get it!

When I decided to post the photo, I searched on Google for trail blazers philadelphia december 26, 2011. And I come across photos from the game taken by the Oregonian, Portland's daily newspaper. Lo and behold, the very first photo I saw is of the same instant of action, taken by the photographer (Bruce Ely) sitting on the floor at the baseline--you can barely see him on the right edge of my photo because I cropped close to LaMarcus and the basket. (More about that at the bottom of the post.)

If you click on the link, you'll see the second photo in this short, short story. And be amazed.

To tell you the truth, I did the search hoping to find the photo and a word or two about who had passed the ball to LaMarcus and if this was one of those lob passes like I'm pretty sure I remember it was. Anyway, the caption beneath Ely's photo was no help, but I was very excited to see the action from his perspective, let me tell you! Please click on the link above or here to see Ely's photo. I would have tried to copy and paste it onto the blog, but I didn't feel that would be the right thing to do. One of these days maybe I'll contact him for permission, if this happens again!


Here I've I cropped the photo differently so you could see Bruce Ely. Look at that other camera and lens standing in front of him!

A scene you won't see in Portland today

On a September Saturday, these two women stood talking on SW Broadway. The woman on the left had been to the PSU Farmers Market, filling her navy blue bag with untold fresh goodies. Maybe the woman on the right had been there, too, and had stored her goodies somewhere in the scooter. Can you guess the reason that scenes like this won't be repeated today? It's pouring rain and blowing, blowing, blowing wind. I can hear it hitting the windows of my apartment right now. And after work yesterday I had to hold my hood shut, or it would have blown right off my head! On my way to the basketball game and hours later after the game!

Here's what KGW Channel 8's meteorologist Nick Allard has to say about the weather online: This morning it is mild, wet, breezy and will be all day. Another round of heavy rain is moving in to the area and later today it will be really wet again. The winds are staying pretty active this morning and also will for the rest of the day. There is a High Wind Warning in effect for the central Oregon Coast until this evening. Winds will be sustained between 30-40 mph with gusts that may approach 50-70 mph especially right at the coast line. The rest of the area will be breezy at times with moderate to heavy rain. In fact anywhere from half an inch to an inch is possible all over the place. Highs will top out in the mid-50s. The snow level will stay high today in the 7-8,000' range.
Tomorrow another round of rain will push in, but the heaviest rain will stay south of our area. So overall the rain will be much lighter. However into Friday another wet and breezy system will move in for rain during the day and some decent mountain snow by Friday night.

Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers Outside the Rose Garden Arena

I got off the bus to walk to the STH door at the Rose Garden Arena on Monday night and heard drumming. I love drumming. And the Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers can really drum! Even in the cold.

Curves, similar shapes, dissimiliar substances

Today's title refers to the brim of the top hat and the curve of bell on the CG Conn Grand Jumbo 46K Sousaphone. I suppose the top hat is made of wool felt. And the tuba is made of silver-colored sheet brass. I know, I know. You thought I was going to point out that it refers to the top of the head and the curve of the bell on the golden CG Conn 20K. A toss up, which one to mention first!

I got the name of the tuba from two commenters on a previous post, one named Anonymous, one named Ian. Turns out that Ian is playing the CG Conn Grand Jumbo 46K Sousaphone! And Anonymous, actually Fred Williams is his name according to Ian, was playing a CG Conn 20K in the other post, standing between the two tubas you see here but facing towards them-- the one Ian is playing and to the golden one played by Johnny Quirarte of Los Culpables de la Sierra, according to Ian who is a veritable fount of information. Thanks, Ian!

Look what I found in my neighborhood.

I'm of two minds about Christmas lights. First, I'm always happy to see them because they are so beautiful. Second, I'm always happy that putting them up and taking them down is someone else's chore because it's a tremendous amount of work.

When my husband was alive, we decorated our tree and around the living room windows. After he died and my sons were still little boys, I decorated the tree and around the windows. Several years after my Daddy died, I moved back in with my Mama (widows together enjoying the life left to us), and we decorated several different trees over the years and around our windows. My sons are out on their own, decorating as their lives lead them. Now I'm on my own, too. I have a little Department 56 tree, the sweetest item I've ever been fortunate enough to purchase at Goodwill, and a string of lights glowing on the cabinet top around it. Merry Christmas decorating, ol' 64-year-old-me style.

Merry. Christmas. Y'all!

I like what's going on in this photo so much that I had to divide it into three pieces so that you could have fun seeing it all, too. And then it's put together again at the bottom of the post.


Merry.


Christmas.


Y'all.


Merry Christmas, Y'all! Took this photo in the northeast corner of Pioneer Courthouse Square as the tubas warmed up to my right, getting ready for Christmas carols and Tuba Christmas, December 10, 2011.

This duo got the stamp of approval from everyone at Tuba Christmas, ...

... well, everyone who had the opportunity to see the Gingerbread (Wo)Man and the Christmas Tree and get a candy cane from the basket. I imagine the two of them were quite happy to be encased in decorative costumes, as long as they had on some longhandles to keep them warm. You can tell from the children's winter wear, as well as everyone else in the crowd behind the holiday duo, just how cold it was on Saturday, December 10, in downtown Portland at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

It's all in how you look at it.

Big Pink and a parking lot sign. The sign is on the southeast corner of SW Broadway and West Burnside. Big Pink is exactly one block east of the sign. I used the tilt feature of my camera so that I could take a satisfactory look from this unusual angle. I've cropped the photo and used the HDR-ish special effect at Picnik. By the way, Big Pink is either 536 or 546 feet tall and is the second tallest building in Portland. I found both heights on the Internet, so who knows. I do know I've been on the 30th floor, which is not the top floor, to the Portland City Grill. See views from the PCG here and here.

Random pedestrians, downtown Portland

I took this photo after work on November 3 as I waited for the 12 or the 19 bus home. I'd been to have a check up on the floaters in my right eye, rode the Yellow Line MAX to Kaiser Interstate and then back downtown to the Transit Mall so I could transfer to a bus. I like watching folks walk across SW 6th Avenue while I wait. They are heading north towards the intersection with SW Yamhill which is the south side of Pioneer Courthouse Square. I'm very pleased with how this photo turned out. All I've done is crop it to better showcase these two random pedestrians, or should I say three since the man's reflection is so clear in the window? The big X is inside a branch of Chase Bank. Oh, and the floaters in my eye have diminished--hooray!

Up, with Nolan Smith, Portland Trail Blazers Rookie

I'm as up in the air as rookie guard Nolan Smith is here. Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Utah Jazz 110-90.


You can see what a great seat I have for this season! No one can stand or walk in front of me because I am on the front row of the highest ring around the arena!

On the sports just now, I saw the replay of the shot that Nolan took--he scored!

The wait is over!

Yep, this photo of a rack weights in the Trail Blazers work out room fits just fine with my announcement at the top of this post. The wait is over! Our one-and-only-home-preseason-game takes place at 7 p.m. Monday in the Rose Garden Arena. The opposing team is the Utah Jazz. The home team is the Portland Trail Blazers! Go, Blazers! The best fans in the NBA will be in the house!

In my neighborhood, at ReRack

Sunday, October 16, on our way back after a trip to Freddie's for groceries, Lamont and I noticed something going on at ReRack, a nearby business. Couple hours later I went for a walk and figured it out. They'd shoveled snow onto hay, added a couple of ramps and adventurous snowboarders complete with fans. I especially like this photo because so much is going on. There's the 1920s automobile comes into view on the left, the snowboarder just left of center slides on the rail--his board is purple and white, three people take photos and/or videos, and others just watch as they face the action. The two people on the left with their backs to me wait in line to climb up onto the ramp out of view to the left so that they can take their turn. And see what looks like a speaker on the right, near the front of that van? Loud music, but not obnoxiously so. Looks like at least one watcher arrived on a bicycle--I believe I see a basket and a brake. Some may have arrived on TriMet--there's a bus shelter in the background to the left of the guy in the olive green cap taking a photo with his phone. The green and blue building is not for sale, to my knowledge. There's an empty lot just beyond it with that giant sign standing near the street, sort of a parking area I think. At ReRack's Facebook page, there are lots of splendid photos in an album called Rad Ruckus Rail Jam 2011, taken by GEE-Photo.

A cute, but cold, Tuba Christmas fan

Look at her pink nose. The cold made it match the color of her jacket and hat perfectly. Cropped and altered at Picnik.

Lownsdale Square, oh to able to stand in the park again

This photo was taken Oct. 16, 2007, as I stood in Lownsdale Square, looking south towards the Thompson Elk and Chapman Square. The TriMet bus heading west on SW Main hides the elk's legs as it makes the curve around the statue's base. You can tell how the ground rises as you walk west through the park. Today on the bus before and after work, I saw the fences around both parks. The only evidence I noticed of any restoration progress was the complete absence of lots of park benches. The original estimate I read in the Oregonian and posted on here on December 3 mentioned "Replace two park benches, repair seven benches: $16,500." It was not mentioned which park or if these benches were spread between both parks. The missing benches I noticed were all in Chapman Square. The bus stopped at the intersection is on SW 4th Avenue. At the time that this photo was taken, the downtown Transit Mall had been moved to SW 3rd and SW 4th while SW 5th and SW 6th underwent extensive renovation, part of which was the addition of the MAX Green Line.

Tuba Christmas, Pioneer Courthouse Square, December 10, 2011

I arrived on scene about 10 minutes before Tuba Christmas began, all 225 tubas would play to a standing room only crowd, one Christmas carol after another. Realizing I would not find anywhere to sit and that I wouldn't care because it was so doggone cold, I walked close to these two bass tubas--is that what you call these humongous instruments? Aren't they heavy? I don't know. But I do know that the man on the left played a beat on his tuba that had everyone getting their groove on. Then the man on the right and he challenged each other, vibrating the air around us magnificently, bringing smiles to nearby faces.

It's my birthday today. A present to myself!

Sunday, December 11, 2011, found me at my first event as a Portland Trail Blazers' season ticket holder. Holiday on Ice lasted from 2-5 p.m. I stayed almost the entire time, first going on the locker room tour, then wandering around on the concourse, decorating cookies, making crafts. I talked with the radio announcer, nicknamed Wheels, and one of the TV announcers, Mike Barrett. I met Scott, my Season Ticket Services Account Representative. By 3 p.m. Blazers were walking here and walking there, smiling at all of us, stopping for photographs or autographs as time allowed. I took lots of photos and talked to about half of the team, getting a few autographs.

Next I decided to go back to the locker room to see in any others were there. Lo and behold, there stood Coach Nate McMillan. I moved down the line from player to player and then I was in front of him. I couldn't help myself, when I started to talk, saying "I can't believe I'm standing in front of you. My Mama would be so excited. She became a basketball fan after we moved here in 2006 ... I'm sorry, I'm crying. She died in January."

I can't remember exactly what happened after that, somewhere in there I explained that I was a first-time season ticket holder. I know I felt good when Coach McMillan signed my piece of paper and took me seriously when I handed to him the PTB lanyard I had purchased in the Fan Shop, rubbing it for good luck over and over because I explained that I was going from player to player, collecting good luck for the team ever since I bought it and Gerald Wallace touched it first before putting it into the shopping bag. Coach handed me the lanyard, we shook hands and smiled at each other as I told him what a good time I was having here. Coach McMillan smiled some more when I looked to his right and said, "That's Buck Williams, right there." I patted my heart and sort of swooned. Coach Williams grinned and said, "I wish my wife could see some of this around here." The three of us laughed together for a moment. I might not be able to remember every single thing that happened, but I will always remember standing there in front of those gracious, tall men.

I rode the elevator up with them and several players. Then on the concourse Coach McMillan sat down by himself at the coloring table, waiting for folks to come see him. I sat down in front of him and he asked me what was Mama's health problem, so we talked for a few minutes about what had gone on with her health and what had happened to her on January 7. I even explained that I hoped she had just left her phone in the bedroom and was sitting in front of the TV watching the Blazers play and couldn't hear her phone. Instead she had laid down for a nap and didn't wake up. He listened and smiled kindly. I went on to say that Mama had been so impressed with the kind of young men the Trail Blazers he was leading the players to be, individuals who care about themselves and the team and Portland. He said that's what he was trying to do and shook my hand again, saying he was glad I was a season ticket holder. I said that I was so happy about it because, while I didn't want to be one while I had Mama to watch games with at home, that I had missed basketball in person after having spent six years keeping score for the boys and girls' high school teams, both at the scorer's table for home games and on the bench for away games where i used to teach English and be a librarian down in Mississippi. He grinned. I stopped rambling. Then I got up so that someone else could spend some time with him.

Later on I sat talking with Scott my account rep and asked him if he would go with me and take a photo of me with the coach. By the time we got close to the front of the line, Coach and the players had to leave the coloring table and head somewhere else on the concourse. After I had walked around in the concourse for a while, it dawned on me that I might find Coach McMillan at a different table and maybe I could get someone to take the photo I wanted. You can see the result at the top of the post.

I am so looking forward to attending our home games. I'll be able to do that on mass transit, too!

Happy 64th birthday to me!

Sunday Bridges: Hawthorne Bridge, the towers in the sunrise

See more Sunday Bridges at San Francisco Bay Daily Photo.


February 20, 2009, the sun provided a golden background for the Hawthorne Bridge towers. There really are two towers here--the large rectangles you see are the counterweights which, when lowered, raise the center section to the bridge. The higher one was closer to me when I took this photo. The Hawthorne Bridge is special to me for several reasons--it's the first bridge I road a bus over, in June, 2004, when we first visited my sons here; it's the first bridge I walked over, in January, 2007, through a thick snowstorm; it's the bridge I cross most often.

Here's what I found at Wikipedia: The Hawthorne Bridge is a truss bridge with a vertical lift that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, joining Hawthorne Boulevard and Madison Street. It is the oldest vertical-lift bridge in operation in the United States and the oldest highway bridge in Portland. It is also the busiest bicycle and transit bridge in Oregon, with over 4,800 cyclists and 800 TriMet buses (carrying about 17,400 riders) daily.

Size

The bridge consists of five fixed spans and one 244 ft (74 m) long vertical-lift span. It is 1,382 feet (421 m) in total length. The 880,000 pound (400,000 kg) counterweights are suspended from the two 165 ft (50 m) tall towers. While the river is at low level the bridge is 49 feet (15 m) above the water, causing it to be raised an average of 200 times per month. As of 2001, the average daily traffic was 30,500 vehicles. The bridge was designed by John Waddell, inventor of the vertical-lift bridge and also designer of the Steel and Interstate bridges.

History

The current bridge was built to replace Madison Bridge No. 1 (1891) and Madison Bridge No. 2 (1900), which was destroyed by a fire in 1902. It cost $511,000 to build and was opened on December 19, 1910. Hawthorne Boulevard (and thus the bridge) was named after Dr. J.C. Hawthorne, the cofounder of Oregon's first mental hospital and early proponent for the first Morrison Bridge.

The deck was changed from wood to steel grating in 1945. In 1985 the lift span sheaves, the grooved wheels that guide the counterweight cables, were replaced. The bridge went through a $22 million restoration from 1998–99, which included replacing the steel grated deck and repainting. The original lead-based paint was completely removed and replaced with 3 layers of new paint that is estimated to last 30 years. During this upgrade the sidewalks were widened to 10 feet (3 m), making it a thoroughfare for bicycle commuters. Due to the replacement of the steel deck during this project, the channels which used to carry the rails for streetcars and interurban trains were also removed. In 2001 the sidewalks were connected to the Eastbank Esplanade. The estimated cost to replace the bridge is $189.3 million.

The original color of the bridge was black, lasting until 1964, when it was repainted yellow ochre.[7] During the 1998-99 renovation, the color was changed to green with red trim.

The 2003 film, The Hunted, included a scene set on MAX on the Hawthorne Bridge. Since MAX does not cross the bridge, the movie company connected two articulated buses remodeled to resemble a MAX train, complete with fake overhead lines and a sprinkler system to simulate rain. Light-rail (interurban) service did cross the Hawthorne Bridge until 1956. The new deck put in place in the outer lanes during the 1998–99 renovation was designed to be strong enough for possible use by modern, heavier streetcars or light rail trains in the future, which was proposed at that time, and TriMet was still considering a Hawthorne Bridge routing for its future MAX Orange Line, to Milwaukie, in 2002. However, following the transit agency's later decision to build a new bridge for the Milwaukie MAX line, which bridge could also be used by the Portland Streetcar, it became unlikely that rail cars will ever again cross the Hawthorne Bridge.

Carries vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists
Crosses Willamette River
Locale Portland, Oregon
Maintained by Multnomah County
Design truss with a vertical-lift span
Total length 1,382 ft (421 m)
Width 72 ft (22 m)
Longest span 244 ft (74 m)
Clearance below 49 ft (15 m) closed, 159 ft (48 m) open
Opened December 19, 1910

Chapman Square, two walkers in the park

November 6, 2008, found a guy on the sidewalk and a crow on the golden-leaf covered grass. The TriMet bus and the red car are driving west on SW Main. The silver-looking cylinders in the background stand guard over the first floor of the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse.

Lownsdale Square, a couple of walkers

Enjoying the sunshine on May 1, 2009, a couple heads toward the center of Lownsdale Park. Children play on the base of the Soldiers' Monument, Douglas Tilden’s monument to the Oregonians killed in the Spanish-American War. Found on the Internet about the monument: "Dedicated on May 31, 1906, the tall granite obelisk is topped with a bronze replica of an infantryman of the Second Oregon U.S. Volunteer Infantry, part of the first large American fighting force ever sent overseas. At least two people sit side-by-side on a park bench in the sun. At the base of this monument are two small cannons from Fort Sumter (misspelled on the plaque) brought here by Colonel Henry E. Dosch. Because the cannons were used by both Union and Confederate troops, it was Dosch's idea to face one north and one south." You can see one of the black cannons beneath the left elbow of the man in the blue jacket.

At some point in 2012, various groups of people will once again enjoy the sunshine in Lownsdale Square.