Where i been...

Thought I'd switch things up for a bit and give ya some sweet map action. I've moved a few times in my 37 years (mostly of my own volition) and I wanted to take you on a tour of my hometowns...from, like, a hundred years ago.
Naturally I'd like to start at the beginning (for me), and that happens to be Hokendauqua Pennsylvania, a name you may be familiar with here on this blog. Above is a map of it from the days when it was a company town for Thomas Iron Works. Though most of these buildings in the foreground are gone, a few skeletons and footprints remain. The pit at center-right is where the legion is today, and directly above that is house of Doc Newhart, or at least it was when I was a kid. The copse of trees above that is where my grandparents live (in a house, not a tree) and where i grew up.

Next up is my least favorite city, though I lived there twice, and that's Chicago Illinois, home of angry, retarded people. I actually grew up in the burbs through High school and had a lot of fun, but there aren't any cool maps of the burbs, so Chicago it is. I remember going into the city on the weekends as a kid with my buddy John Leonard (also known as Schwantz) 'cos there were a pile of cool record stores to check out. So, not all bad, just not a place I want to go back to.
During one summer of my discontent my evil arch-nemesis Chris Nichols got me to agree to move to Bellingham Washington with him while he went to school. What the hell, how bad could it be? Actually it was pretty cool once I got a job at a nursery. It was there I met my good friend Tom Farrell (not sure about those r's and l's) who introduced me to his roomate James Reisen who is a weird ex-nemesis-current-friend-genius guy who still lives up that way (near Tommy) with his lovely wife Jess. My first place up there was in the part of town that used to be another town called Fairhaven, and my apartment would be almost exactly in the middle of the above map.
Anyway, once school ended for Nichols i had to go back to Chicago to get things together for a more permanent move west. That was a weird and confusing year in the windy city and I can barely remember how much insanity ensued. Still, by the following August we were back in my old car (named car-car) driving across the continent headed back towards the only town I knew out west, Bellingham!
I had a bunch more crazy times before realizing B'ham was a bit too small for my big city tastes. What to do...
Portland Oregon called my name,and I in turn answered the call. In september of 2001 I drove down I-5 with a u-haul to a town I barely knew with no job but one crucial ingredient...Eric Virshbo, my oldest friend (he's 164 years old, i think) who I grew up with (in many strange ways) in Chicago but who now lived in the rose city.

It took a while before I found my place in Portland, but I did, and just when I was starting to settle down I made the crazy decision (with help from Honey Bunny) to move back to Pennsylvania to see what I could see. So you know that story. Check out Catty in this old map below!!!




Back here in Portland I'm still making benches (more on that next time) and, if you look at the above map real closely you can see me riding my bike to work.
Lelko