Sunny and 60 degrees.

That’s the forecast for today. And while that hardly constitutes the arrival of spring, the raw unfiltered sunlight is shining down across Portland, and being celebrated in many diverse ways.

In Jamison Square, a gaggle of hipsters ceremoniously exchanged their square-rimmed retro eyeglasses for square-rimmed retro sunglasses.

At Reed College, a small but devoted coven of wiccans danced naked around a fire and celebrated the return of the sun. Although they had hoped to employ a few drops of the blood of a virgin in their rites, they were unfortunately unable to locate one.

In Lake Oswego countless homeowners squinted up at the sunlight flooding into their homes and jotted notes to their cleaning services to wash and squeegee the windows.

In Felony Flats, the tweakers running meth labs were completely unaffected, because they had long since covered all of their windows in aluminum foil and duct tape.

And finally all across Portland the sudden blast of sunlight through acres of pale and translucent skin resulted in a spike in Vitamin D production. Doctors suggest the effect is transitory, but citizens of the Rose City should be aware of the consequences of hypervitaminosis D, including elevated calcium levels and hypertension.

Related Posts

• October 9, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: They Left Out Snow… (0)
• July 31, 2009 -- If This is Church’s, Call Me Atheist (4)
• July 13, 2009 -- ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW DESIGN CONTEST FOR PDX CREATIVES (12)
• March 25, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: The vibrant greens of … Winter (1)
• February 27, 2009 -- Oh yeah. People use bikes here too, don’t they? (2)

They left out snow… by jbreweral2or

Everyone is invited to share Portland photography with the OurPDX community by participating in the OurPDX Flickr group.

Related Posts

• October 8, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: Silver Dude on the Bus (1)
• October 7, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: Portland Sky (2)
• October 6, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: Bike Parking (0)
• October 5, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: All Tucked In For a Nap (1)
• September 27, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: Flowers and Steel (0)

The vibrant greens of … Winter by Zeb Andrews

Everyone is invited to share Portland photography with the OurPDX community by participating in the OurPDX Flickr group.

Related Posts

• October 9, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: They Left Out Snow… (0)
• September 27, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: Flowers and Steel (0)
• September 21, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: Fremont (0)
• April 13, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: Steel Bridge at Night (1)
• February 24, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: Conspiracy (0)

Hallo Interwebs!!!

morganpdx, new OurPDX blogger here. Welcome to my VERY FIRST POST.

So I figured my first post oughta be super informative and relevant and, well, Portlandy.

So obviously, that means bicycles. How about the mayor, our own embattled Sam, actually forgetting about them?

Seriously? Yeah.

Remember Snowpocalypse? Well, the mayor’s office released a survey back in January to gauge the effectiveness of their winter storm response. Amazingly, there wasn’t a single mention of bicycle transportation in the entire thing. Hellooooo, oversight! Now I admit, I am a fair-weather biker, and only ride my bike when I’m absolutely sure I’m not going to freeze. I most certainly did not break out my bike at all during the storm, but I did see a few people braving the ice on bikes. Actually, I think I saw more people on skis than bicycles.

Snowpocalypse. Heh. That still makes me laugh.

Thankfully, the mayor’s office is trying to remedy the situation by asking the bike community to respond to a second storm response survey that is specifically targeted at bicycle transportation. Nice recovery, Sam.

I’m waiting to see if there’s another one for skiers.

(Thanks to BikePortland.org)

Related Posts

• December 14, 2008 -- Snowpocalypse!!!111eleventy!! Storm Open Thread (19)
• March 9, 2010 -- Spotted in PDX (2)
• February 18, 2010 -- What IS That Glowing Orb? (1)
• February 1, 2010 -- @mayorsamadams: Twitter On! (12)
• October 9, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: They Left Out Snow… (0)

Obviously, these are tips for getting to PDX during Snowpocalypse ‘08. Getting to the airport on Tri-Met under normal circumstances is generally a breeze. Not so yesterday. Here is my experience and some tips, from someone who spent 3.5 hours on slogging her way a few miles from inner NE Portland to PDX and then back home again.

The biggest lesson? I’ll give props to Tri-Met for terrific service and information, despite horrible road and weather conditions. However, PDX and the airlines could use a lesson or two on utilizing technology, technology they already have implemented I might add, for better and more accurate communications. This is where problems and communications breakdowns really seemed to occur, and I believe a whole bunch of hassle could have been avoided if the airlines and PDX simply made it a priority to post updated information as quickly as possible, even if that information is, “we don’t have any information yet.” People want honesty and transparency and basically just want to know true facts so they can make up their own minds. One of the issues? KGW and other news sources were announcing cancellations, directly from interviews with ticket agents and other airline representatives. Yet the “official” sources on the PDX site and airline sites would have those flights listed as “on-time”, even hours after the news announced they were canceled. Who to believe? Oh, and good luck calling your airline directly. Alaska and Horizon had solid busy signals at least from 8AM to 6PM (when I finally gave up trying).

So onto my tips for PDX travel during this heinous weather:

1. Do not believe what your airline states online with regards to cancellations. Apparently, and according to the Alaska ticket agent at PDX, the airlines can take up to two hours to relay updated info onto their websites and to PDX, despite what the “last updated” time stamp on the website’s page states.

2. Do not believe the flight arrival/departure information on the PDX website. See# 1 above for explanation.

3. Do not rely on the “text message updates” or “email updates” option from your airline. My flight was officially canceled at 1PM for a 2PM flight (but “unofficially” canceled much earlier than that). I received a text message from my airline at 6 PM telling me my flight was canceled. That’s 5 hours AFTER the airline canceled the flight. Annoying? You betcha.

4. Plan your trip on Tri-Met carefully, have a plan B and even C in order, and call Tri-Met to verify things are still running on time, or running at all. Once again, do not rely on their website. I waited for the #6 bus for 30 minutes, despite different info on the Tri-Met site checked on my Iphone while waiting at the stop. I finally called the Trimet 238-RIDE number with my bus stop ID, only to be told, “We can not say when the next bus will arrive.” I then drove to the Irvington area and walked several blocks to MAX (my plan B).

5. Give yourself 3-4 times the amount it would normally take you to get to the airport, and budget getting to the airport 3 hours before your flight leaves. At least.

6. Don’t assume just because Tri-Met is running a shuttle bus (because the MAX tracks were frozen) from the Gateway MAX to PDX that it is a quick and direct shuttle. It isn’t. We made several stops and detours along the way. It took 30 minutes to get from Gateway to the Airport and the shuttles were packed with people. There were also 10-20 minute wait times for shuttles to arrive.

7. Common sense: remember to dress appropriately, drink plenty of fluids and eat before your leave the house (or bring snacks). There is nothing worse than being hungry, dehydrated and cold/wet for hours.

8. I’m not even going to comment on how to deal with the massive lines and chaos at the airport itself. It’s just too traumatic for me to write about right now. Which brings me to my last tip -

8. Mentally prepare yourself. Remember that stress levels are high for everyone right now. A smile, small acts of kindness towards others and patience make things easier. If you find yourself getting stressed, losing your temper or FREAKING OUT then take a time out. Take a deep breath, find a quiet corner or bench and sit for a minute and/or reach out and talk to someone. Remember that we are all pretty much in the same circumstances and we are all pretty much in this together. And believe it or not, it can always be worse than it is.

Resources: Trimet – www.trimet.org or call 503-238-ride
PDX Airport – www.pdx.com (but don’t believe what you read!) or 503-460-4040
Multnomah County Mental Health Crises Line (you might need it) – (503) 988-4888

Good Luck, Bon Voyage, and Happy Holidays.

Related Posts

• October 9, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: They Left Out Snow… (0)
• December 14, 2008 -- Snowpocalypse!!!111eleventy!! Storm Open Thread (19)
• July 3, 2008 -- Out of Focus (4)
• March 20, 2010 -- Falling in Love With the Bean (0)
• February 18, 2010 -- What IS That Glowing Orb? (1)

Sunday morning update: It’s now snowing – yes, for real. Follow the reports filed by the Twitter Storm Team!

This just in: There is a 100% chance of weather striking the Portland area in the next few days. We might all be buried under 50 FEET OF SNOW! Or maybe not. But we can’t let a bit of reality interfere with the giant storm frenzy that Portlanders do love so very much.

As I write this it’s a bit breezy, gray and windy. In other words, it’s December. I know a few folks in remote Washington County have reported freezy things, but the brunt of whatever is coming hasn’t yet hit.

This post is “sticky” and will remain on the site as an Open Thread for all weather comments and commentary. Are you standing on the Sylvan overpass? At the truck stop in Troutdale? Let us know if anything happens!

And because I’m pretty sure this is now a required part of any sort of Portland snow-related blog post:

Related Posts

• October 9, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: They Left Out Snow… (0)
• February 27, 2009 -- Oh yeah. People use bikes here too, don’t they? (2)
• December 25, 2008 -- Of Garbage Collection & Igloo Building (1)
• December 22, 2008 -- Going to PDX on Tri-Met? Travel Tips. (2)
• December 20, 2008 -- Why Closing Half the City Schools Doesn’t Work (6)

The current forecast is calling for colder and wetter weather hitting the PDX area by Sunday night.

“Who believes the weather forecast?”, you scoff. “Haven’t you lived in Oregon long enough to know that it’s frequently wrong, wrong, WRONG?”

Sadly, I believe the forecast. And here’s why.

My mini-vacation starts Monday night. I’m heading to the coast with the kids Tuesday morning. We’ve got a little hotel room right on the water, & plan to leave our myriad electronic devices at home (save for my iPhone, that is.) I’ve already got the stack of books, will bring a bottle or two of wine, and had hoped that we all could spend a ton of time outdoors communing with nature and/or bonding with each other (cue the snort of disgust from the teen, who is definitely not into family bonding and hasn’t yet been told that the Wii isn’t coming with us.)

So of course it will most definitely be cold, rainy and miserable now!

Related Posts

• February 18, 2010 -- What IS That Glowing Orb? (1)
• October 9, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: They Left Out Snow… (0)
• March 25, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: The vibrant greens of … Winter (1)
• February 27, 2009 -- Oh yeah. People use bikes here too, don’t they? (2)
• January 9, 2009 -- Walmart and Home Depot are flooding I5 at Chehalis (5)

Was anyone able to get a full night’s sleep last night with the storms? I was in insomniac heaves as it was, and just about to turn out the light and put down my copy of Richard III when it started blinking and booming. After that the dog panicked and it was futile to struggle for sleep so I just read Shakespeare and let it kaboom.

Doesn’t it seem like we’ve had more than our share of thunderstorms this year? Not that I am complaining. I enjoy them.

Related Posts

• February 18, 2010 -- What IS That Glowing Orb? (1)
• October 9, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: They Left Out Snow… (0)
• July 11, 2009 -- Dear PDX Advice Guy (3)
• March 25, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: The vibrant greens of … Winter (1)
• February 27, 2009 -- Oh yeah. People use bikes here too, don’t they? (2)

Spotted yesterday in a garage off SE Morrison: A poor chap, drenched in sweat, splitting firewood, then loading it in a wheelbarrow and wheeling it across the blazing asphalt parking lot to be used in the wood-fired oven at Nostrana. Performing this Sisyphean task again and again.

I really feel for this guy. At least most of us are lucky enough to be somewhere dim and still, if not cool.

Related Posts

• February 18, 2010 -- What IS That Glowing Orb? (1)
• October 9, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: They Left Out Snow… (0)
• March 25, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: The vibrant greens of … Winter (1)
• February 27, 2009 -- Oh yeah. People use bikes here too, don’t they? (2)
• December 22, 2008 -- Going to PDX on Tri-Met? Travel Tips. (2)