Staying Cool in a cool town...

With 3 weeks of living in Portland under my belt, I'm finding "laid back mode" is possible. I'm just not fully there yet. That may take another month or two, possibly longer. And to get there I might need to stick to my bike instead of my car since I'm finding traffic here isn't always the greatest. Not only that, but there are smog alert signs on the freeways! I thought I had left that all behind in Atlanta. Luckily, so far the traffic on any given highway at any given time seems to last only about 5 minutes and the air quality hasn't been bad. 

Last week’s record breaking heat wave has come and gone but it reminded me of my first summer in Atlanta driving a Dodge Colt with no air conditioning and living in Inman Park, also with no air conditioning. This time my Suby has air but like many homes in Portland, my friend’s house does not. Air conditioning isn’t really needed here. But during last week’s scorcher, the house inside was, at times, hotter than outside. Everyone in the city did what they could to stay cool. 

I did find a house and it’s not the neighborhood I thought it would be. Instead, I am renting a friend of a friends’ home in a popular area called The Hawthorne District. Like a lot of houses in Portland, it’s 100 years old with a lot of character. It’s on a cute street just a few blocks from Hawthorne's shops and restaurants and a few blocks from Mt. Tabor – great for hiking, running, and biking. Portland has an abundance of parks; they are everywhere, in almost every neighborhood. There’s a Rose garden park nearby where I like to run or ride.

A final thought: One thing I haven’t seen in 3 weeks is television. I don’t miss it; though that theory may be tested once Project Runway’s new season begins. Instead I have started an even deeper love affair with Hulu.com, getting my fill of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report; and discovering I have a fixation watching a new Lifetime show online called Drop Dead Diva.