scenes from a quiet autumn weekend

Pretty Fall Tree













Tram and South Waterfront construction



















I especially dig the temporary staircase

Cat Jacked!

Update! The car was found unharmed except for a stain from a melty bag of groceries on the carpet.




This was about to be a post about my trip to Silver Falls State Park. I've got some mediocre pictures on flickr, check them out. It pretty much tells the story. I didn't get a pic of the world's largest glockenspeil in Mt. Angel, or the divey bar where we ate lunch in Silverton, on the "creekside deck" which turned out to be a perch high above a beer commercial rocky shallow creek.
Only pics of the falls loop hike. They all kinda look like dollar store jigsaw puzzles. Oh yeah, and the punk rock wooley worm on the way back to the
car...
The big story however is that of my upstairs neighbors, Satchmo & Beatrix. Satch has lived up there forever, B is a recent addition. The two of them run amok, back and forth across the apartment for about 15 minutes as soon as their person leaves each morning.

The two have been in an unfortunate adventure as of late...
So, their person pulls up to her S.O.'s place in the 'Couv. She takes some stuff inside, leaves the car unlocked because she's going back out to get the cats in just a minute. Then the car drives away, cats inside... KGW tells the story better than I can.

Good news! I have just rubbed Satch's ears. He is now home safe and B will be returning shortly. As for the car, neighbor is driving an unfortunate PT Cruiser with CA plates, which tells me that her Mazda has not yet returned home.

At Your Service

I just noticed this truck the other day in one of the weird COP parking lots under the Minnesota Freeway. I'm sure he's been there for a long time, in a forgotten corner of the gravel lot where city vehicles go to die.

This one is even more curious since Powell Valley was a weird little independent water district out in SE Portland, about 39,000 customers between the 205 & Gresham. It held its own until 2005 when it was absorbed (sorry) into the Portland Water Bureau. I imagine this truck as one of the three vehicles they were using out there that the Water Bureau decided to keep around for posterity.

I really liked Mr. Dropsy (not his real name) and had to look for some other images of this loyal public utility mascot and found him still alive and well, and a little updated, still the jovial face of various water utility districts around the country.

No one in the world ever gets what they want, And that is beautiful
Everybody dies frustrated and sad, And that is beautiful

Geeking out with a little TMBG tonight after that line was stuck in my head all day.
I remember it being really profound in the 9th grade, and tonight this is still one of my all time favorite lyrics from any song, ever.
Watch the video!
And watch Anna Ng while you're at it.
Come to think of it, I wonder if Anne Ng still works at the Bangkok Kitchen?

Warrior Point

"In their way hither they had passed two Indian villages on the west side of the river and had been joined by a hundred and fifty of the natives in twenty-five canoes. To avoid any surprise they dined in their boats; this precaution, however, was unnecessary, for on some trivial presents being made a trade immediately commenced, in which the Indians conducted themselves with the utmost decorum. No attempts were made to pass the line drawn on the beach, excepting by two, who appeared to be the principal chiefs, and who were permitted to join the party. These seemed to be very well disposed, and inclined to communicate every information, but unfortunately for our gentlemen, a total ignorance of the Indians' language precluded their profiting by these friendly intentions." -From the Center for Columbia River History.


A couple Saturday mornings ago G and I were up and out into the crisp fall morning, for the hike to the northernmost point of Sauvie Island. Cross the bridge, stop and buy your parking permit from the little store, drive out until the road turns to gravel, go past Collins Beach, keep going for another two miles until the road ends in a parking lot. Climb the gate, walk across the pasture of friendly cows, and you can begin to pick out the former road heading into the Cottonwood forest.
We ended up abandoning this trail about 1/2 mile in as the river was very low and we realized we would be able to walk all the way up the beach, which was a great decision. Lots of frogs, clams, and other river critters. Plenty of beachey things to look at, and views of all the Cascades from Rainier to Hood make this one of the most beautiful stretches of beach I've ever walked.


About halfway to the lighthouse, we came across this cool little shipwreck.






















The town of St. Helens, Oregon, across the entrance of Scappoose Bay.



















This little guy was the only bright point of the hike out through the nettles. On our trip back out we realized that if we hadn't walked to the Point along the beach, we probably wouldn't have made it all the way. Late September means the blackberries and nettles are in full force, in some places we chose to tromp through the nettles instead of the blackberries. I learned to like the sting...
There were at least four of these little frogs in the tree, but the little bastards are hard to take a picture of.