Christmas Joy

A magical time for sure.  Special to most all of us for different reasons.  Hope this one lived up to all your expectations. 


Louis continues to dazzle us.

We had a great day, ending up with the horses joining in at Travis & Kim's.

 Shadow, the devil cat dropped by.

It was raining, so we settled for photos in the barn.
 
Cousin Jordan & Louis after the gift opening and before the official feasting, which seemed to go on all day.

So now comes the quiet time before we get back on a plane to Florida.  For me, Christmas joy is when  it's over and the days get longer until June 21st.  But then Christmas is for the young; old fart atheists tend to view it differently.

Stay Merry

Small Town Boy in the Big City

Teri took Nina to Aunt Kim's to make cookies and Ryan went to work so I decided to get some errands done without a car.  After all, this is Portland and everyone either walks or rides a bike or the metro to get things done.  Since my travels would take me all over the city, I opted for the bus.

This would be a first for me and I was really looking forward to earning my "mass transit" merit badge.
I realize this will be boring for most, or you can follow along on google (see link below) and track our intrepid traveler, sort of.

So first I walked one block north and seven blocks west to the Fred Meyer store to get a bus pass and pick up the #75 north to the transit station north of Hwy 84.  Then it was walk two blocks north and seven west to the supposed location of my first stop.  Slight problem, business no longer exist.

So, back track to a Burger King (not a politically acceptable establishment here, with all the Mom & Pop stores available) to fire up the iPad and search for an engraver.  I was looking for an engraver to put "Louis" on the back of a bunny spoon.  Hand engravers are rare these days, but a few phone calls located one in downtown Portland.

So I hop on the #77 to Rose Quarter Transit Station, pick up the MAX Red line to down town, then over and down a few to the engraver.

The River from the MAX.

After the engraver's walk the tree blocks to the river.

The Morrison bridge.

Then I walked up to the Hawthorne and caught the #33 up and over a few to transfer to the #9 that would take me to the Ross Island Bridge so I could walk over to the east side and check out the construction of a new bridge between the Hawthorne and Ross Island.

Waiting for the #9 seemed like a good time for a bathroom break so I went into a high rise to ask if they had any public toilets.  The nice lady at the local bank branch office in the lobby said the nearest would be in the food court below us.  Food court!

So I go through two sets of giant glass doors and over to the escalator and proceed to descend into another world in the city's underground.

The escalator down to a magic land under the city.  Those are drooling lion heads in the left wall.

After confirming that it was indeed like all other malls, I went back up to the hum drum world at the surface and hopped on the #9.  It took me to the west side of the Ross Island so I could walk across and see the new construction.

This is the west side abutment and first columns in the river.  The new bank plantings have silhouettes of what looks like Coyotes all over.  Must be keeping something away.

The east side has a concrete batch plant just upstream.  This was the clean out site, I'm sure that no pollutants are making their way into the river.

About a mile from the west side I picked up the #70 in front of Classic Pianos and the Aladdin Theater.  At 12th & Powell. The rest is easy, just go up to Hawthorne, transfer to the #14 and go up to 44th and then it is walk over one and up two to home.

Here's the link to the map of the trek.  Google Maps

Didn't get very warm today but it sure was beautiful!

Stay safe and warm.

Rember, we all looked like this once!

Enjoy the season!

Transitions

Finished up the last of the grand kid visits and drove south to catch a flight from Orlando to Portland.

First was the Holiday program at Spencer's school.

A gathering of Christmas trees.

Then Molly came back to the trailer for the last sleep over.

TV viewing seems to bring out an urge to bridge the space between two recliners.

The next morning it was off to soccer practice.

Molly had last soccer practice before the first game which will be next year.

Spencer was practicing his heading technique.
Then, in Portland.........

Today I went wood shopping with Sara and Emil who were in town to stock up for Emil's new enterprise as Luthier Extraordinaire.

While plain on the outside........

There were treasures galore within.

As you can see, more TV viewing inspired contortions.

Newest addition (the one on the left).

Tomorrow Nina and Grandma visit Travis and Kim for some pre Christmas cookie making.

Enjoy family and stay warm.

last of the warm for a while

Getting the last of the grand kid visits in before we leave for Portland.

I call this the one hour nutcracker because that's how long it lasted before it broke.  In Spencer's defense, it wasn't designed as a children"s toy.

Spencer and I have been supervising the construction going on right in front of the RV park.  They are widening the road from two to four lanes on a four mile stretch.

 Sewer pipe makes a good place for a break.

 Every hole needs more rocks.

He got a thumbs up from the driver of the tracked back hoe.

Molly has just started soccer practice so maybe I'll get some photos.  We won't make any games until we get back in Feb.

Next Sunday we will move the fifth wheel to Venice and the next day we fly to Portland.  There for a fast two weeks and then back to Venice for a month and another month back here before we start the trek back to the west coast.  That takes us up to March.

Enjoy the Holidays.

Finally, by popular demand

Went to birthday party at Tallahassee's version of  a Children's Museum.

Woke at 6 AM to cow pissing on flat rock rain, 86% humidity and 68 degrees.  Tomorrow we are on the cold side of the front, low forecasted of 30.

I'm liking the desert more and more.

Some photos of Louis

We are heading up to Tuscaloosa for a weekend Washburne visit, then it will be goodbye Tallahassee for a while.  We will move the fifth wheel to Venice and fly to Portland for the holidays.  Then back to Venice for at least a month before we start the migration back.

Stay dry.

Raggedy can now be finished

No, this is not the oncology clinic at Raggedy General.  It is doll production resumed at the fifth wheel workshop now that we have a name for Raggedy Andy's shirt.

Colder here, causing slight delay in trailer repair.  Should resume soon; photos to follow.

Took Spenser fishing; no fish but we established the routine.  You know, stop at the donut shop on the way, eat health food that mom sent for snacks on the break, and then hit the ice cream store on the way home.  Dinner?  No thanks mom, I'm not hungry yet.  By the way, when are we going fishing again?

Stay warm

Stork Alert

About 2:30 this morning, Portland time, Louis Nathaniel Wise debuted at his coming out party.  All went naturally, and he and mom are doing fine. 

More later, I'm sure.

Oh Joy!

Thought I had escaped decorating for Christmas.

Guess not.

Thanks Giving at the Beach

Been doing some chores around the trailer; finally got the right stuff to buff out the bug smashes and finish out the repair so I'll be doing that while Teri attends to some Black Friday duties.

Teri, Dad & grandma Margaret got to go to the first ballet recital.

Tattoo time.

Had the grand kids over for the night in the trailer.  Got to remember to restock the duct tape for their next visit.

Went to the beach today; beautiful but windy.

Not your usual beach wear.

 

Grandma soaking up the Florida sun

 

The shells all had sand tails.

It was in the low sixties but the wind felt much warmer so it was fun for all.

Sand was moved.

Tomorrow, back to whatever it is we do instead of work.

Be careful out there.

Been Hot Here

It was in the mid 80's with the humidity the same.  It is easy to say I miss the snow when I'm here rather than back home doing the shuffle across the ice to get the mail.  I see that back home it was single digits and lots of snow. 

Oh well, the heat wave is over with a low of around 40 tonight and a high tomorrow around of 64.  That's more to my liking.

 Spencer negotiating for desert.

Someone turned 7.  She still needs two front teeth for Christmas.

Grand kids are growing like weeds.  Molly had me help her pick out some soccer gear as practice starts in two weeks.  Still need to find a place to go fishing with them.  I'm sure there are plenty around here.

Started work on a patch on the fiberglass skin of the fifth wheel.  Don't have any before pictures, but here is a stage one photo.

 I wasn't thrilled with the fiberglass tape as it didn't want to absorb the resin completely.  Since I was using epoxy with a long pot life and slow cure, it finally did pretty well.

The bedroom doubles as the bike port.  Got the patch on; just needs the cosmetic finish.

Stay well and warm out there.

First Freeze

We had to get to Florida to experience our first freeze of the season.  Got down to the 20's last night.

Grand kids running amok.  Will get photographic proof one of these days soon.

Stay warm.

Finally Florida

Had an uneventful, albeit slightly long for us, trip from Tuscaloosa to Tallahassee today.  Got here in time to say goodnight to the grand children then back to the fifth wheel to finish up.

We finally caught up with Fall colors, or I guess you could say they caught us.  The Washburne estate on the lake was looking mighty fine with perfect weather.  Of course there was the usual fine food and conversation.

 We put up the front porch swing; now to paint the chain.

Downtown Tuscaloosa took an awesome hit when the tornadoes ripped through this spring.  There is still lots of clean up to do, let alone rebuilding.

 

I hope the sign rings true.

So now we have a few weeks to soak up family and tend to the fifth wheel.  It could use some cleaning after bug smashing our way over the last five thousand plus miles.

Stay warm.