A Living Magazine - Day 61 - Broke on a Miscellaneous Day

[This will have to be a short post, as I didn't have a lot of options for exploring and staying cool yesterday, and I have to move on to Vancouver today, find a sleeping place and try to get something to eat.]

It was another good sleep in the Washington Park Rose Garden. I woke up and decided to wipe up and change my clothes. I felt refreshed. I'd been keeping myself much cleaner, and it made a big difference psychologically. I had $5.00 left to last two days--$2.50 per day, while in Portland. When I got to Vancouver, Washington, the next day, I'd be tapped. Time to tighten the belt and choose what I do, eat and drink very carefully.

The first priority was to get to Starbuck's and publish that day's post. I spent about six hours working there, buying one coffee. There wasn't enough for food, but I had a bottle that I could keep filling with water from the drinking fountains anywhere in the city. That was nice to have.

I'm naturally drawn to the river front each day, and this day would be no different. I walked to the south end and sat on a rock, overlooking the water around the Hawthorne Bridge. A guy, who obviously had no gas for his little outboard motor was tacking his way up the river very slowly...

I tried several times to get a Wi-Fi signal, and even though I did pick up some free and open signals, for some reason I couldn't get online...

Alpha and omega, quite something.

There was a lot of time to kill. I saw the reflection of my face with a puffy beard in the laptop screen, and since I'd been meaning to do it, I decided to shave (which was more of a scissoring). I have a little mirror in my toiletries bag, along with a pair of scissors I bought back in Medford. It took a while, but I did a fairly good job. I have to say, when I have the full beard restaurants will give me a senior discount without even asking. But, when I shave it short, I often still get carded if I buy a beer! In my opinion, I do look better with a short beard (with no "neck beard"!); thinner and less bummy.

After taking care of that aspect of my personal hygiene, I studied the screen shot of a map of Vancouver I'd made the day before; figuring out how I would get there and where some promising nesting spots might be. I also worked on my long-overdue essay. Then, I walked back toward the west end. Portland is really easy to get around, even if you've only been here for a little while. In the Downtown area the numbered streets run south to north, the named streets run west to east. 

If you are trying to get to a named street, you simply have to walk down a numbered one long enough, and you will hit it. Same with the other way around. I found certain streets be especially useful: 5th, 10th and 12th Avenues. And, walking any of the named streets west, would get me near the park and Burnside Street, where the Starbuck's I liked was, the Dollar Tree, McDonald's, and three grocery stores, not to mention my pathway to the rose garden... 

I had some hamburger buns left from my Dollar Tree lunch the day before, they were all crushed into bits except for one, so I ate that one and then dumped the bag out near the Providence Park gate, where I saw a few pigeons were hanging out. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, after the first pigeon found them, a whole flock arrived and the feeding frenzy began...

I found a couple intriguing posters along Burnside on the way back to the park...

How cool is that?

Obviously I missed the opportunity to see and hear this,

but I was surprised that the poster was still up.

Back at the park for the last night, and possibly the last time in my life. I got there early so I could just walk around, sit and think. I also held out a faint hope that I'd see the same girl there. I didn't...

Somehow, I was expecting an arrow to come flying out of the bushes and through this apple.

This was the rose I showed that girl the day before.

I retired to my sleeping spot while the sky was still light, and put together a short video of all the unrelated things I'd seen that day. It is a hogde podge, showing the sailor and his impromptu mooring spot in front of the beach, the "Jetboat" (not exactly "jetting"), the pigeon feeding frenzy and my favorite rose bush... 

Miscellaneous Portland

Then it was time to sleep. I fell asleep very early for me--just before 10:00 pm.