A few random thoughts that are on my mind today:

1. After a terrific start to the season, the Portland Timbers have hit the skids. The team hasn’t won a game since April 22. They’ve dropped from first place in the Western Conference to fifth and are no longer in serious contention for the Supporters’ Shield, falling from first place to 12th. Setting up residence yet again as a midtable team in Major League Soccer is disappointing. The vaunted attack is sputtering and the defense simply isn’t good enough. The wheels haven’t fallen off the metaphorical car yet, but a couple hubcaps have been spotted in the middle of Morrison Street. Tonight San Jose comes to town, a squad that embarrassed Portland with a 3-0 rout at the beginning of May. Here’s hoping for a reversal of fortune for the Timbers beginning this evening. June is an important month that sets the stage for the rest of the season.

2. My wife and I started watching the fifth season of House of Cards. I don’t know when shooting for this season started, but there are overtones that give a nod to our current political climate. I remarked that the real life White House could resemble the fictional version if there was competence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. After yesterday’s curious vacuity on display in the Rose Garden, announcing the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, that’s not likely to be the case anytime soon.

3. What happened to the Portland Rose Festival? When I was growing up, the celebration was a really big deal and lasted a full month. The coronation of the queen took place the Friday night before the Starlight Parade. It was held at the Keller Auditorium, then called the Civic Auditorium, and televised. The Grand Floral Parade and Fleet Week came next. (There were always jokes about a small baby boom nine months after the U.S. Navy arrived in town.) The second half of the festival included the Indy CART GI Joe’s 200 at Portland International Raceway and the Rose Festival Air Show in Hillsboro. Many of these events, and others, still happen but lack the buzz they used to generate. The queen’s coronation, for example, takes place a few minutes before the Grand Floral Parade — almost an afterthought. The air show is no longer sanctioned by the Rose Festival. CART went bankrupt, as did GI Joe’s. While there are sanctioned races at the Woodburn Drag Strip, nothing has replaced the GI Joe’s 200 in magnitude. I moved away from Portland for 14 years, and when I came back it was noticeable that the festival no longer has the same cachet in the community. A friend of mine, a former Rose Festival princess, also notices the difference. I wonder if changes to Portland over the last couple of decades have caused the festival to no longer resonate as it once did. Newcomers may not view it the same way, or maybe I’m just being nostalgic. All that said, the weather is great right now, which isn’t always the case for the Rose Festival. Enjoy some of the offerings over the next couple of weeks if you’re in town.