I have been taking walks with Lucy every day, enjoying the beautiful colors of the changing leaves in the neighborhood. Unfortunately it is near-impossible to take photos with Lucy on the other end of the leash. She tugs and wants to go-go-go (except when she wants to stop-stop-stop and smell, that is). Anyway she was napping with Peter this morning so I sneaked out of the house and took a leisurely solo walk to get a coffee and snap some photos.

The walk was pleasant, except that I noticed almost all the people I passed today were either antisocial or deaf, because I said “hello” to every passer-by and got either outright ignored or a bewildered stare.

Thank you to the lone man I passed as I neared home who finally answered me with an enthusiastic HELLO!

Carving pumpkins can be fun as a group activity, I suppose, but I always hate how messy it is and how temporary your hard work is.. the carved pumpkins tend to look wilted and sad in a matter of days. I prefer to paint my pumpkins. I unpacked my acrylics and got to painting the pumpkins we got from Roloff Farms.

Classy Argyle Pumpkin

Two sides to a Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) pumpkin:

So far I am pretty sure their only audience is the mail lady. I am hoping we get lots of trick-or-treaters for halloween… at our place in St. Louis we got zero children. Oh how we drowned our tears that first Halloween in a bag of fun sized candy bars. I need to ask a neighbor how much candy I should buy… I do NOT want to be stuck with tons of leftovers. Or worse, run out.

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Summer is officially over, according to the calendar. Having arrived as it began, I can see why Portlanders love this season. It was a beautiful one and I think it only rained maybe a half-dozen times. But the fall and winter rains are on their way in the coming weeks.

Sorry to be so quiet lately. Not much to report. We have been sticking around the house a whole lot. And I admit I have been feeling homesick for St. Louis. Not the city so much as the feeling of familiarity, and gatherings with friends. I know it will come to me here, it is just going to take time. I am already less reliant on my google maps  everytime I leave the house, so that’s nice.

Last week Peter and I took a day trip to Tillamook, another coastal town which was a completely different flavor from Cannon Beach. I will share photos soon as I pull them off the camera.

At the end of this week Peter and I are traveling to St. Louis for a wedding, then to Baltimore to visit family/friends, then to Boston/New Hampshire for another wedding. It’s all very exciting except for the part where we have to board our dog, Lucy, for 12 days. We found a place that I know will take good care of her but regardless I am quite torn up about leaving her. In St. Louis we were close enough to my family to leave Lucy with them on extended leaves, but we don’t have that luxury here. Sigh!

Sorry to be so glum. I do love Portland as much as ever. I went to pick up Thai food on Alberta street last night and stumbled upon some sort of street fair they were having, and I was completely charmed. It lifted my spirits. It’s the little things.

Portland has many 4-way intersections with no stop signs. Seriously!

Sure they are mostly in quiet low-traffic residential areas. But it still freaks me out and Peter and I have had a couple of close calls where we didn’t realize the cross-street didn’t have a stop sign and we almost got hit.

And when you do meet cross-traffic at one of these ghost sign intersections it is one of those awkward “you go” “no you” or a simultaneous “FINE, I’ll go” tangos.

If I had to guess I’d say this is perhaps actually meant to improve safety and traffic calming, because it forces you to slow down and look around at each intersection. But if you aren’t used to it, it’s kinda dangerous.

This plays into our theory that Portland is anti-signage altogether. Exhibit B is streetsigns. They love to get bent or turned so you can’t tell what street you are driving down anymore. Or they love to hide behind trees so you can’t read them at all. I have a little tree-hugger in me but come on, you gotta trim that up. Some of us don’t know where we’re going yet. If Portland wants to create more jobs they should hire people whose responsibility is to maintain signage visibility/existence. It will help us all get where we’re going, and safer!

/soapbox

© studentofrhythm

Peter and I cannot wait to close on our new house.. some time this week (!!). The place we’ve been staying temporarily is… not that great. To pass the time the other day I taught Peter how to play Rummy and he taught me how to play Poker with these Diet Coke playing cards I picked up in the dollar bin at Target last week. Can’t wait to unpack our other games when we move in :)