And we're off!

[urbpan]

Tomorrow morning around zero o'clock, we're setting off for Portland, Oregon; This is a long overdue but all too short visit to a city I've heard about and discussed and developed a crush on despite never getting closer than Seattle.

My computer is down to about one third brain power, meaning that it takes about ten minutes to open a picture file in photoshop from iPhoto, and if a web browser is on too the whole thing grinds to a halt. My lack of focus simply will not let me close all the programs except the ones I'm using most at that moment, so this will not stand. Suffice it to say, I'm not taking the thing on our trip. We'll bring Alexis' computer. I know, I know, how can survive a five day trip with only one laptop? I'll make up for it by watching a millisecond of every show on cable as I scroll up the dial on our hotel tv.

Anyway, I'll hold off on those yellowstone pictures. At this rate you should be seeing pictures from our trip to Portland sometime around when we go to Antigua for Xmas. (We are going to antigua for xmas, right, Alexis? just planting seeds...) Maybe I'll post some more hilarious voice posts, and I'll keep up with the cell phone snapshots, too. Portland has a lot of urban wildlife I want to talk about, so I'll take pictures with my real camera and try to think of some intelligent things to say about it. Actually, it never works that way--instead, I just get fascinated by some aspect of it that seems really stupid to everyone else (black vultures eating palm fruit in Costa Rica; Pigeons on the Galapagos and Easter Island; Fireweed and gulls in Alaska) and write about that. I write best when I'm genuinely obsessed and pouring it back out. Something will catch my eye (and my mind) that I'm not expecting.

And since Portland is essentially out of the running for a place for Alexis and I to live, on account of its allegedly cloudy weather from September to April, what do you all know about Redding, California?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/purplebunnie_/]

Oh god, no. Redding is the armpit of Northern California. It's terrible, all the smoke stays in, full of tweakers.... don't move to Redding.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

"Armpit?" "Tweakers?" If we move to California we're going to have to learn a new language! I'd move to Humboldt County if I thought there were jobs other than those in the pot industry. (I just read the New Yorker article last week.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/purplebunnie_/]

We get plenty of grey here as well; inland is much better than coastal if you want warm weather. As far as jobs here, it depends on what you do. My line of work is alway opening, but there isn't a lot of need for, say, zoo keepers.

Redding is the city built on drug-addled rednecks.

[anais2.livejournal.com]

I have inlaws near Redding, and I know it gets VERY hot in the summer. I'll ask for details.
Your pictures are worth waiting for!

[(Anonymous)]

Otis Redding? A heck of a soulful fella. Oh, Redding, California? As long as none of the Chili Peppers live there you should be okay.

[sayashaw.livejournal.com]

Hey, from someone who lives in washington state...I have found that after some getting used to I actually enjoy the whole clouds and tons of rain thing...it works for me. ^_^

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

No, That's not going to work. Alexis has serious issues with the gray. You have to come clean and let them know that the whole cloudy and gray thing is an elaborate ruse you're using to keep from being overrun by Californians.

[(Anonymous)]

you've caught me. It's really nice here all the time we just tell people that it's cloudy and rains for 8 months out of the year to keep from being over run...we are all dreading the Olympics in 2010 in Vancouver when everyone will discover our horrible secret and we'll be inundated by people. Considering piling broken down cars at freeway exits actually.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'm right there with you, but it's a deal breaker for Alexis. Two straight cloudy days here in New England and she's already showing SAD symptoms.

[pipu.livejournal.com]

Redding is HOT and yes, full of tweakers.

[hhw]

welcome to Portland, and enjoy! Here's a list of free events this weekend. if your itinerary is not already over-stuffed and you'd like to meet at some point, let me know. username @ livejournal dot com or five oh three nine six three nine six six six

a friend of mine from high school lived near Redding (Anderson, CA) from 1998 on. Her house was right on the Sacramento River, which was a great location, although probably a bad thing in a flood. WAY too hot for me: might be just right for you and yours.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Hey cool, thanks!
We're not here for long, but this evening (after 7?) we're going to the Pied Cow, so if you're free come on by! I have no idea what you look like or your real name, so you'll have to look for us I guess. I just shaved my head, so I look like that now.

[bicoastal.livejournal.com]

Petaluma is nicer-looking than Redding.

What about Davis? It's a college town with a great ag school, possibly work for people into animals.