Be sure to click on the thumbnail and then click the “All Sizes” icon beneath the title. It’s breath-taking.

Graham forgot his book AND his cello when we left for school this morning. Fortunately, he remembered when we were only a block away. I snapped this after he had retrieved both. Yes, that’s snow again. It snowed a little overnight.

I’ve been carrying my Canon (purchased in 2001) less because my iPhone has a built-in, albeit crappy, camera. I’ve become quite enamored of the ability to instantly upload a picture from the iPhone to Flickr, so I have quite a few on-the-spot type pictures populating my Flickr account lately. Even though they often come out grainy (especially in low light), it’s still pretty cool documenting an event as it happens.

The other reason I’ve neglected the Canon is because it has been entirely replaced for shooting video by the Flip I got for my birthday in September. I can take it anywhere since it fits easily in a pocket but sometimes I just set it on a shelf, point it at the boys (or cats), hit “record” and let it run for 20 or 30 minutes. It’s probably unwatchable for most people right now but in 10 or 20 years I think I’ll be glad that I did it. Soon I’ll have to comb through the hours of video that I have collected in the last few months and post a few videos on YouTube, but that’s going to have to be another night’s work.

I love the boy’s face, which doesn’t even seem wet, surrounded by brown liquid that doesn’t really look like water. Click the thumbnail on the right for a better view.

So many great parts to this photograph: rising moon, Mt. Hood in the distance and Portland waking up.

Thomas remixed a photo of mine from last summer using some Photoshop tips he found online.

The Library of Congress recently released some of their photos on Flickr. This particular picture is very compelling, but there are scores of others in the “1930s-1940s in Color” and “News in the 1910s” sets. Some other favorites:

• Portrait of a Farm Boy
• Unidentified stacks of home-canned food
• Camouflage class in New York University
• Rural school children
• Worker at roundhouse in Clinton, IA
• Seed and feed store

When I was 9, there were few things more exciting than the arrival of the Sears Christmas catalog. I bought my microscope and my chemistry set out of that catalog. I wanted to get the electronics set but never did.

IMG_0304

Originally uploaded by tufts_of_tafetta

Last night I rode on the memorial ride for Tracey Sparling, the young woman who was run over by a cement truck while trying to cross Burnside on her bike. The ride was mostly silent except for the constant tinkling of sad bike bells in the still night. None of my photos came out as well as this one which shows the “ghost bike” adorned with notes, flowers, candles, etc. See my earlier entry for more details about the accident. A number of people took pictures and posted them on Flickr.

• Alder to 1st
• 1st to Salmon
• Salmon to Hawthorne Bridge
• Hawthorne Bridge to Springwater Corridor
• Springwater Corridor to Powell Butte
• Various trails over Powell Butte to 162nd
• 162nd to home

What a glorious sunny afternoon to ride my bike the long way home. It was a tremendous effort to climb Powell Butte – one that found me laying down, gasping for breath on the side of the trail at one point – but it was well worth it. On my way down the north side of the Butte, I wondered how hot my brake pads were getting. My rims were plenty hot when I got to the bottom and as I touched the front rim, I heard the distinct sound of air leaking from the front tire. At least it didn’t blow out when I was flying down the hill at 35 mph.

It took me about 15 minutes to pull the tube out and install my spare. I was actually pretty refreshed when I got back on and pedaled towards home. How surprised was I when I came upon this at 162nd and Division:

The picture is pretty blurry (you can click on it to get the full-size version), but it’s a car that had run up a telephone pole and came to rest in a vertical position. Somebody at the scene reckoned he must have been going 100 mph or better. I asked around and they said it had happened about 15 minutes before.

Now picture this: me in the bike lane at that moment had my bike tire not gone flat 15 minutes before. Freaky, huh? More pictures on my Flickr page.

I ride over this bridge nearly every day but it doesn’t look this good in real life.

I had to wait a short time this morning for this to pass by the Steel Bridge. They had only opened the bottom part of the bridge, so I could have gone over the top of the bridge, but I chose to take these pictures. Check them out, I think they turned out really great!

Before I left for work this morning, I read this story of a couple who killed themselves and their little girl with carbon monoxide poisoning yesterday. As you might imagine, I have a personal interest in carbon monoxide suicide so I rode by on my way to work. I was surprised to find that they had set out their trash and recycling before going through it.

One evening last week I looked up in the sky after deboarding the Max and saw this.

Evidently, I was not the only – you could see it all over Portland. To wit:

• A picture from SE Hawthorne
• A picture from wherabouts unknown
• Another from NE Portland
• And another from whereabouts unknown

So what was it all about? Portland Metblogs had the story including a link to the Neighborhood Notes website. A number of personal blogs covering it included gretchin lair, Magpie Ima, The Pearl Insider and Damn Portlanders where you can find pictures of the whole message.

I didn’t see any writing until they were on the last word. I couldn’t really read “moon” or “ice” so I watched them write several letters before I knew what that last word was. “Cool” was the right word for the experience!

• Thomas said, “Did you see that“?
• Because of the delays, we missed much of the goofiness.
• Post-crash analysis
• The last bridge was a tough climb.
• Holding up the Fremont Bridge
• Fruit and beverages that we never got.