In a Vacuum

Well, I ended up not being able to get on my flight to Maine this morning from Portland (OR). This is one of the hazards when you fly standby. The price is great but the reliability isn’t.

However, being given a free day in Portland is a fantastic consolation prize. I walked a good bit down Hawthorn Street, had some tea, walked some more, hopped on a bus, hopped off at the Yarn Garden (wow), had a wonderful lunch at a Lebanese restaurant, hopped back on the bus and took myself in to Powell’s, hub of the bookworld. On the way, though, I found a haberdasher (John Helmer’s ) and popped in on the off chance they might have ladies’ handkerchiefs (no, but Kathleen’s on the same block did, amazing).

The vacuum day. We’ve been considering buying a vacuum cleaner…. on M’s recommendation, I paid a visit to Stark’s, which is the largest vacuum showroom in the country which also contains a vacuum cleaner museum. I made some sketches of these (the earliest of which were operated with a hand pump). I’ll post sketches when I can (ADDED Sunday, March 28).