Scattered

This site averages around 50 visitors a day even though I have been posting less frequently of late. Who are these visitors? Who are you? (Consider sharing your identity in the comments below)

Most visits come from web surfers who stumble on a tagged topic of interest.

Two posts getting a lot of hits recently have to do with what happens when the word “God” is substituted for the word “Spirit” in familiar quotations — and vice versa.

If you are interested, the posts are here and here.

The ever-popular “tipsy beer truck” post also maintains its following although it clearly isn’t the same as those hitting on the God/Spirit posts.

Those in the know about blogging “success” (whatever that means) might fault the Red Electric for lack of focus. Beer trucks? God?

So what about my summer's lapse in writing? It’s not that I’m running on fumes; it’s just that I’m not sure anyone is particularly interested in what I’ve been thinking or doing of late.

Maybe your life is a lot like mine these pre-Indian Summer days. Scattered.

Oh, today, I went for an invigorating, forested walk with my visiting sister. How did we both end up in our sixties?

I’m going to Fairbanks, Alaska, early next month on Quaker business. Yes, there are Quakers in Fairbanks.

I’m still trying to block JPMorgan/Chase Bank from opening an unneeded branch in Hillsdale ... and I’m trying to attract a credit union instead.

The Hillsdale community held a celebratory and astonishing Paella dinner for 250 on Saturday night. It was a civic, culinary cabal of friends and neighbors.

National politics is mind-boggling and sad. The only thing worse is the horse-race coverage of it. It’s the beginning of a long silly season ... with a lot at stake.

I’m reading “The Gnostic Gospels,” Hemingway short stories and Chris Hedges’ “American Fascists, The Christian Right and the War on America” (Could things be THAT bad?)

Meanwhile I edit, write and publish The Hillsdale News, which saps writing energy and keeps me out of trouble and busy.

Our Quaker Multnomah Friends Meeting continues to amaze. Vibrant, growing, learning, nurturing, challenging.

How different are my two beloved communities: one secular in Hillsdale, the other spiritual yet deeply engaged in the suffering and injustices of the world. In both, we love, honor and respect each other. It’s hard at times. We differ. We make mistakes. We perform heroics despite ourselves. We talk. We look each other in the eyes, the windows to the soul, and connect to our shared humanity.

It’s “nothing to write home about," but, scattered as it is, it seems important to share for whatever truth it holds.

Porn seekers flock to tipsy beer truck story

I guess it had to happen.

A porn site has linked to this site's tipsy beer truck story, and the site meter is jittering into the stratosphere.

According to the meter, it all started last night at 2 a.m. That should have been a tip-off.

When I checked the meter this morning at 7 a.m., I already had 340 visits. This on a site that averages 50 or so visitors a day. (I’ll spare you the link to the porn site though for the motivated it shouldn’t be hard to find.)

It is 7:20 p.m. as I write this, and I’ve just hit the 2,000-visit mark for the day. I figure I’ll smack into 3,000 before midnight tolls. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

I’ve always heard that the only people making money on the web are pornographers. The record number of visits I’ve had from crotch-watchers turned beer-truck oglers bears that out.

And I thought Portland’s legendary Bojack had a following. I'm sure it's not news to Jack that he's a piker compared to smut-mongers.

I wonder if weeks from now I’ll get repeat porno surfers who might want to broaden their interests beyond beer trucks and exposed breasts to Quaker thoughts about peace and simplicity.

I think not, but then again, what does any of this have to do with thinking?

The Little Beer Truck Story that Could

Last Thursday's little story about Hillsdale’s tipsy beer truck has taken on a web life of its own. Sort of like the one posted here last summer about Sarah Palin’s glasses.

I confess to getting the beer truck ball of web-yarn rolling by forwarding photos to The Oregonian, which immediately posted them on OregonLive. That was good for nearly 200 visits to this site.

But OregonLive postings are ephemeral and maddenly un-user-friendly. (Note to Oregonian editors: Please tell your corporate managers at Advance Publications to give you control of OregonLive, which is presently run by folks who just don't get it.)

The good news from the OregonLive posting is that two TV stations e-mailed me go ask for photos. The bad news is that, as far as I know, the stations neither aired the photos.

I also sent the story to Jack Bog’s Blog (aka bojack), the hugely popular local blog put out by Jack Bodansky. Jack didn’t post a link to the story pictures until Friday, but when he did, visits to The Red Electric skyrocketed, at least by my normal, staid standards. Friday netted 400 plus visits, and the high numbers continued through the weekend. I reckon 800 visitors came over from bojack.

Today one of the photos was picked up by a site called Unique Daily, which posted a link to The Red Eclectic. The numbers are on the rise again.

It’s great to get new visitors. After interest in the beer truck wanes, I hope a few check in from time to time for my slightly less bizarre stories and comment. You know, the ones about outrageous executive salaries, Oregon's absurd "Civil War," Quakerism, TV-B-Gones, and Northwest wanderings.

Oh, and about media madness and the odd lure of stories like the one about a tipsy beer truck.

Tipsy beer truck nearly toppled by TV cable

It looks as though this beer truck has had one too many, but it was snagged by a heat-stressed, sagging cable wire in Hillsdale at about 2:15 this afternoon.

The odd accident on the 1500 block of SW Sunset Boulevard diverted traffic and drew a crowd.

The truck’s driver, Shane Romo of Maletis Beverage Company, said that if a fellow trucker hadn’t yelled at him to stop, Romo's entire rig would have toppled over.

“It was nerve-racking,” said Romo. “I can’t believe it didn’t tip over.”

Romo had just pulled onto Sunset after a delivery to Casa Colima restaurant. He makes deliveries to the restaurant at least once a week — uneventfully.

But today’s heat caused the cable wires to droop and snag on the front left corner of his trailer.