A Re-found Blogger Friend and "Rush" - Mon., Sept. 30

A number of months ago, I started reading the blog Linda's Lens: Life's Adventures through the Eye of My Camera. I loved her photography and writing style and had her on a reading list. However, when transferring the blogs I read to Feedly, I must have somehow missed transferring hers and haven't read the blog for a while. She commented on one of my blog posts and I wrote asking where in the Portland area was she and did she have time to meet for lunch. She works in downtown Portland as a civil engineer and we were able to meet today for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant.

Linda and Susan at lunch.

We were set to meet in the lobby of the building where she worked. On the way downtown, I stressed about how I would find her. Some of the big buildings downtown have huge lobbies with people coming and going. Luckily, she worked in a building with a small lobby. In fact, I felt a little out of place waiting for her...there was no place to sit and I was loitering with people keeping an eye on me. But as soon as she came out of the elevator, we eyed each other and knew right away we were meeting each other. If we had met earlier in the week, we could have done some walking together, weather permitting.

Lunch ended up being about 35 minutes, but we were able to wolf down our food and manage to talk too. It was a short visit because I parked on the street at a one-hour meter. Portland is notorious for giving parking tickets and I didn't want one! It would have turned my $1.60 meter rate into a ticket for more than $25.

With my belly full of Chicken with Peanut Curry Sauce and jasmine rice. We walked about four blocks together back toward my car in the pouring rain. She headed back to work and when I got to my car, it was blocked in by a city work truck and trailer. They were repairing the street behind my car. My meter time expired and I needed to head home to pick up Mom to go see a movie. I found one of the workers standing beside a dump truck and asked if I could get my car out. He was very nice, said to give him a minute, and came to back up the truck and trailer so I could sneak out of the spot.

Once again, rain poured down in sheets as I drove I-5 south. A couple of times the traffic came to a stop because of big puddles on the freeway. We had to drive through them very slowly because it was a few inches deep. Another time, I was in the fast lane and cars driving northbound were hitting water on their side which came flying over the center divider and hit the cars going southbound. Nasty driving! Again, I couldn't wait to get off the freeway onto side roads.

I picked up Mom and we went to Cinetopia in Beaverton, a living room theater with recliners and foot rests. Comfy. The Groupon I had included tickets for two, and a $9 voucher for the bar. I took the voucher to the bar to find out what I could buy. I was able to buy one 5 oz. glass of wine (I chose Riesling). Mom had one sip and let me drink the rest.

The movie "Rush" was exciting. Formula 1 racing on a big screen makes you feel like you're on the race track.  "Rush" is based on the true story of two racers, James Hunt and Niki Lauda, who were in stiff competition to win the Gran Prix in 1976. We learn about the personalities of Hunt and Lauda as well as their all-consuming competitiveness with each other. During one of the races, Niki Lauda had a problem with his Ferrari at a high rate of speed resulting in a crash and fire which burned him severely. Lauda is deeply effected by his burns and it shows in his racing. We enjoyed the movie, I give it four stars out of five.

Tonight, I made dinner for Mom. We had salmon, steamed acorn squash with butter and cinnamon and some left-over cucumber-tomato salad. After dinner, Mom had me open my birthday present. (Note: My birthday isn't until late November, but we won't see each other then.) She gave me two bottles of pear syrup. We tried samples of it when we did our Fruit Loop Tour. It was so good! We will have it on pumpkin pancakes or over frozen yogurt. Thank you, Mom.

My sister, Jan, is coming over at 8:00 p.m. because she wants to give me a present too. Then I'll have to pack and head for bed. I'm getting up at 3:30 a.m. to get ready for my 7:05 a.m. flight.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be back in Bob's arms in San Antonio. Thank you, honey, for holding down the fort while I was gone. I love you.

Travel Bug out.