Round-trip with Questions

Coming back from a 645-mile, one-day marathon to Baker City and back, I sucked up and snapped away at dim scenery on a less-than-postcard-perfect afternoon and evening.

Question: while driving on a lonely stretch of interstate, is it more dangerous to yammer on the cell phone or snap digital photos?

Do we need anti-photography/driving legislation?

Moving right along….

By the time I got to the Gorge on this westward return leg, shadows hid the chasm's cascades and cliffs.

The most compelling images came earlier, to the east of the Gorge. Twilight near Boardman offered power pylons, grain elevators, probing semi headlights and the flickering of my lane’s white lines .

It’s been several months since I’ve traveled I-84. The biggest change is the proliferation of wind farms along ridges. The slow. graceful rotors signal progress. But 75 years ago, so too did the big dams on the Columbia.

Unintended consequences.

Let’s hope that the whirling white monoliths don’t do to the the flyways what the dams have done to salmon runs.

Are these rows of whirling blades technological follies or are they salvation from global warming?

The big semis were another surprise. In this economy, what could they be carrying besides debt? Had I not been in a hurry to get home, I’d have lingered at a truck stop to gather the road gossip. “Just what are you hauling, partner?”

For a feel of the trucker’s life on the road, I recommend John McPhee’s “Uncommon Carrier.”

My 12 hours on I-84 was a journey of questions.

Towering monstrosity

The city is on the verge of replacing the ugly 439-foot, lattice communications tower on Council Crest with another equally ugly one (think Erector-set ugly).

Unless neighbors step up with a better idea (think "sculpture") at a hearing to be held Monday, August 27, at 9:00, 1900 SW 4th Avenue, we are stuck with this antennae-laden monstrosity in one of Portland's most cherished parks.

Bureaucratic tunnel vision is missing a great opportunity. The staff report is about as imaginative as an I-beam. The report, which is worth reading, imperiously and mindlessly blows off serious neighborhood concerns.

Interestingly, beautiful towers are popping up all over the state — in the form of windmills. The sleek stanchions topped by turbines and blades seem perfect for the new emergency communications tower. And because they are clearly being mass produced, they may be cheaper than the spindly folly planned for Council Crest.

If blade noise isn't a problem, the tower might even incorporate a wind-power generator, which would help the environment, set a civic example and produce revenue (how about for undergrounding utilities?).

Certainly the idea is worth investigating.

If you can't attend the hearing, you can e-mail your comments to the senior planning officer on the case, Sylvia Cate, referencing the Council Crest tower.

(Thanks, by the way, to Deb Scott's blog, Stoney Moss, for alerting me to the hearing.)