Flannel Shirt

Young painter

The block's designated artist appears to be on vacation, painting woodlands.

 

I took Izzy for an extended walk this afternoon. As soon as we started out it started to sprinkle. Normally Portland weather comes from the west, off the Pacific Ocean at the end of the Columbia River, but there's a curious circular weather pattern moving the moisture from the north to the east into the Cascades, and a little rain squeezed through, but not enough to stop us. Went along Sandy and hung a right on 50th Avenue, past the post office and down another block and a half. It wasn't a really long walk, but it was heaven for Izzy. I sort of look at it as a dog nose vacation. Normally when we go out we circle our block. Her sniffing seems more like filing away different smells here or there. Going on an unfamiliar block she really gets excited. All those new smells were like heaven to her. Her golden eyes just get so excited and she lets her tongue hang out. Every once in awhile she'd look back over her shoulder at me like she was saying, "Thanks, Bob. This is great." 

We had leftover beef stroganoff tonight. Not much else. Over and out.

Ramona took this picture of her parents

Not sure where you'll be when you see this. Judy said they were about to take you to the hospital. Hopefully, you back at our place. 

Above are a couple of pictures our neighbors across the street posted. They've been on vacation and should be back soon. 

I had to go into the health plan's lab to get a blood test done. A-OK. Hope things are better. I have some O pictures I can send you. In the next day or two.

Ballerina and mom

It was pretty quiet on the block today. First walk of the morning Gilbert wandered into the Prine's backyard and was about to settle down underneath the kids' treehouse. I'm not sure if he was looking for crumbs from whatever the kids ate above or he was looking for a place to lay down and die. Izzy and I fished him out and walked him back to the house. 

That was pretty much the day until we went to the theater tonight. We saw "Lady Day at the Emerson Bar & Grill", which was about Billie Holiday's final show. It was basically a one-person show, but she had a trio (drums, standup bass and piano). They were terrific players. I really appreciated some of the bass work. Nice and subtle. The drummer spent most of the night playing his brushes. The piano player was very, very good. The woman who portrayed was great, and a great singer too. Holiday had a sad life, which came out in the monologues, during which the character was constantly drinking gin. She would occasionally go offstage for her heroin fix. 

Anyway, she had a sad life and portrayed it well. Good night out. 

Two ballerinas

One of these kids is the one across the street.

The cleaning lady came today, which for Joan means that we had to do a clean-up before the cleaning lady got here. Man, does that get Izzy nervous. The vacuum cleaner, all those cleaning smells, that strange woman who's taking away all those smells around the house that she memorized. 

Tonight I got the two of us some Chinese takeout from one of the food carts about a block or so up Sandy Boulevard. I took Izzy along, the first time she's been up there since she ran off after the smell of food. (If I ever buy a dogsled Izzy would be the lead dog.) She got a little wild-eyed, all the smells of the carts, Chinese, Vietnamese, Guamanian, Thai, Mexican, Nepalese, hot dog/hamburger stand. There's even a barbeque cart. 

While we were waiting for our order to be made, lots of families with dogs and kids came through the area where Iz and I were sitting. I kept her calm by having her sit down between my knees and scratching her ears and talking with her. A little girl who ran by ahead of her parents was named Izzy. So for Iz and I it was quite an adventure. 

Thoughts of love

Thoughts about love by Ramona Faye.

“Well, Love is a thing when you give them a hug and kiss them, love it feels good. And you bring each other pets like dogs and cats. And you feel happy with love and I love everyone, all my friends! Love looks like hearts and it feels like pollen inside a bee, I mean inside a flower."

Our neighbor is turning into quite a philosopher. It was her last day of pre-school today.

Nothing terribly eventful happened at our house. We had pizza and watched the Warriors sweep the Cavaliers tonight. Ah, champs for three out of the last four years. Hooray! 

As far as pictures of you-know-who, I'll try to get some to you, maybe tomorrow. 

It's actually raining tonight. For all the rain we had this Spring I figured we were fine, but for the last month or so, despite so much marine sea layering (clouds) we haven't got much rain, so this rain is good. Plus, I don't have to water the lawn.

No news

No real news today. Ramona's mom was a little teary this morning because today was the last day of her preschool. Next year: kindergarten. 

Today was our last scheduled day to pick up Oliver from kindergarten. We did and drove across the river to Vancouver, where Oliver's mom is a dean of students at Clark College. The Clark of the college is the Clark of Lewis and Clark.

Traffic coming back was really heavy. It felt really good to get back home. And Izzy and Gilbert were glad to see us.

Parade Day

The first picture is the back of Ramona's head as she gazes on what I think is a llama. The second is a picture of Ramona and a friend. I watched the parade, parts of it, a couple of times. It's the Junior Rose Parade, lots of kids in it. It blocks traffic for a couple of hours, so we just hung out. My knees were tired from too long a walk with Izzy on Monday.

We had tacos, you know, ground beef with a packet of McCormick's seasoning. grated cheese, taco shells from Safeway. That kind of homemade. Anyway, the Warriors played the Cavaliers tonight and despite Steph Curry having an awful night, he was something like one out of fourteen shooting at one point, the Warriors won in the end, making them 3-0 for the series. It was a tough game but ultimately satisfying. Well, my team won.

Pondering Bob Dylan's birthday

“Maybe he’s playing his songs or maybe he’s sitting in his chair waiting for his folks to come sit with him and join him...maybe he’s dreaming” -Ramona

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Meanwhile, nothing much on this side of the street except it was a beautiful day. Blue skies, a little over seventy. Izzy and I went for a few walks, we got Oliver after school and fed him snacks. Joan helped him dress in his workout clothes for his ballet class and took him to his mom in an afternoon swap. We watched the Warriors lose. Maybe it's not their year. 

Usually the first walk of the morning Gilbert comes along with Izzy and me. The problem is that Izzy is very motivated and Gilbert isn't. He's getting slower and slower and tends to wander off into the neighbors' backyards. He can't go too far. If he disappears I'll bring Izzy home then go out and wait for him. He eventually shows up. 

The weather was great too

These are the folks across the street. Really nice. When I'm walking Izzy around noon I often see them coming home from the little one's preschool. Diana, the mom, dug out some old toys that were age-appropriate for Kinsley when she was here. 

The house painting is still going on. Mostly doing the trim. The painters were doing the railings for the front porch, and the porch itself, so we had to go in and out the backdoor all day. I'm guessing that the back door and porch would be off-limits when they come back on Monday. Everyone on the block says it's looking good. 

We were feeling good enough to get out and drive around. We went across the Columbia River to a hobby store in Vancouver, Washington that had wooden house numbers. With a new paint job we want a new set of street numbers on the front of the house so people can find us easier. The only problem was that my knee started acting up so I limped a little more than normal. When we got home the my medical folks called and said they had to cancel my orthopedic appointment next week until the week after that. Oh well.

We ate lunch at the Jersey Mike's out near the Portland Airport. It's not like going into the place on Front Street in Keyport, but I really like the sandwiches. Right after we sat down with our sandwiches a women's college softball team came in and lined up for sandwiches. Glad we got there before they did. 

Tonight our basketball team, the Warriors played a pretty bad game against the New Orleans Pelicans. Oh well. 

 

Horse rider

This happened awhile back. The folks across the street took a week's vacation and took their girl to a horse riding place. 

In other news, something made Joan and myself kind of queasy. I've been fine today but Joan's alimentary canal has been running, er, fast. I'm guessing my dear readers didn't need to hear that. 

Things otherwise are just fine.