There was some amusing talk last week about "spring."
Can always tell a newbie.
We've got at least another month of this up and down weather, maybe even into May.
I think Fred Meyer and Costco and all the other chains get a double boost of profits from gardening supplies. Once in April, and then again in June to replace all the plants that froze from the first effort.
**********
An ambitious program for the Parks and Rec.
I'll vote for these, because these things are the very things that will keep Bend alive over the next decade or two. We need to face up to the fact that we're a tourist destination, and we must do everything we can to tidy up the region.
Not that the measure has a snowball's chance.
**********
"Region's Recover is Slower Than After 80's Recession." Bulletin, 3/21/12.
This may be true statistically, but I can tell you as someone who lived through the 80's recession, it felt much, much worse.
Especially from the perspective of a downtown business owner.
I don't think it was just because I was younger, though time seemed longer back then.
It seemed to take forever to come back.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
"We've got at least another month of this up and down weather, maybe even into May."
Make that June. As a gardener you must know that it isn't safe to put tender annuals in the ground here until Memorial Day. And even then you need to be prepared to cover them at night.
"We need to face up to the fact that we're a tourist destination"
To its credit, the Bulletin in its notorious editorial did acknowledge that Bend is a "tourism town." That's all it's been since the mills closed and all it's ever gonna be. And how many tourism towns can you think of with a population of a quarter million or more? Yeah, tourists go to places like New York and San Francisco, but that's not the reason for being for those cities.
The ice rink looks cool, as do the improvements to the Deschutes river paths, but do they really need another study to tell them that dredging Mirror Pond is going to cost several million dollars? And couldn't the safety problems with the Colorado dam be fixed with more bouys and a net to herd floaters out of the river for a lot less than $5 million? There is a fine line between ambitious and dumb. The Parks board is going to have to trim this back to get on the right side of that line....
Newbie my ass! Now you're flamebaiting Duncan.
I've been here over 20 years. Perhaps not as long as a Miller or a McGeary, but I also am basing my experience on the additional experience of my parents who I would guess can compete with you for having lived here longer.
The last three years have been la nina influenced for sure. But that hasn't stopped me from getting up into the mountains as late as November!! Mountains!! Like 7,000 feet and up. Nearly double the elevation of Bend. And no snow! It was just "miserable" I tell ya!
However, I think your idea of a bad winter and mine differ. Bend Oregon has very easy, manageable, and at times, mild winters which cannot be said for giant swathe of this entire country. The lack of major precipitation, temperatures that don't routinely drop below 32 degrees (usually only at night) prove my point of view. Both of which are prerequisites for defining what a "miserable" winter is.
Guess it's all relative. The only better winters than Bend, are probably those places that have no winter at all, like what Bruce wants in Arizona.
Man, if I didn't know any better, I would say your rhetoric mimics those Californian transplants that I hear so much complaint about. Ha!
*such horrible, no good, bad, miserable winters!!* (Fast forward a week, snow is gone, temperatures are in low 50s)... RFLOL!!
Leitmotiv: Why so damn angry and defensive? Are you trying to sell real estate here?
I think it was the Bulletin that had an article about "one last blast" of winter.
Heh.
I like the weather in Bend. I'm just saying that newcomers often make the mistake of believing in early spring.
I had a neighbor once who went out and both azalas to ring his house (where he got them I don't know.)
"I had a neighbor once who went out and both azalas to ring his house (where he got them I don't know.)"
Pretty soon Fred Meyer will have its annual big sale on hanging-basket fuchsias. I don't know where they find anybody idiotic enough to put out fuchsias in Bend in April.
The humidity that Mr. Leitmotiv lives in such dread of can be unpleasant, but there are downsides to the extreme dryness of a place like Bend too. It's harsh on the skin (as my wife is always complaining) and on the sinuses. Wood dries out, cracks and splits. (I have to keep a humidifying device in my guitar to prevent that.) And in the winter especially, you develop so much static electricity that you almost turn into a human Van der Graaf generator.
Bruce, I'm not angry, just passionate. Maybe you're superimposing something onto me? You'll know when I get angry because I toss reason out and supplant it with direct name-calling which rarely happens. I was however disappointed in Duncan's flamebait.
I'd like to point out that I have supplied ample scientific/geographical reasons and included many, many states for comparison. I do understand you don't like Bend winters and I'm okay with that, just not your bashing of it. Seriously if you don't like it, move already and stop complaining.
I also found it a little alarming that you tried to shut down my argument by calling it a false dichotomy, suggesting that any comparison is not worth the discussion. Weather invokes comparison regardless if you like it or not, and I should point out that your original statement of Bend's weather being miserable was a de facto false dichotomy, because "miserable" necessarily means there is "not miserable." That black & white labeling is the large paintbrush strokes I was talking about.
Yep, dryness has it's drawbacks. Drink more water. Wet climates may bring mold, rot, and can warp and deform objects so you can keep anything nice. I'm sure Duncan is all too familiar with toy and card collectors losing mint items to the humidity.
I'm not sure what you mean by "Flamebait."
One of my first posts, six years ago or so, was about how "newbies" buy plants too early in central Oregon. I think I've repeated that every year.
Is that what you're referring to?
Somethings being lost in translation, I think.
I don't think it does any harm to admit to the strange weather around here.
I like Bend and it's weather -- H.Bruce has been chomping on the bit to get out of town for years.
Duncan, I was referring to your statement: "There was some amusing talk last week about 'spring.'
Can always tell a newbie."
I assumed that by spring you meant winter weather in our spring, which was about that "[grab some popcorn]" conversation Bruce and I had last week. If that is so, then your newbie comment is the flamebait. If not, then I misunderstood you.
No baiting was intended, I assure you.
There was an article last week -- I thought it was the Bulletin but maybe it was KTVZ where the basic tone was surprise at the turn in the weather and how spring was here and we wouldn't probably see such bad weather again.
Which if you have lived in Bend for any length of time at all you know is pretty doubtful.
I think what surprises me is that there isn't any adult supervision (perspective) to tell the young reporter that the angle of the story was off.
It's what happens when everyone has lived here for 5 minutes. That's why Bend native like me shake our heads.
"the basic tone was surprise at the turn in the weather and how spring was here and we wouldn't probably see such bad weather again."
They do it every year, Dunc. I think it's part of the propaganda effort.
Shitty weather here is always portrayed by the local media as "abnormal"; good weather is treated as routine.
Post a Comment