walky walky walky

going st. walk
Originally uploaded by dieselboi.

First of all, goodbye Hazel. We'll miss you. Enjoy your new home.
Our walk today was grand. My morning began with some gardening, some general cleanup and scheming about what's next for our garden and backyard. I'm thinking koi pond, pergola, a small petting zoo, hazelnut orchard, secret tunnels, and a small potting shed. When my love asked if I wanted to go grab some lunch, I was all over that like stink on cheeze. We decided to walk on this beautiful March summer day. Yep, 68 deg in March and sunny. We ventured over into w. Overlook and walked over the Going st. pedestrian overpass. w. Overlook is west of Instastate blvd. In reality, it's all overlook, but we live on the "other side of the tracks." Before crossing the pedestrian bridge, we came upon the most amazing park - The Simon Stanich park. Anyone?

Located at the bottom of the pedestrian bridge, this park is commemorates a Portland legend.

Simon Stanich, locally known as Si, was a longtime resident of puddletown - 1920-1996. According to internment.net, he was a PFC in the US Army - possibly in WWII (he would have been 21 when Pearl Harbor occurred.) So, got to ask the question - did Si have any influence on the famous Stanich burger? If you don't know Stanich's, it's a famous (at least to me) Portland eatery that sells a large gutbomb of a burger. I can see it now - Si, as a private in the Army in the pacific - was tasked with cooking for the other GI's. As a lover of hamburgers, yet with limited supplies, he took what he had and ran with it. Bun, chunk of spam, scrambled eggs(from concentrate), some lettuce and shitake mushrooms- it was a hit. No one had ever thought of a sandwich made this way. Upon returning to Portland, he first opened a cart and then a restaurant, both featuring a premier hamburger with 2 patties, an egg, ham, bacon, turkey(optional), lettuce, tomato, onion, cheeze(two kinds) and fries. You can get a defribulator on the side for an extra $5.

As previously stated, our walk took us accross the pedestrian bridge over going street. This is one of those bridges that is covered completely with chain link fence. I know the reason why - you don't want people throwing stuff at trucks and cars. One interesting thing we observed was the locks.

The locks! People - obviously more than one or two - had locked different types of locks to the chainlink. Reminicient of the shoes you see hanging from power lines. They were essentially on the roof of the overpass. Is this some type of mystical ritual? Wicca? NoPo Tibbetan chant? I love discovering new stuff. I think I'm going to get some old locks and then when I want to celebrate or mourn or commemorate or contemplate something - I'm going to lock up a lock. If you want me to lock your lock to the overpass, I'll do that too. email me.

Oh, and Si Stanich's park is about 20'x20'. hmmmmmm.