Function 4 Junction: Part 1

Junction City is a conurbation a few miles north of Eugene. It was named in the hope that it would be chosen as a major site for trains in the Pacific Northwest to stop for delivering and collecting freight, but lost out to Eugene for reasons I have mentioned previously in this blog.

As a consequence it's a bit of a backwater for most people, somewhere to travel through on the road from Eugene to Corvallis or Newport.

The tracks run straight South towards Eugene...

and straight North towards Albany.

This bit was left over when they finished laying the tracks.

Once a year Junction City hosts the Function 4 Junction Car Show, when owners of "interesting" vehicles for miles round gather together to show their vehicles throughout the day, and have a drive up and down the strip in the evening. The joy for an outsider is that the owners pay to show their vehicles, while the general public (i.e. me) pays nothing - not even to park.

An area was cordoned off around a crossroads just off the main road (Highway 99), and here the show took place. I estimate there were nearly 100 vehicles on show, and more attended the evening cruise. The show is not limited to any specific decade, make, model or anything else, so there was a tremendous cross section of American Vehicular Splendor to be seen.

I'd like to have seen the vehicles organised a little more myself, so that one could walk through the decades and see the development in styles and ideas. Thus in my rough and dirty guide to Function 4 Junction I am organising my photos into groupings that make sense to me.   

1920s and 30s

This car (I don't recall the make, but it's not a Model A Ford) was actually parked a little outside the official show area, but probably the oldest I saw that day. The boxy body, flat windscreen, running boards, and substantial spring-mounted fenders (bumpers)  all mark it out as a late 1920s car.

Five pedals? Yowsers. The functional rather than styled dashboard at least has most of the instruments considered necessary for modern driving.

Another 20s car here has been heavily customised, yet is still clearly showing its pedigree.

A customised pickup rounds out the 20s for me. I found that I prefer seeing a restored car rather than a customised car, though I appreciate the skill and work required for both branches of show cars.

Behind the engine and wheel replacement this custom hotrod shows its pedigree.

This wonderful restoration from 1938 is perhaps my favorite from the show. It retains the running board, but the windscreen has now been split and angled in a nod to aerodynamics. The headlights are still housed separately and the engine accessed from the sides of the vehicle, the nose being almost entirely radiator. This style of car remained throughout WW2, as factories were busy with bombs, tanks and areoplanes, and had no time for redesigning vehicles. Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower would not have looked out of place in the back of this car.

1940s

This customised milk float shows its 1940s roots in the split flat windscreen, flared wheel arches and vestigial running board.

Still with a split flat windscreen, the headlights have now been absorbed into the main bodywork of the car, and the running board remains only as a slight flaring out of the doors and panels.

You cold be forgiven for thinking this is the same vehicle as in the previous picture, but check the radiator grille. At $7,500 for the pink slip I was tempted!

Not sure the bright yellow was a popular 40s color, but the split windscreen and hint of a running board at the bottom of the door confirm this pickup's vintage. The pickup in the USA became the popular vehicle for farmers and is still a popular style.

The station wagon too makes its appearance, though I'm not sure whether the lack of a front fender is original.

This may be late 30s or early 40s, with the running board still functional and the split windscreen. I found the vast unrelieved expanses of paint somewhat dull, but Beth liked the clean lines.

More custom than original I think, but the split windscreen and running board put this in the 30s to 40s era.

Hidden behind the hood (bonnet) the windscreen is still split flat panes, but the running board has vanished entirely. With a different paint job this vehicle could almost be Doc Hudson Hornet from Disney's "Cars"

Next blog post, goodbye 40s, hello 50s !



A Weekend in Newport

Due to a rare bit of benevolent scheduling I recently had a weekend free, so Beth and I decided to treat ourselves to a weekend by the sea. We booked two nights at the Grand Victorian B&B, in the Victoria Suite which covers the whole of the top floor.

The building is not Victorian at all, built only 10 years ago bit in a Victorian style. Thus it has all the modern comforts in terms of heating and hot water, while being decorated with old photographs, paintings and artifacts. It was comfy, and we were well looked after by the owner Terry who cooked us a huge breakfast each day and supplied muffins, cookies and ice cream if we got peckish.

We arrived in bright sunshine, and after unpacking took a stroll along Coast Street through the heart of the Nye Beach district of Newport. The red Mazda 2 in the foreground caught my eye (I drive a Mazda 3), but  you can see the top of our B&B in the distance. On the opposite side of the road is a purpose built row of shops with apartments above - whether rented or owner-occupied we did not ascertain. The population of Newport is only around 10,000, doubling in the busy tourist season. Nye Beach is one of four delinated areas of Newport, three north of the Yaquina Bay Bridge and one to the south.

After buying a new windcheater at one of the stores we strolled down to the beach. There are several parking areas with beach access; this one we visited several times during the weekend. We dropped in at a secondhand book shop where I bought some old detective novels, and an art gallery where I didn't buy a driftwood walking stick.

A lighthouse is visible on the end of the promontary to the North. It can be visited, though we've both seen lighthouses before so didn't bother.

Some carved sculptures are dotted around Nye Beach, adding a nice touch of interest. I'm not quite sure what this one is supposed to represent, but I liked it.

The beach in May is still not a great draw, being chilly and windy. We had a couple of brief strolls on the beach, but just seeing the sea and smelling the ozone was enough. The sun went in soon after we arrived and never reappeared during our stay.

Near our B&B we found a curiously dilapidated block of houses, this one in the worst repair but all of them clearly abandoned and in need of attention. Nearby new houses are being built with sea and beach views, and presumably available for a pretty penny, but these ones, whence you'd need to walk 10 yards to get a sea view, are falling down. Hmmm.

Same block of houses from Coast Street. I asked the B&B owner Terry about these, and he told me that they're on commercial land, and are in the process of being bulldozed and replaced, but like everywhere else the global economic crash has slowed progress. Hopefully something attractive and profitable will fill this block eventually.

After a rest in our room we went for a night time stroll on the beach, and a meal at the Chowder Bowl. We loooked in at a couple of different restaurants before settlign on this, but they were too noisy and crowded for our taste. The Chowder Bowl was half full, the staff welcoming but not stifling, the prices reasonable and the menu sufficient without being overwhelming. We ate here again the next night.

The near-constant wind had carved the packed layers of sand into sculptures and patterns. I liked this oil-on-water effect and have it as my current desktop.

Next day we dropped in on the Saturday Farmers Market. My need for cheeses, bread, jewellery and tie-dye clothing having been fulfilled, I diverted to Sandcastle Toys Toys Toys Toys, A splendid old-fashioned toyshop that we had visited during our Summer 2009 pre-move trip. I bought a few small Playmobil pieces to encourage trade.

On to the Bay area, a distinctive mix of shops, restaurants and tourist attractions on the North side of Yaquina Bay, interspersed with fishing industry infrastructure. Several times during the day we stopped to watch shrimp being dribbled out of a hopper into an open truck, and eventually spilling over onto the tarmac as nobody seemed to be supervising the process.

This picture shows the notches formed by generations of crablines, looking west towards the bridge. The feel of this bay area, and indeed Nye Beach as a whole, reminded me of holidays on the Norfolk Coast.

Lobster pots piled next to the road.

Sealions bask on the docks, and a seal is swimming around, denied access to the dock by the barking sealions. These three gentlemen had a group of admirers all day long.

We didn't bother with the Ocean Life displays, Wax Works or Ripley's Believe it or Not on this trip but did stock up on Taffy. Salt Water taffy is to Newport what sticks of rock are to the English coast, and there are two taffy shops on the Boulevard, both of which we visited. This one has the taffy machine in the window to show that the taffy is made fresh on site.

I bought a pound of taffy in each shop, Beth's haul being much more modest.

In the evening we strolled right to the north end of Coast Street, and noted the sad state of several other buildings in Nye Beach. Many American houses are wood framed, wood panelled and cheaply built, so they presumably fall apart quicker when left empty. The quick and cheap building system used at least means that when an owner can be bothered, repairs are also quick and cheap, with many repairs being somethign the owner could tackle themselves if so inclined.

My small bowl of chowder at the Chowder Bowl. We weren't especially hungry on Saturday evening, so stuck to small helpings.

A last look out from our room's balcony before we headed home. Nye Beach is a curious mixture of neglect and obvious money, with a couple of big hotels dominating the view to the South, fantastic homes with great views on every rise or clifftop, but patches of neglect and disarray tucked away in odd corners. The US tourist industry must be hurting in the current economic climate, and the NW Pacific climate will eat away at buildings quickly if given a toehold.

We chose to live in Eugene so we would be within easy reach of the coast at a reasonable cost in time and money. Newport is slightly further than Florence in straight miles but a much easier drive, and a slightly bigger more vibrant community. They offer different entertainments, and I'm sure we'll revisit both many times over the coming years.

iPod Touch

I recently treated myself to an iPod Touch, which is halfway between an iPhone and a traditional iPod.

"Traditional" iPod may sound weird for something that has only been around for a few years, but by that I mean a device (made by Apple) designed to store audio and video recordings digitally, and allow access thereto and playing thereof.

The iPod touch does everything that iPhone does except it's not a phone, and works on regular wi-fi, not 3G connectivity (3G is the phone network). It has an internet browser, and direct connection to the iTunes store, and especially the Apps store. You can also download books, and while the screen is a lot smaller than a regular book page, there are thousands of free titles, and a free book is still a free book.

Apps. Short for applications, thse are akin to a shortcut on your laptop or desktop computer screen. Everything on the iPod Touch is accessed through an app; playing your stored music, web surfing, playing games, checking the news or weather (really just a special internet connection), using the built-in camera, updating your diary, reading a book, it's all accessed via an app.

All interaction on the iPod Touch is via the touch screen, except adjusting volume, turning it on and off, and returning to the home screen (i.e. desktop) from an app. Thus the apps have to be friendly to one finger control, games are based on touching, tapping, and sliding your finger across the screen, and so on. That makes for some simple games and gameplay, but fun time wasters nonethless. There are hundreds of free apps, and websites telling you which apps are free that once used to be charged for.

Right now Beth and I are playing a free game called Pocket Frogs. You collect frogs of different colors and patterns, cross-breed them to get new combinations, take them to a pond to catch dragonflies, find gifts and potential new mates. It's all very simple in concept but an enormous game in scope, and fun to dip in and out of in short bursts. Your app keeps track of frog growth even when you're not playing, and you can set alerts to tell you when certain events occur.

Games like Pocket Frogs are the main reason I got my iPod Touch, so I can while way a few minutes relaxing during my break periods and quiet times. It won't replace my iPod Classic, which I've used for years and has a lot more storage capacity, but it's fun to play with and helps me become more knowledgeable for my job.

Tie-Dye Funday

Eugene is a city still inhabited by Hippies, so we have the perfect excuse to indulge in some tie-dye t-shirt fun. 
Beth and I bought a couple of tie-dye kits ($15 each) and some white t-shirts ($3 each) at WalMart, and our friend Nicholas came round to join us for a Festival of dyeing. 

Our kits had 3 colors each and enough dye between them to complete twenty t-shirts, but we decided to do three each to start with and see how they went. The kit gives plans on how to do the ties, using rubber bands to create  circles, spirals, splotches, scrunches and other ideas. We rinsed the t-shirts to remove any residue chemicals and shop marks, and tied the damp shirts into various patterns. The damp helps the dye penetrate the fibres.

Nick and I enthusiastically grabbed the bottles of dye almost before Beth had finished mixing them (the bottles contain powdered dye to be mixed in the bottle), and started squirting. 

Beth's more controlled approach allowed her to see our mess-ups, and plan her moves carefully.

Determinedly not following the instructions, Nick took off his rubber bands as soon as he'd finished applying the dyes. You're supposed to wait until the dyes have set more, several hours later. We wrapped our t-shirts in plastic wrap to prevent unintentional cross-dyeing, and placed them in the sun to bake. 

Beth carefully tidied up the plastic sheets we had placed to protect our patio table. Just as well, as there were several dye dribbles.  

 The longer you leave them the better the dye will take. Nick took his home, while Beth and I left ours overnight in the plastic wrap. In the morning I we unwrapped our efforts, rinsed and washed an enormous quantity of unfixed dye out of the t-shirts, and then washed them again with a little detergent and dried them. Here are our efforts. 

My best effort, a simple bull's eye pattern. This was the long sausage-shaped bundle in the earlier pictures.  

Beth's sunburst design. I like the "multiple suns in a blue sky "effect.

Beth's bull's eye had less dye than mine, but has a nice sun's rays effect.

This was my attempt at a scrunch pattern. My mistake was too tie it up with rubber bands, it's supposed to be left loose. For all that, not bad for my first attempt.  

I got a bit too clever with my spiral design, and tried to put three different spirals in. I should have stuck with one or two. I also went too lightly with the dye.

Beth's spiral came out really well, much better than mine. I put the score at 2:1 to Beth, with my bull's eye beating Beth's, but Beth's sunburst beating my scrunch, and her spiral beating mine hands down.

Lots of fun all round, and we have six unique t-shirts that we will never meet anyone else wearing. We've got dye and t-shirts left over, and lots of ideas for other designs. I can see how this could be come addictive.

Other dye colors are available in other kits, and you can mix dyes to make unique colors. You can use any color t-shirt as a base, but white is easiest to show the dye colors as they are originally designed. Be sure to rinse and wash thoroughly several times, and wash separately at first, so as to not have the dyes run into each other or other clothes in the wash.

Betting on my Hedge

 On Sunday morning Beth and I drove to Bloomers Nursery to select something for the garden. A couple of months ago I dug up a lavender bush which frankly neither of us liked, and this left a bit of a bare area in front of our porch. My ideas was a small evergreen hedge, and Beth couldn't come up with anything she liked better so that was the plan. On my previous visit to Bloomers (for the apple tree) I'd spotted a couple of pallets of evergreens that would work, labelled $2.50 each, and a sign saying 50% off. $1.25 for a small evergreen seemed like a bargain, so after a wander round the nursery to examine their stock and enjoy the sunshine we loaded up 16 on a cart and went to pay.

It turned out they'd already taken the 50% off so the plants were $2.50 each. Hmm, to me that's false advertising, but we decided to put 4 back and get 12 for the hedge.

I lined up the plants beforehand to see how the spacing would work. Just as well we only got 12, as 16 would have been too many. I tried digging a hole for the first one with a spade, but soon discovered that a claw tool to loosen the earth followed by a trowel to fetch it out worked better. On my hands and knees, with a foam mat for knee padding, I set to.

 An hour or so and a couple of mugs of tea later, all twelve are planted. I judged the line purely by eye, and I think it came out as good as could be hoped. Even if I'd laid a string line and dug holes at fixed spacings, the variation between the plants would have prevented a 100% uniform line. There's loose topsoil down to about eight inches, beneath which there is clay~ish soil and pebbles. I had to did a little way into the clay each time, but hopefully the topsoil is deep enough for happy plants.

By 3pm the hedge is in full sunlight, which it will get until sunset. I wanted evergreens as they should do better in this, the shadiest area in the garden, barring the north side of the house around the toolshed which is a loose pebble surface with nothing planted anyway. This is a dwarf variety, and should retain a rounded shape for each plant, while not growing too tall. I'm hoping they'll grow together over time, but even like this I think they look good.

Easter Weekend

Lots of little things going on this last couple of weeks:
Last Friday (Good Friday in the UK) we had our new bedroom windows fitted, which required me to be ready to receive the workmen at 8am despite finishing my Thursday's work shift at midnight, though they did not actually appear until near nine. The windows went in within four hours with minimual fuss, and we now have two sash windows with bug screens to allow more air to circulate which will be a boon in hot weather. I had a short evening shift ending at 10:30pm.

On Saturday we had an ant exterminator visit at seven am, as we have had an influx of ants through various parts of the house. I had an afternoon/evening shift at work ending at 11pm, and it was quiet until around 9:30pm, when we had a sudden influx of customers. I had just one colleague keeping me company, so we were pretty rushed just at the time when things are normally quieting down and we start working the day's freight.

Easter Sunday was a chance for a lie in to catch up on sleep, but our cats woke us at 5:30am, hungry after a night's explorations and excitements. Sadly for any egg hunters it had started raining late Saturday night and carried on most of the morning. As I was working again that day (2:30-11:30pm), I totally forgot to eat a chocolate egg or bunny, and they still languish unattended.

On the way to work on Easter Sunday my engine warning light came on...  again. The engine light has first come on the previous Monday, prompting a visit to Oil Can Henry's to see what the problem was. After $160 of servicing, including a change of transmission fluid, the light turned out to be a warning about evaporation from the fuel tank, usually caused by the filler cap not being put on properly by the pump attendant. As you may recall we are not allowed to pump our own gas in Oregon, so I have little control over the filler cap. OCH reset the light and we unscrewed and rescrewed the filler cap, but the light came on again about 50 miles later. Thus I took the car in again on Wednesday, and they reset the light. If it comes on again I'll go to Autozone for their diagnosis.

Also on Wednesday I went to Bloomer's, a Garden Center that had been recommended to us by our neighbor Robert. The Center has a lovely view of the Cascade Mountains, but the peace is ruined by the traffic noise from the I5. It reminds me how lucky (or sensible) we are to live nowhere near any major roads. I bought an apple tree to replace the one we planted last year that expired in the hot June weather when we had a 10 day road trip. This new tree has multiple grafted branches and should grow four different apple varieties.

Robert had previously helped me trim our vines which had grown out of control, and with the space afforded by this trimming I was finally able to remove most of the biggest brambles from the bank, some branches turning out to be over 20 foot long and thicker at their base than my thumb. The cuttings from the vines and brambles are still piled in the garden, being reduced steadily as I feed the clippings into our garden waste bin, and also Robert's which he has lent me.

My laptop started acting up on Saturday but seems OK now. The USB ports failed to recognise my iPod, which can only have been plugged in 50-100 times previously so you can understand its confusion. Happily Beth was able to get it fixed while I was at work, so for now I am able to update my favorite podcasts. Microsoft have also messed about with Internet Explorer and I have had a new version foisted on me on the laptop. They have moved some of the regular buttons from the left to the right of the toolbar, which is like switching the accelerator and brake pedals in a car. Why they felt the need to do this is beyond me, and I wish I could switch back.

Yesterday President Obama released a copy of his long form birth certificate, which ought to finally shut up those people who have been trying to claim he is not legally qualified to be president, such as that sad clown Donald Trump. Of course it didn't, and they just moved onto their next whine, that he didn't get great school grades in 3rd Grade or something. It's all rather sad that the big issues of the day are sidelined for this pantomime.

Tomorrow is Royal Wedding Day, and I can't finish without giving it a mention. BBC America has been running Royal related stuff for a couple of weeks for hours every day, and tomorrow (starting at midnight tonight in fact) there will be many channels showing nothing else. I'll watch some of it (recorded), and would like to have been able to join my family in the UK who are having a viewing party, but time and funds did not allow. The Royal couple seem well suited from everything I've seen, and I wish them every happiness.

One Year in our Sweetwater Home

Today marks the first anniversary of moving into our home in Sweetwater Lane. The weather for our move was better than this year and we have had several wet days, so we were very lucky to have warm dry weather for the move. It really helped, not the least in drying out the carpets after their steam cleaning. Of course we had the garages to pile boxes and other items during the move, so we could have coped with wet weather if necessary.

After our initial rush of purchases for the house and garden we have added very little, the replacement dishwasher and new bedroom windows (yet to be installed) aside. The house is wonderful and rarely a day goes by that we do not remind ourselves how lucky and comfortable we are.

We have kept the house quite sparsely furnished, enjoying the roominess, and our occasional fits of tidying have kept it neat, at least by our standards. Having so much space makes it much easier to clean, tidy and organise than our London home, and having managed this for a year I think we will be able to continue the trend.

Over the next week I'll add some more observations and pictures, but I am in the middle of a six-day week at work, so I'm preserving my energies for that.

Werewolf Attack

Actuually it's just some scratches I suffered while mounting TVs on the wall at work, and they're not as bad as they look, though I do have another crop on the other arm. A metal mounting bars must have had a burr on it, and unnoticed I rubbed my arms across it several times.

It's new TV season, so we've been busy putting the new models on the wall and taking down the discontinued models. It's a two man, sometimes three man job, as the 55" screens weigh up to 35 pounds, and have to be lifted over shoulder height (and not dropped), hooked onto a bar that we can't see and hence sometimes require a spotter, and when it's all fixed and at the right height (which can take two or three tries) connected to the signal and power feed cables.

That last step is what caused me trouble last night, and led to the scratches. The signal cables we use have five separate connections, two for audio and three for the video feed, and these are not always in the same order on the back of the TV as they are on the cable. The cables are color coded, red and white for audio, and red (again), bluey-green and greeny-blue for the video. In good light I have no problem, but 10pm at night under fluorescent strips, with TVs all around you still playing their feed and blaring in your ears, fiddling behind a dusty panel and looking at everything through a mirror is not good light. Whilst hooking up one TV three others lost their feed, and it took a frustrating five minutes, right at the end of my shift,  to figure out that just because the signal box power light was on, it did not mean the signal box was actually receiving power.

The bulk of the work is now complete and we have a finished TV wall, and have stocks of matching TVs to sell, and can get to those TVs quickly and efficiently without performing simultaneous gymnastics and weightlifting at the top of a wobbly ten foot ladder. Hopefully.

A Trip to Cost Plus World Market

It all started with the desire for a decent bacon roll.

I didn't often eat bacon rolls in the UK, but when I did, I wanted a tangy brown sauce to complement the crisp bacon and chewy roll. Unfortunately tangy sauce is not easily found in the US, and after trying various barbeque and steak sauces (mostly liquid sugars with a little coloring), I voiced my desire for some proper HP Sauce to Beth. She immediately got online and found a store in Eugene that carried said HP Sauce.

Cost Plus World Market caters (at a cost) to palates that respond to tastes other than sickly-sweet. You can get Asian, Indian and British foods, as well as many non-edible things. I zoned in on the British aisle, and picked out the HP Sauce ($6 a bottle), adding digestive biscuits, Branston Pickle and some Haywards pickled onions. Again, I'm not a huge consumer of pickled onions or Branston Pickle, but there's nothing quite like these produced or widely available in the US.

Is this the pangs of homesickness? I don't think so, though many ex-pats yearn for various foods or beverages. I haven't really missed any specific tastes or textures much, but it's nice to know I have somewhere I can get a digestive biscuit or a tangy sauce if the inclination is upon me.

Spring has Sprung

In the last week we've seen a decided change in the season, with several dry and sunny days, though occasional rain still keeps the lawns green and plants growing. Flowers sprung up, Daffs, Hyacinth, Narcissi and other unidentified things, and our pear trees and cherry trees have blossom starting. Other cherry trees have been in full blossom in other gardens, but ours is a little late. The frogs have been chorusing, and we've heard a woodpecker in the stand of conifers in the field to the North.

We've taken the patio furniture out from its winter home in the gazebo, and even had a brief barebeque on Sunday. The cats are occasionally using the sun loungers. Weeds are springing up everywhere and being tugged out almost as fast, and we have been preparing the raised beds for peas, pumpkins and other vegetables. Beth had grown two sets of seedlings so far and put them out, though the slugs and snails have had their munches on them.

Our biggest disappointment gardenwise is the apple tree we bought and planted last year. Due to the wrong sort of attention or neglect we managed to kill it stone dead, so we plan to get another fruit tree to replace it soon, probably another apple tree but with mixed varieties grafted on the same trunk. 

Tghe rainy season is definitely easing and before long we'll miss it, as we'll have to do a lot of watering to keep everything green, with a water bill to match. Fortunately the heating bill will be dropping at the same time, so our monthly expenses even themselves out.