The Multnomah Villager

Dropped into Fusion Cut and Color on Friday for a pre-Maui haircut. Thanks for fitting me in, Tamara. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Fusion, since I have to be honest and admit that I’ve been having a long running affair with Julie at the Beaverton HairM. For me, the haircut is just a sideline to the head massage and handrub. That’s just that way it is, sorry. Although Fusion’s prices are great, for me, and the conversation is always enjoyable.

Bet you’re wondering about that subject line….

Well, actually you can’t get chips yet. A glass of wine or a beer maybe, but if they had chips around, and if their accountant would let them get away with it, Tamara and particularly Adrienne would totally give you some chips, to go, in a little bag, for free. You know, like you get from Mexican restaurants with your takeout…..

For the first time in a long time, we’re missing Multnomah Days. If you need me, I’ll be in Maui. This means that our “secret spot” between the bus shelter and the curb on the corner of Capitol and 35th will be available. It also means that we won’t have any pictures of this year’s event.

So this would be a good time to mention that I’ve created a Flickr group for Multnomah Village with exactly ZERO content in it! So if you take pictures of the parade or general festivities, come join the group and use the following tags:

Multnomah Village - for general Village pictures

MultnomahDays2007 - for Multnomah Days pictures

Let’s see if this thing works…

(NOTE: Don has editorial control over my column in the Post, but I don’t have to worry about that sort of thing here - so this column appears here with it’s original title and with the original graphic I intended to include in the column. Maybe if I got this thing in anywhere close to the actual deadline I’d have more time to allow for these changes…)

One of the first posts I made to my blog dealt with w-fi-hotspots in the Village. Specifically, free wi-fi hotspots. Since that post, there has been some small improvement in the amount of places at which you can access the Internet via wi-fi for free, but we don’t exactly have pervasive coverage, here in the Village. Searching for nearby wifi hotspots on either Personal Telco’s website or wifiPDX.com (note - I got this URL wrong in the paper - it’s correct here) pretty much comes back with a big blank area of available hotspots anywhere west of downtown.

Recently, we’ve been able to get online utilizing the Metrofi wireless network that is being rolled out throughout the city of Portland. Many people dislike this network, saying it’s too slow, too clotted up with ads, too hard to get connected to, but it does work, and it offers a free connection to the Net where one didn’t exist before. There are some limitations to a wireless network that primarily works OUTDOORS in a city like Portland, since I don’t think my laptop’s warranty covers damage from web surfing in our typical fall/winter/spring weather – but right now it’s a good solution. Well, except for the sunlight. OK – maybe it isn’t so convenient to get online outside.

As I posted on my blog a couple weeks ago, I noticed recently that MetroFi has installed a router right outside my house! As of tonight – July 24th – this router is now active and I have two new wifi options showing up in my toolbar. MetroFi Free and MetroFi Premium. I logged off of my own wireless net and am hooked up to MetroFi’s free service as we speak, AND I’m inside. Of course I have rather large windows in my living room so I have a clear sight line to the router, but I’m not the only one who has successfully used MetroFi indoors. I got a comment on the blog from Kelly (of Kelly’s Flowers) and she mentioned that she hooked up to MetroFi all the time to pass time in the shop between customers. My experience with coverage in the Village has been spotty. I was able to get online sitting in my car outside Journeys, but could not see the signal inside the bar, despite being surrounded by windows and only 50 feet or so away from my previous location.

Yes, the MetroFi connection does require a banner ad be displayed on your browser. See?

There are apparently ways to skirt these ads, using an extension to Firefox – but it’s a small price to pay for free access. I’ve heard that you will also see full-screen ads at some interval after clicking to go to another web page for instance. That’s a drag – these types of ads, called “interstitials” are becoming more popular around the web, and I don’t know anyone who’s a fan of them. Ooh! I just saw one – you can skip past it by clicking on the “continue browsing” text that appears in the upper right of your browser window when one of these pesky ads appears.

It’s true that the connection is not as fast as my personal wifi link to Comcast, and I’m nowhere near ready to cancel my cable modem (sorry Mrs. V), but being able to easily get online from various locations in the Village is a real convenience. Especially since we’re not just talking about web browsing but also the ability to get to your email or other web services, such as a VPN connection to your office for instance, something that comes in rather handy for me from time to time.

MetroFi is not the perfect service, but things that come for free rarely are perfect. It does however, make the always-connected lifestyle that I and many other Village residents live a little easier, and gives us one more way to avoid paying for wifi Internet access, which I personally believe should be a pervasive and free utility for all.

I’m glad to see this come to the Village.

What’s this you ask? Well, of course it’s a clumsily stitched panorama of last weekend’s Maplewood Picnic! (click it - it gets bigger) We all headed over to Maplewood Elementary for the big neighborhood shindig, put on by the Maplewood Neighborhood Association. Even though this is not a school event, it’s held on the grounds of the school and quite a few of Jr. V’s friends were there.

We didn’t go to this event last year - I can’t figure out why not, but we certainly won’t miss it next year. They really put on the dog. The hot dog, that is. As well as free popcorn, ice cream, coffee, soda water, iced tea and cupcakes! We donated a few bucks after grabbing like our 200th thing of popcorn. As you can see, there were several tents set up - all the free food was along the blacktop, above, and the community booths were out along the ball field. At some point the police showed up with a paddywagon (do they still call them that?) and all the kids piled into the back to be locked in for a bit. I vividly remember when I was a kid, walking home from school, our route took us past the police station, and of we were really lucky - we could talk them into putting us in a jail cell for a while. Some fascinations are timeless I guess. {Insert Lindsey Lohan joke here.}

The new playground is up and in full effect! It was literally crawling with kids the whole time.

Another view of the great new playground.

Did I mention there was live music, and a raffle? Lots of fun was had, and despite threatening clouds, it never rained. We’ll definitely go again next year. Thanks Maplewood NA!