Good morning friends! It’s Monday, February 26, 2018, and we’re rounding the corner into March, which begins Thursday under a full Moon. You may peek outside and see a bit of snow fluttering down but hardly sticking, the snow line at 500 feet. Otherwise it’s partly cloudy, and we’ll warm up to 45 today. Sunrise 6:54 AM sunset 5:53 PM.
It’s always wonderful to get off a crowded plane and walk into the welcoming conviviality of Portland International Airport, but it was a bit moreso for 128 people on a United flight to PDX last. It blew a tire on takeoff from Newark, and passengers had to brace for what’s described as a hard and bumpy landing in Portland. All OK, everybody is highly complimentary of the crew, and the plane was towed off.
A chilling experience for four kayakers who paddled out into the Columbia from Rooster Rock–and flipped over. Three of them were plucked from the cold, cold water by first responders in fireboats, while a fourth was still in the kayak and paddled ashore. One’s in the hospital with hypothermia.
Several other kayakers were fished out of the rivers–two in the Columbia near Tomahawk, and one in the Willamette at Swan Island.
Fifteen hundred other people took an intentional plunge into the Columbia as a fundraiser for Special Olympics. Last year’s Portland Polar Plunge brought in $450,000. Don’t know yet about this year.
Sad to see the Olympics are over! That was so much fun to watch. the USA ended up with 23 medals in all, 9 gold, for fourth place behind Norway, Germany, and Canada. The question now is whether the temporary thaw between the two Koreas will last, or if it’ll go downhill fast.
Joey Gibson is running for Senate from Washington. He’s the leader of the right-wing group that calls itself “Patriot Prayer,” which comes over to Portland occasionally for “free speech” shouting matches with left-wing protesters. He says he’s pro-immigration, pro-gay marriage, pro-legalized pot, and that he’s leading a “conservative revolution” in the Northwest.
A house fire in NE Portland was caused by too many extension cords, and combustible stuff sitting on those cords.
Online permit sales to climb Mt. St. Helens reopen today. Last time they tried, they crashed the system. So they brought in a new website vendor. A hundred people a day are allowed to climb the mountain, and it’s a really popular jaunt.
President Trump is recommending his longtime personal pilot to head up the Federal Aviation Administration.
NBC news says something called “birth tourism” is booming in Miami, where well-heeled Russian women come to have their babies–who are therefore American citizens.
Johnny Cash was born this day in 1932.
H(4a)HH!
–“Latest research reveals the more you hug your kids – the smarter they get”
–“A couple shipwrecked on a deserted island were rescued after scrawling “HELP” in the sand.”
–“Man who’d been in a London car wreck saved from hypothermia by police thermal-imaging drone found him in a ditch”
–“Man Risks His Life To Rescue Two Missing Dogs Who Were Trapped On A Mountain”
–“4-Year-Old Donates Bone Marrow to Twin Brothers”
–“Man wrongfully incarcerated for 38 years leaves prison with puppy he raised.”
With Portland’s snow soon to fade into the rearview mirror, can I just say that we really handled it well this time? Maybe it’s because last year was such an epic struggle, and we learned from it. We avoided an encore of the freeway apocalypse, the MAX trains kept rolling, the schools closed when they had to, and I believe there were no fatalities among those who live on the streets. People seemed to drive with courtesy–even the guy who rear-ended me was friendly. And the Uniper was out there, pedaling and shooting flames out of his bagpipe, a sign that all’s normal in Portland. Plus our town looked splendid in a coat of snow. The late-winter light was just right for some spectacular photography, much of it shared right here on the Daily Drip. Well done Stumptown!
Away, now, for a morning on the radio with Bruce and Janine. Talk with you there..and here as well.
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