<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="0.92">
<channel>
	<title>Cracked Window</title>
	<link>http://www.michaelbales.com</link>
	<description>what passes as light</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:50:09 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
	<language>en</language>
	
	<item>
		<title>Old house vs. earthquakes</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been thinking of &#8220;The Big One.&#8221; Long before earthquakes devastated Haiti and then Chile, I wanted to have our 1920s Craftsman house bolted to its foundation with steel plates. That&#8217;s enough protection to qualify for earthquake insurance.
The work begins tomorrow, ten months after I arranged for an estimate. Waiting until my wife and I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.michaelbales.com/2010/03/10/old-house-vs-earthquakes/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Art on the streets</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Despite Portland&#8217;s reputation for attracting artists, I&#8217;ve yet to encounter an abundance of street art depicting this level of flair and creativity. Maybe I don&#8217;t get around enough, but I mostly encounter incomprehensible graffiti. Much is gang messaging, a defacement uglier and longer lasting than cats peeing to mark their territory.
Some people are trying, judging [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.michaelbales.com/2010/03/09/art-on-the-streets/</link>
		<georss:point>45.5234528 -122.6762085</georss:point>	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Tall in the Saddle</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Few blog posts for many months means I&#8217;ve been crushed with work. But that&#8217;s a good thing in these trying economic times. The heaviest load has come from serving as guest curator for a just-opened exhibit at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, called  &#8220;Tall in the Saddle, the Pendleton Round-Up at 100.&#8221;
In May [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.michaelbales.com/2010/03/06/tall-in-the-saddle/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Space between life and death</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;d been told that an acquaintance&#8217;s son had arrived home safe from Iraq, his first overseas Army stint. When I asked the acquaintance today about his son&#8217;s experience, he filled in the story with details, details that remind me of what we all know but rarely ponder: inches and seconds often add up to the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.michaelbales.com/2010/01/29/space-between-life-and-death/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Unfettered and alive</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;I felt unfettered and alive.&#8221; That lyric from Joni Mitchell&#8217;s song, &#8220;Free Man in Paris,&#8221; sprang to mind during this video. Then came this thought: would I dare be an eagle for a day if given the chance?

Like most people, I&#8217;ve had dreams of flying. Even more vivid are dreams of jumping as gravity relaxes [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.michaelbales.com/2010/01/23/unfettered-and-alive/</link>
		<georss:point>45.5234528 -122.6762085</georss:point>	</item>
	<item>
		<title>Dressed for hire</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Maybe the unemployment picture is brightening. A very helpful sales clerk at Macy&#8217;s told me yesterday that there&#8217;s been a rush on men&#8217;s suits. Why? &#8220;Guys are suddenly getting job interviews, and they want to look good,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And they want the alterations immediately.&#8221; I was trying on a suit for a different reason. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.michaelbales.com/2009/12/03/dressed-for-hire/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Best one-liners</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The term &#8220;one-liner&#8221; evokes  comedians and jokes. Lately the one-liners that stick with me are from songs. Here are two that keep bouncing around in my head long after the music has stopped, courtesy of the Avett Brothers&#8217; newest CD: There&#8217;s a darkness upon me flooded in light, and I am a breathing time [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.michaelbales.com/2009/10/17/best-one-liners/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>A Son&#8217;s Goodbye</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Regardless of your opinion of Ted Kennedy, this eulogy by his oldest son is something you won&#8217;t soon forget. I heard it today, on my father&#8217;s 81st birthday, while driving home from Seattle. Hard to see the road through tears.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.michaelbales.com/2009/08/31/a-sons-goodbye/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Existential Question</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Leave it to a child to ask an existential question that reverberates louder than the Pacific surf:
Will there still be waves if everybody&#8217;s dead?
Atticus, in the midst of his first beach vacation, received a truthful answer &#8212; and a question. Why did you wonder such a thing? Silence, except the sound of waves arriving and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.michaelbales.com/2009/08/21/existential-question/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Obama the Timid</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s hard to avoid the sense that Mr. Obama has wasted months trying to appease people who can’t be appeased, and who take every concession as a sign that he can be rolled.
Paul Krugman nails what many of us have sensed with growing unease. For a guy absurdly and obscenely referred to as Hitler by [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.michaelbales.com/2009/08/20/obama-the-timid/</link>
			</item>
</channel>
</rss>
