Good Morning! Hope you’re doing OK! It’s Tuesday, August 21, 2018, a deep red day on the air pollution maps, with highs of 95 degrees. The smoke knocked ten degrees off the temps yesterday, but today an increasing offshore flow plus a stronger sun will cook things up considerably. Sunrise, apocalyptically photogenic as it is, will come at 6:18 AM, sunset 8:07 PM.
This nasty air remains with us at least until noon tomorrow. The Washington air pollution agency writes, “Wholesale improvement to air quality is not likely until mid-week or later. Until then, air quality levels can be expected to oscillate between unhealthy and moderate.” Moderate–an AQI of less than 100– would be welcome. As I write this at 0400, the Portland AQI is 176. And there’s this from the NWS in Portland: “Confidence is increasing that we will be locked into a cool pattern through the weekend and possibly into early next week, with highs some 5-10 degrees below normal through the period.” May their confidence be justified!
How are you living with this? Let’s share ideas. Yesterday I escaped work early and went for a mall walk in Washington Square. Four laps from Sears to J C Penney and back took me an hour. Delightful experience; kept striding but enjoyed the sights. Might do it again today.
Not helping: a four-alarm, 20-acre brush fire in Forest Grove. Firefighters swarmed it in time, they believe, to prevent embers from flying into the neighbor to the west: the Tillamook State Forest.
We have a search on for a young Yamhill County woman, 27-year old Meighan Cordie, who’s been missing since she attended a weekend wedding in Dayton, got in an argument, and walked away barefoot. Without her phone.
It’s show time at the bargaining table between both the Vancouver and Battle Ground school districts, and their respective teachers’ unions. The headline is that Vancouver members have authorized a strike, and Battleground teachers may vote for the same tomorrow. But the point is they’re talking, stakes are high, and we’ll see what happens. We always do. Both districts are scheduled to begin their school year on August 29.
We had a taste of ugliness at the Willamette Country Music Festival in Brownsville over the weekend, as an African-American man expressed objection to a Confederate flag being flown from the back of a pickup ahead of a Kid Rock concert–and was slugged several times by a guy in a muscle shirt and a black cowboy hat. No arrests. Then the next day, a pilot who was taking photos crashed his plane in front of the stage. He survived.
A US flag was also the center of a misunderstanding at the August 4 right-left showdown in Portland, as an anti-right guy brought the Stars and Stripes to the event, and was clubbed over the head by Antifa elements who wrongly thought he was a Proud Boy. I fly my flag proudly, but I’m not bringing it where it’s like waving red in front of a bull.
President Trump jumped on Portland’s Mayor for “shamefully” ordering local police not help to federal officers during the recent protest camp at ICE headquarters on SW Macadam. Trump, during a salute to ICE at the White House, claimed that Wheeler’s order left federal police “to face an angry mob of violent people,” although The Oregonian reports there were no documented instances of violence during the protest.
The Sunday Oregonian piece on illegal street racing in Portland was well-timed: that very night, an illegal racer driving a black Infiniti struck and injured a spectator along NE Airport Way at 148th. The driver was later arrested at his home. Police also issued eight citations and six warnings to people at these brazenly illegal events.
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It’s hard to believe this great event was one year ago today: millions of us gaped skyward as the Great American Solar Eclipse swept the country from Oregon to South Carolina. That was an unforgettable moment, as the celestial switch was thrown and darkness fell hard, while people gasped and cheered, and birds swooped around in confusion, and then, whoomp! It was daylight again.
The Steve Miller Band and Peter Frampton play at the Les Schwab Amphitheater in Bend tonight. They’re at Edgefield on Thursday.
It’s Statehood Day for Hawaii, (1959), the 50th state in the union. At 59 years, this is the longest period in US history where a new state has not been added.
This was the day in 1883 a tornado hit Rochester, Minnesota, killing 37 and injuring hundreds who flocked to a doctors’ office, run by a physician father and his two physician sons, and leading them to create a larger clinic to handle the patient load. The doctors were named William, WIlliam Jr., and Charles Mayo.
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TMSG?
–“A kidney for Kaden: Teacher donates organ to 12-year-old”
–“Police Bodycam Footage Shows Officers Racing To Evacuate Animal Shelter In Path Of Wildfire”
–“Goldfish Find New Forever Home at Paris Aquarium”
–“Police Make Sure One 8-year-old has a Fantastic First Day of School”
Links here!
https://k103.iheart.com/featured/john-ericksons-daily-drip/
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Just for fun…help me out here…a quick evaluation of the day according to the standards set by song lyrics: Summer breeze? maybe, through the Gorge, bearing a great abundance of smoke. Yuck. Makes me feel fine? Not hardly. Lazy, hazy, and crazy? Check, check, and check. County fairs in the country sun? Well, the Oregon State Fair starts Friday. Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city? For sure. Seems like an everlasting summer, but we can see it fading fast. I keep on hoping we’ll eat cake by the ocean. What other songs have lyrics that describe the summer of ’18? Highway to Hell?
Or Stairway to Heaven. Things will get better. Couple more days.
Portland's Daily Drip 