David Bowie – Changes

What’s on your mind…?

Maybe PDXXX?

PDXtraLarge. PeeDee-Exhale. Exhale again.

Anyway, we have arrived, City of the Confluence. Queen City, City of Roses.

Lucky Portland, here we are. Many adventures to tell you about in the future. For now, our moving tales have little to add to the opera that is the American Moving Adventure. Although… an ascent up the Siskiyou Summit from California into Oregon at 10pm in the pitch dark, surrounded by trucks in a little Ford Escape rented to us by Hertz despite its dodgy transmission — that’s a tale I’ll tell for some time to come. Lost all gearing halfway between 2800 and 4300 feet, in the fast lane and climbing at 70 miles per hour, only to have to navigate to the far right lane, merge between two semi-tractor trailers and hope 40mph (in either second or fourth gear if the damn vehicle would settle for one of them please) will provide enough oomph.

Moral of my trip: avoid Hertz one-way rentals that come without any drop charge. There’s a reason the Westin St Francis Hertz desk, via Orbitz, was so eager to unload this Texas-plated mid-size SUV on another franchise without the customary $500 drop fee. Someone had dumped our little blue cowboy trucklet on them, and they were happy for us to get it to Portland — if we lived through the attempt.

But — we’re here now, very happy with our (until yesterday, sight unseen!) apartment. We have lovely views of rose gardens, the eastern city skyline, the 405 bridge across the Willamette, a wonderful sunset aspect of the West Hills, and a funky nighttime vibe in our neighborhood, which includes a building due north of us that is lit with cycling, changing colors: violet one moment, look away, and fuschia the next. Our neighbors actually set off fireworks on the street below us last night, coincidentally celebrating something other than our arrival, but still….

I guess they knew we were coming.

I broke my glasses today, and was smart enough to pack a spare pair. We retrieved the parking permits from friend George who picked them up for us earlier this week, and we eagerly await the movers at 8am tomorrow. They’ve broken every other time-related promise to us so far, though, so Monday morning is their last opportunity to redeem themselves. I’ve spoken with the truck driver and he assures me he does know that tomorrow is the day and that 8am is the time he plans to be here. He knows our new address.

We’ll see. And I will advise! Another benefit we discovered at the Fred Meyer grocery store today: it’s much cheaper to eat here than in SF. The 64-oz cranberry juice I paid $5.35 for in SF sells here for $2.85. That’s half price! Similar bargain prices abound: one dollar less on this, a buck-fifty less on the other thing.

In the meantime, please enjoy this lovely little video about my new little Portland neighborhood, Goose Hollow, famous for the Goose Hollow Inn, owned and managed by Bud Clark, the former mayor of Portland notorious for his raincoat-clad “Expose Yourself to Art” poster decades ago.

Have you any moving tales to add to the treasury of American Moving Mythology? Or perhaps you know what that great color-changing building is here in Portland? Or are you too busy getting rid of all your pot brownies before Reefer Madness Mama Feinstein’s new consumables law kicks in?

U.S. Constitution (photo: Wikipedia)

A constitution is a wonderful thing. One carefully crafted so that it lasts, preserving liberty from the authoritarian form of arbitrary government it ended for this country, is a treasure. Having a constitution that protects individual rights cannot be appreciated too much.

To protect our constitutional rights, the founders put in a lot of body checks, known as ‘checks and balances’ and left a great deal of power to the states, knowing that a diverse population would guard itself against takeovers from any faction that became too powerful, through the many ways provided.

The founders had a great deal of faith in the value of liberty, and when they looked at themselves, intelligent and dedicated to self-government, they saw a great hope for the advancement of mankind. They weren’t as great as they could have been, and one of their greatest failings was overlooking the institution of slavery that they were unable to abolish without shredding the emerging nation. Later generations took care of that wrinkle, as civilization advanced. The constitution was crafted further, the Bill of Rights added to make up for concepts that it hadn’t originally incorporated.

Sad to say, now the country faces a political farce that calls itself constitutional, and that claims it wants to return the country to constitutional government – by eliminating the very representative government set up by those forefathers who freed us from domination by authoritarians. The power of the vote having been exercised, and a party put in power legitimately, have become the objects of a vocal and totally ignorant uprising from the right wing. Call it hate politics, call it teabagging, call it corporate warfare against social support programs: it is a rejection of democracy. …