Tag: Portland

Not Going into Work Tomorrow

There are some parts of the country where snow on April 11 isn’t weird. But Portland is not one of those places!

And unlike every other Portland snowstorm where forecasted snow is the talk of the town for a week straight, I had no idea this was coming. The morning of, I somehow missed noticing the snow when I opened my bedroom shade, and even as the radio announcer was saying “Snow in Portland right now,” I though he just meant the West Hills.

So you can imagine my surprise when I opened the curtains and, Wow! Snow! In April!

That bush in the picture leaned right over. I think it was the weight of the snow on the leafed-out limbs plus the fact that the ground wasn’t frozen. Once the snow melted, we hammered in a post and pulled it right back into place, so no harm done there.

Needless to say, I put off my plan to go back to the office until the next Tuesday.

6607 N. Montana Ave 18 Units, Coming Soon

I’ve always liked this house at the corner of Montana and Liberty Street. But it looks like the days are waning.

Next Portland tells me that there are 18 units coming soon.

PortlandMaps.com isn’t connecting so I have no details about the house at this moment.

And now PortlandMaps is working! It was built in 1948 and the main level is just over 1000 square feet, plus the basement. It was sold in January of this year for $556,675. The previous sale was in March of 2021 for $555,000. Before that it last sold in 2002 for $138,000 (those were the prices when I first moved here! Affordable!) And prior to that, someone bought it in 1996 for $82,000.

No word on who built the concrete planter out front, though.

I-5 Closed All Day

It’s not unusual for traffic to back up on Interstate Ave outside our house. During the evening or morning commute there can be a line at lights for an hour or so. But it’s not usually much more than an hour. And it is never on both sides.

It turned out that this situation was caused by a carjacker who was shot by police. His crime spree started in another neighborhood and traveled, so it was a very complex situation that meant that neither side of I-5 was free flowing for most of the day.

Alas, this was also the day the plumber came to fix our dripping faucet. He had to go and purchase a new one, and I suspect our bill took a big jump due to how much longer it took to get to Lowe’s.

But the drip is fixed!

Two Houses Headed for the Chopping Block

This pretty house has the chain link fence of death around it.

This is at 6305 N. Montana Ave. It’s 1622 square feet, built in 1928. It was last sold in December of 2019 for $599,036 and is owned (strangely) by a person giving that very address. However, NextPortland says that a permit has been issued:

A project at 6307 N Montana Ave has been submitted for building permit review by Fosler Portland Architecture: Construct new 3 story 19 unit apartment building with associated site work

https://www.nextportland.com/category/6307-n-montana-ave/

So it’s coming down for sure.

This little guy is at 6820 N. Montana Ave. I really love this stretch of houses bordered by the Fred Meyer, Rosa Parks Way, Interstate Ave, and I-5. There’s a bunch of small houses on big lots that are just cute. And I’m guessing in 20 years, they will all be gone.

This is an 881 square foot house built in 1927 that was last sold in October of 2021 for $320,000. It’s owned by a developer in Vancouver.

Reporting from the future, I can say that it appears they have been fixing this house up, rather than tearing it down. And there’s nothing in NextPortland. But a developer in Vancouver owns it, so my guess is that this doesn’t have much time left. It’s also got empty lots on both sides, so I wonder if they are just biding their time waiting for another property.

Matt’s Birthday: Heat and Spanakopita

We are in for some craziness the next few days. Even in the very hot summers of my Boise years, the temperature never got very far above 105 degrees. But Matt’s birthday forecast is 107 and the two days after are in temperature ranges I’ve never seen, ever.

Matt wanted spanakopita for his birthday celebration and so I got the recipe from my Aunt Pat.

Here is my spinach.

And here is the finished product. It wasn’t a winner. There was way too much moisture coming off of the pieces.

The diagnosis: don’t cook it in a 9×13 inch pan with sides (what I think of as a 9×13 inch pan) but use a flat cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. My aunt uses a nice round sheet.

Getting in Line for Vaccination

By double teaming on separate computers, Matt and I got appointments for both my mom and my Aunt Pat at the drive-through vaccination clinic at the airport. My Aunt Carol was willing to go to the main clinic at the Convention Center, so we secured her appointment last week, thus giving us the skills to grab the coveted drive-through clinic slots.

It was very easy to find the clinic at the Red Lot at the Portland airport, and we were guided into place by many people in reflective vests waving batons. There were five lines with maybe 30-60 cards in each line. This photo was taken at 2:41, though I think we got there at 2:00 . Once there, we sat. And sat.

After quite a while with nothing happening one line at a time was moved forward. This was taken at 3:36 and we haven’t yet made it into the tent to check in.

From the check-in tent, we were guided on a very long U-shaped track that inched forward. The check-in tent is in the back left of the photo and this photo was taken at 3:47, so you can see how the line was moving.

We’ve made it to the tent where the shot would be given! Time stamp: 4:09

And now we’re done with shots. Time stamp, 4:16 p.m.

It was nice to have two out of three people in the car vaccinated.

Then we were directed over to a new line where we sat for 10 minutes. Neither patient had any reactions, so off we drove.

I drove them both home and my mom sent me off with some macaroni and cheese balls with meatballs in the middle. Delicious!

We later learned that this was an unusual day and the worst day for wait times. So we had not-great timing in that realm. But it was good to get two shots in arms.