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Blogs by D L Johnson
Catching up...I think 4/11/2007 10:03:01 AM
Well, anyhoo, having been out of town for the first two days this week, I am now working on catching up. Catching up on what I'm not sure but I've been told thats what you do under those circumstances.
Monday morning I drove to Porland (Oregon) to meet some friends to help with a promotion for the Oregon Lottery. This was something planned prior to my retirement. It was a typical promotional event; long and boring.
I left the large mall where the event was held and was to meet another friend for lunch but his schedule and my schedule didn't mesh up so we'll do it again very soon. After all, I don't need much of an excuse to travel to Portland.
My friend Larry, an independent sort...was to meet me at a certain time at the Amtrak Station. When I spoke to him Sunday evening he said he would have his cell phone with him and he promised faithfully that he would have it on. He lied! Larry is the kind of guy that will go anywhere at just about anytime, and when he finally called me, telling me where he was, I said stay there and we'll go get lunch, but oh no, Larry said..."here comes the bus, I'll meet you back at Amtrak in 45 minutes.
The long and short of this diatribe is that Larry finally arrived an hour and ten minutes later. Larry does not drive, nor does he own a car. When he travels it's usually by bus or train. Not that he couldn't fall in line like the rest of us chumps, he just feels after having lived in places like Washington DC, Boston and several other large ciites, he committed to himself that when he moved he would find a place where public transportation was easilly accessible and he found that in Eugene, Oregon, where he lives.
Larry is also a very prolific author, never having his work published, though I've encouraged him, he really is quite talented. The reason I state that is because when I picked Larry up at Amtrak, we drove to Salem, our state capitol, where Larry was to testify about two measures that would deal with equal rights in Oregon. Something that is currently not availalble for every citizen.
When we arrived in Salem the crowds were building at the Capitol building for both supporters and opponents.
The hearing room is not large enough to accomodate huge crowds, so they have over flow rooms, and when your number is called, you must then go from the over flow room to the main hearing room.
Larry worked all afternoon on his testimony and had me check and double check his work...then the sad news came. Larry's number would not be called, his testimony would not go on record and he was momentarilly (sp) disappointed. Then he smiled and said as we were leaving Salem for Eugene, "That's OK, I'll just send it to the newspapers in Eugene, Salem and Portland to their letters to the editor section."
That is Larry all right, not everything with him is all bad and can have the positive, just results it deserves.
