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My contractor got his truck towed yesterday. Turns out the vehicle had outstanding parking tickets and it is going to cost him $800 to get it out of impound.

Thing is, he just bought this vehicle used and has never received any parking tickets.

Apparently, the fact that you didn’t own the vehicle at the time of the ticket doesn’t matter. He says some new law is leaving him on the hook.

Has anyone else run into this? It sounds completely insane to me. The cost of compounded tickets could easily surpass the value of many vehicles you see out there. Has our city made it more practical to just park wherever you want and then just sell your junker to get out of paying? WTF?

And how is this fair to an unsuspecting new owner?

It was amazing to see all the PDX celebrations on the tube last night. And as I was watching, I saw something in people’s eyes–maybe it was just renewed hope for the future, but I think there was something more.

Blame it on HDTV, but you couldn’t miss the glint in those eyes. Mark your calendars, folks: there is going to be one hell of baby boom nine months from now. August 5, 2009 is the going to be the birthday of a whole new Yes, I can generation!

My son goes to Third Grade at Chapman school, so it was with great excitement that we went and saw the On the Wing documentary this weekend at Cinema21. While we have seen the spectacle of the Vaux Swifts on many occasions, it was a real pleasure to learn more about the birds and the folks who come to see them in this entertaining film.

The Portland Audubon Society site describes the film this way:

• On The Wing tells the story of Vaux’s swifts that have taken up residence in the chimney of Northwest Portland’s Chapman Elementary School. Since the early 1990’s, the event has become a cult phenomenon in Portland, drawing hundreds and thousands of people nightly to watch the amazing display. On The Wing captures the community, energy and excitement of the entire Swifts phenomenon.

What I found striking about the movie was the way these birds have touched peoples lives. I mean, did you know that the school raised money for an alternate heating system just so they wouldn’t disturb the birds? Only in Portland.

The Vaux Swifts are part of who we are and their story illustrates how we can indeed co-exist with Nature. One of the quotes from the film brings it home;

“New York is a city with a park in it; Portland is a park with a city in it.”

I don’t know about you, but that is something that makes me proud to live here.

Cinema21 has extended the run for On the Wing. After today’s 1:00 pm matinee, you can catch it nightly at 7:00pm starting Friday, October 10, for one week only.

It isn’t often that a friend asks me to plug an event. And my Overheard in PDX site isn’t really the right forum for such things. But I wanted to help her out, so I asked Dieselboi to set me up here and thus begins my first post.

What I’m calling the Meditator Mashup happens at the Doubletree by the Convention Center on October 10-12. It’s a first-time conference that brings together thought leaders from Christian and Buddhist meditation practices. So it’s not a dogma thing, OK? 

The actual conference title “Bearing Witness” sounds to me like a Lifetime movie of the week. So yeah, they need a little help with marketing, but I think what they are doing is really interesting. 

What they are really up to comes home with this tagline: World Peace Begins with Inner Peace. And if that is a little too Love Guru for you, that’s ok. But just imagine if the war-mongering Republitoids out there would quit thumping their Bibles and start chilling out with some verses and moments of silence, then maybe people would stop wanting to blow our collective asses up. Or something.

So please check out the Meditator Mashup site. I’m thinking there’s something there for you no matter what your faith might be. Mine has always been that some guy named JC showed us a way to live and it didn’t involve guns, smart bombs, or cruise missiles. 

Cheers

FlexRex