Preventing the Next Disaster

In an attempt to prevent the next disaster, I built a run off area on the back side of the storm drain. My hope is that if the storm drain gets clogged again, the water will have a place to go, other than under the house. It was a lot of work, but hopefully it will make a difference. I lined the side with large stones to direct the water down the hill and away from the house. Once it gets past the house there is a large patch of ivy that the water can disperse in. The next question is, do I need to fill it with stones or will they just wash away?

The Repair Begins

The worst part of the storm drain overflowing is having to fix the damage. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday digging out the mud and replacing the stones on the stairs that washed away. It was especially bad under the house, where a ton of mud had caked all my tools and everything else I store down there. The worst part is that I hurt my back helping the plumber move out the old water heater, so digging and lifting big buckets of stones was not very comfortable.

I ordered a yard of stones and the only way to get them down to the lower part of the yard, is to carry them down the stairs in old paint buckets. Before you can do that, you have to dig out all the old stones that are saturated in mud. I also decided to dig out a flat floor in the crawl space and put some stones down there. That turned out to be a good decision as it is a lot easier to get down there an access everything now.

Dinner and a Movie - Pal's Shanty and Raw Faith

Pal's Shanty is a classic Portland restaurant. It has been around for a long time but looks like a dump from the outside, and the inside for that matter too. We rolled up at 6 PM on a Friday night and it was already full. We managed to get the last table over on the side "extra" area. We were in a little bit of a hurry, so we didn't read the menu as closely as normal. We jumped on the chowder and a couple of specialties, the steamed clams and the Louie Salad, half shrimp and half crab. We also got a couple of beers. I have to say, the food was great and the service was good too. Unfortunately we ordered way too much food. The steamed clams came in a huge bucket and Barbara was only able to eat half. My salad was also huge and I ate as much as I could, but there was about one third left. We then had a big debate about whether or not to take the clams home or not, can you reheat clams? We decide yes. Next time I am there I am going to try the open faced crab sandwich, it is highly recommended.

The main event of the evening was a movie called Raw Faith. It was directed and edited by my co-worker Peter Wiedensmith. It premiered at the Nashville Film Festival and began a three night run at the Hollywood Theater in Portland tonight. Luckily we had booked tickets in advance as both the Friday and Saturday night shows were sold out. In brief, the film is about a woman who decides to retire as a minister from the Unitarian Church in Portland after 17 years. While she is excited to move on with her life, she is also very lonely. Originally the movie was going to chronicle this major life transition, then life took a wonderful twist and she fell in love for the first time in her life. The name of this movie could not be more descriptive. It is very raw, I can't believe anyone would let a film crew have this much exposure to their lives. And as far as faith goes, I really wish I had found out about this minister before she retired, he sermons sounded amazing.

I am not sure if this movie will get another run, but they are working on a distribution deal, so hopefully more people will have a chance to see it.

Pal's Shanty
4630 Northeast Sandy Boulevard
Portland, OR 97213-2074
(503) 288-9732

Open Weekdays 11am-11pm; Sat 12pm-11pm

New Water Heater

As I posted yesterday, we had a flood in the basement and our water heater was fried. We decided to replace it with a tankless heater this time, so we could get it up off the ground. It is more expensive than a high end tank heater, but it has some advantages. The most important one is that it never runs out of hot water. The water comes in then goes through a heating coil, so you have continuous hot water. It is also much more efficient, as you are not constantly heating water you are not using. Finally, you are not storing any water, so nothing can get in and contaminate the water. According to the plumber they are finding a e-coli in tanks all over Portland. The only con is that it takes a little longer to get hot water to the sinks and shower upstairs.

The first shower I took after it was installed was perfect, plenty of hot water and plenty of pressure, but it still hurts to have to spend all that money.

Disaster Strikes Again

Every fall, Barbara and I are on Storm Drain Watch. All the falling leaves can clog up the storm drain outside our house and water will flow down the hill, washing away all the plants, top soil, stones on the path and eventually clogging a bunch of mud around the water heater. This kills the pilot light and it usually takes a few days before it dries enough to light again, so we have no hot water. We have tried building a run-off drain on the side of the storm drain, but the water is so strong it washed out the sides and still went under the house. We have tried to build a dam to sop the leaves from getting to the drain and that created a huge swimming pool in the front yard, that eventually went down the hill too. This is getting to be a serious problem now that it's happening in the spring as well as the fall. We need to find a permanent solution or get a new house. It is no fun having to go to work to take a shower.

Dixie Mattress Closes

If you have ever driven down SE Belmont in Portland you might have noticed the Dixie Mattress Company at 3326 SE Belmont across the street from the Zupan's grocery store. The reason you would have noticed it is that (a) it's called the Dixie Mattress Co and (b) it had big rebel flags on either end of the sign. It really stood out in this hippie neighborhood and I always wondered how they got away with this openly racist sign, and furthermore who would do business with them?

The second question seemed moot as the place always looked like it was closed and locked up. Turns out, the place was owned by two old sisters that did mattress repair and they literally did not care what people thought of their sign. They were from the South and proud of it.

Well, this point of controversy is now gone and all that remains, for the time being, is the sign on top of the store (pictured). The rebel flags were quickly painted over as the storefront is papered up for rehab. The Dixie Mattress Company is closed for business. While I am glad this raciest sign is gone, it is still weird to see this old part of Portland die.

Red Lobster

Every now and then, usually once a year, we have to satisfy Barbara's need for lobster and crab legs. If you want to eat a lot of both of these, and you don't want to cook them yourself, there is really only one cost effective place to go... Red Lobster. I have to admit that I don't look forward to eating there, but it's never as bad as I remember when you actually get there. They start you off with delicious garlic biscuits, but you have to be careful not to eat too many as the portions are very big. The best app is the crab stuffed mushroom caps. It is laden with cheese and at this point you have probably already eaten the daily recommended calories for a full grown adult.

Now it's lobster time. I went for the Ultimate Feast, which includes a small lobster tail, fried shrimp, shrimp sauteed in garlic butter and snow crab legs. It also comes with a very pedestrian salad and average french fries. I probably should have gone with the baked potato or the grilled vegetables. Barbara got the lobster tail and snow crab legs and was very happy with both. Neither of us had room for desert, but the options looked pretty good.

At the end of the meal, I felt like I didn't really get my money's worth. Red Lobster is pretty expensive and for what we paid, we could have eaten at many better restaurants in town. There was plenty of food, but none of it was very tasty. It was all pretty bland and it was hard to tell the difference between the shrimp, the lobster or the crab. Next time, I think we should try to make our own ultimate feast and see how it turns out.