Tag: Oregon

Root for the Underdog

A picture of our dog Ellie next to a sticker that says 'Root for the Underdog'

I don’t know how much of it is her advancing age and how much the warming weather, but I’ve noticed Ellie’s breathing has been a little more labored lately on her walks. For all that she still gave me a couple of long walks last weekend, but I wasn’t surprised this morning that even though she went as far south as normal after visiting the dog park, she only went a couple of blocks east before wanting to head back north towards home. I thought she was tired out but as we prepared to take the last turn towards home she indicated she wanted to continue going north. The next block she turned east towards home but kept wanting to go east and east and east until I made her turn north to avoid a busy street. We doubled back along Klickitat Street before heading to the park once more, then she was ready to head home, after a full hour and a half walk.

It was still breezy this morning after high winds much of yesterday and my sinuses were bothering me a bit, but what a lovely way to spend the morning, me and the pup!

I took this picture of her on Klickitat, the section of the street we walk on that takes us to the park is closed to vehicle traffic except for people with driveways on the street, and this little post blocks vehicles from entering. Someone put a sticker on the post that says “Root for the Underdog” so I made Ellie pose for a quick picture. The new camera is working a treat for quick pictures like this, just a snapshot to remind me of our walks, it is so lightweight that I take it with me a lot even though I only occasionally take pictures.

Spring Finally Arrives

Our dog Ellie in the dog park with a backdrop of spring blossoms at Irving Park in the Irvington neighborhood of Portland, Oregon in April 2017

As much as I love the rain, even I was ready for a sunny day after an unusually wet winter. Although Ellie loves the colder weather, she was up for a long walk on this beautiful spring morning, wanting to go farther and farther each time we reached another corner. I was only too happy to oblige and we didn’t return home for an hour and a half, pretty remarkable for our aging pup.

Snowy Siskiyou

Snow covers the trees that line Siskiyou Street

I used to think all city neighborhoods were a desert of brick and concrete and asphalt so I was surprised when we first started looking at neighborhoods in Portland to see so many tree-lined streets, such as Siskiyou Street here. I didn’t walk across Siskiyou much in the first seven years we lived here, just occasionally on trips to the store, as it is to our north and the train station for the light rail I take to work is to our south. In the last eight years however I’ve crossed thousands of times, as while it isn’t on the way to the train station, it is on the way to the dog park.

It doesn’t usually look like this though.

The Snow Man

A large snowman in Portland, Oregon

We rarely get much snow here in Portland so our snowmen tend to be rather diminutive, so I was tickled when walking Ellie that we had both big snow and a big snowman, the kind I had heretofore only seen in the movies. It was because I stepped over to take this picture that I turned around and got this picture of the saddest dog in the world.