Welcome to Chaos !!

Julia is in town for a visit. I took her to Council Crest yesterday. Soon all the beautiful cherry blossoms flowers will be on the ground. It is making me a little sad. The flowers are so very pretty.
"The transience of the blossoms, the exquisite beauty and volatility, has often been associated with mortality and graceful and readily acceptance of destiny and karma; for this reason, cherry blossoms are richly symbolic, and have been utilized often in Japanese art, manga, anime, and film, as well as at musical performances for ambient effect." (Wikipedia).
A cute cherry blossom baby.



A very pink rhododendron.



Today we walked around a bit along NW 23rd Ave. Found a place with yummies.
I got an iced lavender coconut milk tea latte and Julia got a Fruit Loops Smoothie with Boba. I will definitely go back for more. There is a lot of good stuff on the menu here - Tea Social on 23rd Ave in Portland.



Saw this interesting sign. The street sign is interesting as well.....



So several counties, 15 to be exact (including the one I reside in) in Oregon were put in the extreme risk category again as of last Friday. Which means no more indoor dining, no indoor bars and strict capacity limit on other businesses.
Last time this happened we were in the extreme risk category for three months.
I am not sure how long it will last this time. So from what I am reading over 300 hospital beds throughout Oregon are occupied. I am not sure if the hospital beds are occupied by COVID patients or with a mix of COVID and other reasons for hospitalization patients. And a variant of COVID-19 called B.1.1.7 is now the dominant strain here from what I read. This variant is supposedly more contagious than regular COVID. Over 3 million people in Oregon are vaccinated now (the population in Oregon is 4.27 million) but not all of the people vaccinated are fully vaccinated yet. As in, they have not received the second dose yet.
I have not been vaccinated. And as of now I am taking a step back and waiting. I am not saying that I won't get the vaccine ever, I am saying that I won't get the vaccine for now. Perhaps I should have Putin (my Volodya) send me over a dose of Sputnik V?
It is turning serious the who got the vaccine and who hasn't. I sometimes feel borderline interrogated by people asking whether I got the vaccine and when I am planning on getting it. So far my choice of not getting the vaccine has not interfered with any of my activities and yes of course I wear masks where I have to and I make sure to not be gross like cough in my hands or sneeze into my hands etc (things that I learned not to do as a child by the way).
Interesting though that a large number of people are vaccinated in Oregon yet several counties are back in the extreme risk category. I feel that there is a lot we do not know yet about COVID and the different variants. Reading cdc.gov is actually quite interesting, there is plenty to go through on there like Emerging Infectious Diseases and Data & Statistics.

Portland is pink right now. The cherry blossom trees are in bloom and some streets are covered in pink. It is so pretty. I feel bad for walking on the petals.



I went up to Council Crest today where you get a good view of the city and also the sunset and the moonrise, which I was hoping to get a glimpse of. The moon is full tomorrow and this full moon is called the Pink Moon. But I did not see the moon come up, it did of course but behind the clouds.
Look at all these cherry blossom trees......everything is so nice right now. I am in love with nature.

April 22 is officially Earth Day although really.....EVERY day is Earth Day. I spent a few hours downtown Portland this afternoon picking litter with SOLVE, an organization founded in 1969 that gets groups of people together to pick litter. I quickly got into litter picking mode, time flew and before I knew it I had to head back and turn in my litter bag. I picked up lots of cigarette butts, face masks, plastic bags, plastic cups and lids plus other random items. I pick litter on a daily basis but more randomly like picking up stuff I see out of place here and there.....today I spent hours being a litter picking machine and it was fun.



Not everything I picked up was litter. I even made a small profit.



What else have I been doing? Well the weather has been great.....warm and sunny. My favorite flower LILAC is currently on full bloom in my yard, I have a large lilac tree growing there. Lucky me! It smells sooooooo good.





Last week I had tea with a friend......



At a Russian place called KACHKA which means duck, same in Polish but slightly different spelling. Yes, I can speak, read and write in Polish as well. And because of that I understand some Russian. There is a small store there too and they sell rosehip tea which I drank so much of when I was little. Full of vitamin C.







I made nachos the other day, I love salsa. And I got a whole strawberry rhubarb pie.
That is a bit of what I have been doing lately.

Does stuff bother you? I know ignorance is bliss - that is the TRUTH if there are any universal truths....unfortunately I can't just ignore, so stuff does bother me and here is some of it.
Leftover food that gets thrown away. I finish almost all my food. To me it is borderline disrespectful to humanity to throw away food. I feel lucky to be able to eat basically what I want every day but I know that there are people that don't have that luxury so to throw away food is like a transgression. Here is an example of a plate of food that got thrown away.



Potatoes that were picked to end up on that plate, bread that was baked AND an innocent animal that DIED to be discarded. That is how I see it. Had that been my food (I do not eat meat), I would had taken the food home and finished it later. Again....I finish my food and food scraps like banana peels, vegetable and fruit peels etc I put out in nature. You can dig banana peels into the ground or get a compost going. You do not have to waste food, so if you do - please stop.



Making the outside a personal ashtray. WTF is that about? I do not get it. Please discard of gross stinky toxic cigarettes appropriately.



And this....I saw this in a public park the other week. After enjoying the sunshine, sitting in the grass and having some beverages instead of throwing the bottles and plastic cups away people just leave their trash there. Why? I pick other people's trash all the time.
Other stuff that bothers me (that I can think of now).....when people go to the grocery store and don't put away the grocery carts. It is really not that difficult to walk that extra 30 seconds to put away the grocery cart where it belongs. I will give you an excuse if you are old, injured or handicapped but if you are just too lazy then fuck you ok.
Face masks laying around on the ground. They injure animals.
THINK of how you dispose of your trash. Do YOUR part. Please. This Thursday I am picking trash downtown Portland together with SOLVE. Only for four hours but I am looking forward to it. I can't stand littering and I try to do my part in doing what I can to lessen my negative impact on the planet.

Most Sundays (all Sundays of 2021 so far except one if I recall it right) I am spending time with the Pet Pack. Today was a great day! My friend Mario is back in Portland after spending the winter in California. He is fun to talk to and joke around with. I have made all kinds of friends (well more like weekly acquaintance ) during Pet Pack, both four legged and two legged, I look forward to seeing them all on Sundays. Today after I picked up our donations from the kind people at Mud Bay I was heading to Zupan's to get a latte when I saw a man and his dog walk downtown. I noticed that there was maybe a need for dog food judging from what I saw and I pulled over and ran after them and YES my offer of dog food was happily accepted. The very friendly and sweet boy pitbull got a bowl of kibble and some water and a bag of kibble to go. I told them that I was on my way to the Pet Pack location where they could get more dog food and also human food from Potluck In The Park, gave them the address and later on I saw them there which made me happy.
I have to tell you about the stroller too.... A few weeks ago I picked up a free stroller from a storage unit. I found the stroller listed on Craig's List and thought somebody could use it, either to push groceries, belongings or a pet. So I went and got it. Two weeks ago at Pet Pack a man asked if we were giving away the stroller so I gave it to him. I later noticed that he was driving a large newer truck and he put the stroller underneath a tarp in the flat bed. Well.....I would had liked to give the stroller to somebody more in need (when I see a large expensive gas guzzler I think that it must be expensive) and I have been thinking about that stroller since then wishing I would had given it to someone else. Today I saw the man again, getting food from Potluck In The Park with his partner. I approached them and asked nicely if he had a chance to use the stroller yet and he told me it was still under the tarp where he had put it. So I asked if he would be willing to give the stroller back so a person with a greater need than him could use it. That did not sit well with him at first, the got really grumpy but his female partner saw my point and I told them that they could think about it and decide on what to do. About ten minutes later they gave the stroller back and shortly after that a homeless lady with a small chihuahua got it. And she in fact moved her stuff from a metal shopping cart (for personal use not the grocery store kind) she was pushing her things in, into the stroller and gave me the shopping cart, which I in turn gave to someone else. I felt good about how that situation unfolded. Everybody was happy. Helping others makes me happy. I think that is what I am supposed to do. Well....we are all supposed to help each other. ♥️
Check out our supplies! All donated. Feeding cats and dogs. We also have blankets, toys, medication, collars, leashes, harnesses etc.

Hellllllooooo all my friends! It is Easter.....came early this year. I got ready for Pet Pack this morning, went by Mud Bay (a pet store that kindly gives us donations) for a pick up only to discover that the place we keep our supplies at was closed down today due to Easter. I could not do much about it so I went and got a latte and started driving home.
Went for a hike later in the afternoon.....second hike this week.
Ate some asparagus.....pretty!



And speaking of pretty....the cherry blossoms are out. A pink cloud of pretty.



Now I am watching how people in other countries are living. I watched a special on Somalia (Mogadishu in particular) and it is just horrible and horrible again and now I am watching North Korea and it is just sad. The world is a sad place. I feel bad for children and animals.