HinesSight

Photos of Independence, Oregon Fourth of July celebration

On Independence Day 2009, it seemed oh so appropriate to head over to nearby Independence to see how a namesake Oregon small town celebrates the Fourth of July.

I hadn't been to this annual event for a long time. But now that I have a Suzuki Burgman 650 scooter, I look for reasons to go for a drive. Even on a 93 degree day.

My timing wasn't so great, because I got to Main Street just as the parade had ended. Onlookers hadn't left yet, so at least I could pick up a hint of the parade vibe.

The town of Independence has a strong Latino presence. At first I thought this guy was a traditional bicycling ice cream vendor. Then I saw the Hispanic side to the tradition.

The town's amphitheater, in a park next to the Willamette River, is a great place to listen to music on a hot July day.

I didn't know that "lowriders" came in a bicycle version. This guy was cool. Later I saw him with two buddies, who also rode similar cruisin' bikes.

Staking out spots for tonight's fireworks display over the river, I suppose.

This pool by the park entrance, just off Main Street, was popular with the kids. Given how hot it was, I wished I was fifty years younger. Or not wearing so many clothes.

When these boys saw me taking photos, they yelled "take one of us!" I told them, "You've got to do something interesting." They did. My new camera got a nice shot.

I love the bright Independence Day colors. And the appealing all-American tackiness of the booths.

This booth didn't appeal to me, though. Good god! Why would a kid want to listen to a Bible story at a fair? However, they had a decent audience when I walked by.

Kudos to this woman on her Fourth of July color coordinated outfit. Including accessories. She needs to get her guy matching better, though.

Another religious booth. Must be an Independence, Oregon thing. I didn't stop to get my answer. Figured I already knew what it would be.

Great view of the Willamette River.

I didn't realize so many things could be deep-fried until my hungry, but health-conscious, mind studied the menus on the food booths.

Starting at one end of the food area, I walked all the way to the end, and back again -- pondering the chances of not immediately suffering a cholesterol/fat-fueled heart attack if I ate what was being purveyed.

Ended up with a tasty strawberry shortcake. Which featured Oregon strawberries, the best in the world.

Looking safe and stylish on my Burgman 650 scooter

Three weeks after my first three days on my Suzuki Burgman 650 maxi-scooter, I've still got plenty of smiles on my two-wheeled motoring face.

With plenty of warm and dry weather here in western Oregon (pretty typical for June-September), I've been riding as often as possible. A big part of my scootering enjoyment, aside from the hugely lovable Burgman, has been my choice of riding gear.

I want to be safe on my scooter. I also want to be comfortable. And, naturally, stylish. I feel like I'm batting three for three with the gear I bought prior to picking up the Burgman.

This was a personal decision -- every motorcyclist/scooterer has a unique vibe they want to present to the world, and themselves -- but maybe my choices will be of interest to those facing a similar gear selection decision.

Here I am in my riding glory, prepared to hop on my 2009 Burgman 650 Executive, which now has close to 300 miles on it.

From head to toe, I'm outfited in...

(1) Arai Corsair-V full face helmet. These are absurdly expensive. But I got $200 in gear purchase credit when I bought the scooter, and a 10% discount on Cycle Country purchases because I also bought a maintenance contract (Burgman service reportedly is spendy).

And it turned out that this was by far the most comfortable helmet I tried on. I'd ordered a Shoei flip-face helmet. However, after wearing it around the house for just ten minutes, my forehead had a red-spotted pressure point.

I took the Shoei back, and tried on a bunch of other helmets. Didn't feel good in any of them. Then the sales guy reached up to a top shelf, took down a helmet, and said, "Here, try this." I did.

And replied, "Wow, this feels great. First helmet that had even pressure all around my head." (My powerful brain apparently presses out my forehead, because most helmets constricted me front to back.)

Then I asked the price. And said even louder, "Wow!"

The salesman told me, "That's why I show people the Arai last." Meaning, when you can't find a helmet that fits, and the Arai does, you're more willing to fork out the big bucks.

Anyway, I've been happy with the Corsair-V. Great vision, lightweight, nice ventilation, never too hot or too cool, doesn't fog up. It's a Japanese technological marvel, like my scooter.

(3) Olympia Moto Sports GT Air All Seasons Transition jacket and Airglide 2 Over Pant. I did a lot of online jacket research before picking this one. No regrets.

When I took my Team Oregon motorcycle safety training class last month, at the first session the instructor picked up a snazzy looking jacket and said, "This is what I wear."

Cool, I thought -- the exact Olympia Moto Sports gear that I'd recently purchased. Even the same neon yellow/pewter color scheme. I like the looks of both the jacket and pants, plus how they feel. Good armor protection that isn't too obtrusive.

When I picked up my scooter, the temperature was in the low 60s. Today, I was riding in the low 90s. The jacket and pants are comfortable in pretty much every condition, what with the venting possibilities and the insulated waterproof liners that can be zipped in (I've removed them for summer, obviously).

(4) Icon Pursuit gloves. I like the curved shape to the gloves, and the knuckle protection. They're soft and comfortable. Probably I'll need cool weather gloves eventually, but for now these Icons are fine.

(5) Klim Transition boots. Cycle Country had just started carrying these Goretex boots, which look like hiking shoes (and might well be). They aren't the traditional black leather boots, and I'm glad about that. I'm willing to trade some ankle protection for a scooterish vibe.

Plus, the yellow laces and highlights on the boots match my jacket's neon yellow almost perfectly. Sweet. The Harley guys in their black leather who sit outside of Starbucks won't think much of my boot and other gear choices, of course. As if I care.

One of the great things about the Burgman 650 is that it has a large storage compartment under the seat. I can put my riding pants, jacket, gloves, and helmet in there, with a bit of room to spare.

Frequently, though, I'll leave on the over pants if I'm going into a coffee house, to my Tai Chi class, into a store, or such. The pants look good, and speak this is a biker dude to those in the riding gear know.

However, sometimes I take the pants off when I park the scooter-- hoping that I've remembered to leave my shorts on before I left the house. The Airglide 2 pants have velcro fasteners at the bottom plus a zipper that runs most of the way up the leg.

I can either step out of the pants while leaving my boots on, or take the boots off and remove the pants without fussing with the velcro and zippers.

Either way, once all my riding gear is off and stored under the seat, I'm looking stylishly dressed (by casual Oregon standards), and can comfortably head anywhere.

Recently I went to a waterfront festival dressed like this, except I brought along some sandals in the back pack that I almost always carry on a scooter ride (usually under the seat, taking it with me when I stop).

I took off the boots, put on the sandals, and carried the boots with me in the back pack -- since they wouldn't fit under the seat along with all the other gear.

System worked fine. Much better than having to lock a helmet and jacket to a motorcycle, or carry your gear with you -- as I see some motorcyclists doing.

Obama, save us from BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon

The debate over how to fix our country's broken health care system can get pretty darn abstract and complex. But last night my wife and I had a hands-on experience of what's wrong with private medical insurance.

And it made us ever so eager to escape from the clutches of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, which is our increasingly costly insurance provider.

After Regence's 40% premium increase on our individual plan over the past two years, we decided to look for a way to get more health care bang for our bucks.

Laurel has a friend, Christy, who is an insurance agent. She said we should look into changing from Blue Selections Plus to Blue Selections Premier, and consider altering our deductible.

First, though, it was necessary to make a big pot of coffee, pray to the health insurance gods, and hope that a mixture of caffeine and supernatural guidance would enable us to decipher the differences between Plus and Premier.

Remember: we were exploring private sector options, not the Obama "socialized medicine" that right-wingers are claiming will ruin the world's best health care system.

Well, after a few hours of trying to navigate Regence's private sector maze, we were damn ready to embrace anything other than the insurance we have now -- if that turns out to be a public plan such as the one members of Congress have, great.

If someone wants to call it socialized medicine, go right ahead. It can't be worse than the horribly confusing and unfair health insurance system we have now.

I worked for ten years in health services research and planning. Laurel was a psychotherapist in private practice for about the same length of time. We know a lot about health insurance.

And we both were scratching our heads last night, trying to weigh the pros and cons of deductibles, copays, annual limits on coverage for certain services, annual coinsurance maximums, plus other arcane (yet important) factors that must confuse most other people even more than they did us.

I kept thinking...

"Come on! Why can't this country simply have an insurance plan that meets the needs of almost everybody? Like how the postal service operates. It does a fine job delivering our mail. And it's a government program. If I want extra service, I can head to Federal Express. But by and large the USPS provides a great product -- for everybody."

After phoning Christy and getting some advice on the best deductible for us, we decided that it made sense to switch to the Premier $2,500 deductible plan, from our current Plus $1,000 deductible.

OK. Optimistic me actually thought that maybe I could just call Regence, talk to someone, and have our contract easily changed from Plus to Premier.

Yeah, right.

As if anything is easy with health insurance these days. Which reminds me: the Regence web site, for some utterly understandable reason, doesn't include "plethora of inefficient private plans" among its reasons for rising health care costs.

A 2005 Science Daily story says:

Billing and insurance paperwork consume at least one out of every five dollars of private insurance health spending in California, according to a new study by health policy researchers.

I can believe it, given how much time we spent last night filling out an application for a Premier contract. Because even though we've been Regence customers for many years, I was told that switching to a different plan entailed applying for coverage just as someone new would have to.

I didn't think the online form would be fun to complete. However, I had no idea that it would be as time-consuming and frustrating as it was.

Whoever designed this monstrosity of a questionnaire probably never filled it out himself or herself. If he or she had, the ridiculousness of asking the same question over and over in different ways would have been obvious.

Yes, one of us had moderately high cholesterol at one point (me). I dutifully check that health problem as I move down a lengthy list of diagnoses, symptoms, and such we've experienced the past five years that Regence wants to know about.

Then the form demands more details. I explain that I was prescribed a low dose statin and my cholesterol is much lower now. Regence wants to know the name, address, and phone number of the doctor who wrote the prescription. I provide it.

Later, after Laurel and I have been working on completing the application for 90 minutes or so, page 967 (roughly speaking) of the form asks for a list of prescription drugs we're currently taking.

"We already told about those in the problem areas," Laurel said. No matter. The online application must be obeyed. We spend more time re-typing in the same info we'd already provided. Now I understand how staff in doctor's offices and hospital billing must feel:

Wanting to strangle the private health insurance bureaucrats who come between patients and their health care providers.

I can't understand how the conservative blowhards I hear on talk radio/TV manage to say, "Americans don't want the government interfering with their current health insurance coverage."

Yes we do!  Please, please, government! Step in and interfere! 

Just save me from ever having to fill out another private health insurance contract application like the one we worked on last night. It was insane, because the clear purpose behind most of the questions was to learn whether we -- gasp! -- might have some health problems.

Gosh, Regence, you got us.

You're right. Laurel and I want health insurance because we're not always healthy. I know that you and other health insurance providers would prefer that your customers never got any medical care, because then you'd make more money.

And there are plenty of horror stories about people being denied coverage by private insurers because they failed to dot some "i" or cross some "t" on a form. So we did our best to be as complete and accurate as possible in filling out the damnably long and complex Premier contract application.

Throughout the process, though, I was struck by how absurd the whole notion was of grilling us about the health problems we have so some Regence employee can decide whether we have too great a need for health insurance.

Then Regence could deny an application for health insurance, because the applicants need health care. Um, don't people need a way of paying for health care because they have health problems?

There's something desperately screwed-up with American medical care. That came home to us last night, even though we already knew it.

Expecting private health insurance plans to be the centerpiece of reforms, given that they are a huge part of the problem, isn't reasonable. This country needs a public option. Bad!

For all their paeans to the power of private enterprise, we know that private insurers simply can't compete with the government, because they offer an inferior service at higher prices. We know this because of the example of Medicare, which operates more efficiently than private insurance (Medicare spends only around 2 percent of its costs on overhead, a fraction of what private plans do) and gets higher satisfaction ratings.

Oh, I can believe it. After suffering through the Regence Premier application form last night, I can sure believe it.

My new Sony DSC-HX1 captures Salem World Beat Festival

 A great weekend: I've fallen in love with my first high-end point and shoot digital camera, a Sony DSC-HX1 that I got last Friday (a three-month early birthday present from me to me, figuring that if I waited to give myself this gift, I'd miss a lot of summer photo opportunities).

And I got to try out the camera at Salem's 2009 World Beat Festival, where I always have a good time.

I went yesterday with Laurel, and returned today by myself -- wanting to apply some photo lessons that I'd learned my first time out and soak up more of the multi-cultural vibe.

I'll tell you what I like about the DSC-HX1, which has gotten quite a few laudatory Amazon reviews, in the course of showing some of the photos I snapped at the festival and Riverfront Park.

Yesterday I got some blurry shots of the Salem Carousel using the camera's Intelligent Auto Adjustment feature (point and shoot mode). Guess it's not intelligent enough to know that something is in motion.

Today I used the "S" mode (Shutter Speed Priority Shooting) to get a faster shutter speed and sharper photo.

Pretty cool -- you can set the shutter speed and aperture manually, either singly or together. Mostly I found that the point and shoot setting worked fine, but it's nice to be able to play around with some manual settings.

Some dancers, using a mild zoom.

The camera has a 20x optical zoom, which was one of the key features I wanted in a new camera. My old Olympus Stylus just had a 3x zoom. More examples of the marvelous 20x zoom later (which can extend to 34x and more, if you shoot at a 4x6 or 5x7 resolution quality, or less).

I lucked out today, getting to the main stage while a Taiko group was still playing. So much energy, so much power. I felt it even through the camera's viewfinder as I played around with various settings.

I sat close to the stage. Still, without the powerful zoom I wouldn't have been able to capture the shots that I did.

Quite a few acrobatic and athletic moves in Taiko.

I got chills up my spine from the emotion of the drumming. The rhythms are addictive. I wanted more, as soon as the group stopped.

Then I headed to a demonstration of Indian dancing. Beautiful colors on the beautiful women.

Again, my new camera's zoom came in handy. I couldn't get super close to the stage, but with a 20x telephoto, that doesn't matter (the DSC-HX1 has image stabilization that works great on high power zooms with shaky hands).

No way am I getting this shot with my dinky 3x Olympus zoom, unless I clamber up on stage and shove a camera in this woman's face. With the Sony, no problem.

Even closer.

I loved the shapes of the dancers -- meaning, how they used their female contours to form such interesting vignettes.

Nice colors. And mood.

Speaking of colors, wow!

This guy was another kind of Indian. He had a large crowd around him. The Sony has a swiveling view finder, so I could turn it almost upside down, raise the camera over my head a bit , and get an unobstructed shot while still using the view finder.

Returning to the main stage area, Darryl Thomas (who I believe is a dance instructor at Western Oregon University) had gotten the audience to do some hip-hop steps in unison (more or less). I demurred, being more interested in getting additional Sony shots.

Here's some first-day World Beat Festival photos. This guy was standing in deep shadow under an awning. I figured the point and shoot setting wouldn't handle that very well. Actually, it did fine.

A girl grooving to some bluegrass music.

This sort of situation is where the tilting view finder comes in handy. I don't like to look obtrusive when I'm taking a photo of regular (meaning non-performing) people. With the tilting view finder, I could sit on the grass, put the camera on my lap, and glance down to take a photo in a casual fashion.

Here's my best "maxi-zoom is great" example. Standing on the riverfront, this is how a boat appeared without any zoom.

And this is how it looked at the camera's maximum zoom, with the image stabilization at work. Taking the shot hand held, I could see the image trembling at the high zoom (probably about 34x). But the photo turned out pretty darn sharp.

Lastly, here's an example of the panorama feature, taken on our deck.

I selected the panorama mode, held down the shutter release, and panned the camera from left to right. Somehow the Sony stiched everything together nicely (have no idea how I'd print this out, though).

Horse riding lessons and the meaning of life

Is it possible to get in touch with life's meaning, or the lack thereof, while getting some riding instruction in an outdoor arena? Absolutely.

I've been re-reading Albert Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus." Here's some existential pondering that applies to a couple of hours of horse riding lessons Laurel and I experienced a few days ago.

I must say that what counts is not the best living but the most living. It is not up to me to wonder if this is vulgar or revolting, elegant or deplorable. Once and for all, value judgments are discarded here in favor of factual judgments. I have merely to draw the conclusions from what I can see and to risk nothing that is hypothetical.

...A subclerk in the post office is the equal of a conqueror if consciousness is common to them. All experiences are indifferent in this regard. There are some that do either a service or a disservice to man. They do him a service if he is conscious.

Well, heck, actually those quotes apply to everything. But as Camus implies, some experiences lead us to be more conscious of existence. Such as...getting on a horse and trying to make it do what you intend.

Laurel has done a lot more riding that I have. She's had both English and Western lessons. I've had a few Western lessons, and done considerable trail riding. Not much in an arena, though.

So I didn't know what to expect when we headed off to the Emerald Ranch outside of Sisters (in central Oregon) and joined up with Jessica for some instruction in horse handling. It turned out that my scootering/motorcycling and Tai Chi experience fit right in with Jessica's main message.

Which was: feel what's going on. Stay balanced and centered on the horse (Laurel had to break some forward-leaning English habits). Use your whole body to control movement, not just your arms.

For example, on the first day Jessica had us focus on getting our horse going by raising our hips up and forward, lightening our seat. To stop or slow down, she had us settling back onto the saddle, loosening up "like spaghetti."

After a while, and once in a while, I could get a glimpse of what Jessica was leading us towards -- controlling the horse more with whole-bodied intention and less with pulling on the reins or nudging with our legs/feet (which had been my emphasis before).

She kept reminding us to be conscious of what we were feeling. How is the horse moving? When the horse steps in this fashion, what happens to our hips? How are we connected with the horse, and the horse connected with us?

I realized early on that there is a whole lot more to riding a horse than I thought. Jessica saw things, and could do things, that I'd been completely clueless about.

On the second day she had us pulling the reins in a certain way, the goal being to get our horse's head down and the rear settled, producing an arched posture that would make riding more comfortable and satisfying for both horse and rider.

All new to me and Laurel. Once in a while I'd manage to get Danny, my horse, into a semi-correct position and Jessica would yell, "Yes, yes, yes! That's it! Great, Brian!"

Then the moment would pass.

Danny and I would be back to our not-so-great walking, trotting, and cantering around the arena. But what I enjoyed throughout the lessons was the feeling of being present in the moment of whatever I was doing.

Nothing like driving a car.

No daydreaming. No listening to the radio. No going on automatic pilot. Laurel and I had to remain aware of a lot of nuances -- what our horse was doing, what we were doing, where we were in the arena, what Jessica was telling us to do.

So often, there's a screen between me and reality. Not so much physical (though that's what TV produces), but psychological.

I'm thinking about what I'm doing rather than simply doing it. My attention is divided between activities past, present, and future rather than zeroed in on what's happening right now.

For our final exercise, Jessica set up three barrels in the arena. "We're going to do some barrel racing," she told us. Well, not exactly racing, because we weren't competing with anyone but ourselves.

Still, it was cool. Growing up in California, I'd watched a lot of barrel racing at the annual Three Rivers rodeo. Those girls could fly on their horses.

Laurel and I didn't exactly fly.

But after a few practice runs we got some pretty good turns in around the first two barrels, and a satisfying quick canter back to what I imagined was the finish line -- where, in my own mind at least, I won the World Championship Barrel Racing trophy on Danny.

As Camus says, every experience contains all of existence within it. Riding a horse, doing the dishes, whatever. We just need to be aware.

Thinking is not unifying or making the appearance familiar under the guise of a great principle. Thinking is learning all over again how to see, directing one's consciousness, making of every image a privileged place.

In other words, phenomenology declines to explain the world, it wants to be merely a description of actual experience. It confirms absurd thought in its initial assertion that there is no truth, but merely truths.

From the evening breeze to this hand on my shoulder, everything has its truth. Consciousness illuminates it by paying attention to it.

Getting the facts straight on saving the Metolius

I'm thrilled that the state legislature has passed HB 3298, which will stop destination resorts from ruining the mostly unspoiled Metolius River basin in central Oregon -- which my wife and I visit regularly.

But it's disturbing that misinformation about the basin being designated an Area of Critical State Concern keeps being thrown out by the Portland Oregonian, Bend Bulletin, and other news sources (both in editorials and supposedly unbiased stories).

So I want to get some facts straight.

(1) HB 3298 isn't a end run around the state's land use system. Instead, it makes use of the Area of Critical State Concern designation process that has been part of Oregon law since 1973, when the legislation that enacted statewide land use planning (SB 100) was enacted.

The Oregon legislature first authorized the designation of an Area of Critical State Concern (ACSC) as part of the legislation creating the statewide land use program (Senate Bill 100) in 1973.
 
At that time, several areas were identified as possibly warranting state protection in the face of uncontrolled development, including the Columbia River Gorge, areas of the Oregon Coast, and portions of the Metolius basin. Several of these areas were later protected through federal action, or through special state land use goals.
 
While the Metolius area was not immediately protected, Jefferson County did plan most of the basin as forest lands – limiting further development to forest-related uses.

(2) The "Jefferson County approvals" that are being overturned are the work of only three people. A recent editorial in the Oregonian makes it sound as if the citizens of Jefferson County were behind the push to rezone forest lands so destination resorts could grow there instead of trees.

Actually, the rezoning was initiated by three county commissioners. Repeat, three.

That's all it takes to change long-standing land use policies on private land in the Metolius basin: three people (actually, just two, since they constitute a majority on the board of commissioners).

Yes, public hearings were held on the proposed rezoning. But the commissioners don't have to follow what the public wants, only hear what citizens have to say.

So even though residents of the Metolius basin spoke overwhelmingly against the destination resorts when a hearing was held in Camp Sherman, that didn't matter to the three commissioners. They approved the rezoning anyway, against the wishes of locals.

(3) Those seeking to build the destination resorts haven't gotten final land use approvals. Reporting and editorials on this issue often make it sound like the resort developers were all ready to start construction before the nasty legislature put a road block in their way with HB 3298.

Not true.

No rezoning has occurred, because an appeal of the Jefferson County action is still before the state Supreme Court (see Carla Axtman's excellent summary of the destination resort timeline here).

Now, there's a close connection between the legal notion of "vesting" and the attempt to paint Metolian developers Shane Lundgren and Jim Kean as unfairly treated by HB 3298. (Vesting refers to when construction is far enough along to be "grandfathered in" when a land use law is passed that would prohibit the development.)

This year the Oregon Court of Appeals issued a ruling in the Cyrus case. Here's an excerpt from a concurring opinion in the ruling by Judge Sercombe.

I am not aware of any Oregon cases in which a property owner has acquired "vested rights" where construction was undertaken and partially completed while the right to begin construction was itself at issue in pending litigation. 

Meaning, if a property owner moves ahead while appeals of the decision that approved the development are being considered, that's "bad faith" -- because it reflects a disregard of our legal system. More from Judge Sercombe:

The general common-law rule is that "[a] landowner lacks the requisite good faith when he proceeds with construction before an appeal period has expired."

In the case of the destination resorts, no on-the-ground construction has occurred. However, editorials have said that Kean spent big money (millions, if I recall correctly) on his plans, believing that he had a go-ahead for development.

If this is true, he's a poor businessman, because Kean and Lundgren don't have any final land use approval yet. And it is bad form (plus bad faith, legally) to press ahead with development when appeals haven't been exhausted.

Well, this doesn't get me to the bottom of the barrel of inaccuracies that have been spewed about the Metolius-saving legislation. But at least I've corrected some of the most egregious untruths that have been spread about.

I'll end with a You Tube video that I took today as I walked with my wife (Laurel) and dog (Serena) on a hike along the Metolius River -- downstream from the Camp Sherman store.

As I stroll along I talk about how great it is that the Metolius has been protected from the destination resorts, and mention reasons why HB 3298 needed to pass.

The best part of the video, of course, is the Metolius -- one of the nation's most beautiful rivers.

Vegetarian advice for the Black Butte Ranch Lodge restaurant

[Update: I've gotten a quick, and much appreciated, email response from the President/CEO of Black Butte Ranch, Scott Huntsman. Great name for a guy who runs an outdoorsy outfit, by the way. I shared Scott's vegetarian-friendly message in the comments to the post. It's great to hear about plans to put some veggie options on the dinner menu. It'll be even greater to eat them.]

Long-time vegetarian that I am (forty of my sixty years), I clearly recognize the danger signs of ordering in a upper-scale restaurant that, for some inexplicable reason, has precisely zero dinner entrées that haven't walked or swum before appearing on a patron's plate.

This, sadly, describes the menu at central Oregon's Black Butte Ranch restaurant, a.k.a. The Lodge Restaurant.
Download Black Butte Lodge dinner menu

My wife and I eat there regularly, since we are part owners of a forest service cabin in nearby Camp Sherman and visit the area monthly when the weather is nice (meaning, we skip late fall and winter).

Most recently -- yesterday -- our waitress (should I say "server" to be politically correct? nah) got a deer in the headlights look when she walked over to our table and I told her, "We're vegetarian and your menu isn't. But don't worry, we'll work something out with the chef, like we always do."

In 2006 I blogged about the same lack of vegetarian respect in "Black Butte Ranch Restaurant: We love you, but..." The love and the but were summarized in my first two paragraphs:

Sometimes tough love is needed. Straight talk. Telling it like it is. Black Butte Ranch Restaurant, my friend, you’ve got to get your serving-time act together. Plus, what you serve has got to include a decent vegetarian entrée.

Two “got to’s.” Not much to ask. You can handle it. Then we’ll keep coming back. We love looking out your floor to ceiling windows at snow-capped mountains, a meadow, grazing horses, geese on the pond. The atmosphere can’t be beat.

All still true: the view is wonderful; the vegetarian fare is sorely lacking. Come on, I realize that the Black Butte Ranch destination resort wants to convey a Western cowboy vibe.

But these days even cowboys (some of them at least) want a different dinner choice than "Grilled Cowboy Ribeye," "Herb Crusted Loin of Elk," "Smoked Pork Tenderloin," "Roasted Rack of Lamb," "Prime Rib of Beef," and the other choices that we skimmed over quickly before realizing that the menu looked to be as vegetarian-dismal as it was last time we ate there.

In the good old Black Butte Ranch restaurant days, circa 2003, I extolled the virtues of the Garden Plate:

Fresh off my palate, I can accurately describe the marvelous Garden Plate: soft tofu with a crisply breaded covering, nicely fried; a grilled portabello mushroom; asparagus; sweet tomato relish; yellow squash; zucchini—all immersed in a subtle sauce, accompanied by a just-right dipping sauce. As full as I am, it makes my mouth water to remember our meal of an hour ago.

The Garden Plate chef must be long gone. Because when the words "We're vegetarians" were uttered now in The Lodge Restaurant, the waitress responded with a blank stare.

Now, we have eaten in some pretty nice restaurants, a few of which have lacked a vegetarian entrée. Almost invariably the server tells us, "No problem. I'll ask the chef to make you something special."

Which, he or she usually does. Creatively. Deliciously.

In the West, as of 2000, about 4% of people are strict vegetarians. Not a lot. But not nothing. Does a restaurant want to eliminate 4% of the population from its potential clientele?

(In Oregon I bet the percentage of vegetarians is higher; it surely is in southern California, where my daughter lives, and where we've never gone out to eat without encountering a wonderful healthy veggie dish on the menu.)

I find it difficult to believe that The Lodge Restaurant never gets a request for a vegetarian dinner entrée. The servers and kitchen should be prepared to reply with the "No problem" that we've gotten at other high quality restaurants.

However, after we told the waitress that we didn't want to go the pasta and vegetables route that left us underwhelmed before, she left us to puzzle out our own dinner order by teasing out options from the side dishes on the menu.

We ended up with some polenta, plain white rice, and grilled vegetables. Not bad, but definitely nowhere near great. I also got a baked potato and a salad. Whoopee.

On the positive side, we were charged $25 for our two "entrées" -- definitely the cheapest thing on the menu, if what we got had been on the menu.

I'll email a link to this blog post to the Black Butte Ranch manager, just as I've done with previous please, please, please entreaties to have at least one vegetarian option available at the restaurant.

I've never gotten a reply. Maybe this time will be different.

Mr. or Ms. Manager, as noted above our criticisms flow from love...of your entire destination resort, and of The Lodge Restaurant in particular.

We always enjoy visiting Black Butte Ranch. Along with other vegetarians, we'd just enjoy the resort more if you had a meatless entrée at the restaurant (how about bringing back the Garden Plate?).

After all, this is a destination resort.

It's seven miles to Camp Sherman, which has one restaurant (Kokanee Cafe) that also lacks a vegetarian dinner option. It's ten miles to Sisters, which has quite a few eating choices, but Black Butte Ranch is supposed to be a destination, not a place vegetarians have to flee from to eat dinner.

Have I convinced you to become more vegetarian friendly in The Lodge Restaurant, Mr. or Ms. Manager? I sure hope so.

House passes Metolius Basin protection bill -- great news!

This is a great day for Oregon.

The state House of Representatives just changed course and voted 31-28 to approve HB 3298, which prevents destination resorts from being built in the Metolius River Basin.

Thanks to the courageous legislators who had the guts to vote "yes" rather than "no" after hearing from so many concerned constituents -- like me.

Here's the full Oregonian story:

Reversal: House passes Metolius protections bill
by Michelle Cole, The Oregonian
Monday June 22, 2009, 10:21 AM

SALEM -- In a stunning reversal from last week, the Oregon House on Monday passed a bill declaring the Metolius River basin a Critical Area of Statewide Concern.

The 31-28 vote sends House Bill 3298 on to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who has fought to get it passed.

In brief and a fairly unemotional 10-minute debate, Rep. Larry Galizio, D-Tigard, said he had changed his mind and supported the bill. Galizio said he was convinced following a "convincing" phone call from the governor and "an outpouring" of letters and other contacts from the public.

Kulongoski had moved to create the new protections after developers launched plans for two new destination resorts near the river.

 --Michelle Cole; michellecole@news.oregonian.com

From the grave, Tom McCall says "Save the Metolius"

I don't cry easily. But this morning I teared up while reading a moving piece by the son of Tom McCall, who was a Republican governor of Oregon from 1967 to 1975.

Tom W. L. McCall Jr. writes about his father's love for the Metolius River basin, which currently is threatened by destination resorts that would be allowed in this wild and scenic area by a Jefferson County rezoning.

If you aren't familiar with this astoundingly beautiful area of central Oregon, which my wife and I visit frequently, here's some photos that I took recently. Look, and you'll fall in love with the Metolius from afar.

Unfortunately, a bill that would stop the destination resorts -- which could markedly reduce the flow of springs and creeks that are the sole source of the Metolius River -- has been derailed by a single vote in the Oregon House of Representatives (the bill passed the Senate).

I'm deeply irritated by the legislators who failed to understand that this is our only chance to preserve the Metolius Basin from developments desired by county politicians because they wrongly believe this would increase property tax revenues.

But all will be forgiven if one of the five Dem "No's" on the bill changes his mind and HB 3298 comes back to life.

I hope they'll read Tom McCall Jr's marvelously written essay (see below). The next to last paragraph is the one that caused tears to flow in me.

If you're moved to help save the Metolius -- doesn't matter where in the world you live -- click here, scroll to the June 18 entry, and email the state representatives who are listed. Tell them you feel just like Tom McCall: preserving the Metolius Basin is worth whatever sacrifice it takes.

Read and (maybe) weep:

Reflections on this day flow over me in words and images as clear and pristine as the waters of the Metolius.   The Metolius flows through the ages of time strong and pure, carving its valley, and nurturing all around it. The Metolius lives today with civilization, in a mutually supportive, accommodating, and sustaining relationship.  We must not deceive ourselves by thinking—for one moment—that a massive injection of suburbia into the quiet woodlands and meadows nurtured by the river will not plunder and massively disfigure this natural treasure.

 This is a moment in time when Oregonians have the chance to protect a wonder of nature that my father cherished.  My father considered the Metolius River Basin to be in the same extraordinary natural Endowment that includes the Oregon Beaches, the Columbia River Gorge, and Crater Lake -- all legacy public resources that deserved special and everlasting protection.  Sadly, my father's life was cut short before he could ensure the permanent protection of the Metolius.  This left a gaping hole in his conservation hopes for Oregon.

 Nevertheless, Tom McCall did set up a process that lives beyond his life to afford Oregonians a method by which to ensure protection of a landmark treasure like the Metolius.  This process is the designation of the LCDC and Area of Critical Concern, all contained within SB100, which is the original land use law.  It is a fitting and profound continuation of Tom McCall's legacy to see Oregonians today invoke the protection of the LCDC and the designation of an Area of Critical Concern for the clear purpose he envisioned.

 I wish to recount a story from my father's final days, which Oregonians who enjoy the fruits of my father's passionate commitment to Nature and conservation will appreciate:  During his campaign against Measure 6, Tom McCall said, "You all know I have terminal cancer—and I have a lot of it.  But what you may not know is that stress induces its spread and induces its activity.  Stress may even bring it on.  Yet stress is the fuel of the activist.  This activist loves Oregon more than he loves life.  I know I can't have both very long.  The trade-offs are all right with me.  But if the legacy we helped give Oregon and which made it twinkle from afar—if it goes, then I guess I wouldn't want to live in Oregon anyhow."

 There is only one choice—only one issue—facing us at this moment:  preserve the Metolius, or destroy it.  Take your choice.  And may that choice be to preserve this pristine river as I and millions of others have for decades. You, the public, can be part of the legacy my father helped give Oregon by being one of those who rises in passion to Save the Metolius.  My father's spirit is “twinkling from afar,” relishing in Oregon's passion for conservation.

(A recent Salem Statesman Journal editorial calling for the passage of HB 3298 provides another perspective on saving the Metolius.)

This isn't a cooling decade, global warming deniers

I will confess to criticizing a Portland right-wing talk show host, Victoria Taft, without listening to much of what she said.

All I needed to hear via my car radio channel surfing were words along the lines of, "The Earth is cooling this decade; so much for global warming."

No, Victoria, you're wrong. I realize that facts don't mean much to conservative talk radio, but it's still irresponsible to spout such erroneous B.S.

Check out: "Very warm 2008 makes this the hottest decade in recorded history so far."

I recall Victoria Taft blabbing on about how 2008 was the coolest year in ages, so in her science-challenged brain this fit right in with the delusional belief that global warming is a fantasy cooked up by Al Gore and other liberals who are trying to use a fictional environmental crisis as an excuse to embrace the Green Savior of socialist big government.

Actually, this graph from the "Very warm" article speaks the truth.

"Climate is about long-term trends. Perhaps the most interesting fact is that 2008 is on track to be almost 0.1°C warmer than the decade of the 1990s as a whole – and warmer than any year of last century beside (the El-Niño-enhanced) 1998.

The decade of the 2000s — 2000 to 2009 — will almost certainly be the hottest decade in at least 2000 years (see “Sorry deniers, hockey stick gets longer, stronger: Earth hotter now than in past 2,000 years“).

So once again, right-wing talk radio gets it wrong ("it" encompassing just about every subject).

I love to blog about these blunders. I'd put up more posts on this subject, but the blunder-picking is so easy, I could devote my full blogging-time to exposing the inanities of Victoria Taft and her comrades in lies.