The Eyes Have It in Everyday Ramblings

The last picture I posted was a blooming ornamental pear. This is a blooming fruiting pear. The fruiting trees bloom later. The rhododendrons are crowning. The ones near me come out pink and open into a rose tinted white.

Yesterday was like a spring day out of a story book. It was clear and by the afternoon, warm. Warm, I tell you. I took my sweatshirt off and walked home from the local “Hands Off” demonstration in a sleeveless shirt. Wow. What a gift for the thousands of folks that showed up here in Portland.

One of the guys in Walt’s group had hats made for us that said “The Open Road” in a variety of colors and we used them effectively to (mostly) stay together in the throng. There was at a certain point, serious Bridge Walk vibes, when too many people packed into too small a space. I was lucky enough that for the hour we stood and chatted with each other and the sea of people around us because we could not hear the speakers, to be backed up against a railing with the river behind me.

That is one of the only things that kept me from wanting to get the heck out of there. I am all for interacting with humanity, but not such a fan of being packed into a small space like sardines. When the speeches were winding down, we headed as a group, following hats, slowly slowly back to a place where there was more space, a place to sit down and a bit of a carnival atmosphere. Walt got himself an Elephant Ear with apple butter smothered on it.

At that point pretty much everyone still with us decided to forego the march and head home. Walt and I had a useful chat and enjoyed the feel and the signs. His favorite was “No Science, No Beer.” Even though Walt is a vegetarian nondrinker.

We joined the march when it came by. There were some good signs but nothing that knocked my socks off. The local Democrats had a big expensive red banner with Musk making the “salute”.

I discovered that like me, Walt is not a big fan of crowd chants. We went under a bridge and the chanting was loud enough to hurt my ears. That happened to be the bridge Walt needed to walk over to get home so we parted ways, and I wended my way home.

At one point a fit older guy was by us and said, “It hasn’t been this bad since Vietnam.” I blurted out, “This is worse, much worse.” There were groans of assent around me.

It was hard to feel that being out there served any purpose. Even though I understand the counts are coming in that over 3 million people participated in these events across America yesterday. That is almost as many people who live in Oregon.

Weirdly, for me the best part of the day was this encounter I had with a guy selling leather goods in a stall in the local craft market. I didn’t know exactly where the place we all were supposed to meet up was and so I asked him when he was between customers. He was friendly, told me how to get where I needed to go and as I was thanking him, I realized he had the most beautiful eyes I can remember seeing in a very long time.

Do you remember that National Geographic cover of the Afghan refugee girl with the loose red headscarf and the beautiful green eyes? Very famous photo. This guy had eyes like that. Apparently, I was into blurting yesterday and I said straight out, “I bet you hear this all the time, but you have beautiful eyes.”

He looked startled with this half smile and said yeah, he had heard that before.

Normally, commenting on someone’s physical attributes is not my jam, so I surprised myself. Oh well. I guess I am human. And I think this means the pandemic is over.

I am getting my Covid booster shot at the end of next week.

Hopefully before they take access away.