Man Made Lake

St. Helens, Oregon

'Spent a week in St Helens packing for the big move. Ann [Kayt's mom] says it has a lot of potential but will always have a lot of potential.

Sauvie Island

Back in are-a-GON, Kayt and I are struggling to contain our excitment about moving. We're also struggling to stay stimulated by an environment we're both ready to leave behind. This brings us to the sticks. The boondocks. Shitsville.

Sauvie Island is 11 miles northwest of downtown Portland. The flat farm roads are perfect for cycling. It's magical really. There are beaches on the Columbia River but last time I visited there was more than a few used diapers littered on the sand. The vast uniformity of agricultural land is comforting somehow but it's not really what I would expect to like about the country. It's the antithesis, if you will, to the infinite complexity of rain forest.

In conclusion, there's definitley something appealing about the middle of fucking nowhere. But what is it exactly? I'll get back to you.

Columbia Gorge

Last weekend we grabbed our-favorite-Deutscher-Benjamin and headed east. Although the beauty was stunning as always, the magnitude of the wind took the shit right out of me. It was a close your eyes, cover your ears and don't even try to breathe type of wind. We resigned to eating lunch in the rocking station wagon. At least that was the case at Beacon Rock. On the hike to Rodney Falls we were somehow shielded. Having spent my life in west coast metropolitan areas I'm pretty useless when it comes to snow. The rocks were covered in three inches of ice and the icecicles were big enough to be weapons. On the drive back to town I noticed that, from afar, frozen waterfalls along rockwalls possess a strong resemblance to streaks of bird shit. And there you have it: I've coined another new phrase. "Bird shit" = dirty snow, black ice or frozen waterfalls. How do I do it? Maybe I could put "alternative linguist" on my business cards. Or "linguistic engineer."

In other news, Ratatat's new album is OFF the fucking hook, and Chromeo leaked a track called "Tenderoni" that has me closing the shades and dancing myself dumb while Kayt's at work.

Vancouver

 

Yankton Valley bike ride

While house sitting Kayts parents' place on the outskirts of St Helens, Oregon we took a few rides through Columbia County's beautiful Yankton Valley. We suspect that greater beauty lies near the unpaved roads but with road bikes we can only speculate. The housing, however sparse, was interesting: half McMansions belonging to exurban retirees; the other half looking like Bolivian shanty towns.
The middle two photos were taken by Kayt.