New Signs Of Spring!

Last year, I noticed an unconventional, but unmistakable sign of Spring: a Squirrel Fight. This year, I submit a unique take: a cat on a mini-trampoline. This sober feline held court on his tiny trampoline in Ladd's Addition for at least five minutes, the master of all he surveyed. I stopped and watched to see if he would bounce on it, or display a five foot vertical leap to swipe another sign of Spring out of a tree, or anything, but he did not.
Another, less life-affirming ritual, is when local comics with five months of experience and half a dozen jokes start mouthing off about how much better they are than other comics and why aren't people lining up to offer them gigs, but it's probably not worth dwelling on.

Portland Love Letter

Look, everybody! Spring's coming! I took this picture on my bike ride this morning- oh, I can almost hear the cheery chirp of the robin, the lazy drawl of emo kids looking for heroin, the relieved sighs of idle suicide hotline volunteers playing pinochle! It's all going to be OK!