Beautiful 4th of July

We had an absolutely gorgeous 4th of July weekend in Portland this year. It got a little toasty (high 90s!), but the sun was out so I’m not complaining. You can’t count on a nice 4th of July around here. In fact, people who live in the Pacific Northwest have a joke about how sunny summer weather doesn’t start until July 5. In fact, quite the opposite happened this year. The weekend was beautiful, and today is gloomy with a threat of rain.

July is my favorite month and I’m usually so busy enjoying the outdoors that almost everything else gets put on the back burner. We are blessed with precious few months of good weather in Portland. I’m not going to waste it by staying home and cleaning! Here is where I was on the 4th of July this year. Doesn’t get much better than this!

Reading in summertime

Everywhere you turn these days, you see articles, lists, and book reviews recommending great books to read for summer. The premise of all these recommendations is that you have all this time to kill now that summer is here, so here are some great books you can read to wile away those long unfilled hours. Say what?

I don’t know about other people in other places, but summer is my MOST busy time of year. I have less time for reading now than at any other time during the year. The sun is out (finally!), it is warm outside, and the days are long. It’s time for picnics, swimming, hiking, camping, outdoor concerts, and long evening walks. I will take many pictures and by summer’s end I will be weeks – if not months – behind in processing and sorting them all because I will be too busy playing outside to make time for it.

And I’m not the type to go on vacation and sit by the pool or on the beach for hours and hours and hours reading a book. I could maybe do that for one afternoon, but I’d quickly get bored. And what a waste of good weather! You can read anywhere at any time. The sun won’t be here long. Better go out and take advantage of it while you can!

Don’t get me wrong, I love reading. Boy, do I love it! But I fail to see the point of wasting our precious few months of good weather on an activity better suited to the long, dark, dreary, awful winters we endure in the Pacific Northwest . That’s when I’d appreciate some good book recommendations (although, truth be told, I already have so many books on my “Books I Want to Read” list that I will never ever read them all). Unless you’re into the skiing thing (ugh), there is nothing to do here in the winter except read books and watch movies. So I won’t be getting much reading done for the next few months, thank you. If you’re looking for me, I’ll be in the mountains enjoying the sunshine.

Roses everywhere

I took a 6.6 mile walk through SE Portland neighborhoods today. It was Walk #8 in my wonderful Portland City Walks book. It’s an overcast day here in Portland, but still pleasant enough. This is perfect walking-through-the city weather because if it was sunny and warm then walking along all that hot pavement might get uncomfortable after awhile.

SE Portland is full of cool old houses with big porches and tall trees in the yards. Many streets are lined with such big trees that the branches meet in the middle, creating a sort of “tree tunnel” down which you can drive. How I would love to live in that neighborhood! Yards are looking beautiful with so many flowers blooming. And of course this is the City of Roses and it’s that time of year so the roses are blooming all over the place. This was taken in one of the public rose gardens in the Ladd’s Addition neighborhood.

Good mom

At the library, most of the little kids LOVE smacking the button that opens the automatic power door, which is supposed to be for disabled people. I certainly don’t mind if moms with strollers or people who have their hands full use it too, but I always cringe when the kids abuse that button. Some parents encourage it and some don’t seem to care. But yesterday one mom stopped her kid from reaching for the button, gently reminding him that not only was the automatic door for people in wheelchairs, but it was a waste of energy for the child to use it when he didn’t need to. I could have hugged her!

Health

A year ago today I limped into a podiatrist’s office and found out that I had a stress fracture in my foot. From there I went to my doctor’s office with the worst sore throat of my life, and would find out a few days later that I had mono. I’m happy to report that I’m in much better health now. But there’s nothing like a month of poor health to make you appreciate the times when you are healthy, which for me is most of the time. I’m pretty lucky. I don’t have any ongoing health problems and I don’t need regular medication for anything. I know a lot of people who cannot say the same thing.

Five pound burrito

Taco del Mar has a promotion going on right now. If you can eat a five-pound burrito in under 30 minutes, you get it free. Otherwise you have to pay for it. When Greg and I were there for dinner today, a group of teenage boys walked in. One of them decided they were up for the challenge. The burrito was absolutely enormous. The staff started the clock and the kid started munching. It was a sight to behold. We had to leave before the 30 minutes were up, but it looked like there was a good chance he would finish. It was highly entertaining!

Cell phones

At my library we’re very strict about cell phone use. You cannot talk on the phone in the library and we have signs EVERYWHERE stating this fact. Still, not a day goes by that I don’t have to direct a cell phone talker to the lobby to continue their call. Many people will make excuses about forgetting to put the phone on vibrate or silent. I understand; I’ve forgotten that myself sometimes. But just because you forget to do that doesn’t mean you have to answer the phone when it does ring! Silence the phone so it doesn’t keep ringing and call the person back when you’ve left the library!

Because I have to deal with this so often at work, I find myself wanting to do this in public too out of sheer habit. When I see someone in the grocery store line or wandering the aisles at the bookstore and they’re chatting on their phone, I have the urge to politely tell them to take it outside. But I don’t do this, and instead watch people make fools of themselves as they talk loudly about their personal lives for all the store to hear.

Advice

Some guy came to the library and asked about how to go about changing his name. I futzed around online until I found the page on the Oregon DMV site that describes what to do. I pointed out that he probably needed to do this with some federal agency too, but that the DMV could advise him what happened next once he visited them. He asked if I thought Clackamas County might have someone who could do this process for him. Um, no. The county has no legal authority when it comes to your name and your desire to change it.

Then he made some passing comment about how “you people” (library staff) are always so reluctant to give advice. I pointed out that I could not give advice on something like this since I have never changed my name. It makes me curious what else he has asked about here and wasn’t able to get advice on. No doubt tax forms are part of it. People don’t understand that we just provide the forms. We are not CPAs and we are not qualified to answer your tax questions.

Personal space

Some guy came to the library this afternoon looking for some Alanis Morissette CDs. He talked real slow, like he was stoned. However he reeked of cigarette smoke, not of pot. The album titles he was asking for weren’t coming up in the system, so I just brought up everything by Alanis Morissette. I was getting ready to read off the albums when he asked if he could come around the desk and read the albums off the screen. Normally I don’t mind it if patrons want to do this. On this occasion, however, I cringed. I didn’t want this guy any closer to me than he already was. But he was already coming around the desk, so I held my breath and tilted the monitor towards him. Even still, the overwhelming smell of stale cigarette smoke nearly knocked me out of my chair. I was glad when he saw an album he wanted and I could point in the direction of the CDs. Fresh air again!

As I said, I don’t normally mind when patrons come around the desk to look at the screen. However, I do mind when they START OUT on my side of the desk. Call me peevish, but I always make a point of not turning my chair to face these patrons. I remain facing the desk and crank my head sidewise and upward, hoping that they’ll understand they’re on the wrong side of the desk. Most people don’t get it, but I continue doing it anyway.

Fire alarm

After working at my library for more than 16 months, I finally got to hear what our fire alarm sounds like: bloody awful! It went off shortly after we opened yesterday morning and everyone in the building immediately put their hands over their ears. The noise was so loud and awful that I couldn’t think straight. What was I supposed to do? Do I get people out of the building? Do I work here?

A mother rushed in almost immediately to tell us that her child had pulled the fire alarm in the lobby. It was a false alarm. It was all over in less than five minutes and we were back to our normal work, albeit with ringing ears. I hope I don’t get to experience anything like THAT again anytime soon!