Life in General

Walking a Greenway

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Earlier this year Portland announced they would convert 100 miles of residential streets to Portland Greenways. This map shows the existing and future Greenways.

One of them starts one block from our house and runs for a half mile before hitting a major, well busy, street. We took a tour of it. There is no indication of it at our end. It was a single lane to get out for cars, with the other half of the street reserved for bicycle traffic. As we walked we saw three signs that read “Neighborhood Greenway”. There was no car traffic. Though that is not unusual on a Sunday morning. At our busy street, 52nd Avenue, we saw what looked to be actual Greenway activity, signage and a block against traffic.

What exists today marking a Greenway

This was the only markers for the Greenway. It is new. I’m looking forward to more construction (?) of the Greenways to become standard traffic.

On our walk back home we took a parallel street. It was just as quiet.

About Your Phone

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Let this sink in. It’s from England’s Daily Mirror, January 23, 1923.

Daily Mirror, January 23, 1923

Well, there you have it from 97 years ago they nailed a lot of problems.

You can check on other prediction at Open Culture’s site on this issue. You will find these links there.

A 1947 French Film Accurately Predicted Our 21st-Century Addiction to Smartphones

Nikola Tesla’s Predictions for the 21st Century: The Rise of Smart Phones & Wireless, The Demise of Coffee, The Rule of Eugenics (1926/35)

In 1911, Thomas Edison Predicts What the World Will Look Like in 2011: Smart Phones, No Poverty, Libraries That Fit in One Book

In 1964, Isaac Asimov Predicts What the World Will Look Like Today: Self-Driving Cars, Video Calls, Fake Meats & More

Jules Verne Accurately Predicts What the 20th Century Will Look Like in His Lost Novel, Paris in the Twentieth Century (1863)

Vote

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It is time. It is too late to mail it in. But it is time to vote.
Well at least if you live in Portland. We have a commissioner to choose.

Voting at a Library
If you don’t like putting you ballot by your mailbox there is this method to vote.

So Much for Lists

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I had a list. Lists are good for keeping to a plan. A plan about what you want to buy. You’ve got the list, you get what’s on it and you’re good.

At Bob’s Red Mill I did pretty well. Just what was on the list. Well, OK, I got a second bag of Vital Wheat Gluten. What kind of cornmeal, coarse or medium? But aside from those two things, we were good.

Then we had lunch out at Mike’s Drive In, a staple of Portland area foods. That’s reputed to be good for grocery shopping. Don’t Shop Hungry! We were not.

Then the final stop of the day. Costco, the first time since January? February? It’s been a while.

One of the items on the list was getting Jennifer’s glasses fixed. She’d snapped the ear off of it. She’s gotten a replacement set of frames and they arrived right before Covid-19 arrived. They would not do the replacement so they waited. Now they would. She’d work with them while I went and picked up what we had on the list.

And I did. And then I went to find Jennifer and we agreed to go look at a couple of items. They got added. And some other things got added. And well, so much for the list. So much for eating before shopping.

We’re set for food for quite awhile.

Four Miles

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It does not sound like much. You can walk for four miles. Can’t you? Since last October when I woke up coughing up blood and ended up having my upper left node removed. It is fair to say my aerobic fitness is not that hot. As in walking up stairs gets me breathing hard. Last year I was working up to walking a half marathon and made it to ten miles. Almost there and then bleach.

There was some interruptions. Having said that, we’re back on the trail to walking a half marathon. There is no date for that. But for the first time this year I’m on my way.

But what of you, have you walked four miles recently? Three miles? Two? People in America do not tend to walk. They drive. So, perhaps, it is not too much to think that I am now walking further than people normally do. Note, I’m not saying they cannot. But they haven’t. So what can they do?

What can you do? What have you done?