cold weather and chrome gnomes

I missed yesterday! And today, if you count days by time before midnight.

It was really cold - like 17 degrees cold, which is a very low temperature for the region.  I've learned this about myself: I love unusual weather for about 2 days, and then I'm ready for standard Pacific Northwest temperate conditions.

Bring back the rain, is what I'm saying. My skin and hair and brain are all in sad dry weather shape.

In other news of the cold - I skipped book group today! I'm really enjoying this month's selection (My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell), but I wasn't even half way through. Plus with my altered work schedule I didn't really feel like going in on a day off. Sometimes it's no big deal, sometimes I just can't get it together. I really love that group, though. Any Portland people reading - if you're looking for a low-pressure way to see if a book group is for you, check out your local branch library! Every location has at least one Pageturners book group.

and now I'm going to go to bed. Tomorrow: recent movies! (that I've watched - not recent releases or anything. Let's not get too nutty.)

the opposite of too darn hot

(another flickr photo from a while ago - this is the fresnel lens inside the lighthouse at Cape Blanco.)

It is cold here! Unseasonably cold. A Dry Cold, which isn't how we roll AT ALL.  It's a nice novelty for a couple of days but I'm ready for it to go back to 40 degrees and raining, which is what feels right to me for winter.

Work stuff, you guys! For 6 weeks I'm working a different schedule and classification. It's a lovely opportunity to make more $$ and I really appreciate that they asked me to do it, but the schedule change is messing with me. Of course this is only the first week, but still. This + holiday stuff + freaky weather and I'm having tiny continual freak outs. Normally I don't think in "if there was one thing I could change about myself" terms, but if I could quit worrying about things that turn out to be no big deal, that would be amazing.

More later. I really will try to have some fun stuff this month, but if I'm going to do this every day some days will be boring!

OH! Cape update: I must just be feeling the cape zeitgeist because after my cape posts I saw two people IN THE LIBRARY with capes on and it was just as wonderful as I'd hoped. Wait! Make that three people because there was a kid with a strategically tied pillowcase that totally counts.

reading from both ends of september

taken on September 3 - the weather was still nice enough to sit outside under a tree and read and read and read. (my favorite!) On the left is the September book for my non-fiction book group, on the right Aimee Bender's new collection of stories.




taken today on September 30 - the weather has shifted so the reading has moved inside. (also my favorite!)  It's been raining A LOT lately - we're getting the  dissipated ends of a typhoon that's come all the way from Japan and it's been dumping down rain for days. Once again, the book on the left is for non-fiction book club and the book on the right is for meeeeee.

There were other books in the middle of September, but I didn't take pictures of them so they'll have to wait.

cabin fever thought process

Today (Sunday) featured a cabin fever-inspired DASH TO THE COAST. A let's get out of here and go there be ready in 45 minutes kind of deal. It was excellent.

The photo above was taken through the window on the way out. (you can kind of see a reflection and there are raindrops on the glass.) I would have rolled the window down but it was too cold plus I keep picturing my phone/camera flying out the window.

It was cold and windy with rain stabbing through the clouds at unpredictable interludes. (stab stab stab gust gust gust tiny needles of wind and water all up in your business.) We didn't stay long but it was definitely worth the drive despite the gusting and stabbing and whatnot. I mean, look at the view! Just being in front of it for a few cold minutes reduces cabin fever. 

There was discussion of the failure of imagination of Paradise City (as a paradise OR as a city) as described by Guns N' Roses, but I think now that may be part of a different post tomorrow.

The grass is green and the girls are pretty.  

How is your April so far? 

a note from august six

 It seems lately if I blog at all, I post some description of an event in the past; a photo of some thing I did or saw a little or a long while ago. Today is about today. (although this picture is a photo of something in the past, it is the past of only a couple of days ago. This is the best recent photo I've got to demonstrate how HOT IT IS today.) (the plant in the picture is fennel that's about 8 ft. tall. The sun is the sun, beaming down hotwaves and vitamin d.) 

Today things:

1) I'm sweating. Today is cooler than it's been the past couple of days - the first day Portland went over 90 degrees for the year we went WAY OVER To 103.  Today is only 87 and I know everyone east of the rockies is rolling their eyes, but still! I wish I had air conditioning in one room. Even an uncomfortable air conditioned closet or something - I feel guilty for wishing I had it when it's only needed a few days a year. (AND YET.) 

2) Pat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot is playing now! It just seems right with the hot weather. But maybe that's because I lived in (hot) Florida during the Benatar heyday. 

3) MARS!!!! I watched the landing last night on the internet and it made me cry - everyone was so happy! It was such a gutsy mission and it WORKED! Mohawk Guy and Pompadour Guy and all the other Rocket Scientist Hairdos of JPL/NASA in their blue polo shirts, being brilliant and happy and human. 

4) Busby the cat has a limp. I think (hope) it's related to a fur mat that I cut out this morning. I checked out his paws and legs and they seem okay... He might have a bruise or a muscle pull.  If he doesn't start walking normally within the week he's gonna have to go to the vet, which he HATES. It's so traumatizing to him - he does not like getting in the car, no way no how. He yowls and he fusses and it breaks my heart. Since he's normally the strong silent type it traumatizes everyone else.  Poor fellow!

5) Two hours have elapsed since I started this! (I got hot and went outside to water the garden.) 

6) another hour +! (food, shower.) 

7) Now I'm sitting out on the patio and it's nice and cool. The breeze is blowing, and I think I covered up the smell of whatever disgusting thing had putrefied in the kitchen compost pail. (top suspect: watermelon rind. It hadn't been there long and the pail has a lid, but it was really hot. I didn't smell it at all until I dumped it in the regular compost. It was slimy and BAD.)

8) Have you read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell?  I'm really digging it, but must admit it almost lost me in the middle.  I can't wait to see how it all comes together. This book has been on my to-read list for AGES - once I saw that there's a movie coming out, I knew I had to read it quick before Tom Hanks permanently attached himself to the story in my head. (I've got no beef w/ Tom H., I just like to imagine books myself before I see them on the screen.)

9) Otis (cat) just caught and ate a big old dragonfly - it was truly disgusting. He is so proud.

10) 30 minutes to Bunheads! I'm going to return to the Hanks-less Cloud Atlas until then. 

LDN and sogfest

This song has been playing over and over in my head for 1+ weeks. I include the video so you can hear the song and also see some springy blooming trees, daffodils, and Ms. Allen's yellow muppet-skin coat. All of this video hunting led to me listening to more Lily Allen, which is no chore. I like her sweet/sour point of view.

I worked today (Easter) and it was S L O W, but that was fine. I found that there are still baskets of poems around for all of poetry month. I picked up a Mary Oliver and the famous William Carlos Williams plum poem. (the plum clipart was so round and so purple.) I found a million more things I want to read, but that's the nature of the business.

SOGFEST: remember last week when I said Portland would be having a week of not-rain and how happy everyone was about it? Well, that was last week. It actually shook out to be a generally overcast week of not much rain + one glorious day (Saturday). Today started the serious rain; according to the evening news, the meteorological term for what is to come this week is SOGFEST. In a sogfest the good days are the ones where the rain isn't blowing sideways! But coming this next weekend is the promise of another sunny day.  I'm freshly outraged every year when this happens. You'd think the sogfest would no longer be a surprise, but I think for sanity's sake we drive it out of our collective memories. 

kitchen sink news

weather: It sounds like some kind of crazy chime-ringing, oh-auntie-em house-moving, tree-shaking windstorm outside my window right now, but I think it's fake. I mean, it sounds like all those things, but since it's dark I can't really tell. Maybe there is localized huffing and puffing trying to blow my house down and it's as still and smooth as glass down the street! (maybe I should have taken drugs for this headache sooner, before I got to Weather Conspiracy on the brain chemistry dial.)

library: My favorite patrons this week have been, without question, 8-10 yr. old girls checking out their Nancy Drews and likewise. There have been a lot of them for some reason. They either have their library card READY TO GO on top of their neatly stacked pile of books, or they have their library card in their WALLET, which is obviously a point of "I practically have credit cards!" pre-tweener pride. (although a few of these girls have gotten ready to check out and the card is not where they were expecting it! This is so traumatizing to their library going book toting crime solving organized selves -- I always try to find something to do on the computer so that they can regain composure and remember that it is in their backpack pocket and not in their wallet after all.) Anyway, I like it when kids come up to the counter to check out their own stuff. Some weeks it's kids with manga or comic books, but this week it's been a lot of the titian-haired girl detective.

I have a lot of favorite patron types, now that I think of it. I'm also very fond of: 1) kids who are obviously dragging their non-reader parent or guardian there so they can get their weekly library fix. (and the guardian who brings them)
2) anyone who checks out an actual book with pages! (although I must note to non-reader parents or guardians and others that the library is not just for books. But books are awesome.)
3) I also love it when someone who hasn't used the library in years, or maybe ever, comes in and gets a card and CHECKS STUFF OUT. I mean, that's what we're there for!

Working the way I do at various branches all over town, I can tell you that anecdotally at least, people from every socioeconomic stripe use the library. Everyone makes the same excuses when stuff is late, too! The wording may change (I've heard "I was in jail" and "I was in europe" and "I was on tour" as reasons why something was desperately late), but the basic human reasoning remains the same: I don't think I should have to pay. People are funny!

I have lost track of where I was going here. oh, right. Hugh Jackman.

The Oscars: I liked it! I like Hugh Jackman a lot already -- he's so charming and talented and seemingly comfortable with himself. He's in a lot of bad movies, but I can't even hold that against him. (Yes, I have seen Van Helsing!) So, if you take Hugh Jackman, to whom I am already fondly disposed, and you set him up with an opening number that he pretend designed in his pretend garage out of fake pretend garage props? I'm pretty much helpless. The resulting opening number made me laugh a lot, but it wouldn't have worked if he wasn't giving it his all. I also liked the reconfigured stage and how the acting awards were distributed. By having previous winners say something specific about the nominees (my favorite: Shirley MacLaine to Anne Hathaway), it seemed more like actors celebrating their work and less of a "who has the best 'happy to be nominated' face" reality show. I know it was a little rough in spots, but I think doing it this way added continuity and a sense of community, which makes total sense for such a collaborative medium.

Lest you think that I am predisposed to love everything that crosses my line of vision, I have to say... (and I'm surprised to find the thought in my brain)... I think I'm getting Beyonce fatigue! I love her, but it seems like she's everywhere. Everywhere is too many places! She's gorgeous, but what the hell was up with her red carpet dress? It looked like a spandex bordello curtain. And she really needs to lay off At Last. I mean come on! I know she sang it in Cadillac Records and it was therefore fair game and maybe even relevant, but she JUST sang it at the inauguration, and Etta James is still drawing breath! Let Etta James have her song, Beyonce! You've got enough, you don't need that too.

Anyway, I certainly understand people who miss Billy Crystal, but I don't think the days of that kind of Oscar telecast are coming back. It's time to move forward. While this year's broadcast was far from perfect, I think it was a long step in the right direction. After it was over, I thought "I want to watch more movies!" which certainly hasn't been the case the past few years.

Here's the youtube of that opening number. I agree with Heather Havrilesky -- it was "a scrappy, bizarre masterpiece!"

shortest day!

(woodpecker movie from saturday)

HOORAY for the winter solstice! It happened (according to the internet) at 4:04 AM pacific time. (I am intrigued by the double 4's. I keep noticing doubled up numbers lately.) Anyway -- I miss the sun and I'll be glad for the days to start getting longer.

It's still beautiful and snowy here, but the furnace stopped working some time last night. the good news: it's not the only source of heat, I have lots of layering items and it will be fixed tomorrow. Right now I'm sitting in front of the fire (v. nice!) with blankets, fingerless gloves, many layers, and a hat. I would try to work this up into some kind of tale of Dickensian winter suffering (with, like, COAL and socks that need to be darned only I can't because I have frostbite in 9 fingers from selling matches to victorian villains all day), but since my reality is considerably more comfortable, I will refrain.



These pictures are from earlier in the week -- it's snowed a lot more since then (although not nearly as much as at Maggie's house -- holy cow!) , but I haven't caught up on my flickring quite yet. I worked at my favorite library this week -- it's close enough that I was able to walk, which is when I took this picture and the following. I walked for two reasons: 1) it's down a pretty steep hill that is always causing problems when it's potentially icy. It's much easier to walk up than to drive up when the weather turns bad. 2) I really wanted to spend some time IN the weather, since it's so unusual for us here. It was lovely! (I should walk there all the time, but I never seem to leave soon enough.)


I love how sunny this yellow house looks against the snowy sky.


From Saturday. I think there are drunken elves who go to the park and cause mischief every night. This snowball was probably about four feet tall, and made of snow and leaves.

SOLSTICE BONUS: I love this Beatle video! I saw it on Fluxtumblr tonight -- so great! I haven't seen many Beatle performance videos that aren't the usual ones (from Ed Sullivan, Shea Stadium, their movies, etc.). I love that this was in a recording studio context, I love Ringo's tie, I love that George looks cool, that Paul is wearing a sweater vest (!!), that John looks like his transformation to werewolf is almost complete, and I've always liked Hey Bulldog anyway.

baby, it's cold outside

I think I title a blog post this every time it is cold, but I don't care because baby, it IS cold outside. It's true!! It's not just wah wah temperate winter town two snowflakes whining like usual, it's really freakin' cold!

Winter here is not about snow shovels and sustained cold temperatures, it's about the occasional freak ice storm and a large variety of winter raindrops: small, sharp and sideways, fat and cold, and the invisible frozen mist (this is the kind where you don't think it's raining but get wet nevertheless). Large scale sustained cold is not the norm. (sustained damp? yes.) This is the coldest stretch we've had (or will have, when it's done) in over thirty years. For now it's a novelty -- anyone I saw out wandering around this afternoon of closed schools and telecommuting was clearly on An Adventure. Next phase is probably Brave Little Toaster, followed by Complete Epic Cabin Fever Breakdown which will spread like zombies from neighborhood to neighborhood. Good times!

But now I must hurry up and go to sleep. I had a wicked migraine most of Sunday and was fighting off residuals today with a lot (a lot!) of caffeine. I got a lot done, but only to the messy disaster stage that every one of my projects gets to before the it may not be finished, but I'm done with it stage. I have one hundred million things to do, but I'm actually looking forward to most of them! Woo hoo! But sleep first.


(I love how the green looks in this light! the snow changes everything.)

portent or merely weather?

There's a full moon surrounded by clouds and huge flashes of lightning out my window. At first I thought it was some jackass on the next street with a floodlight (because THAT'S so sensible), but no -- it's honest to god lightning.

It's not the jagged heavy metal tattoo kind of lightning, but rather the big flash sheet of horror movie lightning, where suddenly you can see that the zombies are almost upon you. Very exciting! (but I might have just scared myself out of sleep. Way to go, Jen!) Oh, great! now here comes the thunder and the moon has gone half way behind a black cloud like we're in Transylvania looking up at the castle. All that's required now is for the alleged neighborhood coyotes to start howling and I'll never sleep again!

I get it moon, you're versatile (and kind of a drama queen) -- last month show tunes, this month horror films. I'm almost (but not quite) afraid to see what September brings.

what's your call number?

During a recent library training meeting for on-call staff, the woman running the meeting started with a round of introductions. Not my favorite activity, but as someone who has been working on-call for a while, I'm used to it. This time she found an excellent twist that actually revealed information in a gentle but effective way: she had us give our names, how long we'd been with the library, and then our call number, i.e.what part of the library do we go to first? FUN! I liked this because of course it IS revealing, but it's not something that boxes you in forever. (it also involves a small bit of dewey decimal library nerdery, but no one seemed to have a problem with that.) She started us off by saying that she loves the YA (young adult novel) section, because there are so many great titles now and there weren't that many when she was a kid. We went around the circle -- one woman was a 580's girl (I'm a birder!), someone else 650's (small business), someone else doesn't read books (!!!) and instead just uses the library for media, another woman said that she should know but couldn't recall the call no. for her own book (many published authors in the MCL!), and so on. I was 800's (lit. and poetry) and GNs (graphic novels), but of course that's just the FIRST place I look. Anyway. As ice-breakers go, it's not bad.

park updates: They are putting new bark chips down on the main path around the perimeter of the park -- this is good because it's been raining a lot, the path has gotten muddy and previous bark chips had broken down so much so that the weed-dampening fabric was showing through. It hasn't been spread out yet, and today was just mountain after mountain of bark mulch right in my way. I must confess that my first bad-mood thought was that this was a metaphor for how everything I want seems to get a little further away and inconvenient just as I approach it, but fortunately I snapped out of it just in time to laugh and walk around pile after pile (AFTER PILE). I mean, that's some weak-ass manufactured drama right there!

There is one tree at the park that has particularly graceful above-ground roots -- like pretty feet or something, I suppose. Anyway, earlier in the spring someone (not me!) placed camellia blossoms all around these visible roots -- rings on fingers, bells on toes, flowers in hair. Camellia season ended and I didn't think much more about it, but last week I noticed that someone had put smooth river rocks in the hollows of the roots of this particular tree. Lovely! (this area is blessed/cursed with many, many, many smooth rocks that come up whenever you put a shovel to the ground. Thank the missoula flood.) I took it as a tribute to something, but I'm not sure what. Spring? Trees? Some secret that I don't know? They were gone today, so I know someone is tending to it, not just a hit and run tree be-decker. Oooh -- speaking of acts of guerilla beautification, I love this story of stealth civic gardening.

PROBLEM SOLVED! mostly: Lately I've been having a beach ball issue on my new computer. I need to figure out what it is, because it is (of course) driving me crazy. The trouble compounds itself; sometimes the only way to get out of THE PROBLEM is to force quit my computer. Usually, it's no big deal (especially since I've learned that one of the programs I'm likely to have open and be using automatically saves things even if I haven't), but one of the areas affected is my journal program. I keep an electronic journal, which I generally open up in the morning and write in it off and on all day. I use it for lists, My Deep Thoughts, etc. and whatnot. Usually I remember to save, but sometimes I don't -- yesterday I lost everything for the day. (it wasn't a particularly high-volume day, but still.) Anyway, I got the bright idea that maybe, just MAYBE, there was some sort of auto save feature, and lo and behold, there WAS and I have turned it on! Hooray! So while I still have the bigger problem of "why does my lovely new computer torment me so?", I solved the element that was most likely to make me incoherently agitated. (I use MacJournal, which I LOVE! I'm on an ancient free version, but the new one looks really nice and maybe I should upgrade.)

weather report: right now there is some sun, but it has been raining FOREVER. It is june, and the high is supposed to be somewhere in the mid-60's today. I don't need it to be sunny for months on end (although I would only complain a little!), but I could do with a few days of sunshine. Plus, we don't need the rain!! As I learned while touring the Grand Coulee Dam (more on that soon), the columbia river is full! Full to the top! and all the places where they normally divert water when the river is full? Also full! And the snow hasn't even started melting yet in Canada. Basically, our tour guide informed us that we are in perfect flood conditions, very similar to those of the big Vanport Flood in 1948. (today's blog theme: mighty floods of history! and, as always, my many neuroses.) Anyway, this flood news served as a great diversion to asking some tough questions. I was so distracted it didn't even occur to me to ask, but my sister got in the car after the tour and said "damn! I meant to ask about the fish!" (it turns out that at the Grand Coulee Dam there is no accommodation for salmon. They probably have a "distract the hippies with tales of their city flooding before they can ask about fish" policy in place with their tour guides. It was still a very groovy tour.) Anyway, the point of all of this is that I would very much like for the SUN TO SHINE, for at least three days in a row. Is that too much to ask? I hope not.

may your days be merry and bright

I am tired from a marathon bout of holiday lazing and eating delicious food, but I wanted to share some of the things that made today a good day for me. So here are some pictures:


it's like a sickness -- I can't stop taking pictures of these lights with the plastic things on them.


Four epiphyllum blossoms today! Usually it blooms in the summer right around my birthday -- In my experience it's unusual for it to bloom twice in one year. Yet here it is!


technically, this is from Christmas Eve. I was walking up Fremont to pick up a couple of last minute things and saw these cabbages in front of a new store. I think they're wonderful.


I went for a walk in the park and it started to snow! The local news said it might, but I never actually believed them, since it's the kind of thing they're always saying when they actually mean "it will snow on the mountain," or "it will snow in the gorge." but this time they were right!


There are still some red leaves left -- so pretty.


The snow began as just hard mean rain, but then it got into the swing of things and started getting nice and flaky. By the time I got home it felt like I'd been to the dentist because my whole face was numb. (I wore a hat and a jacket, but no gloves or scarf because of course it wasn't going to snow! and I don't need gloves for rain.) The snow has since melted away in my part of town, but it was sure fun for a few hours.


I received such thoughtful and generous gifts, including this necklace from my mom. I love it because it looks a little bit mod and a little white stripes at the same time.

....and now I have to go to bed before I am felled in transit by a turkey/carb coma.