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A weekend that is, I grant, coming closer to being over than I like, but such is life.
My parents stopped by today - it was good to see them; I should see about visiting sometime soon. Only with enough prep time to take the prednisone since I don't think my allergies are appreciably better. They've recently installed a heat pump and it sounds like they are very pleased with it and with the contractor - so that was good news. For bonus good news, they gave us their old portable air conditioner, which we can use to cool off the downstairs next summer. (We haven't needed that as much, but there will be times when it will be nice.)
Also boxes and boxes of books. Eep. Must go through those at some point.
Yesterday, I got rid of a bunch of clothing I didn'twant any more, which let me find several things I hadn't seen in a while in my closet. (They were there, just squished. Go figure.) I also went to Powells, Powells, and Powells. Laugh all you want: I am a junkie. I drove to Powells Beaverton looking for three books they had that I wanted. Alas, they had them when I checked the web site, but that was a week or two ago and they had only one when I got there. Sigh. I got that one, then went on to the Japanese Gardens (which were still summer gardens, and fairly boring as the summer gardens are once the irises have passed). Then from there, down into Portland and Powell's downtown and then the Powell's Technical bookstore a couple blocks away.
That went swimmingly, except for the part where I thought I'd done a fairly quick browse with a couple pauses to look through things, and got back to the car three hours later. *grins* Fortunately, Smart Parks are cheap until you spend over four hours in them, so that was fine, just startling.
Getting in and out of Portland, on the other hand, was...well, not so spectacular a success. Coming in, from the Japanese Gardens, I came down through the hills rather than on a freeway. And I did all right, until I went to find the 12th and Yamhill Smart Park. Perhaps if I had turned toward Yamhill instead of away...or if I had remembered it was the 10th and Yamhill Smart Park...as it is, I crossed Burnside, which I knew was wrong, and doubled back, and found it no problem. However, just the single-block turn-around maneuver past Burnside was a pain. They've really been developing that area. As a consequence, it has much more traffic than it did five years ago, but not so very much more space to put the traffic in.
Then, there was getting out of town. This is very doable, most days - not trivial, but doable. The best way out of town for me is to get down to Naito Parkway along the waterfront, then take the onramp to I-5 southbound. This is non-trivial from 10th and Yamhill because it's all too easy to pick a road that doesn't go through to Naito...or that drops you on a bridge, which also will not meet Naito (but will go over it) and then you're on the other side of the river, which is not real helpful.
I managed to do okay at this. Unfortunately, the road I picked was blocked by a cross-parked police car between Naito and the next street up, and there was a crowd at the far end of that block. I had no idea whether Naito was closed or just the little side street...the only event I was aware of this weekend was the Race for the Cure which was today, not yesterday. I debated it, then shrugged and headed for Clay, which runs away from Naito and up to 26. Not quite how I had meant to leave, but only slightly more roundabout.
However. I'm never quite sure where Clay is. I knew which side of me it was on, just not how far, so I started the process of doubling back. I knew I'd have to make a right. So I got in the right lane ... and it turned into right-only before I got to Clay. Ducky. Fine. Couldn't get over, so I turned right, went up the requisite two blocks, turned left...and the right-hand lane was occupied by a Tri-Met bus that was stopped to pick up/drop off passengers. Fine, I'll just pass and in the next block, and get over - because that street (going right again) could be Clay.
Only problem was, the bus started moving as I was halfway to it. I wasn't probably going to be able to do this without cutting it off...until the light on the in-between street, headed left, turned red. At which point I was home free. Tri-met buses start from a dead stop on a slight uphill slope in a fashion that is slightly more effective, but no faster, than a salmon walking up a river-bank. Which gave me plenty of time to pass and get over, since it was now not moving so fast.
Fortunate, because that street was Clay. After that, I got the heck out of town before it could do anything else unusual.
My parents stopped by today - it was good to see them; I should see about visiting sometime soon. Only with enough prep time to take the prednisone since I don't think my allergies are appreciably better. They've recently installed a heat pump and it sounds like they are very pleased with it and with the contractor - so that was good news. For bonus good news, they gave us their old portable air conditioner, which we can use to cool off the downstairs next summer. (We haven't needed that as much, but there will be times when it will be nice.)
Also boxes and boxes of books. Eep. Must go through those at some point.
Yesterday, I got rid of a bunch of clothing I didn'twant any more, which let me find several things I hadn't seen in a while in my closet. (They were there, just squished. Go figure.) I also went to Powells, Powells, and Powells. Laugh all you want: I am a junkie. I drove to Powells Beaverton looking for three books they had that I wanted. Alas, they had them when I checked the web site, but that was a week or two ago and they had only one when I got there. Sigh. I got that one, then went on to the Japanese Gardens (which were still summer gardens, and fairly boring as the summer gardens are once the irises have passed). Then from there, down into Portland and Powell's downtown and then the Powell's Technical bookstore a couple blocks away.
That went swimmingly, except for the part where I thought I'd done a fairly quick browse with a couple pauses to look through things, and got back to the car three hours later. *grins* Fortunately, Smart Parks are cheap until you spend over four hours in them, so that was fine, just startling.
Getting in and out of Portland, on the other hand, was...well, not so spectacular a success. Coming in, from the Japanese Gardens, I came down through the hills rather than on a freeway. And I did all right, until I went to find the 12th and Yamhill Smart Park. Perhaps if I had turned toward Yamhill instead of away...or if I had remembered it was the 10th and Yamhill Smart Park...as it is, I crossed Burnside, which I knew was wrong, and doubled back, and found it no problem. However, just the single-block turn-around maneuver past Burnside was a pain. They've really been developing that area. As a consequence, it has much more traffic than it did five years ago, but not so very much more space to put the traffic in.
Then, there was getting out of town. This is very doable, most days - not trivial, but doable. The best way out of town for me is to get down to Naito Parkway along the waterfront, then take the onramp to I-5 southbound. This is non-trivial from 10th and Yamhill because it's all too easy to pick a road that doesn't go through to Naito...or that drops you on a bridge, which also will not meet Naito (but will go over it) and then you're on the other side of the river, which is not real helpful.
I managed to do okay at this. Unfortunately, the road I picked was blocked by a cross-parked police car between Naito and the next street up, and there was a crowd at the far end of that block. I had no idea whether Naito was closed or just the little side street...the only event I was aware of this weekend was the Race for the Cure which was today, not yesterday. I debated it, then shrugged and headed for Clay, which runs away from Naito and up to 26. Not quite how I had meant to leave, but only slightly more roundabout.
However. I'm never quite sure where Clay is. I knew which side of me it was on, just not how far, so I started the process of doubling back. I knew I'd have to make a right. So I got in the right lane ... and it turned into right-only before I got to Clay. Ducky. Fine. Couldn't get over, so I turned right, went up the requisite two blocks, turned left...and the right-hand lane was occupied by a Tri-Met bus that was stopped to pick up/drop off passengers. Fine, I'll just pass and in the next block, and get over - because that street (going right again) could be Clay.
Only problem was, the bus started moving as I was halfway to it. I wasn't probably going to be able to do this without cutting it off...until the light on the in-between street, headed left, turned red. At which point I was home free. Tri-met buses start from a dead stop on a slight uphill slope in a fashion that is slightly more effective, but no faster, than a salmon walking up a river-bank. Which gave me plenty of time to pass and get over, since it was now not moving so fast.
Fortunate, because that street was Clay. After that, I got the heck out of town before it could do anything else unusual.
