North Portland Nostalgia Friday Day

Had a North Portland nostalgia day today. I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather all week with some sort of vague cold-like thing, but it’s not bad enough to be cooped up in the house. We’re 9 days into November now, so it’s not exactly pretty outside, but at least it’s dry (if not warm or sunny), and that’s motivation enough to get out and do some stuff. There will be plenty of wet, nasty, stay-indoors days ahead of us yet…

Decided that today would be a good day to go to up to North Portland. Haven’t been up that way since August. I had a hankering to go to SCRAP, and wanted to see a friend who lives a few blocks away. SCRAP with a toddler wasn’t as bad as I would have expected, but it was hard to convince the boy he couldn’t take home all the crazy stuff he managed to find on the floor while we were in there. Went over to Pizza-a-Go-Go for lunch since it’s been ages since I’ve been there (the last time I went there, I was probably still in school). A lot of things in that end of town have changed a great deal since we lived up there, I’m glad that place, at least, hasn’t changed a bit.

Walked around the neighborhood a bit with the boy since he needed the exercise, and watched him eagerly pick all the yellow goatweed (a common weed that looks a lot like dandelions, but enjoys the drier climate and alkaline soil that we have here). Unfortunately in his zeal to pick as many “yellow flowers” as he could hold, he lost one of his beads (that I let him keep from Scrap). Sad day.

Capped it all off by driving past our old place over on Tillamook St. It’s still there, and it looks like someone’s been using the garden space to its full advantage. Even better, someone turned those derelict vacant lots into a really nice garden space. Awesome! Kinda wish it had been that way when we still lived over there…

There’s a bunch of new stuff that I would love to check out if I had more time. And I had to stay away from Title Wave (for now), that place is deadly for someone like me. I’ll save that one for some yucky day in December when it’s hideous outside…