Thursday I took the bicycle to do some errands and shopping. The first leg of the ride was to Jantzen Beach's Michaels to get some two inch wooden balls (insert your own joke here: _____________) which I needed -- oddly enough -- to finish a painting. Part of the ride circles around a sewage treatment plant, which occasionally smells bad enough to stun a buzzard, but Thursday was just slightly rank. After circling the plant and passing an assortment of installation art pieces (most of them are quite nice), the route crosses a pedestrian/bicycle bridge over the Columbia Slough. Of interest to me was a new port-a-potty stationed at the end of the bridge. -- Put there because the odor stimulates the foot/bicycle traffic? -- It's nice that it's there but really -- would the occasional whiz in the bushes make all that much difference? Also at the far end of the bridge is a one or two acre holding pond for treated (I assume) effluent. On this occasion a small boat was floating in the liquid. Purpose unknown but I doubt that anyone was going to water ski.
(As a side bar devoted to all those people opposed to covering Portland's water storage ponds: Consider the ducks and geese which paddle around in this sewage pond and then fly over to paddle around in our drinking water)
Which brings us to What The Hell Is That Thing Floating In The River? I wrote about this first example last January 20. I still don't have a clue as to what it might be. It seems to be a radar dome of some sort but it's not military (or probably not, since the military might not like me taking a picture with my trusty Kodak). It seems to be a research vessel but it's sure odd. (maybe it's the Navy equivalent of an AWAC plane) But the real inspiration for What the Hell!? is the second photo which I took on the ride to Jantzen Beach. And that thing leaves me with no possible explanation. -- A camping trip/pleasure-boat for giraffes? Regarding the scale, the little boat on the left is the same size as the Canby 6-car ferry. I'm absolutely clueless about it. There's nothing in the tents. There are no open (or closed) hatches visible. The masts have no rigging to use as cranes or davits. It's just ----- What the hell IS it? ----
In other news, the guy who was dropped at the Portland Rock Gym (I wrote about the accident on April 27) was back climbing when I was last at the gym. I was surprised to see him back so soon as I thought his injuries were bad enough to keep him out for longer than three months. The woman who dropped him was also back although they weren't climbing together. I didn't notice if anyone was being belayed by the dropper.
Finally, yesterday dw and I met John W. (dw's bro) Jan W. (John's wife) Laurel (Jan's mother) and dw's aunt Dee, for dinner at El Indio a tex-mex place in far NE Portland. The occasion was a celebration of John's 60th B-day. (dw's dad Bob footed the bill. Too bad he couldn't be here) It was good food, and we had a nice time. The event was slightly dampened by the absence of cousin Craig who is having some health issues. It was tough, but we honored John's insistence that we NOT tell the waiter it was a birthday celebration -- so we missed out on a clutch of wait people singing Happy Birthday in both Spanish and English.
Books: "Genghis Khan" (John Man). It's the history of Genghis Khan and accounts of Man's experiences in Mongolia and China. I'm not finished but so far it's a good read.
(As a side bar devoted to all those people opposed to covering Portland's water storage ponds: Consider the ducks and geese which paddle around in this sewage pond and then fly over to paddle around in our drinking water)
In other news, the guy who was dropped at the Portland Rock Gym (I wrote about the accident on April 27) was back climbing when I was last at the gym. I was surprised to see him back so soon as I thought his injuries were bad enough to keep him out for longer than three months. The woman who dropped him was also back although they weren't climbing together. I didn't notice if anyone was being belayed by the dropper.
Finally, yesterday dw and I met John W. (dw's bro) Jan W. (John's wife) Laurel (Jan's mother) and dw's aunt Dee, for dinner at El Indio a tex-mex place in far NE Portland. The occasion was a celebration of John's 60th B-day. (dw's dad Bob footed the bill. Too bad he couldn't be here) It was good food, and we had a nice time. The event was slightly dampened by the absence of cousin Craig who is having some health issues. It was tough, but we honored John's insistence that we NOT tell the waiter it was a birthday celebration -- so we missed out on a clutch of wait people singing Happy Birthday in both Spanish and English.
Books: "Genghis Khan" (John Man). It's the history of Genghis Khan and accounts of Man's experiences in Mongolia and China. I'm not finished but so far it's a good read.
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