The forecast 12 hours before we left was for steady rains, so the three of us lucked out big time with dry weather while biking and scattered showers while inside.  Our destination, Kainos Coffee on NE Sandy, opened last month, and is still getting its bearings as the owner says he has a long to-do list of items – from foods to bike racks – that he intends to work on.  Though it’s a small shop with limited frills, you can tell the surrounding neighborhood is pleased it opened as there was a steady circling of in/out customers in the 75 minutes we were there.  As for hanging out, Kainos faces a similar challenge as Never Coffee that we visited last week:  how a small shop with limited seating can make it comfortable for its patrons to stay for extended amounts of time.

Today’s discussion started with H’s report on the stimulating Vital Aging conference he attended yesterday, and the sad news that author Brian Doyle, one of the scheduled feature speakers, was unable to attend due to a brain cancer operation a week ago.  That led to a discussion on recommended books:  descriptions of Brian’s wonderful books Mink River and Martin Marten, both of which take place in Oregon and feature animals as special characters; then to Don Berry’s Trask which also takes place in Oregon, this time in the 1850s; then to Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, a satire which is notable for having won Britain’s Man-Booker Prize; and to Arlie Hochchild’s Stranger in Their Own Land about the anger that many alienated citizens have toward the government for being intrusive and trying to assist the needy.   And finally back to dissecting the election once again, and how much of the outcome was affected by Hillary’s embracing of a united world working together on problems, aggravating the anger (and turnout) to such an extent that it completely blinded voters to Trump’s liabilities.

6633 NE Sandy        http://www.kainoscoffeepdx.com