After 3 weeks at the Train Station I've decided I want to move back to the Shack. I'm finding I no longer like the downtown condo lifestyle. The trains wake me up at 3am every morning and the perpetual construction begins at 6am and goes until 4pm. About the only time it is quiet here is from 9pm until 3am which means very little sleep. In fact the lack of sleep over the past few weeks has resulted in me catching another cold and missing out on a fun weekend of ice climbing with friends on the Elliot Glacier up on Mount Hood.

My summer at the Shack was the first time I had lived in a house since I was in high school. Since then I've always lived in dorms, a frat house, apartments or condos. I forgot what it was like to have your own space, privacy and quiet. I am now finding it very difficult to give that up. In addition the Pearl is not what it was when I moved here in 2000. It has become extremely homogeneous with nothing but high-end, over-priced restaurants. The Bridgeport was the last holdout and they recently Pearlized it with a renovation. I miss the affordable, casual, laid back atmosphere of NE Portland. I find myself heading back over there more often than not to spend the day or to get take-out to bring back downtown.

Maintaining two residences is also a lot of work and something is always at the other place. I have too much gear to store it all at the Train Station so most of it is at the Shack. Living in a high rise condo is not conducive to outdoor activities either. It takes multiple trips to haul everything up and down the elevator and I have no place to clean my gear after a trip. Kerry and I have decided it is time to consolidate, so the plan is to move permanently into the Shack now and sell the Train Station probably sometime after January 1st. This works out perfectly since we have been engaged for about a month and are planning to get married early next year. Most of you already know this, but for those who don't I asked Kerry to marry me last month while we were in Washington DC having an "especially nice dinner".