HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

we hope this holiday finds all our friends and family happy and healthy. we are doing great and still loving almost every minute of life here. the only drawback being that we can't be with our friends and families tonight. eat a turkey leg for us!

love and best wishes,

anne and mike

My Thursday night commute.....hit by car!

I never thought my first accident on my bike would be this severe. Most of my worries have been if/when is my tire going to slide out from under me? Since it has rained almost everyday in the last 15 or so, you could understand my concern. Well, this Thursday after work I'm heading north on 2nd Steet for the Burnside Bridge which will take me to the eastside. I'm moving at a good pace and just getting to the Ash Street intersection on 2nd, ming you it's twilight but I do already have my front light on just in case. That's when a Lexus pulls out right in front of me as it is trying to bisect 2nd while on Ash. I had what seemed like 3 - 4 options go through my mind in what could have only been maybe 1.5 seconds. It seemed like it was in slow motion, but in fact happened all rather fast like. I turned my bike just slightly in the direction that his car was going and them SLAM! My bike and myself impact his passenger side door at about 15mph, his pace was about the same or a bit faster. The left side of my body must have gotten the majority of the initial impact, because it hurts like hell with some muscle loss and lack of movement in my left arm. From the point of impact I proceeded to roll up onto the top of his car, this causes me to spin head over back in a spirraling motion due to the momentum of his car. I fall to the street landing on my back. I must have used my elbows to brace myself beacause there swollen and have some roadburn. Thankfully I ride with a helmet, because my head smacked the ground pretty hard as well as my hips. Almost instantly there were about 20 people running up to see if I was alright, thankfully there was a firetruck driving down 2nd street just a moment after it happened. So as I laid in the street the firemen checked all my vitals and then had me move over to the sidewalk. Nothing was broken, and for the most part I felt fine so we filed a quick report, I exchanged my information with the guy who hit me, and it was all over. I'm standing on the corner with a bike that had the rear wheel blown off, and the front steering turned at 90 degrees, no brakes and one tire that wobbles really bad, so I walked it back to work. I then walked instead of driving to Borders (which is a few blocks from my work) to get Anne from work. We had a nice bus ride home that evening, and she has taken care of me every since the accident. I think she's pretty damn awesome to say the very least. Anyway, I feel pretty good for getting hot by a frigging car. I hope Mondays bike ride into work on Monday goes better. If I get home Monday night and I havent been hit, we will call it a success. Ciao

my very first earthuake

well sunday evening, mike and i were sitting in the living room (i had gotten home from work recently) watching television. suddenly my chair was vibrating and sort of shifting back and forth on the wood floor. there was a low rumbling and some rattling from dishes and lamps nearby. it was over in a couple of seconds, and afterwards i sat there, shocked. "was that an earthquake, mike!?" seeing as he'd lived in california, i was sure he'd know if he felt one. well he wasn't fully convinced. the experience was very similar to having a bus drive right by your house, except much much more powerful--the house and everything in it was moving. thank GOD for the internet, and the united stated geological survey website, because in 10 minutes we had our answer: a 2.7 magnitude earthquake hit portland at 9:35 pm pst!! it was amazing. all my life i'd heard accounts of quakes, but had no real idea what they felt like. the closest frame of reference was the "bus driving by" analogy. anyway, earthquakes here are relatively common, according to the usgs website. one thing for sure: anything stronger would be terrifying. my heart was beating fast for about 15 minutes after the event. i can't imagine how shocking a bigger earthquake would be!

love, annie
http://earthquakes.usgs.gov/

mr. great blue heron

this guy lives in laurelhurst park. he's as frequent a resident there as the homeless people (yes, that's really frequent).

ms. hepburn, mr. bratty...we're ready for your close-up!

i didn't think anything could top the late summer here. but autumn has got it beat by a landslide. so far we're 7 months into living here and they've ALL been great. gah, it looks like a freakin glamour shots background!

a walk in the park. yeah, thomas kinkade called, he wants his idyllic landscape portrait back!