Published July 7, 2018

This large aerial photograph of the city where I live and work has always been one of my favorite things about the newsroom. It’s in the area where the copy desk works, although when I started here in August 2013, I was about 12 feet from it and facing away from it. Now, I work directly in front of it, at separate sitting and standing workstations along its wall.

That’s not the only change. Five years ago, I lived 11 miles from the office. From June 2014 until three months ago, I lived 8 miles from work. After my car was totaled April 2, I moved 0.6 mile from the newspaper, six short blocks, so I could walk to work.

The apartment building I live in was built, I am told, in 1927. I will write about it again, I am sure. It’s been a challenge to make living there work, in part because of the lack of electrical outlets. People just didn’t have as many electrical devices eight decades ago as most of us do now. You’ll hear more about my solutions in upcoming posts. The reason for this post is that I wanted to point out how life can be, as one of my favorite Portland restaurant people once said, “good creepy.” As in, eerily coincidental and almost providential.

My new apartment building? It’s in the aerial shot in front of my desk. That’s it on the far right in the photo at right, the building with the dark roof and the upside-down U shape, with west and east wings thick uprights of that U.

(I also love that a building affectionately known as “the beer can” is also in front of my standing workstation. You can see it to the far left.)

It’s surreal to be at the office for a copy-editing shift and to be able to keep an eye on my apartment, albeit in its November 1978 form. Downtown has changed a lot too, as you would see if you stood in the apartment building’s parking lot and surveyed the parking garage across the street, the cinema next door, the beautiful library 0.2 mile away (with an observation deck with a spectacular view of Mount Hood on clear days), and much more.

I’ll be heading to work in a few minutes, on a sunny day not unlike the one when the aerial photograph was taken nearly 40 years ago. How different were things back then? Mount St. Helens hadn’t blown its top yet, and I was living in Louisiana, never imagining that I would be in the Pacific Northwest. What? A place where you could eat on a rooftop in July and not break a sweat? It would have been too wonderful to imagine or to believe.

It’s a wonderful place, and it’s funny how things worked out for me to find my new place in it. We’re about a month away from the eighth anniversary of my getting in that very same car and driving from Baton Rouge to Oregon to start a new life. We both added a lot of miles and scars in the years since then, with status changes to boot.

It’s also difficult to imagine the painstaking work of Jane Mauger, who colored the mural by hand with oils. How long do you think that took? And what were you doing in November 1978, when that photo was taken? Were you even with us yet on this Earth?

I’ll share more photos of my new place soon. It’s got more than its share of charm to make up for lacking in some of the more modern amenities of other apartment complexes where I’ve lived. Next weekend, two friends from high school are coming to visit, and I am trying to think of fun ways to accentuate the 1920s vibe of the place.

More to come!