Suddenly I realize it's already February 9th and I haven't posted in some time. What can I say, we've been busy. My service has been requested at two locations of the Bike Gallery, both by friends who are the service managers at the two stores. My commitment was to Pete at the shop I had worked at from 2001 until I moved in October 2007. But Pete being the sweet friend that he is, suggested I try both on part time for a few weeks and decide where I want to settle in for the season.
The first couple of days at the old shop were strange. A blend of familiar friends and new personalities are now working there. I did my best to remember names or fudging it as needed. Working with Pete is really fun. He's upbeat and positive, but can crack and get cranky, reminding the world he is human and has limits. Those first two days there wasn't much for me to do. I checked over a bike being purchased, tried to refamiliarize myself with the employee handbook, and propped up a bench until I left early. The following day I got going on an overhaul which can be a pretty big undertaking. I worked all day on this one bike that wasn't in the worst shape. I stopped a few times to help customers at the counter. And then the day was over, overhaul mostly done, but not test ridden. So I had to leave it for Ben to check out the following day.
The following day was Friday February 3rd. Nate met me at 5804 N. Montana and we rode through North Portland down to the Broadway Bridge and downtown to the shop. It was my first bike ride since getting to town. The entire store was in a state of confusion resulting from the store manager being laid off the previous day. In her place was James, a long time BG employee and manager of another location. We had some repairs in the board to do but otherwise it was a pretty relaxed shift. I got into a overhaul of a 30 year old Trek road bike that took some doing. For lunch I walked down the street to a parking lot that housed about 6 food carts all selling different foods. I decided on Yakisoba from the Korean place. Greasy but delicious. By the time I had gotten back to the shop and eaten, it was an hour later. The overhaul took the rest of the day and I had to leave it to be finished the following day.
The following day was Saturday. Nate and I were the only people scheduled in the shop. And the customers were coming in. Coming back to the Service Department for brake pads, to schedule overhauls, flat tire repairs, purchasing brake pads, and the like. New bikes were coming at us to be checked over prior to test rides, prior to purchasing with accessories to install. I continued to work on that overhaul from yesterday until it was dark outside. I test rode it in a parking lot under streetlights.
The weather was sunny with occasional rain for the first 10 days and now we have rain with occasional sun; more appropriate for the season, anyhow.
We have acquired our Oregon driver's licenses and continue to go forth daily in search of the missing pieces that make up this modern life we are given.
Showing posts with label Portland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portland. Show all posts
Friday, February 10, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Jets Cooling In The Rain
Today is day five we've been in Portland. I realize I left this story unfinished. Maybe there is no end. This is life, after all. Our home is with out internet access for the time being which makes keeping up with the updates a little more complicated. Compounded with the fact that the greater part of this adventure is behind us, spread across the 3,231 miles of highway that tethers our past to the present, I will be writing less frequently here; perhaps weekly.
Eli and I are working on settling into our house which means daily lists of errands that have us criss-crossing the city in search of all the pieces of modern domestic life. We have purchased a futon mattress. Check. We got some groceries and dishwasher detergent. Check We still need a dish drying rack, spice organizer, curtains, among other items. Right now we are in The Red E cafe near our house, utilizing the coffee and internet and counter space. Eli fills out an application for work at a nursery. I've been researching home made bed frame designs. Yes, we're building the bed. This will be the 5th bed I've built. My beds used to be six feet off the ground requiring a ladder to access to make the most out of cramped living spaces. In the last five years I have preferred a bed I can easily fall into rather than risk serious injury falling out of.
We left Bob the landlord at the house to paint the second of two bedrooms. Their standards as landlords are high in description. But upon touring the house for the first time, a week after paying the first month's rent, after ten days of driving, left us wondering why the dingy bedroom walls hadn't been painted in the month the house has been vacant. Closer inspection while unpacking and putting away revealed cobwebs in corners and previous inhabitants' grit in the higher elevations. We do like our landlords though. They remind me of our parents' crowd, like they would have fun going on vacation together in foreign countries. Easy to get along with. They have so far been pretty accommodating and definitely friendly. Our second night in town we walked the 4 blocks to Matt and Elizabeth's house for dinner. We met friends' of theirs who had lived in our house years before. And upon talking more with Matt and a friend at the downtown Bike Gallery I found out that in my ordained ministerial role I conducted a wedding in 2007 and our landlords were in attendance.
I will be writing more about The Bike Gallery and the options that are opening up for us later. For now I will just say that The Bike Gallery is where I worked from 2000 until 2007 when I moved to Maine, and the employer who generously offered me a position to return as a full time year-round mechanic. Tomorrow I meet with my friend and manager Pete and will learn more about what my professional future holds. Until then, just know that it is looking pretty good.
Eli and I are working on settling into our house which means daily lists of errands that have us criss-crossing the city in search of all the pieces of modern domestic life. We have purchased a futon mattress. Check. We got some groceries and dishwasher detergent. Check We still need a dish drying rack, spice organizer, curtains, among other items. Right now we are in The Red E cafe near our house, utilizing the coffee and internet and counter space. Eli fills out an application for work at a nursery. I've been researching home made bed frame designs. Yes, we're building the bed. This will be the 5th bed I've built. My beds used to be six feet off the ground requiring a ladder to access to make the most out of cramped living spaces. In the last five years I have preferred a bed I can easily fall into rather than risk serious injury falling out of.
We left Bob the landlord at the house to paint the second of two bedrooms. Their standards as landlords are high in description. But upon touring the house for the first time, a week after paying the first month's rent, after ten days of driving, left us wondering why the dingy bedroom walls hadn't been painted in the month the house has been vacant. Closer inspection while unpacking and putting away revealed cobwebs in corners and previous inhabitants' grit in the higher elevations. We do like our landlords though. They remind me of our parents' crowd, like they would have fun going on vacation together in foreign countries. Easy to get along with. They have so far been pretty accommodating and definitely friendly. Our second night in town we walked the 4 blocks to Matt and Elizabeth's house for dinner. We met friends' of theirs who had lived in our house years before. And upon talking more with Matt and a friend at the downtown Bike Gallery I found out that in my ordained ministerial role I conducted a wedding in 2007 and our landlords were in attendance.
I will be writing more about The Bike Gallery and the options that are opening up for us later. For now I will just say that The Bike Gallery is where I worked from 2000 until 2007 when I moved to Maine, and the employer who generously offered me a position to return as a full time year-round mechanic. Tomorrow I meet with my friend and manager Pete and will learn more about what my professional future holds. Until then, just know that it is looking pretty good.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
The Last Road
Friday January twentieth:
I awoke this morning at 7am at the Sunset Motel in Hood River. I had a headache and all together wasn’t feeling so good. So I decided to prepare a pot of the in room coffee provided for guests. There’s a little drip coffee pot and a tray of regular and decaf pouches, packets of dehydrated creamers and sweeteners. In a few minutes we had two cups of thin hot water without much resemblance of coffee. I consumed a cup and within a half hour was feeling quite sick. I laid in bed trying to will my stomach to a state of calm but finally had to give in. On and off through the morning this was more or less my condition. Eli went to the store and returned with some bottled water and bananas. I ate half the banana and drank about a cup of water. Then it was time to get in the truck and go.
We spent some time scraping the mirrors with credit cards. We had a few ice scrapers with us. But they were in the back of the truck and wouldn’t you know it, the lock was frozen. Carefully we navigated the truck out of the parking lot and onto the road headed for the freeway. I 84 east of us had been completely shut down the night before, sometime after we had made our way across to Hood River. As we crossed over I could see the trucks on the eastbound lanes pulling over to the side. The overpass was totally iced over and even making the turn onto the on ramp was a slow process.
On the road Eli kept a moderate pace and we proceeded to make our way towards the final destination. So much had happened in the last 48 hours that really impacted our energy levels for the final day of the drive. Eli managed to navigate the inner city cross town freeways to the end of I 84 where it meets up with I 5 then north on I 5 to the Lombard East exit, up to the light, left, down 5 blocks and park right outside of Mary and Bob’s house. Mary and Bob are our new land lords and they seem like good people. Their house is massive and open, spacious oak interior filled with artwork and artifacts no doubt from their world travels they talked about enjoying. Soon they’re off to France for an extended visit.
We spent an hour reviewing and signing paperwork in their upstairs office. It’s a good thing my stomach had finally decided to cooperate because I wouldn’t have been able to function and do what needed to be done a few hours prior.
With the papers signed, dated, initialed, etc, we all got in our cars and we followed Mary and Bob over to the new house. We pulled up and there it was, our new house. We’d only seen a few photos before today.
The beat up storm door opened and then the main door on the side of the house. We stepped in and were greeted by the tired, sad smell of mildew. I immediately was concerned about the basement and leaking water. On up the stairs into the kitchen, tastefully painted yellow with lots of cabinets and drawers, a kitchen nook with built in leaded glass display shelves and drawers. Through the kitchen into the living room we marveled at huge picture window, fireplace with built in book shelves on either side, beveled mirror above the mantle. The bedrooms are large, built ins in the hallway. Really the house is beautiful and feels like more room than I expected. The basement looks to be leak free. It’s huge with built in raised work benches on two walls and washer and dryer. We’ve gone from our dusty cramped studio by the beach to a real house a block away from the Interstate.
We moved some things into the house and then drove Eli’s pick up off the trailer. Now with a satellite vehicle we went over to our local grocery and got some food to eat. We were fried but could not stop yet. The trailer would need to be dealt with before we would be able to pull down the loading ramp to unload the truck. So we drove over to Columbia Blvd to the truck rental place where we were finally relieved of the trailer. From there we drove the Big Yeller over to the near by Fred Meyer to get some domestic house stuff. A set of sheets, bath mat. We wandered the store like zombies, trying to find stuff to check off our list. Even after inspecting every corner of the massive everything you need for modern life store, we could not find a plain old broom.
Back at the house we moved a few things in, clothes and a box or two. I set up our air mattress with our new sheet set and blanket; things we bought knowing ours were buried deep in the cavernous yellow rolling box.
Meanwhile my brother Andrew was in a van with his band mates on the same interstate somewhere in California on their way here. They would arrive sometime after 11. I don’t think they anticipated the road conditions around Mt. Shasta and then later the pass at Mt. Ashland. Ultimately they found other accommodations and arrived sometime after 2 am.
We finally sacked out around 11 pm. I don’t remember anything after pulling the sheets over me.
The next morning we got up and brushed ourselves off. Eli made a plan with her friend Willoughby to meet for breakfast down the street at Beaterville. This was our pre unpacking the truck breakfast and it was on us. I don’t think Willoughby knew what he was in for. With food and coffee consumed, it was time to get to it. Soon after we had the truck opened and started unpacking, Doug pulled up with another recruit, his roomate Dave. It turns out that not only did Doug recruit him just after he had awoken that morning but Dave had helped another friend move his recording studio two days prior.
We made quick work of emptying the truck. And then there it was, our entire material life packed in boxes piled all over this new unfamiliar house. Now we'll unpack the boxes, trying to find spaces to hide away our every piece of our fragmented lives. It is familiar and yet foreign to be here. Friends have come to find us and bring us around to their home for dinner or to a favorite restaurant for a visit. We haven't yet had enough time to be in the house, to make a meal there, to unpack a box, or to even really talk about what just happened. Everything for the last two weeks has moved so fast we have hardly had a moment to really take in the immensity of what we were undertaking. We are in effect, still in shock.
I awoke this morning at 7am at the Sunset Motel in Hood River. I had a headache and all together wasn’t feeling so good. So I decided to prepare a pot of the in room coffee provided for guests. There’s a little drip coffee pot and a tray of regular and decaf pouches, packets of dehydrated creamers and sweeteners. In a few minutes we had two cups of thin hot water without much resemblance of coffee. I consumed a cup and within a half hour was feeling quite sick. I laid in bed trying to will my stomach to a state of calm but finally had to give in. On and off through the morning this was more or less my condition. Eli went to the store and returned with some bottled water and bananas. I ate half the banana and drank about a cup of water. Then it was time to get in the truck and go.
We spent some time scraping the mirrors with credit cards. We had a few ice scrapers with us. But they were in the back of the truck and wouldn’t you know it, the lock was frozen. Carefully we navigated the truck out of the parking lot and onto the road headed for the freeway. I 84 east of us had been completely shut down the night before, sometime after we had made our way across to Hood River. As we crossed over I could see the trucks on the eastbound lanes pulling over to the side. The overpass was totally iced over and even making the turn onto the on ramp was a slow process.
On the road Eli kept a moderate pace and we proceeded to make our way towards the final destination. So much had happened in the last 48 hours that really impacted our energy levels for the final day of the drive. Eli managed to navigate the inner city cross town freeways to the end of I 84 where it meets up with I 5 then north on I 5 to the Lombard East exit, up to the light, left, down 5 blocks and park right outside of Mary and Bob’s house. Mary and Bob are our new land lords and they seem like good people. Their house is massive and open, spacious oak interior filled with artwork and artifacts no doubt from their world travels they talked about enjoying. Soon they’re off to France for an extended visit.
We spent an hour reviewing and signing paperwork in their upstairs office. It’s a good thing my stomach had finally decided to cooperate because I wouldn’t have been able to function and do what needed to be done a few hours prior.
With the papers signed, dated, initialed, etc, we all got in our cars and we followed Mary and Bob over to the new house. We pulled up and there it was, our new house. We’d only seen a few photos before today.
The beat up storm door opened and then the main door on the side of the house. We stepped in and were greeted by the tired, sad smell of mildew. I immediately was concerned about the basement and leaking water. On up the stairs into the kitchen, tastefully painted yellow with lots of cabinets and drawers, a kitchen nook with built in leaded glass display shelves and drawers. Through the kitchen into the living room we marveled at huge picture window, fireplace with built in book shelves on either side, beveled mirror above the mantle. The bedrooms are large, built ins in the hallway. Really the house is beautiful and feels like more room than I expected. The basement looks to be leak free. It’s huge with built in raised work benches on two walls and washer and dryer. We’ve gone from our dusty cramped studio by the beach to a real house a block away from the Interstate.
We moved some things into the house and then drove Eli’s pick up off the trailer. Now with a satellite vehicle we went over to our local grocery and got some food to eat. We were fried but could not stop yet. The trailer would need to be dealt with before we would be able to pull down the loading ramp to unload the truck. So we drove over to Columbia Blvd to the truck rental place where we were finally relieved of the trailer. From there we drove the Big Yeller over to the near by Fred Meyer to get some domestic house stuff. A set of sheets, bath mat. We wandered the store like zombies, trying to find stuff to check off our list. Even after inspecting every corner of the massive everything you need for modern life store, we could not find a plain old broom.
Back at the house we moved a few things in, clothes and a box or two. I set up our air mattress with our new sheet set and blanket; things we bought knowing ours were buried deep in the cavernous yellow rolling box.
Meanwhile my brother Andrew was in a van with his band mates on the same interstate somewhere in California on their way here. They would arrive sometime after 11. I don’t think they anticipated the road conditions around Mt. Shasta and then later the pass at Mt. Ashland. Ultimately they found other accommodations and arrived sometime after 2 am.
We finally sacked out around 11 pm. I don’t remember anything after pulling the sheets over me.
The next morning we got up and brushed ourselves off. Eli made a plan with her friend Willoughby to meet for breakfast down the street at Beaterville. This was our pre unpacking the truck breakfast and it was on us. I don’t think Willoughby knew what he was in for. With food and coffee consumed, it was time to get to it. Soon after we had the truck opened and started unpacking, Doug pulled up with another recruit, his roomate Dave. It turns out that not only did Doug recruit him just after he had awoken that morning but Dave had helped another friend move his recording studio two days prior.
We made quick work of emptying the truck. And then there it was, our entire material life packed in boxes piled all over this new unfamiliar house. Now we'll unpack the boxes, trying to find spaces to hide away our every piece of our fragmented lives. It is familiar and yet foreign to be here. Friends have come to find us and bring us around to their home for dinner or to a favorite restaurant for a visit. We haven't yet had enough time to be in the house, to make a meal there, to unpack a box, or to even really talk about what just happened. Everything for the last two weeks has moved so fast we have hardly had a moment to really take in the immensity of what we were undertaking. We are in effect, still in shock.
Friday, January 6, 2012
We're In
Our rental applications have been accepted. Utilities in our name. Our new address is 5804 North Montana Street Portland, Oregon 97212.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Start Here:
Hi friends,
This is the place to follow Eli and I on our adventure as we prepare to-and finally embark on-our Westbound trajectory. Right now it is Thursday night and we are home after a five day trip to see family and friends in New York and Vermont.
At 1pm today we got to Dover to pick up Eli's truck from the shop. I drove across the street to the car wash and got the van the Deluxe wash. We emptied the van of all its contents and vaccuumed it. Then I drove the van to Raymond, NH to drop off the van and sign over the title to Roland. Roland and I drove around a bit to try and recreate a problem that started up on the drive from Dover to Raymond. It was just after 5 when Eli and I drove away in her truck. We went to Portsmouth Brewery to meet our friend Emily for dinner. Inside the door we ran into Eli's 91 year old friend Masy and we invited her to eat with us. I got fish and chips. Eli ordered the veggie sandwich. Masy had the Korean BBQ Taco special. Emily just had a few fries and a beer.
Back on the road and headed for New Paltz to see Eli's brother Eric, friend Stephanie, and nephews Tristan and Liam. 24 hours wasn't nearly enough time to have with those guys. We made the most of it the next morning, running around the yard playing tag, hot potato pine cone, football toss, hide and seek and my favorite, garden laps.
By 2 we were on northbound I87 to Schenectady. We had dinner and spent the night with Virginia and Fred Thompson, Eli's parents. Breakfast the next morning and a terribly cold walk through the winding roads of Niskayuna, New York.
We received word that our friend in Portland had met with the landlord of a house we were interested in moving into. The house sounded nice if a bit small and close to the interstate, so our friend faxed us rental applications. Now we were faced with the task of tracking down the information we needed to fill out the forms. We were only partially successful. The rest of the forms would have to be finished later. In the mid afternoon we headed to Perecca's for the awesome mozzarella sandwiches on our way to Anita and David's house in Scotia.
David cooked us dinner and we spent some time. Part of the evening we would spend completing our rental application for a 2 bedroom house on North Montana in Portland. Late night. Next morning we had breakfast with Eli's folks at my folk's house in Scotia. Then came the goodbyes.
Three hours later we were driving on 107 in Vermont, still reduced to one lane. It had just been reopened three days prior. Hurricane Irene tore up that part of the state. We saw large banks of earth removed from the river basin, foundations that had lost their houses, houses that had appeared to have been lifted and then dropped in place. An hour later we were at our friend's house way atop a hill overlooking Barre. I've known Greg since I lived in Arcata in 1992. We went to Colorado together that summer and then were roommates and band mates in the years to follow. I conducted the marriage between him and Sue in their back yard back when they lived at their first house in Randolph. Now they have two kids we really like, Cooper and Scarlet. We got up this morning at 6:45 while everyone was getting ready to head out to school and jobs. We watched the outside go from black to dark shades of blue giving way to other colors as daylight returned.The temperature outside had risen from zero to 20 degrees and there was a soft snow that descended slowly as if each flake had its own parachute.
We left the Davis' house headed for Waterbury to see Helen one more time. We had a cup of coffee together and talked for about 45 minutes. An Amtrak came and left. Then we had to say goodbye again and get back in the van. The roads were a bit of a mess with fallen snow and the sand/salt mixture spread to fight off the ice. The van was turning a solid hue of gray with all the road schmutz being tossed into the air from car tires. We drove South on Highway 89.
Our rental applications were accepted and we were offered the house. But should we wait and see what else we find?
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