Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Zoolights

As of about 11:00 this morning we are the owners of two houses, and are living in a third. Sally called and let me know that the title papers we signed yesterday had been filed, making our ownership of the Wee House official. With that news I flew into action (doing anything other than sitting still seems pretty active to me anymore) and contacted utilities to set up our accounts. Even that detail is significant and represents a change, as Portland only has garbage pick-up every other week, but does have curbside composting. I learned that the previous owner has but a 20 gallon garbage container for two weeks. We thought we were doing well with our 32 gallon once a week in Spokane.

After giving the dogs an outing at the off-leash park I drove to the Parkrose/Sumner Transit Center, bought a day pass for MAX, and rode down to meet Sally at the Lloyd Center. We walked through the mall to Broadway and east to McMenamins on 15th. We had a leisurely beer and light dinner, then walked back to MAX, heading west, on our way to see the Zoolights.

We learned about the Zoolights on Saturday from seeing the traffic backup on highway 26 and getting the scoop from Sal's colleagues at the Holiday gathering. Further investigation yielded information about the 2nd Tuesday discount... Our Zoolight tickets were $4 each, and then discounted a further $1.50 each for taking the MAX. Sweet!

The lines only got unbearably long as we were leaving, the lights were lovely, and MAX got us back to the car by 7:15. It was a fun evening, and a harbinger of our new, hip urbanite lifestyle. By the time we got home the dogs scarcely recognized us.

2 comments:

  1. I love the zoolights! Glad you enjoyed them. Riding the MAX is also my favorite part of being in Portland.

    Re: the garbage, you might be surprised to see how much less garbage you put out once you compost. You can always upsize, but I'd challenge you to see how you can do with the smaller can for now. My parents put out way less garbage once they could compost.

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  2. We have composted veggie matter for years. The meat and food boxes will be a change. Portland also recycles many more items than Spokane. 35 gallons every other week is half what we did in Spokane. We'll see. I have conveyed your challenge to the dogs and cat, but I'm not sure how they'll respond.

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