I made it to Multnomah Quakers today. I finally figured out how to donate using PayPal. Dawn would always write checks from our business account as I recall: Dawn Wicca and Associates (DWA), not publicly traded. Our last meeting of the year. Donations usually go up in December, as we close out our financial year.
Last weekend I visited Bridge City Monthly Meeting in the architecture museum on Grand Avenue, devoted to old Portland. My standing joke is when Quakers sit still, all quiet like that, on the museum's 2nd floor, they turn into a diorama. The way it was. Like a wax museum. Uncanny valley right?
Kitty-corner is what used to be the two-story US Bank building, with CubeSpace likewise on the 2nd floor. CubeSpace was prototypical of WeWork, a place for geeks to set up offices, and for user groups to hold meetups. I attended a lot of meetings there.
I crossed paths with Lew Scholl at the top over Mt. Tabor the other morning. I'd decided to take the summit relatively early (say compared to yesterday), using the stairs from lower to mid reservoir on the west facing slope. I have lots of pictures of those stairs (see above) as my habit is to carry a camera, in addition to the cell phone being a camera.
Lew is like the logistics supervisor for the Meeting in a lot of ways, doing property management. He's an engineer by training. Thanks to his efforts, the Meeting, a nonprofit, enjoys rather state of the art equipment, including when it comes to heating and cooling. The building itself has come a long way since the early days, when I first started going there as a kid.
My friend Dr. DiNucci, long time president of Humanists of Greater Portland, is these days serving in a capacity not unlike Lew's in that he orchestrates these hybrid live action Zoom events that people are into these days. A contingent wants to join from home, whereas the more public in person venue is what others might prefer. The same individual might attend over the internet one Sunday, and in person the next. Quakers have Meeting for Worship by Zoom, although maybe only on set Sundays.
I met Sonya today, one of the Friends I've known for the longest time, since the Urners, Martins and Pinneys would all pool their kids and let us play together. Some of my earliest memories involve the Pinney family. I also recall crashing on their couch briefly, upon returning to Portland that time. Memories fade.
Everyone in that family is beautiful and vivacious. Phil, the dad, was a master gardener, the kind of guy who could keep whole estates going, and his own on the side.
Sonya was catching up about our way of memorializing Carol Urner, my mom, with the Gatherings for Carol (C4Gs). There's one in the planning for Lesotho this year. Carol and Jack were key players in Maseru for some years, part of the social scene.
Apartheid was ending and embassies wanting to make a show of keeping their distance, by camping out in Lesotho, were now moving back to the Republic of South Africa. The population of foreigners was shrinking. On the other hand, a gigantic dam was under construction at the center of the country, which dad took me to have a look at.
My French Connection reminded me that if the Roaring 20s are a topic (School of Tomorrow) then I should be watching Betty Boop cartoons. That's what I've been doing today in fact, to help with fasting. I'm kicking my system back into ketosis for a spell. I don't get grumpy when I do it right. I get inspired.
