In Praise of Local Business
“Do you know what my wife usually orders?” I asked at the Oak Grove Coffeehouse this morning. I wanted to bring her a surprise. Kris stops there once or twice a week, but I don’t go in very often. I...
View ArticleWillamette Valley Weather Rules-of-Thumb
When I got out of bed and came downstairs this morning, the floor was cold. I opened the door to let the cats in, and the air outside was cold. I started run my bath, and the water was cold. “It’s that...
View ArticleA Beautiful Day
I turned in the manuscript for Your Money: The Missing Manual on Friday, January 15th (the one-year anniversary of Paul’s death), but that wasn’t the end of the work. No indeed. Right away, I dove into...
View ArticleTimbers Army
It’s been an intense couple of weeks around the Roth-Gates household. Kris and I don’t fight often, but we’ve had a couple of rows lately, which should give you some idea of the stress level at Rosings...
View ArticleCoffee with Lord Vader
Oak Grove was once — long ago — a thriving community. Back when the trolley line ran through the “downtown” area, the neighborhood supported a number of businesses. Many of those storefronts still...
View ArticleThese Are a Few of My Favorite Meals
Kris and I had lunch with my cousin Nick today. He wanted to take us to Sushi Kata, a Japanese place in a strip mall not far from our house. But Sushi Kata isn’t open on Sunday, so we scrambled for a...
View ArticleArnold Thomas Sandwick, Jr.
When Kris and I moved to Oak Grove in 2004, we were surprised by the neighborhood. We’d just come from Canby, which seemed like a proto-typical small town. Yet we barely knew our neighbors there. We...
View Article“When I Root, I Root for the Timbers!”
For thirty years, I’ve waited for the Portland Timbers to return to the top flight of American soccer. Over the last couple of years, I’ve attended several Timbers matches as they’ve played at the...
View ArticleWaiting for Spring
This has been a long, wet, cool spring. We’ve had a lot of wet, cool name your season in Oregon over the past few years, probably because of global climate change. Whatever the case, it’s really taken...
View ArticleDoes It ALWAYS Rain in Portland on the Fourth of July?
It seems that over the past few years, it’s become fashionable for Portlanders to complain that it always rains on the fourth of July. In fact, this whining has become something of an epidemic. Nobody...
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