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WANTED MAN vs NEEDED. THERE’S A DIFFERENCE?

If you’re waiting for a wanted man to make life better, you’ll be waiting a minute.
This man was a one-float parade around Silverton during my last visit.
You could hear him from blocks away with his booming sound system blasting AC/DC.
When I left, he followed my car out of town, then turned back at the city limits.
He was either a one float parade or a motor escort service.
Either way, I asked myself: Are there town characters everywhere?
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ONE PORTLAND JOURNEY: MINE

I got off the bus at the end of my Portland journey, only to begin the real deal.
This is where I lived after breaking up.
My usual move after a break up was moving to bigger and better.
For instance, I broke up in Delaware and moved to Brooklyn, NY.
Here, I broke up in far SE and moved downtown Portland.
This building had a lot of break up apartments, so I was in good company.
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CLASSIC PORTLAND RIVALRY

Social media Portland isn’t for the weak of heart.
It’s either heaven on earth, or a hell hole from the underworld sticky goo.
If you showed up recently, things are looking better; if you’ve been here a minute you’ve seen the ups and downs.
Lastly, if you’ve lived here your whole life? Uh oh.
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PORTLAND BRIDGES – 1971

Every city with a river have one thing in common: bridges.
Portland bridges crisscross the Willamette River over and over to keep traffic moving.
There’s more of them today than 1971, not to mention upgrades.
The 405 is more of river of cars, and like every river it needs bridges to keep the city moving.
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PORTLAND, OREGON – 1971 – DRIVE CAREFULLY

Portland, Oregon, city of dreams, or the end of the line.
The end of the western line may be Astoria, but let’s stick to Portland.
This blog post shows approaches to town on different roads.

 

Well it’s all right, riding around in the breeze
Well it’s all right, if you live the life you please
Well it’s all right, doing the best you can
Well it’s all right, as long as you lend a hand

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toughen up

CIGARETTE SMOKE ‘EM IF YOU GOT ‘EM? DON’T DO IT

    Tobacco and cigarette smoke, the stuff of dreams and nightmares.   The dream part comes first. Light a stick and enjoy. All you’ve got to do is breath in, breath out, and watch the cigarette smoke curl into shapes. Later comes the nightmare part, the regret, the tubes, the hospital smell, the faces […]

KNIGHT CANCER vs THE HUTCH

    Portland and Seattle have a storied rivalry throughout history, especially sports history.   Now it’s competition to find the cure for cancer. Let the games begin.   The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle has a super story out yesterday, huge story in the Seattle Times.   “The Hutch closes in on […]

AUTHORITARIAN PARENT? WHAT OTHER KIND IS THERE

    A scene from the movie Vision Quest shows Louden Swain’s buddy Kuch at home with his dad. Instead of a bonding moment of shared struggle, the dad slaps Kuch around, telling him he’ll never be nothing.   Nothing. Wrestling might make him feel like a big shot, but he’ll still be nothing.   […]

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boomer years

BEAVERTON, PORTLAND’S EASTSIDE FOR ADULTS

  Beaverton sees Portland as a necessity of suburban life. They need a city nearby But it doesn’t work the other way around. Portland sees Beaverton in the same lot as Tigard, Lake Oswego, Gresham, even Vancouver. Suburbs feeding off the urban tube. You can defend any town, but a suburb takes more thought. Start […]

GOOD ENOUGH YET?

When ‘getting over it’ isn’t good enough. It all sounds the same. Get over it. Move on. Turn the page. Maybe you say it to yourself, maybe you hear it from others. If it’s others giving the push, you know what they’re really saying? You’re a whiner. In blogger land it’s whining about SEO, traffic, […]

SANDWICH GENERATION GRANDY MAKES THE RIGHT CALL

I am in a storage space in my house throwing away rings of gauze and squirt bottles of skin care and wound cleaner. It’s a throwback moment with Grandy, my mother in law who passed two years ago. If I had PTSD I would have been thrown back. Instead it was a sweet memory. But […]

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buckle up

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE LIVES IN BEAVERTON OREGON

  The Original Practice Shakespeare Festival staged Much Ado About Nothing Saturday night. It felt like a homecoming at the Elsie Stuhr Center. From pre-school to seniors and everyone in between, the OPS players dominated the room. William Shakespeare lives in Beaverton, if only for one night. But it’s more.

GREEN CORNER OF MIDDLE EASTERN MESA

    “Green Corner is off Southern and Alma School. I’ve been there,” I said, flooring the rental car through the round-about on Bass Pro Drive.   “So you know the way? I should stop looking at the GPS?” she said. “Fast corner.”   I’d been there five months ago with DD. Alma School was […]

SPACE NEEDLE BECOMES LAMP POST IF SEATTLE GROWS THE WRONG DIRECTION

    Reading right to left the image of Seattle changes from working port town Seattle to big league sports town Seattle to gorgeous big-city-over-water skyline Seattle, the equal to any world center. And then the forgotten Space Needle. There it is all by itself on the left. Alone. Can we finally agree? Seattle is […]

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