Car-less living: Car2Go

Not a lot of car excitement going on at the moment. I did run into a wrinkle earlier this week when I visited the auto body shop where my poor car is temporarily residing. Turns out the guy thinks they can fix it for juuuust about what the car is worth - between $2,000-3,500, though this is just a guess so far. He can also provide pictures of my car to a couple of scrapyards, and see what they will pay me for it. He asked what I'd want to get out of the car and I said $1,000 (a figure pulled almost wholly from the air), and he said that was probably reasonable.

I was really torn on the way home (in a little rain, on my bike). $3,500 to get my car back! My low-mileage rockstar car! For which I only paid 6k to begin with!

But I've slowly come around to the idea that the car is gone. It's not really worth that much money, and I'd be better off holding onto the cash until I'm ready to put it toward a different/newer car.

So, I'm moving forward with my car-less living venture. This week I joined Car2Go but I haven't received my card yet. What's Car2Go? It's an awesome one-way pay-by-the-minute short-term car rental service. You use an app or a web browser to see what cars are near you:

And then you proceed to the most-convenient car (you can reserve it so it doesn't poof away in the time it takes to get to it). These cars are sprinkled all over town:

You scan your membership card to gain access to the car, and then your credit card is billed either 41 cents/minute or $14.99/hour to use the car. You can leave it wherever you want when you're done with it (within a very good-sized boundary) - even at parking meters, without paying the meter, so long as the space allows the car to be there 30 minutes or longer. There's a joining fee, but I found a coupon code so I think I won't be charged that fee.

Since I signed up I've been obsessed with watching the availability of cars in my neighborhood. So far there's always been one around within a ten-minute walk. I will fully grant that isn't perfect, but it's not bad. I can see using a Car2Go in a few scenarios:
 - if I want to go to a movie and have cut it too close (or it's too rainy) to bike or get a ride
 - I might use the service to get to the grocery store, and hope there's another one around when I get out (and I'll shop lightly/make sure I have time to walk the 2 miles home if I have to!).
 - I can definitely see taking a bus or walking TO the theater, and then grabbing a Car2Go to get home.

Lots of things around Portland are about a 15-minute drive, which works out to a little over $6 - not an amount to splash out carelessly, but definitely a good option to have on hand.

I think my paid-for car cost me about $90/month when you factor in insurance, one tank of gas every five weeks, and the extremely occasional oil change, so I'll see if I can come in  under that for my ongoing transportation costs. I'm excited to get to use a Car2Go for the first time!

Busy weekend!

This weekend was super busy. On Saturday I rode 55 miles on my bicycle as part of an organized event called Reach the Beach. I rode this several times in the early 2000s and it's always been my favorite ride. For the most part, it's super beautiful, and it's very well organized with rest stops every 12-15 miles. May can be a risky time to do a bike ride in Oregon, but we got crazy lucky with the weather this time!

Saturday at the coast

I was riding with a friend who's been dealing with a pretty big range of life, work, and medical issues, so she didn't have a lot of energy and hadn't been able to ride much lately. She tried so so so hard and managed to ride 40 miles. She decided to stop at the third rest stop, since she'd been reduced to stopping every mile to try to gather some energy. I felt badly for her but agreed it was definitely the right call!

That left me to do the final 15 miles solo, but I didn't mind very much. At least it was sunny and warm, not rainy and cold like it's been on previous rides! There are some stretches of really hideous headwind in that final leg of the ride, and my butt and legs were sore from already being on the bike nearly 5 hours, but I dug out my last bits of energy and actually finished the last leg in 75 minutes, which was quicker than I'd estimated. It remains clear I have a LONG way to go before Cycle Oregon.

Sunday at the work party

Yesterday I spent three hours on a work crew in that same friend's yard - for the same pile of life, work, medical issues, her massive yard has gotten well and truly out of hand. About ten of us turned out and spent time in the cloudy rainy day taming that land! It's more yardwork than I've even done at my place! I didn't mind working in the rain at all - way better than biking in it!

One year, or seventeen

It's officially been a year since I moved back to Portland! It's also just over seventeen years since I moved here for the first time - how's that for a concept to bake my noodle (as the Oracle phrased it so well in The Matrix).

I'd had a few things I wanted to accomplish in the month of September, to round out my first year back in town. I did get a few bike rides in, and I went to an Oregon winery's tasting room (and bought a pinot noir), but I didn't make it camping. I had sites booked, and friends lined up to participate, but we wisely cancelled when we were hit with massive volumes of rain - and had a pizza and game night instead!

It's been such a full and busy and great year. Highlights:
October: enjoying the terrific chef's tasting menu at clarklewis with three friends, putting to rest for good my admittedly ridiculous fear that I wouldn't get amazing meals here; house-hunting with my new friend/realtor; spending a weekend in Seattle and once again vowing to get there more often!
November: going on a hike with women I've known since the first time I moved here; seeing a wide range of local musicians all covering Bruce Springsteen songs at a local venue; continuing house-hunting; making an offer on what would become my house; joining a new book group; having Thanksgiving at a friend's house.
December: eagerly stalking the house I was in contract for, visiting the Bay Area for the first time post-move; traveling home for Christmas on the same flight as my brother.
January: starting the year right with a New Year's Day bike ride; closing on the house; moving in with the help of old friends; starting winter hiking up in Forest Park; having my sister arrive to begin living with me.
February: snowshoeing on Mount Hood; having a rocking housewarming party with friends from near and far!
March: starting the quilt project; visiting Hawaii 
April: showing my parents my new house; enjoying another Bay Area visit, this one including an absolutely perfect day in wine country - I felt tangible happiness that day that I can still experience when I remember it.
May: completing the quilt; getting a promotion at work; attending a friend's daughter's first communion; seeing another friend's band play at their very first gig!
June: risking a weekend at the beach with the women in my book group - and having it pay off when the houseful of semi-introverts had a lovely time; hosting a couple of friends from the Bay Area.
July: delivering the quilt to the brides; attending Happy Hours in the Park most of the summer; starting to harvest some garden bounty; picking something like 50 pounds of berries.
August: seeing Pink Martini at an outside concert; starting to consider painting in my house (project has stalled, but we'll get there); finally experiencing Trek in the Park; having a bunch of friends over for a potluck for an out-of-town visitor; having lots of birthday celebrations including three houseguests at once!
September: Enjoying a Festa di Pomodori with friends (about which I have yet to blog); generally appreciating how great life is.

And many happy returns!

Service with a smile

One of my San Francisco friends was visiting me last night, so we were looking for a good place to eat. She's recently stopped eating gluten, and was happy to find a great online resource, Gluten Free PDX. (pdx is the airport code for Portland, and is often used as shorthand around here)

We decided to go to Tasty n Sons, which is one of many highly-regarded spots in town. I ate there once this winter, so I was glad to be able to vouch for the place. They serve their food in small plates style, with the intent that the diners share their food. When we got there, my friend asked the hostess if they had a gluten-free list of foods, and what happened next was amazing - the hostess grabbed a pencil and proceeded to mark up the menu for my friend's use. She slashed out the items that relied on gluten (like pasta, for example), starred the items that were naturally gluten-free (polenta, steak), and then wrote "w/o" next to all the items that could be made gluten-free (by omitting croutons, crackers, bread crumbs, etc.).

It made SUCH a great experience for both of us, as otherwise ordering can feel pretty stressful when there are food considerations in play.

I didn't take pictures of the food, but we got:
a green salad (a very generously-sized bowl); roasted asparagus with a farm-fresh egg served sunnyside up atop some bacon; shakshuka, which is a baked egg-and-tomato dish; and steak frites. WOW was that steak amazing. It was pretty small, but a nice finish to our meal. We ordered it medium and it was a lot more red than I'd expect, but I loved it. The fries were the way I like them - thin and very crispy - but I was too full to eat very many.

It felt like a  nice contrast to the Bay Area that we could walk into a hip restaurant at 7pm on a Thursday and were offered a few seating options. Granted if we were a party of more than two, we'd have had to wait, but it worked out great for us.

In which I bike

Yesterday a friend called to see if I could use a free ticket to a lecture by a visiting author, and naturally I said yes! Yesterday continued the string of amazing weather, so I decided to ride my bike downtown. The venue was 5 miles from my door, right in the center of the city.

It was so fun observing the change as I rode - first, the quiet, even suburban-feeling streets in my neighborhood, then the busier bike-laned road conducting me into the center of town, then the semi-busy bridge over the river into town, followed finally by riding along a main artery in downtown. I felt invigorated and so glad I rode.

That was nothing on my return commute! On my way home I was riding with my friend, so we rode straight down to the river, over a bridge, and headed north on the Eastbank Esplanade. The Esplanade is a loop that allows users to bike, run, or walk along one bank of the Willamette River, then cross a bridge, travel along the opposite bank, and complete the loop by crossing another bridge. It was a genius idea, has been universally loved, and it's been at least seven years since I last rode it. It was such a treat to glide along at water level, looking at the lights of the city and nodding to other cyclists and runners - even at 9pm or so it was pretty well trafficked. I felt really really happy.

Other than the house

I AM doing things that are not house-related. I'd like to see a handful of the Oscar movies, though I'm averaging less than one movie theater visit per week.

I've been on a couple of hikes in Forest Park with friends - only about 3 miles or so per loop, but we're bumping it to five miles this coming Saturday. We even went out two weeks ago when it was COLD here.

It was fun catching the trees in a shrouded-with-fog, sun-breaking-through moment.

I've also been on a few bike rides - 6 miles on New Year's Day and 10 miles each of the last two Sundays.

AND I've been eating out some. I should probably get a list going, or review the places as I go to them. The best one most recently was Oven and Shaker in the Pearl District, a few weeks ago with some friends. I felt SO out of it since I hadn't even heard of it, but my talented friend had done some work for them and so called in a favor to get us a seat on a Saturday night. There was a miscommunication that left us standing around a bit, but they made up for it by sending some nibbles to the table and covering our first (only) round of drinks. The appetizers we had were: fried mozzerella (yum), fried chickpeas, the salmon appetizer special (lox), and two of the fried rice balls - one with saffron, one with mushrooms. We also split two pizzas, one brussels sprouts and one with mushrooms. It was a lovely night out, though I might not seek it out again soon as it's a bit loud and it's normal to wait quite a while for a seat. Also, much of the seating is on stools which I don't really like. The food itself was delicious.

Settling in: Free time!

It's already two weeks (and a bit!) since I returned to Portland. I'm working 8-5 and my commute takes no time at all. So what am I doing with my free time? It's a bit haphazard so far, but it's actually been rather busy. Among the highlights:

• Rejoined my old book group
• Went to a couple wine tastings - at Friday night's I was invited to find out more about some food/wine group, at Saturday's I was invited to drop in on a regular Thursday tasting. I am not convinced either will pan out, but it was nice in any case. 
• Went to a couple different yarn shops - I think I've been inside two different shops a total of 5 times in the last couple of weeks...but did NOT purchase every time, thank goodness. 
• Had brunch at a friend's.
• Gave blood.
• Went to a movie (and nearly wept with joy to pay 12.50 for the movie, a slice of pizza, a pint of beer AND a tip).
• Went to a pub to see some music (it was a total Portland experience, including the sidewalk chit chat that covered camping, biking, and global warming).
• Helped a friend paint a rental property.
• Helped another friend with some yard work
• Went out for Ethiopian food while watching the debates

On the to-do list:

• I just joined another book group, coordinated by a former coworker. We will meet for the first time next month. I belonged to two book groups about a decade ago, and frankly it's probably unwise, but I'm doing it in the name of expanding my social circle!
• I'd like to find a good knitters group to join
• I'd also like to find some bluegrass music venues to check out 

I've also walked and biked around my part of Portland quite a bit, looking at cute little houses, wishing I thought I could afford one, wondering if I'm REALLY willing to commit to yard work and the maintenance of a dwelling...

One weird thing is that shopping is a non-starter. I'm not really cooking much, I don't have any nesting to do so long as I'm renting a room, and I'm avoiding the one shopping trip I really need to do - getting an office chair from IKEA. Maybe tomorrow....

Finally, my roommate turned me on to the existence of a panaderia - a Mexican (or at least Latin American) bakery in my neighborhood. Oh. My. Goodness. They make everything themselves from the puff pastry (hard!) to the pastry cream (not so hard) and it was gooood and inexpensive. So far I've only visited once but the writing is on the wall there.

I have some upcoming social plans to reconnect with more people. We'll see how this all settles down after I've been here a while. So far, so good. Fingers crossed. 

Settling in-ish

So, I'm here and settling in. I got a new mattress (omg rock hard..but I think we'll be happy together) and I'm being pretty productive working from home. I've started doing my new job duties and they're going to be engaging and challenging, so fingers crossed on the work front.

Socially I've been able to meet up with some friends, which has been lovely. Until today autumn has been amazingly gorgeous and I've enjoyed walking or biking around my current neighborhood just soaking it in.

I'm a bit discombobulated, for sure. Saturday night I had no plans, and if I were home in my own space I would have cooked or baked or watched a dvd and knitted; here I'm not really set up for those activities. So I played a bunch of online scrabble with a friend and read a bit. I've requested several more titles from the library so I'll have more options on my quiet evenings.

I definitely miss my coworkers - online interaction is not nearly the same - and I didn't expect that I'd miss having people to actually talk about my day to day work with. My housemate asks, and I can tell him a bit, but it's not the same. I just spent 6 years with people who live and breathe the same job I do, so of course I feel a bit adrift from that common experience!

None of this feels real yet, and I think it won't until I'm in my own digs. I'm still watching the market but have done some math and think I'll be better off if I can stay put in my rental until after the holidays. So unless the absolute perfect thing hits the market, I don't think I'll be making any abrupt moves just yet. Given the whirlwind of the last few months that is definitely for the best!

So, that happened

Well, look at that! In some sort of bizarre folding of space and time, I now live in Portland instead of the Bay Area.

The move went pretty well, but yeah .. I had a lot of stuff. I ordered a 12-foot truck but was given a 16-footer instead. The movers said I probably wouldn't have fit in a smaller truck, though I DID wind up just tossing in some furniture I'd intended to get rid of, so there was some leeway they didn't know about. On the other end of the trip I'd booked a 5x10 storage unit, and man is that thing stuffed to the gills!

The actual trip was reasonably painless. A friend was driving my car, and I drove the truck (aren't I brave? well no, not really - the truck's cab was air conditioned, so I kinda screwed my friend! ...I did offer to trade later on but he declined). I'd estimated we'd be pulling out of my driveway at 3pm on move day (Thursday), and we would have been perfect except for when I obeyed my building manager's instructions and locked my keys in my apartment...but I forgot to free my car from the locked garage first! And we didn't realize it until we'd exited the building! Fortunately my friend got the mail carrier to let him into the building and I was able to track down one of the few people home on a weekday afternoon, and he opened the garage for me. Whew! So that only delayed our start by about 15 minutes.

The first day we drove as far as Redding (about four hours north), arriving around 8pm. Friday we had a leisurely morning, first in Redding hanging out with our host, and then about an hour north in the scenic town Dunsmuir. Our goal was Corvallis, and we arrived around 8:30pm. On Saturday we had another slow start to the day,  having breakfast with our host, and headed north around 11. We rolled into my storage unit just south of town at 12:45, and two friends met us there at 1.

Unloading the truck took just over an hour - I'm SO grateful to have had help! - and the unit is literally full to the ceiling. I could possibly extract things if I must, but hopefully I can just let it sit there until I am ready to move.

Then my friends came to my new digs and helped unload the last of my stuff, and we got beer.

I'm renting a room from a friend and it's taking a little time to get it organized - my clothes are unpacked, and the ingredients for a delicious drink a friend taught me, but otherwise I have boxes and last night I slept on a bedroll on the floor, since my host's air mattress was killing my back. Tomorrow, my new mattress arrives and I may never get up again!

Working from home is going pretty well, though I have to work out a better ergonomic situation. Settling into Portland doesn't feel at all real yet... I will write more about that later.

Traditions!

One of my favorite December traditions is an annual party I attend in Portland. It started as a cookie decorating party in 1996, and we've held some version of it every year since, making 2011's the 16th! That's mind boggling.

Counting me, seven of the adults in the picture have been there since the beginning. I've been to six weddings of people in this picture, helped name one of the kids, and got to meet one of the babies on the day of her birth! I feel super lucky to have this richness in my life. Hurrah for holiday traditions!

Boozy goodness

I'm part of a wine group, which I'll explain at length some other day. Suffice for now to say that they've introduced me to some really yummy liqueurs. I've tried nocino, made from green walnuts;  chartreuse, which really is as green as its name implies; and was lately introduced to Genepi - a specialty of the French Alps, and not available in this country. It's probably a cousin to chartreuse, since they're both made with a wide array of herbs.

I recently purchased a liqueur called Zwack in an attempt to replicate the Genepi experience - it., too, is made from lots of herbs. It's probably similar - I'd have to do some side-by-side comparison to have a better feel for the nuances.

Anyway, I was in Portland this last weekend and was delighted to see a big bottle of Genepi on my hosts' kitchen counter, a gift from a coworker visiting from Switzerland! I nobly helped them sample it. I also learned that I like Aperol (similar to Campari, but about half the alcohol - no wonder I like it!) and St. Germain (made from elderflowers, and in some really lovely packaging). No, getting up the next morning wasn't painful at all.. why do you ask? (Actually, the alcohol wasn't a problem. Staying up past midnight playing Rock Band? That was a problem.)