It’s Fall Y’all

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Let the rains begin. It looked promising for a nice latte and a walk this morning, but by the time I was ready to roll, it was raining. I can deal with mist and occasional spinkles, just not this. I got in the car and started home. At the first light that I could turn to head back, I kept going straight. Then through the second one. Maybe it is not raining in Troutdale.

What about heading further east? I jumped on I-84 and headed that way. My first thought was, “Hmmm, maybe if I go all the way to Mount Hood, could it be dry there?” Then, “Will I have to go all the way to The Dalles?” As I passed the exit for the Multnomah Falls parking area, I came to my senses and decided to get off at the next exit and head home.

The above photo is from while I was driving back on Historic Old US-30.

The Vista From The Vista House

The one on the left is from when I stopped at the Vista House. There were like 4 cars parked there instead of the usual full lot. I got out of the car, took two photos, and got right back in. Looking towards the city, it looked like a break in the clouds.

A Blanket of Gold

Maybe when I get back to Troutdale, I can get a little walk in. The photo on the right is from the Dabney State Recreation Area where I stopped to take a walk. Ha, it started raining. I do have to admit that I took this picture while standing in the rain.
 

1. . 2 . 345

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Right at lunchtime I got the call from PDX Wraps, the GTI was done. So I finished up my sandwich and summoned an Uber.

It is Tuesday, so there is another night of 10,000 at the community center. I’m not sure where this little saying came from, I suspect Monica, but when a person rolls a certain straight, someone, mostly her, always chimes in with a 1. . 2 . 345 This also applies to every other straight, just with different numbers. It starts slow and builds in tempo and octave until the last digit is said in falsetto. Needless to say, this has stuck in my head. The very definition of an earworm.

My current bedspread has nine evenly spaced dingle balls puffed yarn balls along the top and bottom, and I can’t remember how long I’ve had it, but it seems like a pretty long time. When I pull it off to wash sheets, I fold it top to bottom and then middle to the bottom. Then I fold sideways into quarters so that I can get it back on simply by unfolding in the reverse as I go. How do I know I have it horizontally centered? It is by counting to the middle puff ball and lining it up with the center of the headboard. Up until a week ago I simply counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, but now I find myself, in my head, counting – 1. . 2 . 345.

Tonight I shared this little tidbit with the group. I’m not sure whether they just feel sorry for this old man or if it might be time to administer a cognitive test…

Plugging Holes

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This morning I took the GTI down to my pals at PDX Wraps for a little cosmetic touchup. When I bought the GTI it had a CARMAX license plate in the VW stock front plate mount. When I bought the side mount for the license plate, I removed the plastic Carmax plate and then took the VW mount off.

The plastic Carmax plate was secured with screws, and those screws were just driven right through the VW mount into the bumper. The VW mount was secured to the bumper with three plastic pins. This meant that shifting the plate to the side left 5 small open holes in the bumper. So I ordered a 146-piece set of body plastic retainers for ten bucks from Amazon to cover up all the holes. I actually needed two different sizes, the Carmax holes were just a bit larger.

When I had the car wrapped a couple months later, the guys at PDX Wraps pulled them out when they did the bumper to get a smooth look. This was all well and good for a while, but over time the vinyl covering the holes got stretched a bit and you could see where the holes are. The real issue started in the summer when the bugs were active, smashing into the thin vinyl and actually ripping it, leaving an empty black hole. I added a couple more holes on the Utah Adventure trip because of bugs and triple-digit speeds.

So I brought my, now, 141-piece set of plastic retainers to them so they can re-wrap the bumper. I think I’d rather have five little bumps than 4 holes and a dent. Besides, a lot of cars now have bumps on their bumpers and fenders that house parking sensors and such.

Where Have You Gone Joe DiMaggio?

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Thursday:
I was invited next door for a spaghetti dinner with Tere and Jason. While they were cleaning off the table, I walked the 30 feet home and grabbed dessert, Chocolate Chip Hold the Cone! from Trader Joe’s. Then we broke out the dice to get some “practice” for the usual dice game of 10,000 on Friday. Between the 3 of us, we polished off a whole bottle of red wine over the next hour or so. Now I’ve seen Tere have a couple of vodka lemonades and be just fine, but after about 6 ounces of cabernet, she got very silly.

Friday:

Big Bird

Usual Friday routine, with only a couple things out of the ordinary, a couple city council members crashing the morning Community Coffee Clatch, turning it into, well, I don’t know what because I snuck out the side door. Seeing the Great Blue Heron today that normally haunts the Salish Ponds was not unusual, but getting close enough to get a good photo of it was.

Saturday:

Northwest Transit Band Poster

This was the monthly visit of the Northwest Transit Band to Celebrities, where Tere and I go over and “dance” without shame, because we will never again see those other people that are there… I am also glad to discover that I am not the only one that is powerless to Obi-Wan Toney’s masterful use of the “Force.” At last night’s dice game she convinced a couple other of the players to join us and go listen/dance to the band. Paul showed up, and Monica also brought a friend, so we ended up with a half dozen of us. Jason tagged along even though he doesn’t do the dance thing. There were a bunch of small posters of bands that have played there decorating the men’s room wall that were new. I snagged a souvenir on my way out the door.

Sunday:

Bike and Mural #7

When I woke up at 6:30 this morning, the first thing I did was check the weather because today was supposed to be a rainy day. It looked like the rain wasn’t supposed to arrive here until about 8:00 AM. So I hopped out of bed and got my cycling attire on. Because of the wet weather’s imminent arrival, I rode directly to Stomping Grounds so I could get the latte/muffin breakfast in. Afterwards, I did manage about 5 miles of tooling around before heading home, not long after I got there, the rain started.

It’s Alive!

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The house is now listed. It went live about 11:00 AM. Check it out on Realtor.com. The pictures make it look great; I’d buy it, but I already did.

Then this afternoon I had my first lookie-loo. They were coming at 4:30, so around four I turned on all the lights, opened the curtains/blinds and went for a bike ride. My realtor texted me at 5:15 to tell me I could go back home.

These folks were not the first to ask about the house, on picture day (2 days ago), I was blowing off the driveway, and when I got to the end, there was a guy standing there pointing at the sign. I told him it wasn’t listed yet but should be in a couple days. He was obviously well versed in this kind of setup because when I told him the asking price, he asked how much the land lease was. This all seems promising, but you never know…

The Radio Paradise Story

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My favorite internet “radio station” has got its own short documentary film about it. Give it a watch even if you are someone I’ve tried to steer you to listening to RP, and you never got into it. Played dice again tonight with the usual gang. We played 4 games instead of the usual three because a couple of the games went real fast. The dice were hot. Not for me though; I haven’t won a game in a couple weeks.

I might have another missed opportunity tale…

It’s Picture Day

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Missing Something?

The FOR SALE sign went up on Friday, and today the professional photographer arrived to make the house appealing to prospective 55+ home buyers in the Portland area. I spent most of yesterday and this morning hiding trash cans, rolling up area rugs, clearing off countertops, and then hiding those same items. This morning I opened all the curtains and blinds and turned on every light. He was here about 45 minutes. I was tasked with moving the exercise bike out and back in of the office/bedroom to help make the smallest bedroom seem bigger in photos. I was asked to move my wanna-be Eames lounge chair because the consultant thought it made the room look crowded, but he thought it looked good there, so he kept it in, and then we moved it out, and he’ll let the realtor sort it out. He took the outside shots, and then we walked up to the community center so he could snap the pool and the inside amenities.

I spent the afternoon putting everything back on the counters and the floors. Closing the curtains and blinds, shutting off all the lights, blah, blah, blah…