Driving in Portland

It's official - Portland drivers (the Oregon kind anyway) are the politest in the nation.

This surprises me not at all. I've had several 4-way stops drag on while multiple people "after you" too much. I learned to drive in New Jersey - if someone motions me forward, I'm going. Even if they don't, I might go anyway.

Still, nothing illustrates the insane overpoliteness of this area like the following totally true story from last week.

Our town is located off a 2-lane highway...we'll call it Highway A for all the stalkers in the audience. To get onto Hwy A, you take a long, sweeping on-ramp. The speed limit for Hwy A is 55 mph, but thanks to the long on-ramp, you have plenty of time to get up to speed AND see cars already on the highway.

So it's a weekend morning, and I'm driving the kids in our minivan. As I start up the on-ramp, I see exactly one truck barrelling down Hwy A. (Doing 55 - they don't speed much around here either) There's nobody behind him for miles, so I take my time up the ramp.

Except, he slows down. A lot.

Yep, some crazy driver ON A HIGHWAY slowed down to probably 35 mph to let me on. FOR NO GOOD REASON.

And sadly, this is far from the first time.

I almost miss the offensive driving of NJ...

Now this is getting ridiculous

I mean, the ornamental 2" we had for most of the week has now mushroomed into 14"!

Our city is paralyzed...Portland is just not a snow kind of place. Yeah, sure, about half the population owns snow chains (so they can go skiing in the mountains), but that's it. And there's nowhere near enough plows, sanding trucks, etc.

Ick.

I'm Mad This Morning

It's Monday, and boy am I so not ready for it. I'll freely admit I was grumpy to start out with...but this really pisses me off.

Portland doesn't exactly have a wealth of decent radio stations - particularly if what you want on your morning commute is upbeat music. Blather, aka "Talk"...plenty of that. Awful "my wife left and took the dog" country...certainly.

So it ticks me off that this morning I had to reduce my "decent station" list from a paltry 3 down to a miserable 2.

Sometime in the last two years, station 107.5FM turned into "Movin 107.5" - a CBS radio production. It was pop, some older R&B, with a few nuggets of goodness surrounded by ok stuff. Not earth-shatteringly good, but fine for commuting and waking up. However, over the last week or so I noticed I was NOT enjoying the music offered on that station nearly as much...seemed like more hip-hop was playing than anything else.

This morning was the final straw for me. I turned on the radio, and found "Radio Playhouse" or some such nonsense instead of music. Brash, un-funny talk radio - moved up from a hip-hop station that I didn't like. Not ONCE in my 20 minute commute did they play music.

I'm done - I'll use my evening commute to find an alternative, and then 107.5 is off my saved channels for good. Unbelievably stupid business decision CBS!

Shameless Bragging

I'm putting the finishing touches on my Feature Monday post, but in the meantime...

I just have to brag a little! My eldest son Carson (age 8) and I ran a 5k yesterday in Portland. (Oregon) Carson was interviewed by a local station - KATU channel 2. I got about 2 seconds of video time myself (frazzled hair and arms full of stuff). Look about 3/4 of the way into the clip, for a kid in a white shirt. :-)

Video is here

This Makes Me Angry

Headline on our local news…”Mom tried to protect son before he was found dead with dad.”

Apparently, the mom filed for a restraining order against her soon-to-be-ex husband. In that request, she stated that she feared for her life, and her son’s. This was the second time she filed for a restraining order against this man. Other women have also filed RO’s – so clearly this man is a problem.

Some idiot of a judge decided to modify the restraining order, and give the husband visitation rights. UNSUPERVISED visitation rights.

Can you guess where this is leading?

So this weekend, the guy picks up his son, and off they go camping. When they don’t return on Sunday, the woman calls the police.

They issue an arrest warrant on Monday.

On Tuesday both man and son are found dead, pretty classic murder-suicide.

The judicial system failed this poor woman. Completely failed her. Instead of protecting her, they have allowed that man to hurt her in the worst way possible.

I’m shocked, and angry, and incredibly sorry for her.