Thursday, April 9, 2020

Evanston: weird; dancing albatross; an article in YACHTING WORLD; a plan


Chicago is a great city.  It has great architecture.  Museums.  Food.  Music.  Public parks and spaces.  A magnificent lakefront.  But as I have noted before, no one lives here for the climate.  Or if they do, they are demented.  Even by Chicago standards Tuesday was weird.

When Carol and I walked in Calvary Cemetery in mid-afternoon the temperature was 80º, about twice what it has been around here lately.  Others were there too.  A young man was tossing a ball among the graves for his dog.  On the far side an older man was sitting in a lawn chair reading.  Individuals and couples were walking.  We kept our distance from all, and all of us were sweating.  Sweat has not been seen In Chicago since last October.

Four hours later a predicted cold front passed through with lightning, strong wind, heavy rain, and a drop to near freezing. During the night hail fell, smashing windshields on parked cars.  Carol and I slept through that.  Her car is in our garage.

Two days later snow is in the forecast.

I thank Jay for forwarding the above dramatic photograph taken looking south toward downtown Chicago by his son, Jimmy Grizzell, and I thank Jimmy for permission to share it with you.  



From Cornell University’s Bird Lab comes a video of dancing albatross.

Apparently some of our species have named the chick, Pippa.  Somehow I doubt she knows that.  She does look as though she is wondering what the hell is going on and wishes it would stop.





The Webb Chiles mini-festival continues, and concludes, with an article in the just released May issue of YACHTING WORLD, which they have titled ‘Pacific Solo’.  It is a repeat of what I titled ‘Act Three’.   I will add it to the articles page on the main site next month.

The brief note about me at the end is of course wrong.  I have owned more than three boats.  It should have read ‘three great boats’.




It has taken a while, but I have formulated a loose plan for the rest of my life, or the next four or five years, which is probably the same thing.  It presumes that I remain healthy and alive.  No details.  I don’t like to talk about what I might do.  I prefer to report on what I have done.  So you will have to hang around to find out.

Time to do some stairs and then resistance bands.

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An update.  I wrote the above four or five hours ago.  Now, at 6:08 PM snow is falling.  Actually being blown sideways.

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