Dr. Caligari, books, bills and vacation retrospective
Marisa and I appeared in a burlesque show last night with a number of talented performers, a show produced with great talent and verve. Tiring but rewarding to do our act as Dr. Caligari and Cesare. We both can say we wore our thespian hats with makeup, costuming and on-stage presence.
Helped that the weather was very nice, traffic acceptable and we found parking in the same block as the show at Crush at 14th and SE Morrison in Portland. We have a new parking strategy which worked well this time: look for parking on Belmont, then 15th, then Morrison, then 14th, then on the opposite side of Belmont, then down 15th in the residential area.
We were both tired and hungry after the show. I ate a left-over piece of pizza and drank a glass of juice/selzer water, nodding off as we watched CNN regurgitate the same stories about Hurricane Michael and the suspected murder of a Saudi journalist by his own country.
My goal to-day is to finish the task of moving unshelved books to shelves. As we don't have enough shelving and I have found few books with which I wish to give up, I am temporarily boxing up encylopeadias to free up shelves. The concept is that a single encyclopeadia is like a really large book, but all of the books waiting to be shelves are individually interesting. So it is like removing five books and replacing with 100!
I will still be culling books and trying not to buy new ones, but my curiousity is not yet bounded. Unshelved books make our house unvacuumable and dirty...and the books also become difficult to find because they are not in their place!
Yesterday paid some bills (will mail to-morrow), including a whopping credit bill for our San Francisco vacation, some of the Eastern Oregon vacation, 007/Broncho Billy DVD purchases and some of the veterinary costs for Squeaky. I borrowed from my special fund so I don't incur interest charges. Next month could also be fairly large with all the gas, tire, hotel, meal and veterinary expenses.
So I will sell some stock next month to get back on track. We only had one cat whom we loved and I only get one sabbatical a year. If money can get you time and love you have to try!
Both vacations were rewarding for me, even the low points. Some lessons:
* In to-day's society that mobile phones are pretty much required. So I am now investigating buying a phone number, a phone and bluetooth device to make its use more acceptable to me.
* Give more time for scheduled events...to arrive on time.
* Bring the spare key for any trip in the truck...or remove the lock entirely.
* Keep my car insurance card current. It wasn't an issue but it could have been!
* Before going out, make sure both camera batteries are fully charged.
* Don't drink too much coffee and never drink caffeinated coffee after breakfast!
* On trips to rural areas, bring more CDs.
* Be more prepared for roads in rural areas and get U.S. Topographic maps which show if roads are paved or not. Google Maps are insufficient as they do not clearly show 3-dimensional views or whether roads are dirt or gravel.
Yet, things could have been far worse:
* All hotels were arranged.
* All routes pretty much timed well for the experiences desired (with exception of Alcatraz).
* The extra quart of oil I carried was good.
* Carrying a tire pump also a good idea, if nothing else but to assure myself the tire was bad.
* Bringing a coat: also a good idea.
* The few CDs I had were all interesting and appropriate.
* Bringing a laptop computer: definitely needed--all hotels have wifi now!
* I look better without a beard to other people--so I should try to stay clean shaven (not now, my next stage role needs a beard).
* May sweat a little and get nervous at times, but I stayed pretty calm in situations which might have unnerved me in the past. For instance, going down US 95 from Idaho into Oregon they were funneling two way traffic through one lane so had signal lights on both sides of the single lane. I got caught at the front end of this. There was no explanation so worried I did not understand the purpose. I guessed right, but I felt really nervous about this growing number of vehicles behind me. Seemed an eternity but eventually the light turned green and the column of cars and trucks with my truck in front was allowed through.
* I can now handle conversations fairly well...between me and service providers or with complete strangers.
--Debra served me at the Balch Hotel. She asked me if I wanted a drink from the bar. I misinterpreted her request as one about alcohol and answered no nothing alcoholic for me this evening. Then she hautilly explained she meant any kind of beverage. I dismissed her reaction and just heard the words and provided my choice. I could see the relief on her face that I didn't lash out at her (which I would have done in years past).
--I asked in Enterprise if there was a payphone nearby. I was already prepared for a no. The gas station attendant there didn't know but was helpful. He asked another customer and relayed the impudent reply "Go back to 1972." He seemed embarassed about it, but I laughed it off.
--Russ at North Lake Tire was walking in and out of the waiting area and was extremely gracious and apologetic--sorry I had to wait until the next day for service: "We roll up our sidewalks at 5 around here", sorry he didn't offer coffee to me, explained "We're working on your tire now, well, they are, I am just here to answer the phone" to which I responded "You're all helping me and I appreciate it."
--Chatted with folks at Mays Place in Elgin, Frenchglen Hotel in Frenchglen and Balch Hotel in Dufur. All seemed genuinely conversational with me and, at least outwardly did not seem turned-off by anything I said. This is in part because I listened more and said less, nodding my head, laughing appropriately, and trying to remember people's names along the way. So I missed the names in Elgin but two of the women were from Heppner. At Frenchglen there was Amanda, a woman who works in "Pharma" in Georgia with her sister who lives in Portland (forgot her name unfortunately); Leigh Ann and Gary from Seaside. Leigh Ann is a former registered nurse, Gary a retired electrician. At Balch Hotel there was Neil and his wife (never got her name) with Neil retired but his wife running a home business doing bookkeeping for several clients in Boise. Neil used to work with mainframe computers in the 1960s starting with his U.S. Army recruitment during the Vietnam War. He has 6000 books, mostly history.
--Introduced myself at Jamie McLeod-Skinner's campaign office in La Grande, Oregon. I simply wanted to contribute more to the campaign, but I chatted a bit with the man and woman. The woman was answering most of my questions about how the campaign was going. She said as I was leaving that my visit was a highlight of her day, a Sunday when probably few people stopped by.
--Talked with Barbara at Outback Station about my flat tire, where I was going. She was from Seaside, working with the horses during the Summer there near Fort Rock. In the middle of my phone call with the insurance roadside assistance woman I complimented her on her dog.
* I am a fully rounded person with a little bit of knowledge and experience in most things that allow me to understand and benefit.
--know how to fix a flat and what can damage a tire.
--understand that in rural USA people wake early and end their day early.
--can navigate one lane twisty roads (I beep as I come around a corner, move to one side when another vehicle approaches--my Dad taught me this from our vacations).
--know a little about geology and learned more as the trip progressed.
--understand history and know a few stories, allowing me to get the Pete French history and that of Rome, Owyhee Dam, etc. Again, I think this started when my family went on trips to places like Columbia, California.
So, in general, I expanded myself as an individual on this vacation because I stayed positive, curious and respectful along the way...always improving upon my past experience.
Helped that the weather was very nice, traffic acceptable and we found parking in the same block as the show at Crush at 14th and SE Morrison in Portland. We have a new parking strategy which worked well this time: look for parking on Belmont, then 15th, then Morrison, then 14th, then on the opposite side of Belmont, then down 15th in the residential area.
We were both tired and hungry after the show. I ate a left-over piece of pizza and drank a glass of juice/selzer water, nodding off as we watched CNN regurgitate the same stories about Hurricane Michael and the suspected murder of a Saudi journalist by his own country.
My goal to-day is to finish the task of moving unshelved books to shelves. As we don't have enough shelving and I have found few books with which I wish to give up, I am temporarily boxing up encylopeadias to free up shelves. The concept is that a single encyclopeadia is like a really large book, but all of the books waiting to be shelves are individually interesting. So it is like removing five books and replacing with 100!
I will still be culling books and trying not to buy new ones, but my curiousity is not yet bounded. Unshelved books make our house unvacuumable and dirty...and the books also become difficult to find because they are not in their place!
Yesterday paid some bills (will mail to-morrow), including a whopping credit bill for our San Francisco vacation, some of the Eastern Oregon vacation, 007/Broncho Billy DVD purchases and some of the veterinary costs for Squeaky. I borrowed from my special fund so I don't incur interest charges. Next month could also be fairly large with all the gas, tire, hotel, meal and veterinary expenses.
So I will sell some stock next month to get back on track. We only had one cat whom we loved and I only get one sabbatical a year. If money can get you time and love you have to try!
Both vacations were rewarding for me, even the low points. Some lessons:
* In to-day's society that mobile phones are pretty much required. So I am now investigating buying a phone number, a phone and bluetooth device to make its use more acceptable to me.
* Give more time for scheduled events...to arrive on time.
* Bring the spare key for any trip in the truck...or remove the lock entirely.
* Keep my car insurance card current. It wasn't an issue but it could have been!
* Before going out, make sure both camera batteries are fully charged.
* Don't drink too much coffee and never drink caffeinated coffee after breakfast!
* On trips to rural areas, bring more CDs.
* Be more prepared for roads in rural areas and get U.S. Topographic maps which show if roads are paved or not. Google Maps are insufficient as they do not clearly show 3-dimensional views or whether roads are dirt or gravel.
Yet, things could have been far worse:
* All hotels were arranged.
* All routes pretty much timed well for the experiences desired (with exception of Alcatraz).
* The extra quart of oil I carried was good.
* Carrying a tire pump also a good idea, if nothing else but to assure myself the tire was bad.
* Bringing a coat: also a good idea.
* The few CDs I had were all interesting and appropriate.
* Bringing a laptop computer: definitely needed--all hotels have wifi now!
* I look better without a beard to other people--so I should try to stay clean shaven (not now, my next stage role needs a beard).
* May sweat a little and get nervous at times, but I stayed pretty calm in situations which might have unnerved me in the past. For instance, going down US 95 from Idaho into Oregon they were funneling two way traffic through one lane so had signal lights on both sides of the single lane. I got caught at the front end of this. There was no explanation so worried I did not understand the purpose. I guessed right, but I felt really nervous about this growing number of vehicles behind me. Seemed an eternity but eventually the light turned green and the column of cars and trucks with my truck in front was allowed through.
* I can now handle conversations fairly well...between me and service providers or with complete strangers.
--Debra served me at the Balch Hotel. She asked me if I wanted a drink from the bar. I misinterpreted her request as one about alcohol and answered no nothing alcoholic for me this evening. Then she hautilly explained she meant any kind of beverage. I dismissed her reaction and just heard the words and provided my choice. I could see the relief on her face that I didn't lash out at her (which I would have done in years past).
--I asked in Enterprise if there was a payphone nearby. I was already prepared for a no. The gas station attendant there didn't know but was helpful. He asked another customer and relayed the impudent reply "Go back to 1972." He seemed embarassed about it, but I laughed it off.
--Russ at North Lake Tire was walking in and out of the waiting area and was extremely gracious and apologetic--sorry I had to wait until the next day for service: "We roll up our sidewalks at 5 around here", sorry he didn't offer coffee to me, explained "We're working on your tire now, well, they are, I am just here to answer the phone" to which I responded "You're all helping me and I appreciate it."
--Chatted with folks at Mays Place in Elgin, Frenchglen Hotel in Frenchglen and Balch Hotel in Dufur. All seemed genuinely conversational with me and, at least outwardly did not seem turned-off by anything I said. This is in part because I listened more and said less, nodding my head, laughing appropriately, and trying to remember people's names along the way. So I missed the names in Elgin but two of the women were from Heppner. At Frenchglen there was Amanda, a woman who works in "Pharma" in Georgia with her sister who lives in Portland (forgot her name unfortunately); Leigh Ann and Gary from Seaside. Leigh Ann is a former registered nurse, Gary a retired electrician. At Balch Hotel there was Neil and his wife (never got her name) with Neil retired but his wife running a home business doing bookkeeping for several clients in Boise. Neil used to work with mainframe computers in the 1960s starting with his U.S. Army recruitment during the Vietnam War. He has 6000 books, mostly history.
--Introduced myself at Jamie McLeod-Skinner's campaign office in La Grande, Oregon. I simply wanted to contribute more to the campaign, but I chatted a bit with the man and woman. The woman was answering most of my questions about how the campaign was going. She said as I was leaving that my visit was a highlight of her day, a Sunday when probably few people stopped by.
--Talked with Barbara at Outback Station about my flat tire, where I was going. She was from Seaside, working with the horses during the Summer there near Fort Rock. In the middle of my phone call with the insurance roadside assistance woman I complimented her on her dog.
* I am a fully rounded person with a little bit of knowledge and experience in most things that allow me to understand and benefit.
--know how to fix a flat and what can damage a tire.
--understand that in rural USA people wake early and end their day early.
--can navigate one lane twisty roads (I beep as I come around a corner, move to one side when another vehicle approaches--my Dad taught me this from our vacations).
--know a little about geology and learned more as the trip progressed.
--understand history and know a few stories, allowing me to get the Pete French history and that of Rome, Owyhee Dam, etc. Again, I think this started when my family went on trips to places like Columbia, California.
So, in general, I expanded myself as an individual on this vacation because I stayed positive, curious and respectful along the way...always improving upon my past experience.