A Long View Down Market St With Low Clouds

3767

This view was taken two days ago; I was pointing Olivia east down SE Market St at 113th, same place (more or less) as the wildfire smoke photos but this time I was entranced by the way the overcast (scattered fog the order of the day) broke in the distance and gave a glimpse of the sunrise sky.

The red light in the middle distance is the flashing red over the intersection of 117th and the smaller red light in the farther distance is the traffic signal over 122nd and Market. The angle and the zoom communicate one thing I love about my corner of town ... even though it's near everything, it seems cozy and just a little bit remote.

It's comfortable, here.

Same Street, Two Different Wildfire Days

3756

Today in wildfire news, we've learnt that conditions for the endangered towns along the Cascade Piedmont have improved greatly. Some of the Level 3 evacuations have been reduced to Level 2; Level 2 to Level 1, and Level 1 to Level None. This is due in no small part to shifting weather; there's been cooling and the winds, which fanned the originally-small fires into the mega-infernos they became, have largely abated. 

What this means for towns like Oregon City down the Cascade Highway corridor through Silverton, Mt. Angel, and Sublimity-Stayton is that evacuation is no longer imminent at any moment and, since we expect rain starting tonight and into tomorrow, a comcomitant reduction in wildfire smoke pollution. It's still historically bad at this point, but the AQI, which was in the 500s and thus officially off-the-chart (the AQI's Hazardous designation runs from 400-500, above that, it's undefined) recently dipped to around 330.

In terms of peanut butter, the air quality has gone from chunk-style to creamy.

So far, from my personal point of view, the worst of it was yesterday, the 13th. I thought the 12th was pretty heinous, but the 13th kind of rewrote the book on that. What follows is a side-by-side of SE Market Street at about 113th Avenue looking east toward 117th, the same spot in both photos (give or take fifty feet), where things went from bad to holy freaking moly ...

 

On the 12th, AQI counts were in the 300s-400s. On the 13th, they were over 500. Any more stuff in the air after that and we drivers would have had to carry shovels to dig our way through, if we wanted to get anywhere. At least here in Multnomah County we didn't have to worry about the flames actually getting to us.

Things stand to improve, but for many of us, they can't get better fast enough.

More Covid Chruch Messages Of Hope

3738

While I'm not the church type, I am the sort whose heart is warmed by a thoughtfully-crafted message from one. Humanity is something we all share, and when a church reflects that humanity, it does indeed provide a sort of basic level of happiness to even us secular sorts.

A couple signs came to my attention recently. This first one, Calvary Presbyterian, 71st and Fremont, reflects a sentiment that I find terribly encouraging, sensible, and just plain grown up in these times where if we'd all just discipline ourselves and remember our connections to each other, we'd get through this pandemic a little quicker perhaps. 

The state of the news of the world during this time should illustrate how well we've followed this implicit advice. 

This next one is in my neighborhood and I've always found the Gethsemane Lutheran folks to be really concerned about the community rather than whether their community affiliates with them. Its an attitude of service I have always found encouraging.

Their current sign message reflects this ecumenical attitude. Because who can't take something away from this?

... and so it goes.