My Random Friday Thoughts - 10/15/2010

I don't know when our roads became such a bustling bit of activity, but driving around now requires much more diligence that I think most people realize.  Granted, I lived in Portland for many years before owning a car, and I'm at best an average driver that is improving.  In the years of commuting to my office, I've seen drivers do everything else in addition to driving including putting on makeup, eating, talking on the phone, and other assorted social activities.  It's simply driving while distracted, which in itself is a bad enough thing, but add in that pedestrians and bicyclists that are more aggressive in dealing with traffic.  Last night while driving home from dinner, I could count at least 20 pedestrians jaywalking between the Hawthorne District and casa Row N.  I realize that we are all in a hurry at most points, but at the same point, I'm surprised there aren't more accidents with all this activity going on.  Let's just say that I'm prone now to give myself a bit more time to drive to wherever I need to in order to give myself time to get there in case of distraction…

 

My tirades against radio here in Portland continue, but let's just say I'm far happier now that I own a functioning MP3 player.  I've gained some appreciation for music that I haven't listen to in a while, plus there's a wonderful new station at 910 AM that plays only Northwest music.  Ok, the feed gets pre-empted when the sports radio station wants to cover a live event and not cancel their regular programming which is lame, but I'd rather have a station that is doing something unique rather than the bland and inoffensive list of offerings that Portland radio offers right now.  You know it's bad when even the ads for most station are pretty much the same…

 

I haven't talked much about my personal journey for myself lately, but let's just say that lately I've learned for a guy, I'm a really good communicator but for the female set, my skills border between inept and clueless.  I'm a verbose person by nature, which does add a huge degree of difficulty in conversation, but imagine talking with people where words matter quite a bit.  I have never realized how clunky my speech can be until I really thought about it, and thought about recent conference calls I've been on.  Well, that and a conversation I had with my wife a few nights ago about our bowling location.  I knew what I was trying to say, but I couldn't get my brain in gear to use the right words, but in my brain, I had the picture of exactly the right concept.  But if you had listened to my description, you'd probably think I write technical manuals for electronics equipment for a living.  And if you've ever actually sat down to read one of those, you can understand what I'm talking about…

 

Election Day is coming soon, and I'm already tired of it all and I haven't even seen my ballot yet.  Frankly, I long for days when candidates actually stood up and talked about their beliefs and what they really wanted to do, and now, politics is nothing but a war of sound bites and fractured statements.  I can't blame candidates for being careful about things, because we live in a fragmented society with involved citizens that often don't agree on the priorities that an entity should follow.  It doesn't help when you have collective interests that love to play on those divides and make them either more apparent or try and bring things together, but for those people that choose to run, you have my complete admiration even if I don't vote for you.  I can't imagine putting people that I care about through the rollercoaster ride that is a campaign for any reason, even if the cause is noble.  Personally, I live some of the things that England does for elections over there – limited campaign time, voting in person.  While I do like the vote by mail concept that gives me the time to actually research the issues, I could do without the almost non-stop ad barrage that American politics puts in place before an election.  I'm some candidate person, and I approve a change in the process…

 

It's tough to imagine the changes that the Timbers will be going through over the next few months as they move up from USL to MLS.  I've grown to appreciate this club quite a bit since my first game in 2001, and I can't believe that 10 years later, we will be joining the top level of American soccer.  To put all of the memories over that time would take far more time that could be committed here or in my other blog home, but in trying to boil things down to the key points, I think I can safely say the following: (1) I'm proud to be Timbers Army, even if I don't completely agree with the antics of some, (2) July 2, 2005 was the date my life changed during a Timbers match, and I will never forget that (I might misspeak the date, but the feelings are real), (3) Being Timbers Army, I never cease to be amazed at what a group can accomplish if they simply put their mind to things, (4) Loving a team also means watching them and supporting them when they break your heart, (5) If you've never experienced frustration, anger, resentment or some other severe emotional reaction in supporting your club, I'm not sure you can call yourself a real fan, (6) I love living in Portland even if there are things that I dislike immensely about it.  To love a place, you accept the good with the bad, and right now, the good things about the Rose City far outweigh the stupidity and pretentiousness that I see in certain aspects, and finally (7) Pets help make anything better, even helping deal with a tough Timbers loss.

 

Until next time….