a little red hen

Clouds West to East & In-between

Portland airport

The Rockies

New Jersey from Manhattan

The Last Time I Saw Portland...

Unexpectedly, it was snowing here in January.  Now Portland, Oregon's  weather is sunny, the envy of our friends in New York drenched with rain over the past week.  The two cities seem to have exchanged climates.

It's been too busy since we arrived to think about blogging.  But today I read the last two posts at TimeGoesBy.  Reading her responses to the prevalence of Blackberries on her visit to Manhattan was timely.  My daughter's Blackberry was next to me at the breakfast table.  Left there as she took the baby up for a nap.  I never get over how tiny the keys are.

But I have seen it's utility.  Last week a call from a broker while we were on the playground with Zoe.  Nice to have a cellphone.  Needing to make arrangements for her to show someone our apartment, we were impressed by how she could receive call and email on her little device.  "Now I get it," told my daughter.

Of course it's all so speeded up--faxes for contract exchanges were added to the mix.  I guess these innovations are more appealing when they facilitate something important to me.  But no Black or Blue or Redberries in my future--too much to keep track of along with my knittng.

Today's TGB, a tidy listing to terms around the healthcare debacle plus concise explanations of what is at stake, sparked an "Aha" moment.  Here is why we will not get a single payer plan or even a very useful "public" option.  It would mean that all Americans would be joined in a way that would threaten what is so important in our political system today:  how to keep groups of us at odds with one another.

Think of it.  Medicare for all, for example, reduces the conflict between  older and younger people.  Our energy might be directed toward making a better national health system rather than setting up old people's entitlements versus those of children. 

What would keep the Repubs and Dems going?  They'd have to be thoughtful--finally answer why only Congressmen and Congresswomen were entitled to the best healthcare benefits.  And that might lead to, oh you remember the term, Democracy.

Portland Bound, Once Again

Our efforts to sell our apartment has been quite a ride since March (tear-off notice posted on bus kiosk near Columbia.)  We feel the end is closer, but... Tomorrow we leave for Portland, Oregon, and our family out there.  Taking along my Condom Amulet cap and thinking of new ideas for getting you to pay attention to the HIV crisis in women over 50  (and many others).

Ron's knit hats collection continues to grow even as they are given to others.  One went to Europe with  John Fu who came to visit this spring from Copenhagen where he now lives.  We met in Xian, China, 2000, when he was an undergrad.  Now has an MBA, and a serious job in Denmark.

(Even though I tried so to get him to go for an MPH, Public Health degree.) Photo snapped in nearby neighborhood restaurant, Toast, which describes itself as "truckstop gourment," good hamburgers, situated on Broadway at 124th where the elevated subway is above the street.  You can see it through the window in the background.

More hats left the house with Jonathan and Steve when they visited from D.C. (they send their best to M.E. at Xtreme English).  Great, late-into-night conversation on our ideas about world-saving--and sometimes despair.

It was 4 p.m. this Sunday...our last Open House(?) had ended...so I ran to Knitty City for answers to a deep yarn dilemna on a new project.  I love this place.  Sandra on left is amazing knitter-customer who answered part of question... Aryn, right, works there, helps me believe no problem is beyond solution.  Aryn created the Brooklyn Condom Amulet, very site-specific, which will go with me to PDX to amaze folks there.  (If you know Brooklyn, you'll recognize the embroidered Williamsburg Savings Bank.)

Put my Portland button back on my purse since we'll be with our daughter, known to her family as "the great employer," always finding ways to keep the world busy.

We'll miss our darling Roxie, take her photos along and bring back more pictures of her cousins.

Time to pack.  Took one more picture, Ron's latest weaving, to show other weavers/spinners we know in Portland.  Yes, he is a steadier fiber person these day than the woman who introduced him to it.

Works for me until I get my groove again, or maybe morph in a different direction.

Ron Bloom Celebrates Another Birthday!

All my love and thanks for all the places we've been, crises we've survived,  children and grandchildren we've loved...

...and your great patience in teaching me too many things to list...what I've learned from your pleasure in sharing with everyone who comes within your range.

  All of us look forward to many more June tenths with you--

most especially yours truly ...

Celebration: High-Rise Style...Last night--a building party where we live. Lee Morgan, Ron's co-chair and great party-giver, suggested this one as they wrapped up their term of office, turned it over to another pair. Singing the Birthday song was a high point of the pot-luck evening...who says New Yorkers don't care about one another?