Things Start Happening

“If things start happening, don’t worry, don’t stew,
just go right along and you’ll start happening too.”
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!  –Dr. Seuss

It has been said, often by yours truly, that the weather in Portland is fantastic – from July to November.  When Beverly & I first moved here in November of 2008, that first winter was a trial for which we were not prepared.  Snow(-mageddon), six months of cloudy skies and rain, a swamp of a back lawn, short days and long nights; these were the bellwether of winters to come in the Pacific Northwest as we adapted to our adopted home.  So of course, in this last winter that we’ll see for some time, Portland is sunny, and nearly 70 degrees.  The skies are clear, mountains are visible, as if the City of Roses is saying to us, “Why would you ever want to leave?”

This has been a delightful distraction during this week, when time suddenly has sped up, when there seems to not be enough hours in the day to arrange and revise and plan the final few weeks we have.  We’ve pushed back our moving date; now the 25th of March.  We’ve selected an apartment in Singapore and are in the process of closing¹Details are forthcoming, I promise, but it’s just not final final yet. with some back and forth along the date line with Cartus.

I’ve started to pull things out of their places in preparation of shipment.  I’ve considered what to do with the variety of disposables around the house; not just garbage but booze²coming down with us, family!, food, pantry stuffs, and spices.  Everywhere I turn I see another cubby hole of past projects, notes, cards, objects from a previous time; memories and random crap, jumbled like so many loose pieces in the spare drawer³which I have yet to go through, of course.  The air turns thick with emotion, so every so often, I walk outside, sit on the deck and draw in the spring.

I will miss Portland more than I can express with words.  We chose this town nearly at random, only because AlphaCard was moving here.  We knew nothing of Oregon, nothing of Portland, nothing of the shift in latitude, of street food, Timbers history, Blazers history; nothing.  Now we can’t get enough of it, drunk on all things Oregon, looking to breathe in the Northwest that has become our home one last time.

I have no doubt that the good Doctor’s prediction⁴Will you succeed? Yes you will indeed.  98¾% guaranteed! will ring true of our time in Singapore.  But on a day such as this, it’s hard to imagine loving a place any more than I do Portland at this moment.