Oaks Bottom

July 16, 2025

I have a simple agenda for the day, and one that calls for an early start. I'll start with another climb up Skyline, leaving the car by Chapman School and outside the paid parking zone again, starting early to get the climbing in before the day heats up. The ride I have planned is nearly a repeat of the previous one except that I'll ride just a bit further and drop back to the river on McNamee Road instead.

After that I'll stop in for breakfast at either Cathedral Coffee or the Red-e Cafe before biking home and waiting around until it's time for us to leave for Gallo Nero and our dinner date with Jonathan.

I arrive at Ovation just a few minutes past when they open at six. While I'm locking up I look south and see that the waning moon is higher up this morning and congratulate myself for remembering to bring the Canon with me this time. After that I step inside, sit down with my first cup of coffee, and congratulate myself for finally making it out the door with everything I need.

A do-over, my reward for remembering to bring the Canon along.

I'm well into my first cup and break away from blog work to catch up in the news and mail while I eat my pastry (a spinach feta croissant again today) and find that three news items have arrived up in my inbox:

The first is from Kaiser. The results of yesterday's blood test are in, and they're the best I've ever had. If the dragon is still alive down there, he's certainly in a deep slumber.
The second is also from Kaiser, the response to questions Insent to my rheumatologist. His responses: it's fine to plan on cortisone injections in my knees; but it's not fine to take ibuprofen, because it increases the possibility of liver damage - one of the potential side effects of Tyenne's active ingredient, tocilizumab. so now we know, and that anti inflammatory gets shoved back into storage and we'll see what happens. My theory is that my knees will just keep getting better anyway, and the real culprit here has been the prednisone.
And there's an email from Bruce, confirming that he'll see me shortly at Clinton Street Coffeehouse. What?

So I congratulated myself prematurely, and I've gotten it wrong again this morning. I read my calendar wrong somehow and thought I was meeting him tomorrow morning. In fact, on my task list today was to email him a reminder.

So I quickly wrap things up here and head home just long enough to stop in at the loo before biking east to Clinton Street, crossing the Hawthorne Bridge this time. And in doing so I see that this is a much better plan, having my first cup at Ovation, because it's much easier biking east after the sun is higher up in the horizon,

And there's one other thing I forget as I bike west: that I'm leaving the car behind, parked on the street in front of our apartment. It's only through luck that it hasn't been ticketed when I return six hours later and I. Avoid another volley of RockyDarts®.

The glare biking east on the Hawthorne Bridge is much more manageable two hours later into the morning.

Bruce and I have the usual excellent visit, exchanging stories for the next two hours until it's time to get on with the day. My plan is to test out the knees with a walk along the back side of Oaks Bottom, something I haven't considered since my pre-prednisone days.

And the walk is a big success. I take my time because I stop often to look for what I came here for, and until about the last quarter mile I really don't have much trouble walking the two miles I take to get to the opposite end of the pond and back. Very encouraging. I come away with some photos that please me, two new birds for the year, and a decent list considering the time of day - by the time I'm back to the bike it's getting oppressively hot and everyone sensible is sheltered somewhere. Today turns out to be the hottest one of the spell, topping out at 97F; which unfortunately reminds me of something else I forgot - water. The water bottles are back in the car which I had planned to take with me this morning.

So even though it's only six miles and virtually flat the entire way and I'm saved a bit by a cooling headwind, I'm really pretty dehydrated when I finally make it home. Instead of my usual practice of heading to the bathroom immediately when I enter the door (and thanks again for that, prednisone), I head for the fridge and grab a bottle of water. And then I tell Rachael about the car and she heads down to see if we've been ticketed (phew!) and then listen to her describe her day while I down my second bottle.

And she's happy to report that she had an excellent day, walking out to Balch Creek again but taking it slow and keeping it short while she tests out her healing toe. And the good news is that it's doing better, and by day's end she'll put in a relaxed nine miles. She's looking like she's finally on the mend.

In Oaks Bottom, at the start of a two mile OAB to the opposite end.

This is perfect! Once he's repaired from his catastrophic pile-up in Nipton, we'll bring Cortisone Dreams here to the Oregon Rail Heritage Center for his retirement home.

I never mind waiting for the Amtrak because even the long ones are never very long.

Dinner with Jonathan is another excellent visit, and probably an even better one than the first time. He's reassured (I think anyway) to observe that I'm not as mad as a hatter after all, if still quite speedy. We part with plans to get together when we're back in Portland for a couple of weeks in September, one of the aspects of our new needle-bound lifestyle we think we'll really like - we'll be in town often enough to sustain a real relationship.

Black: bicycle; red: walking behind Oaks Bottom

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Today's list: American crow, House sparrow, Rock pigeon, Canada goose, Steller's jay, Great blue heron, Mallard, Lesser goldfinch, American goldfinch, Eurasian collared dove, American robin, Anna's hummingbird, Red-crested sapsucker, Song sparrow, Wood duck, Osprey (16)

Today's ride: 13 miles (21 km)
Total: 156 miles (251 km)

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Bob KoreisTocilizumab. How in Flying spaghetti Monster's name did they come up with that and how many times does one have to read it to say it correctly?
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1 month ago

Scott AndersonTo Bob KoreisIsn't that a mouthful though? I've never even bothered to look up its pronunciation or learn to spell it.
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1 month ago

Karen PoretThat beats our daughter’s dwarfism name..”pseudoachondroplasia”..
In “our terms”, it’s False dwarfism..

Re: Song by S&G.. Did you read the story about Paul singing “Kodachrome” when a member in the audience said he would pay him $20 to do it? ( He DID!)
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1 month ago