Category: News

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Crime in the City

Monday evening, Joshua Walker was shot where I get on the MAX at Burnside and 162nd. This is just the latest in a series of violent crimes happening near there prompting the local constabulary to schedule a press conference. I hope they come up with a good solution because the number of incidents lately has been shocking:

I have seen stories of other incidents on the nightly news, but I wasn’t able to find all the stories online. The Gresham Outlook’s story includes comments from many local residents.

Update 9/13: dieselboi over at MetBlogs weighs in

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Lunch in the square

Starting on Thursday, I am going to start a weekly tradition for myself: lunch in the square. Every Thursday at 12:30, I’ll be getting lunch in Pioneer Courthouse Square and eating it on the steps where I can do some people watching. Consider this your open invitation to join me. I’ll be the one in the tie-dye t-shirt, at least until it starts raining.

Update 10/4: It started raining so look for the guy in the yellow rain jacket.

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We can laugh our lives away and be free once more

Recent events in the Portland Ring household:

  • As mentioned earlier, our cat Nietzsche had to be put down on Saturday. Possibly more on that later.
  • Tina saw her doctor on Monday and was disappointed to find that her foot fractures have not healed. I’m renewing my efforts to keep her off her feet. She will continue to wear “the boot” until she is healed.
  • Tina’s dad, Leroy, arrived yesterday. He’ll be with us for a week. Tina’s cousin Natians (Buddy’s step-daughter) will be in town for 10 days starting on Saturday.
  • Last night we took Leroy to his first zoo concert. The Charlie Hunter Trio played an incredible show. Hunter is a unique guitarists who simultaneously plays lead and bass guitar parts on his 7-string guitar. Unfortunately, after they returned from their mid-show break, the set became more solo jazz oriented so we left early.
  • Because Natians and Leroy are in town we’ve got a busy week ahead of us: a long weekend at the coast, another zoo concert (featuring the beautiful voice of Richie Furay), Body Worlds 2 at OMSI and the annual CPS golf tournament and company picnic.
  • I’m finishing up a big project at work and will soon be transitioning to a new project. When my product ships, I’ll have a link to the announcement here.
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Ice Cream in the Sky



Skywriting
Originally uploaded by rynosoft

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:

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!

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In Iowa for the next 10 Days

In a few minutes, I’ll go jump on the Max which will take me to the Gateway Transit Center where I’m meeting Tina and the boys. From there, we’ll drive to SeaTac where we’ll hop a plane for Minneapolis. The plane gets to Mineapolis around 2 am. After we gather our bags, we’ll take a cab to a nearby hotel where we’ll sack out until about 10. My sister and her family will meet us at hour hotel at 11 and then we’ll continue our journey to my hometown, Riceville, IA.

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Only love can conquer hate

It’s turned into a whirlwind summer and I have had little time to reflect or report on it here, but here are the highlights so far:

  • CPS moved across the street and I’ve been slowly adjusting to the new space. We now have showers so I smell better during the workday. Unfortunately, I no longer have a window office. My new project is very interesting but quite hectic and time consuming. Hopefully, it will slack off by August.
  • I got new glasses for the first time in several years. I let them talk me into a pair with magnetically attachable sunglasses. New lenses (without scratches) are always so nice.
  • The NBA Playoffs started off with promise and ended in disappointment. Ho-hum, Spurs win again. I didn’t even watch the last three games on my Tivo after I got back from WWDC.
  • I was in San Francisco for a week at Apple’s annual World Wide Developer Conference learning about all the new technology they are introducing in the next version of Mac OS X plus checking what to do in San Francisco.
  • I also get a chance to meet up with my old friend, Rob, in San Francisco for dinner one night. As usual, it was awesome to see him again. Although we communicate several times a week electronically, there is no substitute for face-to-face.
  • I missed most of Portland’s annual bike celebration, Pedalpalooza, but did get back in time to attend the Multnomah County Bike Fair with Tina and the boys.
  • The Oregon Zoo kicked off their annual series of summer concerts this year with The Wailers. They started out with three or four obscure songs (which is great) but then finished in greatest hits mode (which is still good). Their new singer, The Young Lion, sounds very much like Bob Marley and quickly won over the receptive crowd. It was very near to a spiritual experience for Tina, who has been a Bob Marley fan since high school.
  • You may have noticed something called the iPhone in the news. In my position, I was witness to about 20 times the hype that you saw. Three of my collegues purchased one the day it came out and Thomas desperately wants one. I have played around with a couple and they are really quite incredible. I can’t currently justify the $60/month cost for service, but I may later.
  • The Trailblazers drafted Greg Oden, as expected, and I was present when he was introduced to the city at Pioneer Courthouse Square a few days later. People are very excited that the “Jailblazer” era appears to be over. I wanted to hold up a sign that said “Welcome to Portland, Sam Bowie” but several people (including Tina) advised against it.
  • On Independence Day we escaped the heat by seeing the latest Pixar movie, Ratatouie, at Cinetopia. Wow. I know I said this about Cars last year, but this is the best Pixar movie yet.
  • Rather than buy our own fireworks as we have in the last few years, I decided that the kids should go to a real fireworks show this year. Graham probably doesn’t remember ever going to a big fireworks display so that alone justified it, I think. We skipped the Waterfront and Fort Vancouver shows in favor of the Blue Lake show which is much closer to our house. It took a long time to get out of the park when it was all over but I think Graham really liked it.
  • We did buy a few smaller fireworks in Oregon this year and lit them Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Oregon has stricter laws than Washington governing fireworks which led me to cross the border for the more exciting stuff in the past. None of that this year, though. Street cleanup was very easy outside our house this year.
  • This weekend Tina and Graham are camping at Cub World with his Cub Scout den. Thomas and I will be dropping in tomorrow night for dinner and maybe again Sunday morning.
  • Thomas biked the entire way to work with me this morning (around 11 miles) and seemed a bit surprised this evening as we pulled into the Max station with our bikes. “We’re taking the Max?” I think he was disappointed we weren’t biking the whole way home again. He spent most of the day in the Rec Room at work playing new games on the Wii while I worked.

Our calendar will be equally full for the rest of the summer, too:

  • Thomas leaves for a week at Boy Scout camp starting next Sunday.
  • More zoo concerts: Asleep at the Wheel, Los Lobos, Richie Furay, Charlie Hunter and The Holmes Brothers.
  • A week-long trip to Iowa for a family reunion culminating in the annual Ring summer campout in Waterville, MN.
  • Tina’s cousin Natians visiting for nearly two weeks in August. It’s her second time to Portland but we still have lots to show her including a few nights on the Oregon Coast.
  • Body Worlds has come to OMSI and we’ve already made our reservations. All the reviews for this exhibit make it sound like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I can’t wait.
  • A vast reorganization of the garage when I can fit it in.
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Doctor, doctor, give me the news

For several years now I have been paranoid about developing Type 2 diabetes, formerly known as adult-onset diabetes. My paternal aunts all developed it and so has one of my cousins (on both sides). Being overweight puts me at a higher risk, too. In recent years I’ve noticed what I imagined to be symptoms including slow healing of injuries and the occasional negative reaction to large amounts of sugar. After my sister, Mardy, developed it a couple of years ago, I felt sure I was going to get it if I didn’t have it already. However, I pushed it to the back of my mind and didn’t get tested because I was afraid of the results.

This year, though, with Tina’s help I’ve really gotten my weight under control and I feel healthier than I have in recent years. So when I called to schedule an annual checkup with my doctor, I requested a glucose test. It was finally time to take control of the situation and deal with the consequences, if necessary.

On Tuesday I arrived at my appointment early after fasting for 12 hours per doctor’s instructions. Fortunuately, I did not have to do the glucose tolerance test. Instead, it was just a simple blood test and the doctor would call with the results that night. He warned that a high glucose concentration combined with other factors would also put me at a higher risk for heart disease. One of those factors was also blood cholesterol so they tested for that, too.

Blood glucose levels while fasting are considered “normal” when they fall below 100. 140 and above is considered diabetic and everything in between is a gray area which would probably indicate the eventual development of diabetes. My blood glucose level was at 97 for the test. That’s very good and I’m pleased. The doctor was surprised and wants to have a second test done where they measure my blood glucose two hours after I eat a high calorie meal (or the highest calorie meal of my day). I’ll probably have that done when my regular doctor gets back from his stint in Africa (long story).

The blood cholesterol story was almost as good. My triglyceride levels were at 103 which is well under the 150 threshold for concern. My “good cholesterol” level was 46 which is in the healthy range of 40 to 60. My “bad cholesterol” level was 108 which is in the “near optimal” range. “Optimal” is considered to be 100 and below.

So the news was almost uniformly great and if I can lose more weight it will continue to get better.

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Names of the dead


Names of the dead
Originally uploaded by rynosoft

A local university professor created a chalk tribute to the fallen soldiers of the Iraq war on the sidewalks of Portland’s Waterfront. I saw it for the first time in its completed form this morning on my ride to work. The names go on and on. Some have faded and been washed away by the rain, but it all works metaphorically, I think

An Oregonian article has more.