January myPinkyUpdate: Volume 1, Issue 7
My hoborific lifestyle has settled down for a while in Portland. While I'm waiting for Spring I spent my first month in Portland playing kickball, football, and basketball, and pretty much every other waking hour was spent at one of the many libraries in the Portland area.
I also made a glorious return to Wisconsin to pick up some cheese, see my family and friends and do a little snowboarding. All-around another month of my life that I'm sure I'll never forget.......at least not until advanced age sets in and I go a little (more) crazy.
Idle Time
I have plenty of hours, no, make that days or even months where I'm short on ideas or creative mojo. When this happens I tend to create random tasks for myself. A few weeks ago, I was staring at my desktop (a beautiful image of Whistler as seen hiking across the Musical Bumps) trying to hatch a thought........instead, I started wondering what in the world my fellow bikehikers in the picture were thinking about.
At your left is what I came up with. Yes, I should be a little more productive than this.
Valentine's Day Tip: What the Ladies are Looking for
Guy's if you're having a little trouble finding that special someone, here's what I've learned in Portland:
Girls like guys with Vermont license plates and Wikipedia pages.
I decided that the ultimate combination would be a Vermont license plate that lets passersby know that you have a wikipedia page. This is a sure-fire way to cause a stir with the ladies near you. I have yet to determine why Wisconsin license plates with pinky oriented website bumper stickers plastered on a car doesn't do the trick?
Lifestyles of the Young and the Homeless
I'm really short on pics for this month. This is good and this is bad. On the good side I don't have to resize/photoshop/upload many pics. On the bad side, no one wants to read anything, so what do I have to show? Here are two quick notes:
Portland is a great place to have a VW repaired. VW shops are all over the place. My mobile home is fixed and ready to put on some miles. She also has x-country skis in her now (just in case she isn't ready for the road).
I flew to Milwaukee and back to Portland with a 3" pocket knife in my backpack. I know how it was there (I never search my backpack before I pack), but I have no idea how TSA missed it. They gave my bag of cheese a serious swabbing when I was headed back to Portland (sadly, they turned down my offer of a "taste test.").
Home with My Family
As always, it's good to return home to visit with my family. Although, my most recent trip to the land of milk and cheese was short I managed to pack a lot in. I caught up with my parents, shopped for cars with my sister, rock banded with her kids, and scrabbled with my brother and his family.
Coincidentally, my night at my brother's was the night before "dress as what you want to be when you grow up" day for his kids. Their initial idea was to be white rappers, but when I arrived Sam decided to be a hobo and Maddie went for a more practical Cowgirl. I tried telling Sam, that being a hobo isn't as glamorous as it sounds........I mean, a real hobo would have hitched or sneaked on a train to get back to Wisconsin. These guys are tough and resourceful, not patsies like myself.
In the end it was a really good trip home. It was great to see everyone, and my Mom definitely made significant contributions to my "Most Delicious Weekend of My Life." I'm sure I'll be back (looking for food) sometime in the near future.
Hurley, WI is More Awesome
I've only explored the tip of the iceburg when it comes to Portland, but I feel pretty confident in declaring Hurley, as Portland's superior. The last time a bunch of us swarmed into Hurley, it was a glorious, glorious train-wreck of a weekend. I busted out my union suit, there was ample sledding, we ate and drank until we couldn't no more.
After a multi-year hiatus, my old college roommate, Brian, got the band back together by organizing a return trip to Hurley. What ensued was perhaps, the most delicious weekend of my life. We played Chandelier, cribbage and Balderdash, sledded, skied and snowboarded, but more than anything else, we ate. Chili, the most amazing sandwich I have ever seen, breakfast bake and breakfast wraps......nyum yum yum. My mouth waters just thinking about it. The Union Suit was well behaved, shots were 10 for 20ish dollars, a local band liked to jump around, and I slleighed a hill with a lit, deer antler candle-holder on my head. Hurley = good times.
There were only two bummers (that I can think of) on this trip. First, Sam and I got pulled over by a Northwoods cop on the way up. This bummer turned into a smiler as I giggled my way into a verbal warning even though I was going twenty over. The other bummer was when a ski-patrolman with a shovel flattened out our favorite play jump which happened to be right next to Davos. We're still not sure why it was destroyed but the working theory is that this man figured that we were likely to get hurt since we're crash landers as shown by the picture at left. I was already on the ground from my crash landing.
Portland is AWESOME
I feel that I've done an excellent job in choosing my winter hangouts. Portland features many characteristics of my perfect Winter Hang-out:
- Inexpensive flights to Milwaukee
- Recreational Sports
- Rainy weather
- Nearby access to snow
- Weirdness
- Cribbage aficionados
- Awesome, friendly, courteous people
- Inexpensive room rentals
- Highest per capita bar and strip club density
- A mystery hole
What more can I say, it's awesome here! It's a perfect place for the guy known as "Mike from Wisconsin" by his current kickball and football teams.
Another Missed Connection
First it was Slabbers now it was 2024 Presidential hopeful Rob Thomas that I was bypassing.
It turned out that he was buried scheduling a tour for his acapella band, while I was wasting no time to get to Portland. This made sense to me, since I figured if I'm going to rent a place, I may as well try and get there as early in January as I can, so I get what I pay for. Plus, there's kickball that needs to be played.
I'm still bummed, but there will come a time when Rob and I meet (hopefully before 2023).
No Slabbin' for Me
While camped out in an extended stay hotel I managed to catch "Into the Wild." I was surprised how many locations I recognized and how close I was to others. I immediately decided that I should head on over to hang out with the Slabbers of Slab City.
I only made it as far as a rest area on I-10 when I realized how many hours out of the way Slab City was. I further convinced myself that it wasn't worth it by imagining that the slabbers wouldn't be anything like those featured in the movie. The final straw was the fact that if I continued West I would pass through LA before 2pm avoiding the worst of rush hour traffic. I guess I'll save my slabbin' for another day.
myPinkyUpdate: Volume 1, Issue 6
After my mobile home breakdown in Crescent City, CA I took my foot off of the gas pedal quite a bit. For the month I spent extended periods of time in Hollywood, Joshua Tree National Park, Phoenix, and the Superstition Mountains.
Even though I travelled a little less, December was a very emotional month. I got to hear (actually read) my name called to "come on down" at the Price is Right. I volunteered at a dining hall for the homeless and I settled in for some good old fashioned prospecting stories in the Superstition Mountains. This was a good way to settle into a more normal three months shacked up in Portland, OR.