"Take me down to the Stumptown City where the weather is weird and the girls are witty...."
This was prompted by our (most) recent spate of weird weather, with the high spanning 40 degrees in the course of a few days - taking us from baking sun to spitting rain.
Witty girls, naturally, abound in this climate. Powell's is our gathering place of choice.
image credit: yelp.com
But as much as I love my adopted hometown, there are a few things about Portland (and Oregon in general) that drive me nuts. Most of them seem to have to do with cars, driving, and parking.
First, why does no-one know how to drive in the rain? It rains a lot here! And yet, without fail, the first drops of precipitation bring traffic to a screeching halt as everyone freaks out. And I refuse to blame the California transplants, as Oregonians love to do, because I am such a transplant (granted, from the honorary-Oregon northwest of the state) and I have a lot of experience with driving in the rain, thank you very much.
Second, why do people LOVE to drive in the rain/fog/mist with no headlights? Invariably, in grey/silver/beige cars that blend in with the atmospheric conditions? Are we a state full of ninjas that thrive on invisibility? People love to drive dark here...
Third, why does no-one curb their wheels when they park on inclines? When I even voice this phrase out loud, I get puzzled looks. It's on the driving test in California, yet no-one in Oregon seems to have heard of it. Someone I may happen to live with (but who shall remain nameless) had his car plow into the neighbor's car one night when he forgot to set his emergency brake. Wheel curbing would have prevented that... just sayin' ...
Fourth, why do people love to hate on California immigrants? I suspect that many of the clueless drivers (or clueless whatever-elsers) I encounter are, in fact, Oregonians. Californians are not the devil incarnate, despite what you might think from some comment boards on Oregonian topics (driving, housing, etc). My husband, a native Oregonian, likes to blame Washington drivers for a good chunk of the cluelessness that abounds on the roads here, although he readily admits the contributions of the natives. I suspect this is the universal tendency to want to draw a line between "us" and "them" (with "them" being, obviously, 100% in the wrong) (and yes, I realize most of my post is drawing us-them lines...)
And, oooh, I almost forgot my favorite one! Now, to be fair, this tends to be a general US phenomenon, but it still seems to be particularly prevalent in Oregon. People loooooove to hang out in the left lane on the freeway, rather than using it for its intended purpose (i.e., passing, then getting back over to the right).
And, oooh, I almost forgot my favorite one! Now, to be fair, this tends to be a general US phenomenon, but it still seems to be particularly prevalent in Oregon. People loooooove to hang out in the left lane on the freeway, rather than using it for its intended purpose (i.e., passing, then getting back over to the right).
And now, a few defences:
People like to carp on Portlanders for not knowing how to drive in the snow, but I've gotta give people a pass, here. We only get a few days a year of snow that really amounts to anything, and half the time it's ice, not snow, that is the predominant problem. The city does not maintain enough plows or gravel/salt trucks to keep the streets clear, as it rarely snows enough to need them, so driving in the snow becomes a harrowing experience. I lived several years in Pennsylvania, where I could even ride my bike in the snow, the streets were so well maintained. This is not that situation.
When I first moved here, I thought that traffic was sooooooooooooo slooooooooowwwwwwww..... Granted, I moved here from Phoenix, AZ, where people drive like bats out of hell... But now I'm used to it. It doesn't seem slow anymore, particularly given the preponderance of traffic cameras and hidden police vans. I got my one and only speeding ticket the first year I lived here, for driving 45 on a huge, wide-open 4-lane road, where the speed limit is actually 35 and where (I now know) the traffic van loves to hang out. Live and learn. I've gotten crap, ever since high school, for being a granny driver. Well, now it's paying off!
I do love my adopted hometown, and my adopted state. I could go on and on about all the fabulous things here. But it's more fun (and more human) to do a little complaining. It's good-natured complaining, I hope (at least, it was meant to be). Now, please excuse me while I sip my amazing coffee and contemplate a trip through the aisles of the most wonderful bookstore in the world, while planning a hike either on the beach or in the stunning Columbia River gorge. Isn't that how all of us Oregonians spend our days?
