Steffen

On a recent trip to Hood River in the Columbia Gorge we spent some time strolling up and down the main street in town, which is Oak Street – where many shops, galleries, cafes and restaurants are located. On the upper end of the street, but still in what one would call the frequented area

As we left the coast we drove by one of our favorite spots that we usually hit during such trips – the Yaquina Bay Oyster Company. There one can buy fresh oysters – chucked or in the shell. We usually take the latter one and eat them raw or barbecue them. When you barbecue the

Many of the little towns along the Oregon coast have public and private galleries. On our recent visit to the coast, we took the time to visit quite a few of them. We noticed that many of them are now coops – meaning a group of artists who join or form an organization that rents

The hotel where we were staying on the beach is a nicely maintained property with many amenities including extensive flower beds and shrubbery beds and large areas of nicely manicured lawns. One morning I went out for a walk and there it was: literally in the middle if not dead center of a lawn perhaps

This is the first of a couple of “beach posts”. We had the opportunity to go to the Oregon coast with friends and with leisure time came observation opportunities. One is always eager to look immediately at the ocean on arrival day and the balcony of our apartment right by the cliff provided the perfect

For many years I have been using Lenovo laptops – previously these were called IBM ThinkPad. They were always an option at the workplace and after a brief excursion into alternative providers I returned to them. So, my first private personal computer after retiring was logically also a machine from them. It is a Lenovo

When I was in college many years back, I pledged to always maintain the ability to talk to everybody. It is perhaps not a new observation that differences in the educational journey can propagate into differences in the professional journey possibly to different stands, views and opinions. And it is also observable that people tend

Last week we watched our grandson and one of the activities we had planned was to go around Portland in a streetcar – an experience that he has not had so far since most transportation to and from school or other activities happens by car. It was a fun and educational experience with many questions

We have grandkid duties this week – since the school is closed for the summer. My wife developed a little program of activities that we are following. It has plenty of playtime on different beautiful playgrounds in the area. On one of these our grandson was very interested in experimenting with sound devices. They are

One of our favorite hobbies is kayaking on the Deschutes River. To simplify the logistics of a kayaking outing we usually find a launch spot, park the car and paddle upriver for as long as we can or have time for and then we turn around and let the current carry us back to where