The Narrative Image

Got a few days off... but the weather pointedly asked me just how much fun can you really have in a tent by yourself when it's raining? So I headed East into the Cascade range rain-shadow, searching for sunshine...all the while keeping my eyes open for 'thin places'. Two different metaphors presented themselves: * Interstate freeway system as circulatory system (with the health of various 'organs' dependent on circulation/traffic * The route from Portland into rural Oregon as time travel into the recent past I found the first metaphor rather pleasing as my trusty (said with heavy irony) corpuscle/vehicle coursed through various arteries and veins to the peculiar arrhythmias of commerce (once I factored in the Columbia River). But wind turbines and the price of gasoline were jarring reminders that small towns were definitely not  nostalgic oases in time. Still, I very much enjoy road trips, if for no other reason than to find the perfect heat-lamp b