My Book of Hours, part II: July 22 to 26

 Dear Diary,

You remember from last night's page, right, that I was observing restroom opening and closing times by listing when the parks employee who did the locking or unlocking started or stopped the engine of the pickup truck he used to reach the park.

This page reports my original observations at Ravenna Park.

July 22

I didn't observe any opening this day.

At Ravenna Park's upper restrooms, my usual spot was a picnic table, the one nearest the restrooms, from which I could see the women's room door but not the men's.  I think I did it all during those days - slept in the park and elsewhere; stayed there by day or left.  The usual parking for the employees' pickup trucks is near, but as at Laurelhurst not *that* near, a parking lot.  Closing 7:14 to 7:15 P.M.

July 23

Same restrooms, same park.  Opening 6:52 to 6:55 A.M.  I think I must have stayed at the park this day, and it was the day I encountered a homeless gay couple, in which case I didn't find my "usual" picnic table until late afternoon.  I first noticed one of the men, a guy who walked around with a permanent scowl, as he scared off three people at a table near the one I was at; I actually called 911 so as to be ready if things got violent (which didn't happen).  Sometime around noon, the other introduced himself, a friendly man who said they'd recently arrived from San Diego, although he himself was an Eskimo.  I gave him some cookies and directions to a place to charge his phone on campus, which he later told me he couldn't find.  Closing at or before 5:49 to 5:50 P.M. (I wasn't paying attention yet; probably what happened at 5:49 and made me notice was the locking of the women's room.)

July 24

Same restrooms, same park.  I'd been noticing that most of the trees surrounding this part of Ravenna Park are conifers, and took a video to show you, dear Diary.

EDIT 11/12.  Unfortunately, it appears that the sight of naked trees is too racy for YouTube's community guidelines.  Or something like that.  Maybe.  Or maybe.  Or when desks bark sedately in the west.  Please see the more recent page "A Problem" for more information, or at least more confusion.  What it means here is that you can't watch this video right here embedded in the page the way it's meant to be.  To watch it at YouTube you may follow this link:  https://youtu.be/zK3ZM7dGQdU.  You have to be signed in so no children can be traumatised by the sight of grass.  No, I am not making any of this up.

Anyway, opening 6:52 to 6:55 A.M.  I left the park for midday, and on returning found my "usual" table blocked by a baseball game whose rules surprised me.  It was co-ed, and I mainly paid attention to one extremely attractive player, but did notice that hardly anyone was masked, and only the players on the field were socially distanced.  These and other clues eventually convinced me it was a fraternity/sorority thing.  I did finally get to that table before closing, 7:27 to 7:37 P.M.  The employee took so long because he refilled the soap in the men's room (which had been empty since I'd arrived two days earlier), did some cleaning in both rooms, and waited for one last woman.

July 25

At Ravenna Park's lower restrooms, there is no parking lot nearby.  The pickup trucks were parked in at least two locations.  My usual spot (and I stayed these two days mostly there) was the easternmost picnic table near the restrooms, near the men's room but actually within sight of neither door.  In the afternoons when that table gets no shade, I usually spent much of my time north of it, in the shade of the restroom building, often watching the tennis players at the courts nearby.  This was the only "usual spot" where I couldn't at all pretend that people were unlikely to come within 6' of me, and had to spend much of each day masked.  Opening 6:23 to 6:27 A.M.  Closing 7:56 to 7:59 P.M.

July 26

Same park, same restrooms.  I missed both arrivals this day, neither of which parked where those of the 25th had.  Noticed opener by 8:53 A.M.; he unlocked the men's room at 8:56, the women's at 8:58, and restarted the engine at 9:01.  The closer locked the women's room at 6:38 P.M., the men's at 6:39, and restarted the engine at 6:40.

Later

I took July 27 and 28 to recuperate.  By this time I'd decided to do five observations at each park, so on the 29th I started at Laurelhurst, then figured I just had to verify that Cowen Park's and University Playground's restrooms remained locked, get a fifth observation at lower Ravenna, and I'd be done.  Instead I spent the next five nights and six days on an epic quest to record five actual openings and closings of the Cowen Park restrooms.  This entailed many photos not only of locked doors, but also of a maniacal squirrel, so until Blogspot decides I can upload photos again, it'll have to wait.