‘Wandering vaguely all about’

I actually sat down about a week ago and finished my last blog offering. I’d begun it last summer, 2017, and I really didn’t know what its’ point was, what its’ Purpose was. All I knew was that I wasn’t practicing Medicine anymore, thaI I risked falling into the dark morass of Alternative Medicine, Educated Quackery, loss of formal thought and real acquisition of knowledge.

One of the most charming and endearing ways of an infant child, once he is able to lift his head and look around at over six months of age and begin to show interest in things away from his mouth, away from his own hands, is in his seeming absorbing interest in Objects with their various Colors, Shapes and Motions.

I find that I’m a lot like an infant child in that I easily become enamored of glittery, shiny things of interest. This is a real threat to me; ‘Look at the birdie’ draws my attention away from what is actually going on, entertains me to no real purpose as somebody else’s agenda unfolds.

Two days ago, I found myself at Powell’s Used and New bookstore, said to be the largest in the world. I’m old enough to see it as the original site of A.B.Smith Chevrolet where my family bought an Autumn Gold Station Wagon in 1960 or ‘61. The building’s curious wanderings, its’ many oddly-placed elevators, its’ many separate venues and disconnected entirely-different scenes suddenly make sense. One of the things there is a collection of magazines offered for sale and I was drawn into the web and infant-like, ended up purchasing ‘WIRED’, an attractive monthly journal dealing with Cusp-of the-latest-Tech-Action. I bought it and have brought it back to my Loft.

It is now, as I write, a week from Halloween. Portland is getting a little cooler; the daily temperatures are Now in the low-60s and the nighttime airs are in the 40s... the equinoctial winds of September are now past and the only brisk Zephyrs to expect for the rest of the year and any winds associated with winter storms. As I look up through my loft windows to the sky I see lots of clouds, moving as a mass south slowly but no discernible wind.

Oregon has always had what looks to me like a biurnal climate. Here, it is for the summer months hot with some cooling at night. This is from about May to September expect occasional rain showers but much cumulus-bedecked sky with breezes. Near the autumnal equinox, September 21 or after, the Gray Aunt arrives, the winter bank of clouds and the promised rains. Unless we have a much-welcomed Indian Summer, with cool, breezy, bright-blue skies lasting into October.

This year we have had such an Indian Summer but as i look out and review my weather apps i see the next two weeks at least full of rain. Trick-or-Treating will be Typical Oregon.

Because, as Heraclitus tells us, ‘Panta Rey’, all things are things are in an unending state of Change. We can look at the 26,000-year planetary cycle that promises an eventual change of the Pole Star from Polaris to the neighborhood of Cassiopeia. (I think; I know Sagittarius Has some role to play in all this but I’m too lazy to check.)

I'm in Oregon now for a while, and I have to say there are aspects which are a little jarring: the TV, or at least Netflix, shows political commercials constantly and amazes me in their constant, strident projection of a Mob voice of Anger, Error, Lack of all thought and in general, all the things I most dislike about the people who live around here.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I love Oregon. But. Portland is Leftist in its general stance. I don’t mind this too much, though: the transportation system here is great, the streets are clean and I have no fear of going anywhere. As an Old Fart and as a Handicapped Person I feel special here, I get all sorts of Perks and people are, after all, people. The mayor is Nuts of course. He likes changing the street names to those of his personal heroes. Upsetting, for a guy like me. I grew up with Stark Street and Harvey Milk Street is hard to swallow. A San Francisco mayor’s name really has no place on a Portland street. An oft-proclaimed cry here is ‘Keep Portland Weird’, which I think is silly and makes me think of fat white unkempt ‘intellectuals’ with no occupation and a lot of Needs.

I’ve already written about my extreme dislike for street mobs defacing things in My downtown at places I go to drink coffee and read the news.

The good news? I have already voted, easily done through the mail. I’ll make no comment until November 8 at least. I hope and pray everything works out as it should.

I’ve made a decision. I will not spend the evening of 11/6 glued to the TV, watching the various parties duke it out.

In Oregon, I get to watch the plethora of political ads and truly hate much of the stuff. One of the guys running for Governor (his Name? Search me: Newt, or something like that. I’m from Arizona and I voted a week ago) is trumpeted as a Savior (!). Though ‘a Republican’, he favors ‘Pro Choice’. I’m sure he stands for many other things, some of which I’ll agree with but in my mind, he’s already announced himself as a possible leader in the Slaughter of the Innocents. This fellow and so many others like him agree with the taking of human lives as a matter of convenience. Nimrods I live around, eyes bulging and fingers poking holes in the sky will say ‘What about Rape? What about Incest?’ Yes. True. I’m not smart enough to answer these questions, so at this point I wont even try. But. It makes sense to me you mustn’t kill little humans for convenience. Such things are what we call ‘Beastly’.

My Daughter-in-Law was out with friends visiting from Germany and was attacked by a drunk young woman for no clear reason. A broken beer bottle was thrust into her right eye. The globe was opened, the vitreous was exposed, the tear duct was destroyed and one of the orbital muscles lacerated.

We need your help.