Rants and Irritations

This Is Lockdown

by

Back in March, I worried about the seriousness of the lockdowns. Would they ban travel? How would they do that? I was driving back and forth to Salem (about 60 miles south) every week. Would I be required to stay in one place or another?

None of that happened. I was essentially free to go about our lives freely. There was a lot, a lot, less traffic. That was pretty nice. No waiting at the intersection looking to the left and right, waiting for a break in traffic. It was there all the time now. Not that there was anywhere to go. But I could get there without issues.

Now we are in lockdown mode. The air quality is so bad that I don’t want to be out and breathing it. How bad? According to IQair Portland has the worst quality air in the world.

We stay inside where, for the most part, we can breathe without any complications. That is a lockdown.

It’s Called Lobectomy

by

That’s what I had this fall. And it seems to fit today. A day of fixing things that shouldn’t be broken, but they are. A website that wasn’t updating. Another one that hasn’t migrated. Then there was the car not locking the car up. It’s one of those things where you close and lock and unlock with a thing that you press the button on. Not today. Or the rebuilding of a laptop since the old one was stolen. And there was the lookup of jamhome.us, saunter.us/wanderings, and all the rest. Name resolution broke. And that lead to people’s email to me failing, and that lead me to needing to figure out why it broke. Which I did. But I should have a while ago. Before it was totally broken.

So with all the stuff broken, I may as well tell you I had a lobectomy. Upper node on my left side was removed. No, I don’t smoke. No, I’ve never smoked. I did have radiation treatment way back when, when the blasted you with as much as you could tolerate. Arteries would suddenly pop and I’d cough up blood.

Two good things come out of this. 1) I should remember what it’s called, lobectomy. 2) Now, maybe, I can scuba dive since I don’t need to worry about the lung spontaneously bursting.

Breakfast

by

Out niece Lucy was visiting (between Boston and Milan, a different story) and she offered to take us out to breakfast. But where? We decided to go to Hawthorne, park, and walk until we settled upon a place. Jennifer had thought of The Hazel Room, but was open to other places. While walking along we saw and was tempted by a place. A place that was a favorite twenty years ago. A place we had not been into in more than a decade. Why not go there? Relive a bit of our old lives?

Because it’s gone downhill. Masivly so. Terribly so. Wonder how they can still stay open. Wonder how they can charge $2.75 for coffee. And we wonder how long they can stay open. We wonder if the founder is still involved with it. And if she’s ashamed of herself.

If you find youself on Hawthone Blvd in Portland, visit The Hazel Room. The place we should have gone to.