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I didn't get to go to the Gardens after all. I drove past and even through the parking lot but the parking lot was full, the street parking was nearly full (and is always scary to get out of again anyway). Nice, sunny, pretty, warm weekend day and it was afternoon by the time I got there: sure recipe for a crowd. I don't enjoy the Gardens as much when they're crowded. I'll either go back tomorrow morning during members' hours, or maybe next weekend. They're not yet open the summer hours - that isn't until April 1 - so during the work week it is just not doable. (Office hours mandate staying until 3:30 regardless of start time; the Gardens take their last admission at 3:30 and close at 4:00 on winter hours. Once they go to summer hours, they're open until seven and it is quite doable.)
Then I went down into Portland, found the parking garage I wanted with a minimum of fuss, and wandered over to and through Powell's. I hadn't brought notes on books to buy - mostly because I don't have any just now - and I wasn't really in an acquisitive mode. But I did check out the poetry - they have quite a lot more than Beaverton Powell's does - and ended up with a new Sharon Olds collection. New is a relative term; it came out in 2002, but was the only one of hers I did not have, besides of course the one she released collecting poems from the previous collections (which, judging from its size compared to them, likely contains better than half of them...).
Saw a couple books by Marvin Bell that I wasn't sure I have; but also was not sure I don't. Left them there. Besides, the collection had a bunch of Dead Man poems in it. I still don't "get" this particular set of Bell's work, they're rather pointless-seeming to me. I'm sure there was more in there, but when you can't remember if you have it, what's the point anyway?
I also saw a new book by Timothy Liu, who taught poetry writing at Cornell when I was there. I did not buy it; a quick flip through it left me unimpressed. He did some good things and some bad things for my occasional forays into poetry (all moot, I suppose, given how much I write these days). He definitely introduced me to some poets whose work I quite like (Marvin Bell, and Sharon Olds, for example; also Li-Young Lee). However, his own poetry, I don't care so much for usually. I do own a couple of his collections and there are some poems I like, but the longer he writes the less I care for it. I do not know if it is that his poetry is going in a direction I don't like, or if it's that I'm going in a direction where I don't like his poetry. It's not a terribly important question, in the end.
Then I went over to Powell's Technical Books, the real reason for bothering to go into Portland. They had a book I'd seen recommended and heard good things about (Software Factories). Now, if I simply wanted to buy it, I would have had it sent to Beaverton and grabbed it. But technical books are, in my experience, very hit or miss - like many books - and they also happen to generally be expensive. This one, for example, is $40 (and that's cheap for a technical book, but this is basically theory, hence the relatively good deal). That's still more than I want to spend blindly on the basis of a few recommendations, none of them from a well-known-to-me and trusted source. So I went in to the bookstore first to skim bits of it.
It may still be a complete waste, but there was enough that hinted a full read might be worth it that I did decide to get it. Alas for Powell's, not from them; in the interim before I could get down there, I had discovered that I could get it at Amazon.com for just over $26. Now, I have not used Amazon in a long time as I didn't care for their privacy policy changes (though I was impressed at how up-front about them they were at the time). However. I have a tiny little credit there...and a $25 gift certificate that corporate gave each of us for Christmas. And I'm staring at free shipping for anything over $25 and a $26 book. You see what I see? Yes. So for $1.05, I will get that book. Not until sometime the week after next, but so what?
I figure that is a relatively low risk. (I still thought it worthwhile to check the book out first because, honestly, if it visibly was not anything I wanted on a quick skim-glance, then I could use that gift certificate better on other things. But it definitely did make me inclined to lean toward getting it unless I was sure I didn't want it.)
Got a decent small walk in, too, probably less than a mile total but definitely more than a half mile. I could have gone not more than a block or two if I was willing to park in Powell's garage. Hah. Exercise is good for you, and besides, the garage will take off your life in stress more time than you lose walking. And I got to watch what was around me, which is cool. There was a parking lot (more expensive than Smart Park, but closer to Powell's) that had three vehicles (hardly even that, almost carts if you know what I mean) of the sort designed to lift people up to work on things - just parked around the pay-booth. They were bright green. It looked like some bizarre carnival ride, only without the carnival (or motion; they weren't in use). I wonder if they are being used for some project there, or if they're just paying to park like everyone else?
I made mental notes of other things I saw, to share. I've since forgotten them all. Oops. I did have my camera with but, as is often the case lately, I just was not in the mood where I wanted to take it out and fuss with it; so I didn't.
Then I went down into Portland, found the parking garage I wanted with a minimum of fuss, and wandered over to and through Powell's. I hadn't brought notes on books to buy - mostly because I don't have any just now - and I wasn't really in an acquisitive mode. But I did check out the poetry - they have quite a lot more than Beaverton Powell's does - and ended up with a new Sharon Olds collection. New is a relative term; it came out in 2002, but was the only one of hers I did not have, besides of course the one she released collecting poems from the previous collections (which, judging from its size compared to them, likely contains better than half of them...).
Saw a couple books by Marvin Bell that I wasn't sure I have; but also was not sure I don't. Left them there. Besides, the collection had a bunch of Dead Man poems in it. I still don't "get" this particular set of Bell's work, they're rather pointless-seeming to me. I'm sure there was more in there, but when you can't remember if you have it, what's the point anyway?
I also saw a new book by Timothy Liu, who taught poetry writing at Cornell when I was there. I did not buy it; a quick flip through it left me unimpressed. He did some good things and some bad things for my occasional forays into poetry (all moot, I suppose, given how much I write these days). He definitely introduced me to some poets whose work I quite like (Marvin Bell, and Sharon Olds, for example; also Li-Young Lee). However, his own poetry, I don't care so much for usually. I do own a couple of his collections and there are some poems I like, but the longer he writes the less I care for it. I do not know if it is that his poetry is going in a direction I don't like, or if it's that I'm going in a direction where I don't like his poetry. It's not a terribly important question, in the end.
Then I went over to Powell's Technical Books, the real reason for bothering to go into Portland. They had a book I'd seen recommended and heard good things about (Software Factories). Now, if I simply wanted to buy it, I would have had it sent to Beaverton and grabbed it. But technical books are, in my experience, very hit or miss - like many books - and they also happen to generally be expensive. This one, for example, is $40 (and that's cheap for a technical book, but this is basically theory, hence the relatively good deal). That's still more than I want to spend blindly on the basis of a few recommendations, none of them from a well-known-to-me and trusted source. So I went in to the bookstore first to skim bits of it.
It may still be a complete waste, but there was enough that hinted a full read might be worth it that I did decide to get it. Alas for Powell's, not from them; in the interim before I could get down there, I had discovered that I could get it at Amazon.com for just over $26. Now, I have not used Amazon in a long time as I didn't care for their privacy policy changes (though I was impressed at how up-front about them they were at the time). However. I have a tiny little credit there...and a $25 gift certificate that corporate gave each of us for Christmas. And I'm staring at free shipping for anything over $25 and a $26 book. You see what I see? Yes. So for $1.05, I will get that book. Not until sometime the week after next, but so what?
I figure that is a relatively low risk. (I still thought it worthwhile to check the book out first because, honestly, if it visibly was not anything I wanted on a quick skim-glance, then I could use that gift certificate better on other things. But it definitely did make me inclined to lean toward getting it unless I was sure I didn't want it.)
Got a decent small walk in, too, probably less than a mile total but definitely more than a half mile. I could have gone not more than a block or two if I was willing to park in Powell's garage. Hah. Exercise is good for you, and besides, the garage will take off your life in stress more time than you lose walking. And I got to watch what was around me, which is cool. There was a parking lot (more expensive than Smart Park, but closer to Powell's) that had three vehicles (hardly even that, almost carts if you know what I mean) of the sort designed to lift people up to work on things - just parked around the pay-booth. They were bright green. It looked like some bizarre carnival ride, only without the carnival (or motion; they weren't in use). I wonder if they are being used for some project there, or if they're just paying to park like everyone else?
I made mental notes of other things I saw, to share. I've since forgotten them all. Oops. I did have my camera with but, as is often the case lately, I just was not in the mood where I wanted to take it out and fuss with it; so I didn't.
