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Subject: Postcard from Portland
Dear Family and Friends,
Summer served up a July julienne garnished with rosy sunrises and
sunsets. It was dry, warm and cooked to perfection. This was our just
deserts for the dousing we take all winter!
The most notable event last month was Liz's birthday on the 22nd. Since
it fell in the middle of the week, the celebration started the weekend
before and lasted through weekend following. Now that we are "landed
gentry", Liz has been hungering for horticulture. The weekend prior to
her birthday we went on a quest to quench her appetite for Alberta
spruce. We set out in the morning with a list of local nurseries,
confident that we'd find the plants Liz for which pined. She wanted
three dwarfs - one to the left of the front door and under the octagonal
window, and the other two to frame the living room window. We set out
early, confident of success. The first five nurseries we visited had
very small selections from which to choose. Either the plants were two
small, too expensive, or they didn't twins to set off the living room
window. It was well past midday, it was hot, and our enthusiasm was
wilting. Liz was tired and just wanted to go home and put her feet up.
But we were in S.E. Portland, and there was one more nursery close at
hand, so we decided we might as well check it out before heading home.
We turned into the Creekside Nursery (503 661-7217) and were greeted by
the owner. I described to her what we wanted and asked if she had any in
stock. She gave us a wry smile and motioned for us to follow her. We
were led to the far corner of the nursery where she had at least 100 of
exactly the kind of conifer we had sought in vain! Now we were faced
with another dilemma - which three do we choose? To make matters even
more interesting, they had Alberta dwarf spruces that were sculptured
into corkscrews at very reasonable prices. I wanted to get at least one
of these to go under the octagonal window. But with the wonderful
selection they had, and since their prices were half of what we'd seen
elsewhere, I urged Liz to pick out three. I couldn't convince Liz to
change her mind, so after an hour of parading out pairs of prospective
adoptees, we headed home with two normal and one corkscrew fir. Of
course, once we got home and set the plants up, Liz decided that I had
been right after all. The two normal dwarfs (is that an oxymoron?)
looked too small. *sigh* I offered to take her back out to Creekside the
following weekend to get two more sculptured spruces and Liz consented.
The two smaller trees now frame the garage.
On the 22nd we had a quiet dinner at home and opened her many cards as
well as the gifts Liz had received from her parents. The gift my Mother
sent her has yet to arrive, but I checked and it's due today or
tomorrow.
The following weekend I took Liz out for her real birthday dinner.
[flashback] Last summer, my boss at ADP got a well deserved promotion.
He felt that the cause was largely due to the efforts his direct reports
had made. To reward us, he took us out for a lunch cruise on the Spirit
of Portland. Liz was more than a little jealous since her employer never
does anything like this for them. I promised to make it up to her.
[resume] I'm a man of my word, even if it takes a little time. We
boarded the Spirit of Portland at 1830 hours on Saturday and set a
course for Lake Oswego. We dined on salmon as we enjoyed the views. The
luxury houses that line the river are best enjoyed from the vantage we
had as we wended our way upstream to Lake O. The architecture ranged
from the truly resplendent to obscenely ostentatious. There were also
numerous houseboats that reminded us of "Sleepless in Seattle", which we
saw on our first date. After we finished dinner and dessert we went
topside. The captain had introduced himself before dinner and invited
all the passengers to visit him in the wheel house. We took him up on his
offer. As we stepped inside we were rather amazed to see one of the
passengers at the helm! The captain was at her side giving her
instructions, much to our relief. We docked around 2 1/2 hours after we
had embarked and waddled (sorry, Liz ;-) up the gangplank, back to
"Babe" and made our way home.
The month also featured a long awaited visit from Liz's parents. Her Dad
had not yet seen our new home, and we were both anxious to show it to
him. Bill and Pris flew into PDX last Wednesday and stayed until Monday
morning, when we bade them a tearful farewell. Liz's Dad had just
finished a major medical double-header, chemo and radiation, as part of
his treatment for cancer. This is pretty exhausting stuff, so we mostly
spent our time together simply spending time together. Liz and her Mom
did, of course, get in some obligatory shopping. But the focus has
changed to baby clothes and furnishings. It was too soon to do more than
window shopping and get some ideas - with one exception. Liz and I want
her to have a rocker-glider for the nursery (that word is popping up a
lot!), and they located a real deal on one - so we grabbed it. It was
the last one the store had.
Liz's Mom gave her some gifts for the baby's room, including two framed
cross-stitches she had made for Liz when she was an infant. Soon lil'
"E" will enjoy the doggie and pussy cat fashioned by her Grandmother!
Priscilla had wrapped them in newspaper which was dated 1967 and had ads
for executive homes in Orange County, CA that were selling in the low
20's at that time! Bill and I reminisced about how much money we were
earning back then, which put it into perspective.
Lil' "E" has been learning the Macarena, Texas Two Step, Twist and who
knows what else. She's most active when Liz first awakens and when she
retires. It's quite literally been a real kick to experience. My Mom
suggested I try to feel her quickenings by pressing my belly up against
Liz's. Great idea! I'm sure it's nothing like what Liz feels, but it's
the closest I can come.
This month we are looking forward to a visit from my Mom, who will be
flying in tomorrow. It's a looong trip for just a weekend's visit, but
I've already used up most of my vacation time - so we'll just have to
squeeze a lot of lovin' into the brief visit. This will also be the
first time my Mom has seen our house - and the first time she's seen Liz
since she started to "show". The following weekend Liz and I will be
attending the wedding of one of the friends she's made in Orygun. And
the weekend after that we plan to see the homes which comprise the
"Street of Dreams". We've attended this annual showcase every year since
we've been here. This year we'll have our very own baseline for
comparisons. In fact, we've been exploring some of the homes being built
in our neighborhood since we moved into ours, which has served to
confirm that we like our home the best!
We've emptied out the nursery and during the next couple of months will
be turning our attention to getting it ready for occupancy :-)
And with that we'll turn the page on another Postcard from Portland and
look forward to hearing back from you.
we love and miss you all,
Sandy, Liz and lil' E_Max
_________________________________________________________________
CLIMATIC SUMMARY FOR PORTLAND OREGON
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OREGON
148 AM PDT FRI AUG 01 1997
...TEMPERATURE...
HIGH YESTERDAY... 81
LOW YESTERDAY... 58
MEAN TEMP........ 70 DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL... 1
NORMAL HIGH FOR TODAY... 81
NORMAL LOW FOR TODAY... 57
RECORD HIGH FOR TODAY... 93 SET IN 1986
RECORD LOW FOR TODAY... 47 SET IN 1963
...DEGREE DAY DATA...
HEATING
YESTERDAY... 0 DEPARTURE... -1
MONTH....... 7 DEPARTURE... -21
SEASON...... 7 DEPARTURE... -21
COOLING
YESTERDAY... 5 DEPARTURE... 0
MONTH....... 134 DEPARTURE... 7
SEASON...... 187 DEPARTURE... 14
...PRECIPITATION...
YESTERDAY............. 0.00
TOTAL FOR THE MONTH... 0.52
NORMAL MONTH TO DATE.. 0.63
TOTAL FOR THE YEAR.... 26.93 TOTAL SINCE OCT 1... 55.39
NORMAL YEAR TO DATE... 19.32 NORMAL FROM OCT 1... 33.46
...WIND DATA IN MPH...
AVERAGE WIND SPEED YESTERDAY... 6.9
FASTEST 2-MIN WIND YESTERDAY... 17 FROM 330 DEGREES
PEAK WIND GUST YESTERDAY....... 20 FROM 330 DEGREES
...ASTRONOMICAL DATA...
SUNRISE TODAY...554 AM PDT
SUNSET TODAY...839 PM PDT
SUNRISE TOMORROW...555 AM PDT
SUNSET TOMORROW...838 PM PDT
--
Sandy & Liz Herring Tigard, Oregon Peck of Pickled Pisces
webfeet@herring.org bigfish@sns-access.com http://www.herring.org/
And that's the news from Portland
where everything is green, rolling stones gather moss,
and the rainfall is always above average.
Most Recent Update: Thursday, 14-Oct-2004 17:16:34 PDT
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