Posted inSalem

“Salem is a really friendly town.” So says a couple considering moving here.

Last Monday my email inbox presented me with an interesting message, which said in part... Brian Hines: So, my wife and I are exploring Salem as a place to retire... from crazy, CRAZY Silicon Valley.   Two days before Christmas, just at this moment we're sitting in our AirBNB living room in South Salem, exploring by cyber-means what we've been doing by car and by shamelessly accosting locals on the street, in coffee houses, and at Northern Lights for the past week. After seeing a million prospective houses in West and South Salem, our real estate lady took us to Pringle…
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Posted inLiving with a catheter Salem

Misfits belong in Salem’s theatre community (and elsewhere)

Misfits don't fit in. Except where they do. Like, in Salem's theatre community. There was a lot to like about today's City Club program, "On Stage: Salem's Vibrant Theater Community." But what I'm going to focus on is one thing Lisa Joyce, executive director of Pentacle Theatre, said. She told us that misfits find a home in theatre, because everyone is welcome there. I absolutely loved those words. And now, having written that five word sentence, I'm having trouble explaining why. So for the moment I'm going to take a detour around my personal feeling about misfits and return to it…
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Posted inFood and drink Health Salem

Why eating at In-N-Out Burger is morally wrong

Today an In-N-Out Burger restaurant has opened in nearby Keizer, Oregon, sending waves of feverish delight through the taste buds of people willing to spend hours in line to buy the main food offering... dead cows. I consider this to be morally wrong, having been a vegetarian for most of my life. So my objection isn't to In-N-Out Burger itself. What bothers me is that most Americans are so uncaring about the suffering they're producing by eating meat and fish. Understand: there's a variety of good reasons to be vegetarian or vegan. It's a healthier way to go. It's better…
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Posted inHome life Salem

Salem, we need to keep our local hardware stores alive

I'm a guilty Amazon Prime shopper. Meaning, I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon because the selection is so great, as are the prices, and I usually get what I want in a few days, sometimes the next day. But I realize that local stores are at risk of going under with the steady rise of online shopping. Hence, the guilt. Because I buy many books from Amazon, and have done so for a long time, I'm still feeling guilty about the demise of Jackson's Books way back when. However, after reading a New York Times opinion piece about hardware…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

Electric vehicles are the future in Oregon

I walked into today's Salem City Club program, "Charging Ahead: Is Oregon Ready for Electric Vehicles?," feeling positive about electric cars. I walked out feeling super excited about them.  Which made me pleased that I'd put down a $2,500 deposit on the upcoming Tesla Model Y, a hatchback version of the popular Model 3 that I'm seeing a lot of here in Salem.  Jessica Reichers got my enthusiasm ramped up with her kick-off presentation. She's with the Oregon Department of Energy.  She noted that there's a lot of jargon associated with electric vehicles, EVs. ZEVs are zero emission vehicles. They…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

Fairview Woods approved by Salem City Council

It was good to see the Salem City Council vote unanimously last night to reject an appeal of the 14.1 acre, 16 lot Fairview Woods development.  Eric Olsen of Olsen Design & Development has been working on this project for several years. The Woods currently is a heavily treed parcel at the top of the old Fairview Training Center property in south Salem. It's filled with ivy, blackberries, and trash left by homeless people and others. As Olsen discussed at the City Council hearing (I watched via the City of Salem's Facebook feed), The Woods was a difficult design challenge. …
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Posted inSalem

CarMax to open store in Salem in February 2020

I love CarMax. My wife and I have sold three of our cars there, getting a better price than was offered by local dealerships here in Salem, Oregon. So I got excited when someone told me that they'd seen a sign near the I-5 freeway saying that a CarMax store was coming to town. It's taken more than five years for this to happen since a February 2014 Statesman Journal story by Michael Rose was titled, "CarMax on the course toward Salem location." CarMax Inc., a giant in the used car business with 130 locations nationwide, has started laying the…
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Posted inSalem

Hood House will provide housing for five homeless Salem women

There's so much wrong going on in the world, it's refreshing to be able to report on something very much right. Russ and Delana Beaton, long-time advocates for the homeless here in Salem, Oregon, have created an innovative housing opportunity for five previously homeless women. The Beatons are members of a monthly discussion group that my wife and I belong to, so we've been kept up to date on the progress of their Hood House -- named for the street it sits on in northeast Salem. Here's how Hood House was described by Delana in an emailed invite to last…
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Posted inSalem

Photos of the 2019 Salem Art Fair & Festival

The Salem Art Fair & Festival always is hugely enjoyable. During our Friday visit, when I took these photos, I believe my wife and I spent more on food than on art, but, hey, artistry is involved in the food booths. This year I was told the secret of the So Cheesy food truck/food stand, but if I divulged why their grilled cheese sandwiches taste so good, I might be punished by the So Cheesy gods. Click on the image below to behold the Adobe Spark web page I made, complete with compelling commentary on the photos.
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Posted inSalem

Here’s my petition supporting LBGTQ rights in Salem

Please sign this petition I just started to support the Salem Human Rights Commission in its stand against the City of Salem leasing a building from the Salem Alliance Church to temporarily house the public library. Click on this link to the Care2 Stand up for LGBTQ rights in Salem! petition. The church rejects same-sex marriage and considers same-sex sex to be a sin. The Commission is calling on City officials to find another location for the library while renovations are made, even if that location costs more and is less convenient.
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Posted inHome life Salem

Photos and comments on 2019 Salem Tour of Homes

Every year my wife and I enjoy going to the Tour of Homes here in Salem for a couple of reasons. First, it's fun to see cool features in expensive homes that our 1970's era home lacks, like walk-in closets. Second, we like to criticize design choices that strike us as abhorrent, hopefully out of the earshot of the builder. Here's photos I took last Saturday at the 2019 Tour of Homes kickoff weekend. I've added some commentary that ranges from complimentary to snarky. We only went to four of the 21 homes. The Tour continues through June 23rd: weekends…
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Posted inHome life Salem

Why we sold our Highlander to Carmax rather than Capitol Toyota

Buying and selling cars isn't my favorite thing to do. Usually there's some degree of frustration involved. Yesterday was no exception. My wife and I did our best to trade-in our low mileage 2014 Highlander XLE as part of our purchase of a 2019 RAV4 Hybrid, but Capitol Toyota engaged in some tactics that were irritating enough to cause us to decline the purchase offer and head to Beaverton's Carmax instead -- where today we sold our Highlander for $600 more than Capitol Toyota offered, and with much less aggravation. Our Highlander in the final stage of the CarMax process…
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Posted inHome life Salem

Battery X-Change guys made me feel like less of a fool

I give two thumbs up to Battery X-Change on the corner of 17th and Center Street. One thumb is for selling me two hard-to-find batteries for my mower at a good price. The other thumb is for making me feel like less of a fool after I managed to fry the first battery they sold me within a matter of hours. My battery saga is a good illustration of why small locally-owned stores need to be patronized, because without them Salem would be much diminished. It began when I turned off my DR Field Mower, a walk-behind mower with a 16.5…
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Posted inSalem

Express yourself! City Club talk on Salem art scene was inspiring.

I'll begin with the end. Of talks by two art-encouragers here in Salem, Sandra Burnett of the Salem Art Association and Carlee Wright, producer of Press Play Salem.  After listening to Burnett and Wright speak yesterday at a Salem City Club meeting on "The Crucial Role of the Arts in Our Community," I got to ask a question. It went something like this. Carlee, I heard you say "express yourselves." As someone who writes almost every day, I know that I feel better when what is inside me is expressed to the outside world, and I then get responses from…
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Posted inSalem

First day report on Salem’s plastic bag ban: I not only survived, I thrived!

Monday is my habitual weekly grocery shopping day, this being my role in our marriage. Today, April 1, coincided with the first day of Salem's ban on plastic bags at large retailers.  Which didn't affect me at all, given that I carry around six Trader Joe's reusable bags in my car, typically bringing two bags into each of my trifecta grocery shopping destinations: Trader Joe's, Fred Meyer on south Commercial, and Lifesource Natural Foods. Naturally, when the checkout person at Trader Joe's asked me how my day was going, I said "It's exciting to be here on the first day…
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Posted inHealth Salem

Youth mental health focus of gripping City Club program

In retrospect, I was crazy to consider not going to today's Salem City Club program, "Oregon Youth: Crisis in Mental Health." Fortunately I had the good sense to attend the meeting and hear two people from Liberty House, a child abuse assessment center, plus a South Salem High School counselor.  I'll end this blog post by talking about my own long-ago mental health problems in my high school years. First, though, here's some of what I remember from the presentations by Alison Kelley, CEO of Liberty House; Neda Grant, program manager of Liberty House's Hope and Wellness services; and Ryan…
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Posted inSalem

LifeSource Natural Foods has a great response to my blog post

I really appreciate the prompt response from LifeSource staff after I sent them a link to the blog post I wrote yesterday, "I love LifeSource but recent changes are disappointing."  Matt Trickey, the bulk department manager, emailed me this morning with some insights into the challenges that LifeSource Natural Foods faces -- along with most other locally owned stores in Salem.  I feel considerably more sympathetic to LifeSource now. It isn't that what Matt said is totally new news to me. I just hadn't fully understood how difficult it is for LifeSource to compete against grocery stores that are jumping…
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