Sunny Portland

We spent the day yesterday in Astoria, Oregon, with Steve. He’s doing counseling and some administrative work while teaching out there, and it looks like it might be a place where he spends some time.

Steve is doing well, even seems to be thriving. He has studied the history of the area for teaching purposes, and so was a good tour guide. He took us out to see an early twentieth century shipwreck, and then later to Fort Clatsop.

Clatsop was not at all what I expected. It was tiny – a small fort housing 34 men, one room for the two captains, and four each housing eight men. It’s a reconstruction based on notes- they haven’t found any remnants of the original. They are generally sure of the area, but not the precise location. It’s probably long been farmed under.

Three of our kids are out here in the Pacific Northwest – two daughters in Portland. Another was visiting while we were here, so it was almost a family reunion, missing only Annie, who is working in Billings. It’s beautiful country. We have thought now and then about moving out here, but realized that the rainy winters would get to us after a while.

I’ve been depoliticized while out here, hardly caring about writing here. I’ve got something going with Budge down below – maybe. He wants to set me straight on three things: tariffs, unions, and minimum wage. All are bad for workers, he says, and furthermore, he has the numbers to prove it.

I did mention that minimum wage workers have not lately commissioned any studies on what might be good for them, so we are pretty much stuck with the conservative economists and think tanks to determine how best to care for them. The thrust from that sector seems to be that low wages and no unions are the best salve for their wounds.

Who am I to argue?

I guess I’m never really depoliticized. But I have decompressed. We’re going into Portland today to shop. I looooooves me some shopping. For lunch we’re going to find a Whole Bowl – I looooooves me some of them them beans and rice. And we’re looking for a Nike factory outlet. I looooooves me some of that overpriced sweatshop stuff. But in the end, I am justified buying Nike shoes because I know that tariffs, minimum wages and unions only produce bad outcomes for working people.