Met a friend, checked out a botanical garden. Shoulda considered that it’s winter but a lot of it was interesting trunk forms/ferns/ground cover with a winter-blooming section. Better than when I took someone to the rose garden off-season and they were just spiky bushes.

Then she used her card to take me to CostCo and man! At first I hoped to get away being whelmed but no, I was overwhelmed.

Even for Clackamas the patrons vibed red tribe as hell I noticed that right off. Next off though I was struck this was a *very* distinct vibe from Wal-Mart, which by comparison was closer towards the old Fred Meyer in Felony Flats on 82nd

Like, snapshots:

Dad with his 9th gradeish daughter in a tie-dye sweatshirt from the regional Last Chance Cheerleading Tournament

3 Hispanic guys buying work pants and gloves in English

Old puffy guy in a Vietnam Veteran cap with his younger but not young asian wife

Mom in gingham dress pretending to spoon-feed her daughter inside the demo cedar wood playhouse

I mean I guess the membership structure favors the not-rich but with available property, long time horizons, an ability to live at least one payday out

I guess it read like a red utopia, a bunch of yeomen and skilled workers and laborers rewarded for their earnest labor, like how red tribe idealizes itself without the underclass