Renovation In Progress

As you can see, I'm working on a major overhaul of the appearance of this blog. I don't know if I like the colors, but I like the layout and the versatility with what goes where.

I plan on modifying significantly, so we'll see what happens.

Seattle to Portland Ride Photos

This link will take you to the Post Falls Recumbant Active Unofficial Group (PFRAUG - guess what the animal mascot is!) website.



There you can find various photos of the groups's bicycle journey from Seattle to Portland a couple of weekends ago. Here's a shot I took at the finish line along with some action shots of Gramma Dianne, Andrea and Jim Ed.





Congratulations Again!

Eventful Weekend

Part I

This past weekend was rather eventful for Hillsboro, Oregon and/or its residents.. at least the ones that get press on this website.

First, Mom and Jim Ed completed, and Andrea went over half way on, the Seattle to Portland (STP) Bike Classic. It's a two-day bicycle ride (over 100 miles each leg) from the University of Washington in north Seattle to the Lloyd District in Portland.

I don't have photos, but I can vouch for the fact that they were both rather sunburnt and exhausted when I picked them up near the finish line. Follow the link above for more information about the event.

Congratulations to All Three of You for Your Foolhardiness Bravery!

Part II

This weekend marked the annual Oregon Airshow held at the Hillsboro Airport, a couple of miles from where we live. Past years have been enjoyable because the different plans have a flight pattern that goes somewhat near where we live.. fly-bys, not acrobatics.

Well, this year was a great time to not be home. It turns out that on Sunday, one of the planes crashed into a residential area, killing the pilot and destroying at least four homes. We were visiting a garden in Forest Grove when it occurred, but on the way back home we noticed a large plume of black smoke billowing upward in the distance from where the airport is located. As we got closer, the smoke was coming from a slightly different direction than the airport. It turned out it was coming from a neighborhood just east of the airport.

The Hawker-Siddeley Hunter MK-58A


It was apparently part of the static display of planes parked on the ground. At the end of the show, as the pilot took off to head back home to California, the engine apparently had an all-out failure. The story reports the engine was silent when it hit the ground. Luckily, the house was vacant and the pilot managed to stear the plane from hitting the always busy Orenco New Seasons grocery store we visit often.

Here's video caught by people in the area and rebroadcast on a local TV station.


A sad day for Hillsboro. Now the whole airshow is being questioned, led (not surprisingly) by Intel. The company has two of its largest facilities in the world located right near the airport and could easily have suffered a major catastrophe compared to a few homes, still tragically, destroyed.

Part III

Tom and Kate were in town to ferry folks around for the STP bicycle event and to visit Gabriel and us, but they ended up mostly ferrying people around. Gabriel got to see them for a couple of hours or so. Maybe next time!

THE COWLITZ TRIBAL CASINO - IN THE NEWS AGAIN

I recently provided testimony before a Clark County, Washington Board of Commissioners work session regarding the impacts of a major, new tribal casino proposed along I-5 at the northern end of the county. I wrote a memorandum for the County summarizing our comments about the Casino Environmental Impact Statement and was there to answer questions.

The Columbian, the paper of record for Southwest Washington, had a couple of stories including information about the memo I wrote, one of of which includes a misquote of something I said.

First story
Second story with misquote

I like the press, but I'm not dumb enough to actually believe (much less say) that a small casino could work at a warehouse/distribution center. I have to wonder what the reporter was smoking thinking.

WOW!!

Day At The Beach

There are now a couple of photos I promised showing Gabriel's grand day at Cannon Beach, to the left and below. Enjoy.. but not as much as he enjoyed the water! Yes, that's his mussel shell he's throwing in the water.



We returned to the beach on Saturday with the rental car I had: a Sebring Touring. It was a grand drive to the coast on a sunny day. But Gabriel didn't so much like the wind in his hair when we got on the freeway. All in all, it was a great time, though. We capped the afternoon off with a great pizza at the beach.

JOHN RECOVERING FROM EYE SURGERY

John Korynasz had surgery last week on his left eye to relieve symptoms of glaucoma. Lucky for him the surgery was done by the head of the department at the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU).

So far, the surgery seems to have been a success with his symptoms, primarily fluid pressure within his eye, being alleviated along with gradually improving eyesight. Good News.

ME-MA TO BECOME AN OREGONIAN

The 4th of July Weekend move for Me-Ma to Hillsboro is now in the furniture rearranging stage as she settles into Gramma Dianne's house. The cooler weather compared to Pahrump, NV must be a relief. We welcome her to town and hope she finds the new digs comfortable! Gabriel enjoys it over there, anyway.. particularly when the waterhose is on.

Toni and Taryn are also in town for a few weeks to pick berries and enjoy the summer up here. Gabriel had fun playing with them the other day, particularly when Gramma turned on the lawn sprinkler.

Welcome!

WAWA & HOT

Those two words were officially added to the Gabriel vocabulary this week. We now count over twenty words, some recognizable and some not. To qualify, they must be specific words for specific things, even though they may not necessarily be English.

mama dadda baby gabri bubble bee hi bye baaa moo choo-choo nana (no) deedah (diaper) nena (Nino) ummy-ngummy (food) wawa (water) hot mo (more) ngigh-ngigh (night-night) ball peepee bath uh-oh wow

I'm sure I forgot something.. I'll go back and revise when I remember something else.