Why I was not here

A few days after my last post a good friend [actually my best friend] had a leg amputated due to gangrene. She seemed to re doing fine by the weekend and then went downhill rapidly and died on July 20th.

I then helped, with several others, to call mutual friends and tell them about her death and 2 planned memorial services. It was hard as I was re-connecting with other old friends with whom I lost contact over my last 2 moves and we had long conversations about past present and future.

Why does it usually take a death to make people who like each other re-connect? And now I am planning a trip to visit these old friends.

Of course nothing is normal weather wise this year so we in Portland where 90 is a rare event had a 10 day stretch of a brutal heat wave and I get heat exhaustion...and during those days me, the dog, cat and computer were all laying low and being very still. I don't have AC - very few in the Pacific Northwest do. Hard for me to get my political brain working under the conditions of grief and heat...

Stay tuned - I will resume as there is so much to say!

Are we hot yet?

I have only lived in Oregon for 3 years but do understand that temperatures in the 100's in Portland are not usual. Last year the heat wave [global warm?] came later in July - this year it starts later today [July 9th]...

As one who does not tolerate high temperatures very well - I must be careful...and as I do not have air conditioning - my computer and I will be taking time off this week as it soars into the 100 plus range here...thankfully, I can roll right into the Columbia River to cool off....or kayak to a beach and swim where my feet touch bottom : - )

My dog and cat are already staying in the house - and that is totally not like either of them...I watch them for impending weather - they are good forecasters!

Is the globe warmer? I say yes...Having lived in the Boston area for about 15 years [60's and 70's], I recalled only a very few days during that time frame where it got to near or over 100. While in D.C. [80s and 90's] many summers were unbearable as the outside temps were in the high 90's [plus] during the day and "cooled off" to the high 80's at night...Then I moved back to New England, further north than Boston and saw record heat almost every summer...more days near 100 than in my entire time in Boston... And now heat waves in July in Oregon!

Hmm...the wing nuts, during the cold spells last winter laughed about global warming as it was cold - we had very unusual cold here in Portland...the nay-sayers fail to understand that global warming produces both hot and cold climate changes...

Now look at the recent devastation in Texas , the fires out West and the heat waves in Europe. If you are older than 50 - you know this is an odd pattern of weather..

For me, I'd like to to see reduced global warming.. someday I'd like to have grandchildren who can see glaciers on Mt. Hood or in Glacier National Park...to be able to enjoy a summer outside an air conditioned building..to not be subjected to heat advisories and smog alerts...to breather cleaner air, to swim in cleaner waters, have birds and fish to look at, and see the country as I saw back in the 50's and 60's....


My "backyard" hammock......