In Praise of Oregon Rain

We’re celebrating tonight in Portland, because the rain has returned. Not a lot; it’s a classic light misty Portland rain.

But we needed it badly to quell the Eagle Creek Fire that has choked our downtown skies several times since it started more than two weeks ago, on Sept. 2, because (allegedly) teenagers were playing with fireworks in the parched wilderness of the Columbia Gorge.

After an all-time record of cumulative rain and snowfall last winter (more than an average year’s rain in less than five months through February), Portland had had only a hundredth of an inch on August 13, and a hundredth of an inch on Jun 16.

In 15 days, the Eagle Creek Fire grew to more than 48,000 acres as of Sunday morning, when it was still only 32 percent contained; and the day before, we had the worst air quality in the nation.

Ummm . . . That's Not What I Meant to Say

Part of my free-lance income for the past five years has come from proofreading and editing copy for several Web companies that generate content for the Internet. The subject matter runs from real estate and investment strategies to gardening and dental/orthodontic treatments.

Of course I regularly run across delightful typos that might be blamed either on an enthusiastic and hasty writer or unhelpful meddling by auto-correct. Whichever the case, here are some of the doozies from last year . . . along with my “editorial” comments.

February 10: “If you have been given anesthetic, it should wear off in a few hours. Please be careful not to bite your check or tongue.”

Banks can be so squeamish about teeth marks on the paperwork.

April 22: “… allowing realtors to hint at features everyone will be clambering for in a year or two….”

Has the housing market become so competitive that house hunters have to beat one another up a rock wall to land the home of their dreams?

June 1: I was proofreading a dental-care website last night that assured patients “piece of mind.” So this practice does cheapie lobotomies on the side?

August 26: “_______ has always had a wonderful smile, but because of the condition of his teeth he would always cover his mouth or just refuse to smite.”

I can understand that. It’s tough to grin fiendishly while you’re raping and pillaging when you know you have bad teeth. . . .

Remembering My Faraway Friend, Jeff Weiss

Last Friday, I needed to get in touch with Jeff Weiss, the fellow who launched this blog nearly eight years ago. When I went to his Facebook page, I was shocked to see the caption “Remembering Jeffrey Weiss” . . .

Paging down, I read memorials, farewells, and tearful messages from friends and family of my ’net colleague. Further down, I found links to news stories about his death in a car collision near his home west of Atlantic City, New Jersey on June 17. Jeff’s car was stopped when another vehicle rear-ended it in Egg Harbor Township as he was heading home to Mays Landing, and Jeff was pronounced dead at the scene.

I had never met him in person, but we had worked together online for most of the past eight years, and occasionally talked by phone as well as chatted on live and recorded podcasts. I always assumed I would meet Jeff someday, but now I know I never will.

In the fall of 2009 I was going through huge changes: I’d been laid off in early July from the full-time job I’d held nearly five years, and was trying to secure unemployment benefits and temp jobs here in Portland while looking for another full-time position. But I was also launching a side career as a commercial actor and model at the fairly advanced age of 50.

It's Raining in Portland Again . . . but It's Ashes This Time

Right now I have too many events and issues close to home, that affect me directly, to write about . . . as opposed to the usual mélange of national/international politics or celebrity misbehavior and weird crimes.

I have been working on a series of commentaries here about homelessness as well as a few other topics, but a one-two punch of hot weather and a wilderness fire only forty miles east of the city struck this week.

Originally forecast to hit 99 or 100 degrees Monday and Tuesday, temperatures in downtown Portland did not get that high after all . . . but that was because the city was blanketed in smoke from a fire that began along the Eagle Creek Trail, not very far above and south of the Columbia River, inside the edge of the Mount Hood National Forest. (That’s the morning sun in this shot, through the haze and between the towers in South Waterfront on Tuesday morning about 7:25 a.m.).

More than 150 hikers were trapped up the trail by the fire overnight Saturday, but most of them got out safely. By Monday evening it began to rain white and grey ash all over Portland. The air tasted foul. The full or nearly full moon turned a rusty brown or nearly blood red for the past few nights. (Below, the Fox Tower on the left, and Park Avenue West on the right, behind the signpost in Pioneer Courthouse Square, with the smoke-dulled sun behind me reflected in their windows, about 9:20 a.m. Tuesday.)