Portland is tops when it comes to being green
This is why I love living in Stumptown. Innovation, environmental, aware, and just plain right!
Your Vote Counts, Right?
Before the presidential primary occurs in Oregon, the race will be mostly decided. McCain’s Republican nomination is all but a sure thing and the race between Obama and Clinton may not be decided in the polls. And yet, all my life I’ve been told that my vote counts. Does it?
In the mid-seventies, fresh out of the social revolution of the 60s, I wore a bold red, white, and blue shirt with “VOTE” emblazoned across the front. Ever since I’ve been legal, I’ve taken the opportunity to vote. I now have over thirty years of voting experience. And yet, I can’t think of one election where my vote made a difference.
The process has become so stylized, statistical, and a virtual marketers game, that I now see where the candidates are playing to the demographic voting blocks. On Super-Tuesday, Obama played well with male African-Americans and Hillary scored high with white women. Though I most likely will vote Democratic this year, I’m not African-American and I’m not a woman. Most likely, I won’t get to decide whether Hillary or Obama will carry the nomination for the Democratic party.
In 2004 I registered a protest vote against George Bush; with no hope that John Kerry would come close to being elected. I 2000 I didn’t vote for a Democrat or a Republican – again boycotting the process and choosing “none-of the-above” as a write-in. I knew that voting for an Independent was just another vote for the leader: George Bush.
My vote has to occur long before I mark my ballot. My vote comes with my feet, my dollars, and my support. I have to chose which demographic block I want to be a part of. Do I want to be a part of a block that will choose a losing candidate, or wone that will support the winner in their victory march?
Although I happen to believe that either Obama or Clinton would serve the office of president well, there is no doubt that they would lead and make decisions differently. Either of them are better than the alternative, the least harmful choice one might say, but without a clear vision into the future, I have no idea which would be the best choice.
Do you?
A Blizzard of Pins and Needles
Since I no longer have the same income I did a couple of decades ago, I’ve had to find more creative ways to fund my ski addiction. In the last 12 years I’ve had a couple of different gigs that allowed me to ski for far less than the average pedestrian pays. I’ve been a ski instructor, worked as a volunteer ski patrol, and last year I signed up to be a guide for visually challenged skiers.
Yesterday I helped chaperone’s 30 students on a Mt. Hood Meadows ski outing – we have three more to go. I have over 200 days of skiing experience at Meadows, but I really haven’t been there since my exodus from Portland 12 years ago. What amazed most was how little the place has changed in 15 years. I suppose when you have a captive and growing customer base, you don’t need to invest a lot of money into your customer service or facilities.
The day started early for me. Since we have just moved, I really didn’t know where my ski gear was (is?). So, I got up at 3am and started looking: going through at least 90% of the boxes in our garage. I found two books my wife wanted, the charger to the dust-buster, and the second strap for the high chair. But I couldn’t find the brackets for my ski rack or my ski clothes. Just when I was about to duct-tape the ski rack to the car, I looked over and saw a box I hadn’t searched yet.
We were temporarily blocked by a wreck near the St. Johns Bridge, but we easily diverted across the bridge and took a long-cut through North Portland. Then we made two vain and one successful stop to buy some ski goggles, gloves, and long underwear. Finally arriving at Meadows around 11am, we were further delayed by some serious inefficiency issues on the part of their group sales department. We finally took our first turns of the day at 12:15pm.
Despite 30 mph winds, blowing snow, and ice crystals ravaging our faces, the snow was great! One thing I’ve discovered is that if you want good snow on Mt. Hood, you’re going to have to endure a little, um, weather. The fog and blowing snow made it impossible to see the terrain details and therefor difficult to ski with confidence. Several kids abandoned all hope of skiing after their second run (I made three and decided it wasn’t worth it – despite the foot of fresh new snow that was a dream to ski in.) We heard later that Timberline didn’t even open due to the weather.
Before we even got out of the parking lot, one of our party was involved in a rear-end accident when someone hit her from the back. This accident was most likely caused when another of our party swerved to miss an oncoming car and ended up buried in a snow bank. Our snow-bred Subaru made it home without incident – much to the chagrin of the kids in the back seat.
I found out there are some Seattle-area ski resorts that are easily accessed from Columbia County and may even be closer than Mt. Hood. I’ll have to chaeck those out.
Confessing my Dad Attitude 