Walking around at lunchtime

There are a lot of what you might call "bright gray" days in Portland: completely overcast skies, but not dark or cold, and not actually raining. People who come here from more open-skied places have a hell of a time adjusting to them.

You have to make a point of going outdoors on those days and gathering as much of that bright gray light onto your retinas as you can; otherwise you'll get S.A.D. and miss the general awesomeness that is My Little Town.

I went out at lunch yesterday and took ten-gajillion pictures. Here's what was left after ruthless culling.

( Bright gray )

Collaborative consciousness raising

A wonderful thing just happened.

It started with a terrible thing. Late last night, Tom Daley, a guy about to open his shoestring bike-repair business in Southeast Portland, had his location broken into and most of his tools and inventory stolen.

( A tale of social networking and social conscience. )

Small steps, small steps. Thank you nwhepcat for making me aware, so I could pass it on. And good luck to Tom Daley, who is just trying to open a microbusiness in hard times.