Life in Portland Area

Click here to see the next page of this series.

Click on the back button of your browser or click here to see the previous page of this series.

Click on any of the little pictures to see it at normal size. Click on the '=0=' after the picture to see it in giant size (about 2 minutes to download on dialup connection and larger than screen size). This could be useful if you wanted to really look at one part of the picture or to make a print.

Portland Hawk. =0= Portland Hawk. =0=
In the local news a lot of people in Portland have been interested in a hawk that has nested in the building where I work. Above is a picture of the hawk (almost two feet long) resting on the railing of the fire escape outside the large conference room at work. However, it appears that it is a pair of hawks as next to it is a picture of the baby hawk, only about one foot long (but still pretty big for a bird). This must of been his first flight out of nest as he stayed quite a while, standing on one leg with his feathers puffed out (it was much chillier in the wind and outside of the nest) and finally calling for help (it appeared). I presume he eventually got hungry enough to try flying back to the nest. Here is a picture of a window washer cleaning the windows of our building. A year ago (May 2006) I took a picture from inside of my window. Window Washer =0=
Talls Ships, Rose Festival 2007. =0= Talls Ships, Rose Festival 2007. =0=
Jim and I still go on walks for breaks as we eat lunch at out desks. This year real 'Tall Ships' were visiting and above are pictures of them. They were promoting the new Pirate movie and doing mock battles as well as offering tours (for a fee). I had taken pictures of other ships a couple of years ago. The construction of the new light rail lines that goes by work (5th and 6th avenues) is progressing nicely (shown here). They did something I haven't seen for ages, They paved with asphalt and then put down a couple of inches of sand and loose bricks on top of it. Sounds eaiser to maintain (if you have to dig) if it works OK. New Max Line, P{ortland, OR. =0=
New Parking Construction. =0= New Parking Construction. =0=
The construction of a new underground parking lot (with a park on top making it a parking park) is also proceeding. There were earlier pictures previously. Above you can see a pipe (a little to the left) that they use to pump cement when they doing a major 'pour'. The trucks deliver the cement to the pipe there and it is pumped down to the very bottom (see the pipe toward the left in the picture above on the right) and then back up through a crane / boom at the center of the left or right side shown here. They use the main crane in the center (and above these shots) to move the smaller crane / boom from side to side and away to other sites when they aren't pouring. Cool! New Parking Construction. =0=
Multnomah County Library. =0= Multnomah County Library. =0=
Recently I have been minimizing my trips shopping by freezing milk and bananas so I only go shopping once every two or three weeks. However, that makes trip to the library less convenient as I used to combine them with my weekly shopping trip. Now I often visit the Multnomah County Library which is right along the route we often walk, shown above. On the bus in to work I would often ride with a friend who I met on the bus, Doan, who is a Vietnamese. We would talk of various things including Buddhism. However, she has shifted to longer days 4 days a week and one Friday off every two weeks. We don't see each other on the bus, but she eats her lunch at her desk, too. We walked to the library (to turn in an item I had) and she looked through their Vietnamese books (shown here). Doan. =0=
Click here to see the next page in this series.

This page was last updated on June 17, 2007.