Meanwhile...we are patrolling our turf

cannabis safari

Having my morning coffee and doobie tonight on the porch. 
A couple from Japan who are staying at our place just walked up from an evening on the town.
I felt a bit self conscious stinking up the place. 
We hadn't met and I know the pot is highly illegal in Japan. 
They quickly put me at ease. 
Dude gives me the slow smile and nod then pulls out a spliff of his own. 
They are here for a cannabis safari. 
LOL. 
I hear they got a few Portland themed shops over in Japanistan. My new friends are all loaded up with Kush, Voodoo donuts, and coffee fun.

Months ago I was treated to the sound of a car alarm accompanied by a woodpecker.

ew. Months ago I was treated to the sound of a car alarm accompanied by a woodpecker. They made great music together.
Now I'm hearing the woodpecker sound accompanied by someone snaking a drain. That music is frikkin' nauseating. Like some great beast trying to digest some indigestible artifact. Gross.

Huge expensive truck blocking our driveway.

This was fun to observe. 
Huge expensive truck blocking our driveway. 
I decided to watch and see what happens, maybe there was an emergency. 
There wasn't. It was there all day. 
We could have had it towed but that is not our style. 
The situation is compelling social studies to me. It's amazing that those trucks come with such hubris. 
Enough "tude" to leave the truck in harm's way all day without flinching.
Kind of like watching a toddler cut in line--what are ya gonna do, right? :)
I give 'em a pass because it looks like he is at work.
I don't like breaking the stride of folks who punch the clock. If it isn't a problem, I won't make it a problem. :)

What's cooking Olive?

Having a nice kitchen means being able to cook more sophisticated things. 

She made Zuul leftovers (from the 80's) Filet Minion of Gozer in classic, rustic, gatekeeper style just like Moms used to make. mmmmgood.

losing the gopro + portland song

Ice Cream and Art

Olive Rootbeer took me on a date to an ice cream place. She wanted to cheer me up. 
I was very upset to lose our camera. I suction cupped it to our car bumper, went a few blocks, learned it had fallen off and when we went back, it was gone. I was crestfallen. 
She needed me to feel better (and she had a coupon) so ice cream it is.
The gopro only cost us a hundie. 
It's the 3 hours work of music video material that I was really mourning. 
The only thing I'm materialistic about is our own personal entertainment material. lol 
We did find a lovely donation of art materials on our doorstep, that was uplifting. lol Mystery goodies!

So she bought me a rocky road cone as big as my head. 
I do feel a lot better...mostly from the date part. 

Olive is kind and hot as a firecracker. I'm glad she didn't melt my cone. 
As we left on our tall bikes everyone cheered loudly for us. Odd timing since they saw us arrive, stood in a long line with us and we all ate together. Nobody said a word to us. Not complaining just observing some delicious human nature. We could still get the gopro or SD card back.

 I'm eager to see how that experiment works out.

This just in.....

Good afternoon,

Are you by any chance missing a gopro? I found one one my walk home. I though...oh gee my lucky day. Got home and found you both on its sd card. If it is yours I would love very much to return it to you.

WE ARE STOKED!!!!

Psst, hey, yeah you. Wanna help prop up our little Popsicle stand? Are you in a place to be hookin clowns up with some moneys for guitar strings and other things?

We appreciate cha Tiger, thanks a lot. We promise to give this thing everything we got. :)

  visit us at

 oliveanddingo.com/donation

...we are pretty punk rock for a kid show.

Gotta be fierce to compete with the roar of the cafes. 

http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

We got our yard done did.

The Innkeeper hired a nice fellow who spent the day sprucing up the yard. I knew just enough Spanish to disappoint him on how little Spanish I knew. What I do know, I pronounce perfectly. 
We really enjoyed his company. Olive was her usual gracious self. She made him a huge lunch and we sat together talking in broken English and broken Spanish. 
He really appreciated the Innkeeper for over paying him and Olive's kindness went a long way. 
He told us he has had a bad week of people underbidding him, speaking down to him and whatever "Truckka de Donal Trump" is. 
The day before a "trukka de Donal trump" was passing many times yelling at him to go back to his home country (Republic of Bakersfield Ca.?)
We had a lovely lunch and he told us all about his kids and grand kids. 
At first I was grumpy that he was coming. I'm a worker-bee too and I don't like missing hustles. 
It worked out, we made a friend, and it was impressive watching the 60+ year old man working like a young buck all day and carrying huge loads. 
If ya wanna hire Jose (and not lowball him) drop us a line, we will pass on his card.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

meanwhile. ... We don't make much money but it is really easy to scare up a meal in PDX.

Hope ya got some laughs from this blog
Like what we do?
We live out of a tip jar (sometimes chicken sometimes feathers) if you are in a place to keep our sunny side up and rubber side down then feel free to drop off a donation at our website.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

A visit from Florida

Wow. Miami Mama in the house.
She is here for a funeral but it must not be too broken up because she is having a blast with us. It's one of those things where we meet and instantly are in each other's heads.
We were loading the balloon bag after she had settled into her room.
As we traded life stories, she dug right in loading the bag with us.
She told us about her life as a SE USA Latina Lady.
I love her power and confidence. She saunters like Olive does and somehow her presence makes the house seem more secure.
We were looking forward to having more encounters with her but it wasn't in the cards.
After a few days the owner of the house told us the lady left her a list of things that could be improved on.
We had a good laugh, yeah none of that is gonna happen.
This place is dialed in just fine.

filthy

Yesterday a woman spent 20 min in her room and then stormed out. 
She was complaining that the house was filthy. 
At any other point in my life she would have been right, but these days our crib is spotless. 

Her room and our house are gorgeous as always. 

The house owner inspected right away (she lives in the basement). 
We were relieved that she wasn't sore at us. "Looks like we lucked out, we wouldn't have liked living with her anyways" lol. 
So here is my theory: 
She must be having an affair and chickened out. 
People book these rooms way in advance.
Maybe she was planning an extramarital adventure for weeks but aborted after she was racked with guilt. As the days clicked by her excitement dulled to anxiety and then eventually terror. 
The time came. 
Maybe she lives in a nearby town. 
She takes the long drive to Portland listening to songs from her youth through tears. 
Then she gets here. 
She avoids everyone. 
Looks at the bed she plans to betray her partner with. 
Suddenly she gets a text from the partner, then the lover. She lies to both and then loses it. 
She stomps out complaining the house is dirty and smells like too many cats. 
We don't have any cats... just clowns with a conspiracy theory or two.

I was washing dishes when a young woman walks into the kitchen and timidly says hi.

I was washing dishes when a young woman walks into the kitchen and timidly says "hi."
She told me she loved the room and asked if I was the host (no).
She introduced herself and shyly asked that the heat be turned up. 
I'm all alone and I still haven't taken any clown drag off. 
I tell her I'm just one of the clowns that live in the attic but I'm also helpful to travelers as a condition of my clown order. 
I turn the heat up. 
I ask her where she is from. She says Korea. I greet her in Korean. 
That moment changed the mood. 
Her face lights right up. She smiles big, snaps her heels and hands together and rocks a proper bow (like in the movies). I made it clear that I didn't know her language by my body language and it worked a charm. 
She clearly still dug the effort. 
I will be asking her for other phrases if she hangs around awhile. 
I went back to dish washing and then soon, she surprised me by coming back. 
She had a wine bottle and two glasses. 
Would you like to drink some wine?" 
I was like "Um, I'm not on vacation, I don't drink alcohol, and my wife is miles away so I'm gonna take a pass, but thanks!" I bid her good evening and then tended to the clogged drain I just created so I could be doing anything but that. Good times... lol

Actor in the hallway.

The guy staying in one of the rooms flies in from LA to catch his kid's HS sports matches (being vague for his privacy).
We wondered, who can afford such expensive commuting. So getting home today we met him.
 I recognized him right away as an actor from the TV. 
I don't watch TV so if I recognized him that is a clue to how he can afford the travel.
 Super cool dude, so glad he uses his money to support his kid. 
We talked about Belgian beers and kid raising but it soon evolved into an hour in the kitchen talking about camera shots, his directing career, editing tricks, acting motivations etc. 
All this is in our wheelhouse as well so we were riveted. 
It felt like it should have been an acting podcast. 
I'm not a sports fan but i do like any school sports. Maybe we can talk him into letting us go to his kids game. If so I will be in the clear to take a selfie and you can decide if and where you seen this cool cat before.
Our actor guest never made it home last night. 

Not surprised he is a really hansom charming fellow.

I met a handsome doctor last night ooooh!

 LOL ok we already met. He is staying in one of the rooms that rent in our place. Last night Olive was out of town. Steven is a mid-30-something Doc from New Zealand. 
He was visiting Corvallis tracking down distant relatives and decided to take a few days on Puddletown. 
We traded life stories last night as he watched me eat a plate of bacon. He said he has been trying to do at least one ink drawing per day. I asked him if he wanted to do some art with me by way of video taping a bike ride. 
He was all over it. There is avid cycling in NZ but nothing to the scale of Portland. 
I lent him a beach cruiser and we took off. I asked him what he wanted to see and he mentioned the big mural by the tracks with plants growing out of it. 
He noticed it from the bus and wanted a better look. I was glad that he was narrating into the gopro with that amazing accent. 

When we got there we noticed how cool the mural was and also noticed I neglected to bring SD cards for both gopros (like a ditz). No footage night, bummer. 
So we lit out exploring 11pm Portland. 
We rolled downtown and over the Tillicum bridge twice. He kept looking at the infrastructure and saying "Wow, so fancy." I enjoyed rolling with him and discovered it's really easy to get medical advice from a doc when you are asking about an ailment you don't have. 
I got him telling me all about dysentery and child birth. I learned a lot. 
We discussed so much, it really should have been a podcast. He had heaps of questions about clowning, our life and of course Patch Adams. It's a bit of a struggle rolling with folks who aren't conditioned to ride fast for hours like us. He did well and immediately passed out in his room when we got back. That''s what's up Doc.
Hope ya got some laughs from this blog
Like what we do?
We live out of a tip jar (sometimes chicken sometimes feathers) if you are in a place to keep our sunny side up and rubber side down then feel free to drop off a donation at our website.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/


Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

Contraband Canadian food.

We were paling around with a couple of young women from Victoria Canada. 
They gifted us some crazy Canada food that they accidentally brought over the border.
 I wanted to not like the Ketchup flavored chips but they were great. 
lol We are making great friends. 
Normally we don't have time of headspace for strong friendships but we make great single serving friends.
 I like being the first and last Portlanders a lot of people meet.

Hope ya got some laughs from this blog
Like what we do?
We live out of a tip jar (sometimes chicken sometimes feathers) if you are in a place to keep our sunny side up and rubber side down then feel free to drop off a donation at our website.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

We don't work here but we still get gifts from guests

We don't work here but we still get gifts from guests. Our latest "single serving" friends left us some goodies before they left. The came from an exotic country called "Dallas Texas". 

Single serving friends work great for us because longterm friendships tend to break our stride.

We must look like such snobs for always turning down dinner parties and social gatherings. Sorry. 

We can still be hermits around single serving friends because we know there is a finish line. 

This time there was a prize at the end. 

I understand why the Texans left the pot food behind but why didn't they bring those fantastic beers and the mug from the Drag club? 

Thanks Texans! Maybe someday I will visit your country and leave a bunch or pot and beer behind. I better learn the language first.

Hope ya got some laughs from this blog
Like what we do?
We live out of a tip jar (sometimes chicken sometimes feathers) if you are in a place to keep our sunny side up and rubber side down then feel free to drop off a donation at our website.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.