Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Well…hello! It’s you! Welcome to this Tuesday, October 23, 2018. We’ll notice a change in the weather as the high-pressure block over the west has drifted away, opening the door to whatever comes in off the ocean, and today that means a chance of light rain this afternoon and evening with highs around 60. A stronger system rolls in on Thursday. Sunrise 7:37 AM, sunset 6:11 PM.

That was some kind of a truck wreck, as a tanker carrying liquefied carbon dioxide rolled over on the Water Avenue exit from the Marquam Bridge, hitting as many as dozen other vehicles and injuring three people. I-5 was closed for hours. We’ll await the police report on the cause, but truck drivers tell us they dread that particular stretch of I-5, because the multiple confluences of on- and off-ramps is very confusing, and car drivers are known to make erratic changes that can really mess up a trucker.

We’re two weeks away from the mid-terms, and the sacred votes of Oregonians are winging their way to county elections offices from every corner of the state. As of late yesterday afternoon, 38-thousand ballots had been returned, with Wheeler County galloping to a turnout lead of 12.8%. Some counties have returned zero ballots at all, at the latest report. Yamhill County. Columbia County.

Thousands of Honduran asylum-seekers continue their northward trudge, and are met with this tweet from the President of the country they hope will be their salvation: “Sadly, it looks like Mexico’s Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States. Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in. I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy. Must change laws!”

Hurricane Willa will slam into Mexico’s Pacific coast today as a Category 3 storm.

Did you hear the big news from Oregon’s wine country? The Vista Hills Vineyards on the western slope of the Dundee Hills, with the finest terrain and soils in the region, has been purchased by Francis Ford Coppola, the Hollywood director whose attention turned to wine some time ago. And whose wines are good indeed. The name on the label invited me to try, but it’s the actual wine that makes me drop a Coppola bottle or two in the carton at Safeway. The Coppola ownership of Vista Hills will mean changes: not, they say, to the wines or the staff, but inevitably to the winery’s profile. And there might be a little Coppola memorabilia in the tasting room. Area horses are said to be nervous. Sounds like we need to take a drive, 38 miles out to Dayton!

I’m not the biggest joiner of the media hype over big lottery jackpots, because if there is such a thing as false hope, that’s it, however: someone explained to me that people right now need any excuse to be a part of some fun. So, OK. Tonight is the drawing for the $1.6 billion Mega Millions jackpot, and you can lay your money down right up until 6:59 PM Pacific. But don’t unset your alarm. Is anybody out there part of an office pool?

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The Blazers lost 125-124 in overtime to the Washington Wizards.

World Series starts tonight at 5:09 on Fox. Boston in 5, says I.

Tonight’s the opening night of the Portland Film Festival. Over the next week, over 200 films will be screened–40 of them from filmmakers in the Portland area.

KOIN TV tweets that it tripled its transmitter power over the weekend. So that’s why people in the West Hills are picking up Jeff Gianola on their waffle irons! Kidding! It should make Channel 6 easier to get for folks who use those funny metal things on the roof, you know, antenni.

Speaking of old-school television, the great Johnny Carson was born this date in Iowa in 1925.

If you feel like geeking out, today is National Mole Day. No, not those pestilential punctuators of your backyard….today’s “mole” is a chemistry term, as in “molecule,” and Mole Day is celebrated annually on 10/23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m., because a basic measuring unit in chemistry is (6.02 x 1023). Now is that funny or what.

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Heads to ease a heavy heart…

–“Teen finds, Returns Wallet Stuffed with Cash”

–“Girl Accidentally Sent A Photo Of Her Dress To The Wrong Number. As A Result, It Saved The Life Of A Stranger’s Son.”

–“Russian Scientists Discover Bacteria That Neutralizes Nuclear Waste” (I bet. Consider the source on this one).

–“Rowing Team Finds Note By The Lake And Fulfills The Request” (Tissues handy?)

–“Custodian Is Sent To Clean Up An ‘Accident’, Walks Into A Surprise Party Thrown By The Students”

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High point of my Monday was getting beeped at by a mail truck, as our new carrier drove up behind me while I walked in our road and talked on the phone with my mentor-in-adulthood Craig Walker. I jumped at the carrier’s horn, and she gestured at her ears as if to say, Earbuds, bud. Pay attention. Point taken, thanks! Better than having that run-down feeling.

Quick heads-up on scheduling: I’ll be burning vacation days the next few Fridays, as we roll toward the closing of the year! It’s Day 296, with 69 left to go in 2018.