Back, I guess, and sorta ready...

Well, dear readers, what can I say?  I haven't been blogging (my great capacity for stating the obvious) but I have been noticing some things around my stomping grounds.

Here's the thing: my darling mumsey has cancer and is slowing fading away before our eyes.  It's beyond sad and I've cried a river over it.  I'm not going to add more about that, though, because this is not the venue for sad family stories.  Just know that I have been distracted and busy and not neglecting you intentionally.

BUT!  I do want to get a few little tidbits noted and then I'll try to fill things out later.  To that end, I'll have to resort to bullets.

• Occupy Portland!  Wow!  Have you seen all of those tents downtown?  How hilarious is it that they chose the park between the cop shop and courthouse?  I love it!  And, in true Portland fashion, when it looked like they were going to be in the way for the Portland Marathon, they moved.  And came right back.  We're civilized like that.
• In the same neighborhood, the Edith Green/Wendell Wyatt Federal Building is finally looking like more than a steel skeleton.  There is some steel superstructure going up on the front and the south side is getting some skin.  I'll try to get some pictures.
• In my neighborhood, the Gulch, that derelict brick building on 21st that almost fell into the freeway is being rehabbed.  What?!  Who would put money into that?  I don't know, but they are shoring up the south facing foundation and building a new exterior wall.  Go figure.  Again, pictures would be helpful.
• The Slammer Tavern.  Someone has moved into the apartment above the tavern.  It's been vacant for as long as I can remember and always looked like hell, but now someone is living there.  I drive by on my way home from work and I can't help but stare as I'm stopped at the light (7th and Stark).  Weird, huh?
• South Waterfront and the New Bridge.  The south waterfront is a freaking nightmare.  I don't know why they can't do some of that work at night.  It is hellish down there!  But, watching the progress on the new bridge over the Willamette is interesting.  The new bridge will be just upstream from OMSI and cross over to the yet-to-be-built new complex of education high rises.  OHSU, PSU, and OSU are combining forces and funding and building a shared campus.  The bridge will be adjacent.  The bridge will be for light rail (a new Max line to SE -- yes, Milwaukie), bicycles, and pedestrians.  No cars!  The view from the Hill is pretty good and sometimes I'll pause on the 8th floor and watch the bridge stuff going on.

I feel like there were a couple more things I wanted to make note of, but I can't remember right now.  I'll try to get back here before too much time elapses and update you, but in the meantime, I NEED A CAMERA!  My phone takes the crappiest pictures and my little digital snappy broke so I'm in the market for something easy and cheap.

Oh, and if you were paying attention, I said that on my drive home... sad to say, I'm not riding my bike much right now.  For one thing, it's wet out.  Really wet.  But the bigger issue is that I am working a swing shift and I just don't feel good about riding home in the wet, cold, dark night.  I sure do miss Helen though.  Sigh. But, if we have a break in the weather, I'll be pedaling.

I guess that's all I've got for now.  

From the Northern reaches of the Realm

I drive out to the St John’s neighborhood three times a week and am pretty familiar with the goings on along my route. Well, I try to pay attention to my surroundings anyway. So, Saturday, as I drove through the Overlook neighborhood, I noticed that the long established tavern on the corner of Greeley and Killingsworth had changed its name. For as long as I can remember it has been Yorgo’s. How could one not remember that name?! It’s just different enough that it sticks in the brain. I invented a big Greek family to run the place, because whether or not the name is Greek, it sounded like Greek to me.

Last year Oregon passed a law requiring bars and taverns to be smoke free. That meant that all the bars and taverns that had diehard smoker clientele built little covered patios for their patrons. This happened at Yorgo’s, like everywhere else, but it seems to have been the beginning of the end. They only finished that patio a couple of months ago, and now, BOOM. New name!

And, how’s this for uninspired: Greeley Avenue Bar and Grill. The thing that’s funny to me about the name is that the tavern is actually on Killingsworth rather than Greeley… but no one wants to saddle their place with a name that is synonymous with the ghetto. Lots of bad stuff has gone down on Killingsworth over the years, and even though this is in a completely different neighborhood, the folks in charge of picking a name went with the safer choice. And who can blame them?

There has been a fair bit of gentrification in this neighborhood over the last few years. Believe me when I say that the sushi place would never have lasted a decade ago. But, the US headquarters for Adidas are down the street and that has to bring lots of lunch money to the hood. A girl that my daughter went to high school with lives directly behind the former Yorgo’s. Their family has been in that house for years. I wonder whether they like the changes or not.