A Journal of My Mid-Life Crisis

25 April 1999 - Disturbances in the Cosmos

A large yellow object appeared in the sky above Portland, Oregon and local residents panicked, having seen such a strange phenomenon only a few times ever before. They stuck their hands out the window and were disturbed by the lack of moisture. And the air temperature was much higher than normal, leading many to conclude that the end of the world had come and had come by fire.

Yes, it was actually warm and sunny in Portland on Saturday, as I did a 21 kilometer (13.1) mile walk that was part of the Vancouver USA Discovery Walks. It was a lovely route through Vancouver, Washington, with large sections of it along the Discovery Trail and other pieces winding past Officer's Row, and then to a walkway along the Columbia River. Sunday's weather was more normal for the Pacific Northwest so I wimped out and just did the 10K (6.2 miles), which wasn't a very interesting route either. The longest walks (32K and 42K) took in Lake Vancouver but I didn't think I was up to that distance yet, particularly as I had a few blisters from Saturday. I also had managed to fall on a bit of rough sidewalk on Saturday (early in the walk, just before the first checkpoint) and skinned both knees. No big deal - I will heal just fine - but it was annoying to be reminded that I really should pay attention to what I'm doing, rather than looking at the map while walking.

One can't be a bibliophile visiting Portland without making a pilgrimage to Powell's! I'm not entirely convinced that it's the largest bookstore in the U.S. but it doesn't matter, since it is definitely a good one. I got off fairly lightly, since I tempered my desires with the limited luggage space I had available. But I had better not ever drive to Portland as I could easily blow a few hundred dollars there.

I also got to meet an old mud friend. Dennis (Tumbolia on Stick and Foundation) and we (and his son, Ben) went out to lunch at a brewpub and then went on to the Saturday Market, which was fun to browse around. Again, limited luggage space helps, and I bought just one thing - a sort of anti-computer virus gargoyle. It's a bizarre clay face with a foot in its mouth and was just too interesting to resist. Overall, it was a very nice weekend and I really should get to Portland more than every 13 years.

Alas, I got back later than planned (the usual Sunday night delays into LAX) and with having to get up at 0-dark-30 on Monday just wasn't up to trying to write th week's entry then. And why did I have to get up so bloody early (4 a.m. to be precise) on Monday? Because my Friday meeting in Colorado got moved to Monday due to other screwed up weather. As I told Mary Joan, "Don't tell me it's supposed to snow. You can say it is going to snow, but in April it is never supposed to snow." Apparently, Denver got really socked with a foot of snow and inches of rain; had it all been snow, it would likely have been 3 feet. It must be the fault of the New York Yankees, though I've yet to deduce the exact chain of causality.

Which makes as much sense as blaming music/video games/movies/black trenchcoats/etc. for the Littleton massacre. (Has anybody bothered asking if the kids were Yankees fans?) Black trenchcoats are an abomination as trenchcoats should be khaki, but teenage fashion crimes have no direct relation to evil. Or who knows what we would have done in the era of platform shoes and polyester leisure suits?