Warm Colors, Warm Air

There is Spring and rumours of Spring.

Like the building said we got to 36 degrees today.  My widget said to expect 35 so we're one degree to the good.  I finally got out today with the intention of sitting down at one of my cafes and doing this post.

Sadly there was a singer/songwriter, in the worst sense of the word, singing in one of my favorite places and I just couldn't bring myself to filter him out while I either wrote or edited this new milonga.

So I wandered back here to Doctor's Row but not before noticing a signs of the intensity of our current winter travail - and signs of a life beyond it.

In many places, despite the best efforts of Portland's street crews, the snow banks are as eyeball high.  It just gets piled up, repeated warming and freezing have "baked" it into a rock-hard mass.  I'm sure it's charming and malleable if you're going sledding but slipping on ever-present ice and falling into a picturesque snow bank could cause a major concussion.

It's just dangerous in certain areas.

Bosnia, the empty lot across the door from my apartment, is blocked with a massive wall of ice and calcified snow.  I took some time today to poke around on it; almost climbed to the top to see what was beyond.

Sadly it was only Congress Street and Geno's Rock Bar.  Picturesque, I'm sure, but nothing new.

Fortunately the snow plow - and yes, it was a pickup truck with attached plow rather than a bucket loader - had to leave a gap on the right due to the layout of the lot.  If you read my post "Des pas sur la niege"  that's where the footpath was.

It's probably still in there - kind of creepy to think about it, but the whole thing is either screamingly funny to me or shudderingly creepy - there doesn't seem to be any halfway point to look at it.

To be frank, that's a polarity I rather enjoy.

Getting back here to Doctor's Row it was nice to sit and do some editing.  The kicker came as the afternoon gave way to sunset.  For a brief moment the Sun lit up the bricks of the houses, a warm glow, a brightness against the tops of the buildings.

There are signs of a change.  Large caps of ice form as melt water refreezes in the colder air of shade.  Walking is interrupted by sudden patches of glazed brick.  Keeping your center of gravity low and keeping watch for a safe place to take a fall is good insurance.

Lot's of my friends are sick.  The intensity of the Winter breaks down immunity.  Seasonal Affect Disorder can influence even the most stable personality.

One good thing about working at the Orchard is that the lights are so bright from the walls that you get huge amounts of lumens.  Maybe that's a part of the general enthusiasm I feel.

Lovely lights in the sky as the daylight faded.  Warm red watercolors wrapped the horizon.

It's not that I feel I need to "get away" from Winter.  It's more an acknowledgement that this particular season has been hard on people.  Some of my friends have lost jobs.  There are empty storefronts in the Mall.  We're all worried, but game to fix it if given a hope of succeeding.

So maybe these adumbrations of Spring are just things that will help us move to the next thing.

I hope so.

Maybe that's what it's about.