Posted inRecreation

“Into the Wild” — best trail ride in western Oregon

My wife loves horses, but we don't have one. So she's always on the lookout for good trail rides. We've paid our money and taken our chances with quite a few stables in the Willamette Valley and central Oregon. Almost always, we've been disappointed. Laurel is a very good rider; I'm a decent rider. We don't enjoy plodding along with a rules-obsessed guide who is taking out a bunch of inexperienced riders, because if one person can't handle a trot or canter everybody is forced to walk their horse the whole time. Yesterday we had a wonderfully different experience with…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Measure 37 Salem

Judge slaps down Marion County Commissioner Patti Milne

Ooh, I love it! A judge gets into a slapdown. Not literally, of course, but judicially. A front page story in today's Statesman Journal tells the tale: "Judge blocks 43-lot subdivision in south Salem." Download SJArticle-Laack subdivision I had the news here first, in my Circuit Court reverses Marion County commissioners post. This was hugely reassuring for our neighborhood, which has been fighting the Ridge View Estates development (a.k.a. Laack subdivision) for almost five years. Repeatedly, the Keep Our Water Safe committee formed to protect our property rights and senior water rights came out on the short end of 2-1…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Oregon isn’t a high tax state (repeat until truth sets in)

Call me old-fashioned, but even though I enjoy Stephen Colbert's humorous take on truthiness, it still seems to me that social policy debates go better when people on both sides of an issue respect the facts. Such as: Oregon isn't a high tax state, especially for businesses. A report called "Is the Grass Really Greener in Other States: an Oregon Perspective" presents the most recent evidence of this undeniable fact. Download Greener-pastures-Report-8-17-101 It's must-reading for those who want to know the truth about Oregon's business climate -- which is at odds with the anti-tax lies spread by those who opposed…
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Posted inRecreation

Photos of 2010 Portland Street of Dreams

Today Laurel and I, along with neighbors Tim and Jan, trekked up I-5 to Portland to pursue a dream. More accurately, six of them -- the new homes featured in the 2010 NW Natural Street of Dreams. We enjoy looking at fancier houses than ours, as do many other people, judging from the crowded Street of Dreams parking lot, even on a Monday. This seems to be partly a lifestyles of the rich and famous sort of voyeurism, and partly a desire to get ideas for fulfilling homeowner desires. (Guess that's why this is called a Street of Dreams.) As…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

iPhone Navigon app replaces my Garmin Nuvi

Right away my dearly beloved iPhone 4 replaced the Flip Video camera that I used to carry around with me in case I witnessed space aliens landing, or some other newsworthy event that I could film and then sell the video for millions. (Hey, I can dream.) Now I've also relegated my Garmin Nuvi GPS device to the Drawer of Unused Electronic Items, because the Navigon app for the iPhone functions better than a standalone Nuvi does. I can say this with considerably confidence because I've used the Navigon app quite a bit in the past month or so, notably…
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Posted inMeasure 37 Salem Sustainability

Circuit Court reverses Marion County commissioners

Last Friday our rural south Salem neighborhood got some great news: in Marion County Circuit Court Judge Nely Johnson reversed the Marion County Board of Commissioners' approval of Ridge View Estates, a 217 acre, 43 lot Measure 37 subdivision on Liberty Road. Read all about it in our press release. Download Willamette Valley Farmland Protected - Final-1 Judge Johnson issued an oral opinion, asking the attorneys for our neighborhood's Keep Our Water Safe committee (Ralph Bloemers of the Crag Law Center and Sean Malone, a Eugene attorney) to prepare Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. These should be finalized…
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Posted inRecreation

Photos of Lake Louise gondola & Moraine Lake trail

Well, after three previous photo posts of our Banff (Canada) trip you knew the big finale was coming -- a grizzly bear shot! I mean, a shot of a grizzly bear, not a photo of a grizzly bear that's been shot. Laurel had been hoping to see a grizzly bear the six days we'd been in the Banff area prior to heading to the Lake Louise gondola on our last full vacation day. The gondola folks claim they offer the best grizzly bear viewing in the Canadian Rockies. We could only hope as I leaned around in the ski area…
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Posted inRecreation

Photos of Banff: Sunshine Meadows

OK, this is my third blog post in a row about our trip to Banff, Canada. But hey -- when my wife and I spend a bunch of money and time venturing out of Oregon to sightsee, I want to share my photo souvenirs as widely as possible. These are of a hiking excursion at Sunshine Meadows, only twenty minutes or so from Banff. In the winter Sunshine Village Ski Resort worships the white stuff. In summer, flowers rule on the high mountain meadows. After forking over $52 for two tickets, a bus took us from the lower reaches of…
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Posted inRecreation

Photos of Banff: Johnston Canyon & Lake Louise

As shown in my Day 1 report of our first-time visit to Banff, Canada, we rain-habituated Oregonians hit a semi-wet period north of the border -- which made us feel right at home. Day 2 we headed to Johnston Canyon for a creekside hike, figuring that if we were going to get rained on it'd be better to be viewing close-in scenery rather than distant cloud-cloaked mountains. When we got to the Johnston Canyon parking area, we found that lots of other people were on the same wavelength. One guidebook says this is the most popular hike in the Banff…
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Posted inRecreation

Photos of Banff: Day 1 of our first-time visit

Our vacation in Banff (Alberta, Canada) went great after a rocky start checking in with United Airlines/Air Canada at the Portland airport. Remember the good old days when, even though you were traveling in coach, you were checked in by a real live person who could deal with problems and questions on the spot? Those days are gone if you're traveling United/Air Canada out of PDX. We were forced to use an annoying electronic kiosk prior to checking our bags. It recognized my passport, but was clueless about my wife's reservation. The machine told her to pick up a phone…
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Posted inHome life

“Can you spare some gas money?”

Out in the south Salem (Oregon) suburbs, there aren't many people asking passers-by for money. But once in a while I see somebody with a cardboard sign standing on the sidewalk at the junction of Liberty and Commercial. He or she is easy to ignore if I stare straight ahead until the light changes.I try to avoid reading what the sign says. It might be "disabled veteran -- need help." Something like that. I figure it's probably a con job. Today, though, there's wasn't any avoiding possible. I was starting to get on my Burgman 650 scooter after shopping at…
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Posted inBooks Writing/Weblogs

Self-publishing loses its stigma. So…write a book!

Ah, the times they are a'changin, just like Bob Dylan said they would. What was shameful not so long ago has come out into the open, standing tall and proud. And I'm not talking about homosexuality. Rather, self-publishing. My print on demand (POD) loving soul was thrilled to read in a recent issue of Newsweek, " Who Needs a Publisher?" Until recently, reviewers and booksellers looked down on self-published authors the way Anna Wintour scorns Dress Barn. Now new writers and established authors alike are increasingly taking publishing into their own hands, and the publishing establishment is paying attention. According…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana

Oregon may follow California in legalizing marijuana

I'm 61 years old. Two weeks ago, at an outdoor party, I drank my first beer out of a keg. I had to watch the guy ahead of me to see how he filled his glass. I had no idea how the pump thingie worked. Yet I went to college from 1966-71 at San Jose State University, which at the time had a reputation as a party school. But during the '60s flower power era -- and the San Francisco Bay Area was the epicenter of it -- a large percentage of students had nothing to do with alcohol. Like…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Lessons of Salem’s Courthouse Square debacle

Who says nothing interesting ever happens in Salem (Oregon)? Well, I do, a lot. But ever since it was reported that recently constructed Courthouse Square -- a building that houses most county offices, along with the downtown transit mall -- is in serious danger of falling down, things have been popping in the local newspaper. Today the Statesman Journal ran a bunch of stories and opinion pieces about this debacle. The $34 million building, which takes up an entire block, is being vacated as quickly as possible. It might not be repairable. Yet it opened just ten years ago, in…
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