The Bowtie Professor: Here comes the sun!

After many days, the words of the Beatles came unto Portland saying "Here comes the sun...do do do do... here comes the sun, and I say, its alright!"

This is my glowing back yard. It was nice to have the sun wake me up today. I was going to try to sleep in, but the sun woke me up. I AM HAPPY THAT IT DID!!!

So I got up and danced around a little bit and noticed that the chickens were making a ruckous. They were clucking and making other sounds (I don't know what they are called, but they sound like chicken grumbles), so I took a picture of them.

I went into Portland and ran about 5 miles on the banks of the river. I imagine that there were probably 50-75 runners in the area during my 50 minutes there. That totally overlooks all of the other people who were bicycling, strolling, or otherwise enjoying the sun.

I went back home and showered and went back into town on the "Pioneer Express." It is a school sponsored bus that runs continuously between Lewis & Clark and downtown Portland. They claim that it is to reduce traffic at the school and allow students to purchase food (there are no grocery stores in walking distance of the school), but I really believe it is to make sure that none of the students drive drunk around town. The support for this hypothesis is that the bus runs late into the night on Friday and Saturday (2am is the last run). The furthest point into downtown that the bus goes is Pioneer Square. I took this picture of Pioneer Courthouse and the square in front of it.

I set off walking to explore the downtown. My feminine side came out as I saw the Nordstrom's Rack store. A while ago, R's aunt gave me some money for a no-iron shirt and pants which I later bought on a trip to Chicago. The shirt and pants each cost more than I had spent on a single item of clothing for almost 7 years. They have been so nice that I have longed for more. Anyway, I made a b line for the store to look around. They had some nice clothes, but it was the shoes that took me off guard. Like I said in one of my last posts, I get tired of wearing my only reasonable brown dress shoes, and I have been casually looking for some new ones. I think that I found them. I tried them on and took pictures. The first pair are okay, but the second pair deserved two pictures. (At the Rack, they only have one of the shoes out on the floor, so the comparison shoe on the left is my steel toe with the two inch heel mine boots.)

Here they are!!! I used to make fun of the extended square toe dress shoe for me, but they were super cool.

I withstood the temptation and didn't spend the $60 (they were originally $150) on the shoes. Instead, I bought a book at Powells and hiked around the downtown. I got back on the bus and rode back to campus. En route I realized that Mt Hood was visible. By the time I got to where I wanted to snap the picture, the mountain has been hidden by wispy clouds and a bright reflection. I took the picture anyway. It is a set of gardens behind the Frank Manor that perfectly frame the mountain.

After I snapped the shot, I turned 180 degrees and took a picture of the back of Frank Manor. You can see the shadows!! That means that there was sun!