A nice evening walk home...

DSCN8244.JPG
Originally uploaded by dieselboi.

Ventured over to the Green Dragon to wax poetic about work with some friends on Thursday afternoon and suddenly it was 7pm and I had to head home. Anna offered to come pick me up, but I really wanted to walk. There was something in the air and I knew I had to walk off those few beers somehow. I put in my headphones and turned on a podcast, lit my cigar (an oily bitch) and headed home.

Normally, I get a little annoyed by SE Portland because there isn't a direct North/South route via public transportation. You have to head into downtown to pick something up. Since I was walking, I had some choices to make. Side streets? Main streets? Head back downtown and do the normal route? I ended up walking over to MLK and taking it all the way up to Skidmore. All the way, the sun setting to darkness. What a great opportunity to take some photos.

As I got to MLK off Morrison, I realized the amazingness of the night sky, so I snapped a couple of photos of the gas station there. They didn't turn out too good, but it gave me the idea to document the entire walk with photos of signs and stuff. I then started snapping away. I have one of those point and shoot cameras that I really don't know how to use. With the flash off in low light, it gets a little blurry, so I had to experiment.

Then, I started seeing the interesting stuff that I always see when I walk around Portland. Not sure if others think it is interesting, but damnit, I do!

And my favorite of the night:

In the end, I didn't get home until after 9pm. Not normal, but the whole time, I loved every minute of the walk. Even after getting home, I wasn't tired. The next morning, I got up and headed to work. Other than being the first nice day of the year, I had a different feeling. Something had changed and I have a new outlook. Was it the walk? Was it the sun? I smiled at everything and everyone and they smiled back.

I love Portland!