Day two: Sauvie Island Odyssey

"When you're on a holiday..." you can set your heart free and go anywhere you want.

"Ride Tri Met #17 bus to Sauvie Island, or drive to the island and park your car at the parking lot located at the foot of the bridge. The most popular ride is the 12-mile loop around the lower end of the island comprised of Sauvie Island Road, Reeder Road, and Gillihan Road." -http://www.sauvieisland.org

"You can't find the words to say, All the things that come to you..." It's funny how you can't really put feelings into words, if you're having a really wonderful intense experience, you can't really take pictures of it, or capture it in words. Well, that never stops anyone from trying though. Such is life. I too, will try to chase the elusive muse and try to capture some of the flavor of a day on Sauvie Island with no car.

"On an island in the sun, We'll be playing and having fun, And it makes me feel so fine, I can't control my brain" (or my hands, really, they were stuck up in every blackberry bush and cherry tree I could reach). I got lucky, the weather was nice, and I got up and did the bus odyssey from my neck of the woods all the way out to Sauvie Island, which can be done, but it takes about 2 hours. Sad but true. Still beats driving in the sense that I didn't have to worry about where to leave the car. It sure is time consuming though, glad I brought a book. Still, I feel like I miss so much when I'm out there in a car. There's nowhere to pull over when you get a notion to gander at something, and there's a lot of things I've always wanted to stop and look at. Well, now I finally get my chance.

When we finally drifted over the bridge and landed, I got my bike off the bus rack and discovered to my horror that the brakes had wiggled loose and locked up making the front wheel immobile. Silly me, a million miles from home with no tools to speak of. But lo and behold, I did happen to be in the one place on earth where I could fix that problem...I was at the foot of a major construction site crawling with construction workers. All I had to do is suck up my pride, march over there to the office and see if I could find someone with a wrench. Luckily, instead of teasing me too much, they took pity on me and an awesome woman loaned me her toolset which luckily contained a small wrench. I pried the brakepads away from their deathgrip on my rims and was back in play in no time. Thanking everyone profusely, I took off down the road.

The first thing I discovered was that there were native wild blackberries (not the Himalayans that are the scourge of the PacNW) in the hedgerows along the road that were quite ripe. Yummmmmm. Nice to see them out bright and early...the other kinds won't be ripe for quite awhile yet. I stopped about every ten feet and picked them until they ran out.

"When you're on a golden sea, You don't need no memory" Maybe not, but the scent of hay in the afternoon sun drifting out of the fields on the breeze brought back intense memories of the countryside around Ashland. The air scented by hay drying in the sun...oh that's a fine scent. If you listen closely, you can hear the seedheads popping in the sun like rice krispies, it's such a funny thing.

"As we drift into the zone" after the initial burst of blackberries, the scenery leveled out and one flat farm field after another stretched out towards the horizon of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood, both of which can be seen quite well from Sauvie on a clear day. This side of the island seems desolate compared to the other end of the loop where more people live. This side, nearer to the river, is dominated by large nursery fields and plowed and planted with pumpkins and such. About the only people around were a few scattered groups of laborers hoeing weeds and doing other farm chores. I saw an egret nest on a telephone pole, and a redtail hawk sitting on the telephone pole next to some robins. My first stop was at Columbia Farms which had ripe blueberries already. I picked a few and snacked on some of the serviceberries growing by the picnic area and ate some of my PBJ. Then it was back on the road.

Once I got past Columbia Farms the steady traffic of trucks thinned considerably and riding became less terrifying...you'd think that Sauvie Island on a weekday would be pretty low-traffic but it's not. Between farm workers, summer tourists, construction workers, farm transport, deliveries and who knows what all else, the roads get a steady stream of traffic and there ain't much of a shoulder to speak of so it's a bit intimidating for a lone cyclist.

Once you hit the intersection, it's like the island undergoes a dramatic change. On the other side, it's more houses hidden back behind walls of trees, smaller farms, and woods. I think more of this island is part of the wildlife refuge.

On the other side, I found more cherry trees, and stopped and picked those in addition to the blackberries. There was a pull off with an entrance to the marshes so I pulled off and ate the rest of my sandwich and hit the trail mix a bit. Then I pedalled on past the farmsteads I usually see on the weekends when I drive through this stretch on the way to the refuge. I stopped to see if my favorite blueberry spot was open, but it wasn't quite yet. Before I knew it, the Bailey's rose field was in front of me and the familiar junction.

All in all the ride only took about an hour and a half and that's stopping about every 5 to 10 minutes to look at something...I wasn't there for a serious racing workout. Other people probably could do it in 45 mins to an hour. And luckily I only had to wait 6 minutes for the 17 to come and pick me up. What a piece of luck.

"On an island in the sun,
We'll be playing and having fun,
And it makes me feel so fine,
I can't control my brain,
We'll run away together,
We'll spend some time forever,
We'll never feel that anymore"

(Note, I went with Weezer, "Island in the Sun" but I really think it reminds me more of Hatteras than Sauvie, but it's the best I could find on this theme.)

Day 1 of the Week of Fabulous Fun

I got me a list, and I'm crossing things off that list...

"The heart is a bloom, Shoots up through the stony ground..." I'm glad I'm not missing out on this, the glory of June in bloom. It would be the easiest thing in the world to miss out on, and I always used to watch is pass by. Now I'm out in it for the first time in years watching the whole damn town come up in roses. June is a glorious glorious month of flowers in Portland.

"The traffic is stuck, And you're not moving anywhere..." (NOT) Taking care of business today, that's for sure. Being proactive is fine and great but nobody else wants to reward me for wanting to get ready to jump right into summer classes. They won't let me pay my bursar bill until next week, and forget going to the bookstore, the shelves are bare and the employees are all on vacation.

But what I lacked in productivity, I made up for in big free scores. Someone cleaned out an office. Too bad it wasn't someone who teaches ESL methods, but I did find some good stuff. Free office supplies are like a little blessing. I amused Mario by slinking around and doing mysterious things (I was making a chapbook out of a map and a transparency) and using the MISL lab to perpetuate my foul deeds.

"It's a beautiful day, Sky falls, you feel like, It's a beautiful day, Don't let it get away" In spite of starting off cold, cloudy and utterly un-summerlike, it got better. By the time I rode all the way up the west bank and across the lower deck of the steel bridge the sun was starting to overcome the clouds. Total victory was nearly at hand. By the time I got to the underpass rest point by the Hawthorne bridge, the sun was coming out and the sky had turned over and the grey was splitting up into those little white clouds that you see on the opening credits for the Simpsons...(those by the way are some VERY Portland clouds).

After I got this far, I wasn't quite sure what to do next, it was barely noon and the whole afternoon loomed before me. I didn't feel like tackling the Springwater Trail today. I had to come up with something. "You're on the road, But you've got no destination, You love this town, Even if that doesn't ring true, You've been all over
And it's been all over you."

Following the beginnings of Division, I popped out near 4-Corners and realized that I was near New Seasons. Hello, lunch! (Unfortunately my choice of hummus would prove to be controversial later). I strolled down a bit further where I knew an amelanchier tree was waiting with branches full of leaves and serviceberries, and stood like a madman on the corner with my arms raised up into the tree picking away. I noticed that this tree is also afflicted with whatever plague they all seem to have this year...I wonder what it is. I also realized I was down the street from the Red and Black so wandered over there and got some coffee and just hung out for awhile watching the traffic and inhaling the jasmine drifting across the street. On the way back, I stopped in Mirador on a whim and lo and behold found a book I've been searching for all year unsuccessfully: The Revolution will not be Microwaved. rock on!

"It's a beautiful day, Don't let it get away"

I rode past the community garden on clinton and found a cherry tree in front of the Ananda school. After succumbing to the urge, I continued on towards 26th and headed back towards Powell, stopping off at the park for awhile. Don't let NOBODY tell you you're too old for the swings.

"What you don't have you don't need it now, What you don't know you can feel it somehow"

It was a good start to the week of fun. I came home and passed the remainder of the afternoon reading and working on one of my summer writing projects, read some more, wrote some more and relaxed. "It was a beautiful day..."

The Fabulous Week of Fun Starting NOW

I was inspired by Jonah's summer to-do-list of 1998, and decided to spend my week off of school doing all the glorious wonderful things that I've always wanted to do, but never had the time for. There's no time like the present for fun, so that's the theme of the week. What would you do if you had an entire week off, and could do whatever you wanted with it? ("Whatever I want" being reigned in some what, as a grad student I don't have hardly any money, so no travel beyond an hour's radius of Portland and no shopping binges aside from the college bookstore and Goodwill). That being said, the rest is fair game.

Here's my itinerary for the week, which will be modified as needed. Weather will determine whether or not some of these activities will be pursued or abandoned:

1. Ride bike around waterfront on Westside, East Bank Esplanade to OMSI: (this was no big deal when I lived in NE, but now this is really far away and I kinda miss being able to do this loop).

2. Do the Sauvie Island Loop. (there's no way I could ever persuade Brian to do this, but there's nothing to stop me from trying it at least once)

3. Ride the Springwater trail. (it goes right by my house, this is an obvious choice).

4. Go berry picking. Strawberries are on. I will invite my classmates to come along and make it a party.

5. Write letters to as many of my neglected friends and family members as humanly possible.

6. Send some snail mail to some really deserving parties.

7. Go take photos at the trainyard.

8. Go to as many neighborhood parks as I can possibly manage even if just for 5 minutes.

9. Read lots of books (fiction ONLY)

10. Go to Washington park with bike.

11. Go to the Tualitin nature preserve. Now that I live over an hour away and am not subbing, I don't get out to Beaverton much. This is one place that's decidedly worth visiting.

12. Go to the rhododendron garden, even if it's all bloomed out by now. The lake is still attractive and there are other plants.

13. Write lots of poetry.

14. Make some zines.

15. Start a portfolio project.

16. Pick all my peas.

Those are the fun things on the list. There's also some "business" that needs to be taken care of before school falls down on top of me. I need to get my textbooks, pay the bursar bill, get all my papers organized, and new binders ready to go. Put away winter clothes, clean the house, write thank-you letters to people, clean out the freezer, and pick up mail from my old house.

Wish me luck, and more importantly, make your own list. What are you putting off in your own life? If you had a week free of work or school, how would you go about making every minute count? What things do you long to do?

the cursed month of june

it seems patently unfair, but i always get sick in June...it never fails. the current malady is a norovirus, a delightful addition to my last week of school. as a result, i have a lot of quality time for reading Kabul by M.E. Hirsch, which I checked out of the library last week. this of course has me thinking about the afghans in my life, back in Memphis. i wonder how they are doing these days...all those kids i used to play soccer with at merriwether.

lately there's been so many changes lately i can hardly keep up with them all...i think taking a few days out of my normal routine will be good for me, ultimately, but the time passes slowly spent on the couch at home.

it's the last day of school in Portland and which feels pretty anti-climactic sitting here in front of the computer. i saw my group of tenth graders off yesterday while on a recovery mission, and realize now that it's very unlikely that i will see them again...but one never knows.

dry land after the stormy seas

Last week was rough on all counts. Last couple of weeks, really. Nothing could have really prepared me mentally or physically for "Project Hell Week". Not that I didn't try to be all proactive and way more on top of shit than usual. Nope. When you get right down to it, there's no way to get ahead when you're having trouble enough just keeping up. Basically, you could say that I felt like I was treading water out in an open sea for two weeks, and I don't know when I've felt more irritable, tired and stressed out.

But all that's behind me now. With the exception of one last class project, I'm free to wind down the end of the term out in the cheerful halls of high school where the last week and a half of classes are sliding away towards summer. Nothing is more exhilirating for students than knowing the end is near and three or so months of summer await.

After feeling vaguely useless and hopelessly overwhelmed with data, I'm now back in my element, watching the curious ways of millenial high school students. aww yeah.