Errands

I wrote a post here about how we do most of  our errands on foot.  This week we've had a lot of heavy rain and the rain has made walking more than a bit uninviting.  We don't have heavy rain very often here in Portland so maybe we were having sympathy rain for the east coast and hurricane Sandy.

Today was more like our usual light rain so off we went to the grocery store.  John uses an LL Bean bag to carry stuff.  Here is our big bag with our umbrellas on the plywood bottom that  John made for the bag.  Everyone admires how well it works for carrying things.

the polka dot one is John's

                                 

John, ready to leave

I carry some of the  heavy things in my 1980's, thirty some year old, Sierra Designs day pack.  Do you remember Sierra Designs?  The pack is canvas with a leather bottom and straps are lined with felt.  I added a strap across the front.  It's very comfortable to wear.  I've never found another kind of pack I like as well.

Today I carried potatoes and canned tomatoes and cheese and I can't remember what else, but it was noticeably heavy.

We walk through Laurelhurst Park on the way (that is true for most of our errands).  This is what it looked like today in the park, which is Halloween.  Happy Halloween!

Kitchen Sink Wall

The construction drawings for the sink wall cabinets are nearly done.   It's always hard for John to get started on construction drawings but he is past that start up problem and now his head is full of ideas he wants to get in his notebook.  So far he has more than fifteen pages of notes and drawings that detail the construction process.  Here are a few examples of what I mean.

I don't think it will be long now before the construction begins.  We have a stack of plywood for the cabinet carcasses.  We have all the hinges and knobs and pulls.  Yesterday he was looking at the Blum drawer slide catalog and making lots of happy sounds. 

We have modified our design again.  The base is now all drawers.  I don't have a drawing for the left side  of the L;  it will have another double upper much like the on the left side below and the base cabinet will have a single stack of three drawers.

The drawers on both sides of the L mean the blind corner will be a dead space.  We decided the best way to use the dead space is to put a time capsule in there.  The space is about 2 feet square and 3 feet high.  It's fun to consider what to put in there.  Certainly some kitchen design information.  But I think I will also put some other things in there.  Stuff that is from now that will be interesting or even collectible in the future.  You never know what useless plastic object from today will be highly collectible tomorrow.

Halloween security

This guy is protecting his pumpkins....

Call the Midwife

The series "Call the Midwife" is playing now on PBS.  It's BBC show set in the 1950's in East London.  The midwives are a group of young women living and working with an Order of Nuns.



You can watch episodes here on the PBS website:


Call the Midwife

Secret Rosies

I watched a really interesting documentary about women computers, as they were called.  These women were called human computers because they developed the steps and then performed the series of calculations to figure bullet and bomb trajectories.  They also were the key programmers on the Eniac, though they got little credit at the time.

The documentary is "Top Secret Rosies" ; I watched it on instant play Netflix, but I think it is widely available.

You can learn more about it here

Top Secret Rosies

Ramona Falls Hike

It was the last day before the rainy season and it was such a perfect day.  We hiked the Ramona Falls Trail on Mt Hood.  The first part of the hike is a slog through the sand and everything is dry, dry dry.  Then  you start following a lovely stream and it is like a different world and one much more to my liking.

The vine maples are showing their colors.

And this is Ramona Falls

You can see more of our photos here.

Ramona Fall Hike

Second spring

We have a "second spring" in our area.  The summers are very dry with hardly any rain.  In the fall, when it begins to rain again, the mosses and ferns and lichens all green up and it seems like a second spring.

Some might call it the start of the rainy season but it feels like second spring to me.  It started raining yesterday and everyone seems ready for the rain.  It won't be long till everything greens up.  I can't wait!

Update... It is early November and we are in our second spring now.  We've had more than a bit of rain and the mosses and ferns are very green.  At the same time, the deciduous trees and bushes are turning fall colors and losing their leaves.