MeSoFun Blog

If I'd gotten to this car a little sooner, you would see the no-parking sign clearly. Living in a tourist town has its perks. In part because of its swollen population, Portland draws big musical acts in the summer that would skip us in the winter. Greg Allman and Death Cab for Cutie are still on the schedule. (Get your tickets now!) Mumford and Sons did a show for 25,000 fans a few summers ago. But it's time to go. Roll up the sidewalks. We want to grumble about winter again. Well, we don't want to bemoan winter, but the other option is pinching a nerve in our necks from shaking them at the tourists. Take that car ^ up there ^ spotted on my evening walk. It's nowhere near the curb. It's nowhere near being parked legally. The sign pointing at the car says NO PARKING; the sign in front says 15 MINUTE PARKING. *Slow clap* Or take the intersection near my house. It's a little screwy, because a 20-foot section of the road is one-way. There is a big DO NOT ENTER sign...

My "At least I tried and here I am outside of Madison Square Garden" face. God is funny. Sometimes you get exactly what you need, even though you didn't know you needed it. Nor does it come the way you thought you wanted. So it was last week. I was hopped up after seeing U2 with The Wife in Boston .  "I can't explain why, exactly, but I think I need to go to New York to try to see U2," I told her.  "Great! Go!" was TW's response.  Awesome. We have clearance from TW.  Grand Central Terminal Getting to New York from Portland isn't a huge undertaking. You drive 3.5 hours to New Haven, Connecticut, and hop on a train. Five and a half hours later you walk into Grand Central Terminal. The trip is one of solitude. I know all the NPR stations between here and Hartford. When that gets old, you flip on the classic rock. As someone who walks to work (and everywhere else), I put about 2,000 miles on my car last year. Roadtrips are a rarity. It didn...