Friday, January 30, 2015

Expanding Radius


One might expect a veiled allusion to my girth here, as my volume, as in weight, has been a blogged concern.  However, since dropping most milk intake and picking up in Glenn's footsteps on a daily walk, I've shed about thirty and don't worry about my sheer bulk quite as much.

No, I was thinking about how Division is so up and coming and my center of gravity, if we add and average, is dividing more between Oasis and Atlas, both pizza joints, whereas before it was only Oasis.  Today I'm heading to Atlas to use the wifi and get some work done.

These three arterials, Belmont, Hawthorne and Division, run down the "mountain" (big hill, small volcano) Mt. Tabor and define an inner east side some call Asylum District, out of deference to Dr. Hawthorne's subcontracted institution (1862-1883) before Salem got serious and built the one in "one flew over the cuckoo's nest" -- or was that next in the series?

Since then, there's been another one I think.  So is the famous one a McMenamins?

You'll find this is a city of reflections as Asylum District mirrors The Pearl in terms of what franchises and outlets you'll find.  You'll think there's one of something, then cross the river, and find its twin.  Some "chains" are only two stores.  Economies of scale suggest doing things that way.

My co-worker and I have wifi jobs meaning we telecommute for the most part, although sometimes we fly places and have meetings, for days at a time.  That's maybe an unfamiliar pattern to most boomers (I'm a late boomer) but many start ups work this way.  We're not a start up so much as a satellite, a small operation within a larger enterprise.