Snow in New York

I took my annual pilgrimage to New Hampshire for Christmas again this year (driving my newly purchased car a significant distance for the first time). I try to plan my route and timing to avoid the worst weather (I hate driving in snow), and usually have decent luck (but Ohio likes to snow on me when you'd least expect it.)

I stopped halfway in Erie,PA, checked the weather the next morning before setting out and learned that there would be about an inch of lake effect snow near Buffalo in the course of the day. (If you don't know, Buffalo is about halfway through New York on the New York Thruway - the fastest way to get from the Midwest to New England). Although and inch wasn't too bad on the interstate, I decided to play it safe and take the southern route (I-86 - as far away from the lake and the "lake effect snow" as possible).

The snow started out light and I figured I'd be through the worst of it soon as I traveled east. Wrong! It turned to white-out conditions with the highway completely covered - not even a track to follow. I gave up in two hours after having made it 48 miles to Jamestown, NY.

I tucked myself into a hotel to wait it out and 10 hours and 11 inches of snow later - it stopped. I now longer trust the weather-guessers!

100,000

Of course, just a month after my 10-year old Honda Civic reached 100,000 miles (a badge of honor in my family) a woman decides not to stop at a light everyone else is stopped at and totals my car (Honda's tend to fold like accordions when hit).

The good news is that it's been replaced by a newer Honda Accord, the bad news is I really don't like stopping at stop lights when people are coming up behind me. With a little luck and some diligence by other drivers I might get this one to 100,000 too.

Dead traffic lights

I walk to work in the south loop area of downtown. I have to cross one particularly busy and dangerous street which involves traffic from four directions, turns with out turn arrow lights, and traffic coming off one of Chicago's busies highways merging with street traffic (often at very high speeds). This makes for some excitement. Also adding to the fun is a fire station less than a block away, if I don't get killed first I'm sure I'm going to witness an ambulance t-boning a bus at some point (I did witness a near miss already).

There is a poor hapless traffic light pole in the middle of this mess that gets taken out on a regular basis. I've decided to document it's violent life:


At one point I thought of the island the light pole stands on as a safe haven to stand on if I didn't make it all the way across the street in one light (which if you don't time it just right will happen, it's six lanes that need to be crossed) - now I know better, the light would have no chance in saving me from an oncoming speeding vehicle.

Vanity License Plates

I think of vanity license plates a little like tattoos – it’s almost impossible to find a single idea that is so important and timeless it won’t look a bit silly after some time.

Bragging about your job on Wall Street is a little foolish when the market tanks (especially if it’s attached to your sweet ride [it’s a Maserati] – it’ll make me [for one] wonder if you’ve made your latest payment).

I saw this one (on the bottom) shortly after noticing the Maserati – the only interpretation I can get from it is “GM stocks” –it’s on a GM car. But considering the shape the car industry is in, it’s not a great thing to brag about right now (I hope his pension isn't at risk).

People in the neighborhood

You never know who you might run into on the streets of Chicago on a sunny fall weekend.




Monks.

Sailors with Big Gulps.

Men painting a building high up on a scaffold.

Construction workers taking a lunch break.

A construction worker welding a beam in the middle of the street.

Young men playing cricket.

A freight train on the el?







This is why I like living in the city, and why I always travel with a camera.

Pretty flowers

A beautiful day to go for a walk and take pictures of pretty flowers! But winter is in the air...

Marketing that makes you go, hmmm.

I can't understand what knowing about tequila has to do with knowing the etymology of "Windy City." If it were beans rather than tequila that might have some connection, but tequila? I don't get it.


Advertising Michigan vacations on the side of a Chicago tour bus? It's a big, billboard-like space, granted, but why not advertise Chicago vacations on the side of a Chicago tour bus? Are they trying to make the tourists who chose Chicago over Michigan regret their decision?

Everything crashes but Coke.

On the day of the worst stock market crash since the Great Depression I tried to get a picture of the tickers in the window of the ETrade office on Wacker. What had me so puzzled was that with every single other stock posting a decline, why was Coke posting positive? I would have thought that during a crash like that the only companies that would be faring well would be Anheuser Busch or Bacardi (getting a picture to document this was a little tough, but I tried).

Brand brand

A repetitive sign or an actual "Brand" brand scaffold?

The Sears Tower is missing!

Not a good day to go up to the Sears Tower observation deck

Chicago is Gotham City

Although not as common as in New York and Los Angeles, movie filming does happen quite a bit in Chicago. It's not too exciting to watch since it progresses very slowly (except for the time I saw a mob screaming and running up La Salle street one weekend afternoon) but occasionally you see a celebrity (I saw Sandra Bullock in the Santa Fe building once) and you get to wonder how the little bits they are filming will show up on screen.

Last year large portions of the latest Batman movie were filmed here. The visualization of Gotham City under Chistopher Nolan's leadership shows the fictional city as very art deco. Art deco is a great design style since it can be both very modern and very evocative of the 1920's. For the first Dark Knight movie (Batman Begins) some filming was done in Chicago - enough so that some iconic buildings (like the Chicago Board of Trade) could be seen. This time around a lot more filming was done here.

The now vacant 1920's post office downtown (which, in Sears catalog heyday, was the busiest post office in the wold) was used as both the "Gotham National Bank" and the "Gotham City Police Department." I got to see first hand a little movie magic. They added an addition to the building, that from the front looks very real and part of the building, but the side shot shows how fake it is.

Also a bit of Hollywood fakery were signs posted around the city pointing out filming locations and parking available for crew members. The signs pointed out the filming for "RFK" or "Rory's First Kiss" the title Dark Knight was filmed under. I wonder if false names like that ever work since we all knew what was going on. I do know, however, some people who never noticed the temporary name change on the post office.

Chicago White Sox

Our annual work outing lately (for the past five years at least) has been an afternoon spent in a skybox at US Cellular field (fka Comisky Park) to watch the Chicago White Sox play.

Most people spend their time eating the free food the dessert cart is a particular highlight), drinking the free beer, and not watching the game. But its a fun relaxing day away from the office either way.

This year the game coincided with the week of the Chicago Air & Water show, so there were some parachutists in town - this group, who landed in the field before the game, are Navy SEALs - I for one, didn't know they had a demonstration team. They had a target set up in the outfield, and although none of them hit it, they made dramatic entrances, some with the American flag hanging from their feet.

I have a couple of pictures of the game, and while it was exciting (the Sox slaughtered the Royals, with three home runs in a row one inning, something I've personally never seen) it is very hard to get good pictures, so I'm just showing a couple representative shots. One of the shots is of the ground crew doing their thing, which I always find fascinating.

Looking at the stands you can see that it's a good crowd for a Thursday afternoon. Although, the Sox are doing well this year I can't help but wonder if all these people are playing hookie from work - or if they don't have anything better to do than go to a ball game during the week.

Reason #1 for why I carry a camera!

Sometimes you see something in passing that you just can't help but document.

I don't mean to make light of someone's misfortune, but this image is too classic not to have taken it. How often do you see Rolls Royces broken down in Taco Bell parking lots? You would think Rolls came with their own on-call repair guy, and that their owners could do better than Taco Bell.

Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park

If you have a few hours to kill in western Michigan, this is a place to visit. It’s a botanic garden with a twist: sculpture, lots of sculpture! This summer they also have a special exhibit of all of Degas’ sculptures.

Today the weather was terrible, on and off rainstorms and sticky humidity otherwise) and I’m walking (limping) around with a broken toe, but I’m glad I came.

A centerpiece of the sculpture garden is 24 foot “American Horse,” by Nina Akamu (1955), which pays homage to Leonardo Da Vinci’s 24 horse model which was never cast in bronze.

A lot of the other stuff is really modern and inexplicable to me, but I did like the head with a book tied to it: “Listening to History,” by Bill Woodrow (1995), I think the title sells it. I also like “I, you, she, or he…” (right) by Jaume Plensa (2006), but I'm not sure what it means - if you can't see from the picture (click on it to enlarge) the figures are made up of metal letters.

Gerald R. Ford

I judge Gerald Ford’s grave site as the most depressing. Usually presidential memorials are in pastoral settings or cemeteries that are peaceful and respectful. Ford’s is located in a small park area just off the main expressway going through Grand Rapids. It is next to his museum, and doesn’t look like a place that a person would actually be buried.

I visited Ford’s memorial and museum on a summer Saturday, I got there probably around 9:30, and there were only two other cars in the parking lot. The park area around the museum was empty of people except for two individuals sitting alone at different picnic benches along the Grand River.

The museum is interesting. Interesting because Ford was president for less than three years and took over from one of the most hated presidents in history. Presidential museums always stress the positive so fun factoids like Ford “served as former president longer than anyone except Herbert Hoover” are presented. There is a gallery that consists of just a collection of 60’s memorabilia.

I did learn something disturbing though. No matter the controversies and scandals that happen during a presidency, the power behind the throne, the power elite of Washington, never go away. Supporting Ford during his administration were Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense; Allan Greenspan, Council of Economic Advisors; George H.W. Bush, Director of the CIA; and Dick Cheney, Assistant to the President. Any of those names sound familiar?

I should read more about Nixon, during a film about the Watergate incident they showed a news anchor saying: “the president now says the facts are various to what he had previously stated.” I have heard the “I am not a crook,” bit (because it’s constantly parodied) but I now wonder how many other ways the guy tried to weasel out of the truth, with fun new ways to not explain what he did or how much he knew.

This museum presents less about the Fords outside the presidency than others I've visited. Although her fight with breast cancer is mentioned her alcoholism and the Betty Ford clinic is not.

Mr. and Mrs. Ford come across as very nice people, people it would be fun to spend an evening with. With his political career (a long tenure in the House) what he did as president I'll bet Ford would have won the election against Carter if Nixon hadn't turned the US against the Republican party.

Michigan Road Trip

I'm on a roadtrip to Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit a dead president. I always see something interesting as I'm driving along on my highway jaunts, and since I usually travel alone I have no one to share my great insights with - but aha! I now have a blog!

This trip is a fairly short one distance-wise. Grand Rapids is just over three hours from Chicago (on a good day with limited traffic issues). I've only been in Michigan once before in my life, so this should be a fun one.

When newcomers visit Chicago for the first time they are often surprised at how little big industry - those that created Chicago - can be seen from downtown. That's because it's all to the south of town on the Illinois/Indiana border. This trip brought me right through the heart of it.

When I passed into Michigan I stopped for gas ($4.27/gal). At the gas station register I saw an interesting handwritten sign. First they say that the clerk will not make change. That's not too strange. But below that it reads: "The clerk is not interested in buying CD players, jumper cables, radios, watches..." and the list went on. The only reason a sign like this is created is because this is an issue for this gas station. Things that make you go, hmmm.

Then I read the rest of the sign: "We are sorry if you lost all your money gambling, but there is nothing we can do to help."

Ah, the gas station is across the street from a casino. At first I though about how sad it is that they have had the situation arise enough that they had to create a sign to address it. Then my cynical/mercenary/capitalist side emerged. Business idea: open pawn shops next door to casinos and take heartless advantage of people with gambling problems! I'm kind of amazed the gas station owner hadn't thought of it. I'm not enough of a cold entrepreneur to actually do this - but if someone should happen to read this blog, borrow the idea and make millions, I will expect a royalty of some sort.

Driving into Michigan the traffic with me was interesting. About every third other car had Illinois plates, and one in four had bicycles attached to the back. The deeper into the state I drove I eventually lost the bike carriers, and the further away from Lake Michigan I got as I got into the heart of Michigan the fewer and fewer Illinois plates I saw. My only conclusion is that 1) there was a bike rally somewhere near Detroit (my route caused me to split off from the main highway toward Detroit about 60 miles into the state); and 2) Chicagoans like to weekend during the summer on the opposite side of the lake from the city.

My main impression about driving in Michigan: the highways are terrible! For several miles it looked like a truck spilling acid drove along oblivious and the acid burned deep channels in the path behind it (the burned out channels were only in one lane, sometimes changed lanes, but were never in two lanes at the same time).

Denver

This is just an excuse to post a picture I love. This is the exterior of the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Finding fun little gems like this is what I love about wandering around new places with a camera. I wonder how many times this guy has had his picture taken.

Third of July Festivities

Chicago has its big 4th of July fireworks display on the 3rd, and it coincides with the last weekend of the annual "Taste of Chicago" festival, one of the most popular in the city. I don't attend the "Taste" because the idea of eating standing up in huge crowds of people on a hot July day just doesn't appeal to me for some reason. I do like fireworks, though.

People are encouraged not to drive on days of big gatherings downtown, especially the third (this year a million and a half people gathered at the lakefront). Chicago has a decent public transportation system with a great suburban rail network, there is no reason to have to drive downtown most days and on summer days with large events it is almost impossible to find a place to park if you do.

For some reason, people don't listen to the warning, and downtown turns into a parking lot. On days like that I really don't envy emergency crews trying to get through the mess.

The evening for me was mostly a chance to play with my camera - one thing I did learn, it's hard to get a good representative picture of a million and a half people at night while being jostled in the crowd (for the fireworks I used a tripod, but for all the other shots it wasn't really feasible).

(I'm also learning that Blogger is probably not the best or easiest program to use to post and format text and pictures together - getting the different pictures situated around the text is a chore.)

Everyday trompe l'oeil

There are planters on the sidewalks of Chicago (I'm not sure how ubiquitous they are, I haven't conducted a formal survey) that look like they are carved with indentations around the sides. Interested in this detail on such a mundane and easily vandalized thing, one day I took a closer look. Come to find out, the three dimensional looking indentations are painted on. I tried to get shots from various angles so it would be obvious, but they are done so well, it's very hard to tell without touching them. A very interesting detail that few notice, I'm sure. And yes, Chicago is almost obsessive about having flowers all over the place.

Random Shoes

I always wonder about the stories behind the random shoes (and hats) you often spot on the sides of the road or on a sidewalk, was it intentional and do the owners miss them? Clothing items seen on the sides of highways are particularly baffling - did they blow out of cars or did the owners lose them in the course of an emergency stop?

This shoe was probably found on the sidewalk and placed on top of the draw bridge support on a bridge downtown. It's a child's pink plastic sandal - I'll bet the mom wasn't happy when she discovered the loss!

Five things that may surprise you about Chicago

1. The Chicago River still has freight traffic. In fact everyday you can see tugboats pushing barges that just barely fit - and on occasion you will see them hit a bridge pylon.



2. Some of the ultra modern skyscrapers in the city have their windows cleaned by guys in bosun's chairs.

3. When you dig into the city's streets, you are quite likely to find old railroad tracks (they're digging here to bury a new water main). Although there are still a lot of trains going in and out of Chicago, in the past there were more. Chicago used to have it's own Grand Central Station, which is now only a memory (I think the tracks pictured actually used to lead into Grand Central).

4. The Chicago River is popular for kayakers and canoers(spellcheck doesn't like either of these words) as well as the occasional crew team practice.

5. There is (or was) a flower box facing the river. There are actually flowers growing in it and they're being regularly watered - but why?