Fun and Games Dept

Covid Christmas.

Our Christmas plans are quiet this year. We have minimized our celebrating to the four of us and FaceTime journeys elsewhere. We are all healthy. That’s all I ask for.

Infrastructure.

I find a certain amount of beauty in our infrastructure. This is one of the things that compelled me to finally become a civil engineer; building and improving our infrastructure not only keeps society functioning by providing a solid foundation, there’s also a certain amount of beauty in the basis of life as we know it today, or our infrastructure.

I’ve always been a bit reserved when it comes to talk about my interest in our infrastructure. I enjoy the symmetry of power lines and high tension wires. I appreciate the simplicity of a wind turbine effortlessly collecting a natural resource and turning it into electricity. I am entranced by the simplicity of our nation’s roadways and rail lines. When I was in high school I started to talk about these things but I was instantly shot down by classmates who found me weird or not relatable. So I decided it was best to keep quiet about these things.

The truth of the matter is, I really enjoy taking photos of the world’s infrastructure. I find a certain amount of beauty in these man made creations. I don’t fear cancer or being pelted by a deceased bird when I’m taking photos of wind turbines. As a scholar of traffic engineering, I recognize the effort that goes into making a road sign guiding motorists to their destination a contributor to public safety.

On our recent ride across the prairies of Northern Illinois I took photos with both my aging iPhone X and my decade old Canon EOS DSLR camera. The iPhone X, with all its technological ties to algorithms and other associated software, takes better photos. This is one of the reasons I’m still married to Apple when it comes to my technology needs. For the most part, it still just works.

I see beauty in what others find mundane. I appreciate the power lines that have withstood Mother Nature for decades, even when she’s causing tornado sirens to blare a warning to take cover. I love the flatness of the Illinois Prairie and all the crops it provides to the sustenance of our nation.

I look forward to capturing more of this in the way of photography. Whenever and wherever possible.

Holiday Train.

The Kennedy Expressway in Chicago takes thousands of cars to and from O’Hare (and points west of the city) on a daily basis. Along the median of much of this expressway is the ‘L’ Blue Line. I get why the city built the ‘L’ tracks in the median of the expressway, but it makes for a cold experience in the winter when waiting for your train.

When we come home from a ride on the prairie I always coming in from O’Hare. Using other methods of entering the city and then trying to get to our condo on the north side is a challenge, especially with the never ending construction at the Jane Byrne Interchange near the loop.

Tonight as we made our way eastbound on the Kennedy (folks from elsewhere know it as “Interstate 90”), the CTA Holiday Train was traveling along the Blue Line ‘L’ tracks in the median. This explained why the overhead electronic sign said “MONTROSE 7 MIN” instead of the usual “MONTROSE 5 MIN”. Folks were slowing down to see Santa.

I have no issue with this.

Because of the pandemic there are no passengers drinking hot cocoa on the Holiday Train (which my husband and I call the “Jingle Train” when it passes by our condo on the Brown Line) nor is anyone visiting with Santa. The CTA has purposely not published the schedule because they don’t want crowds gathering to see the festivities. But it was an extra special treat to see the Jingle Train on the Blue Line on our way home from our ride.

A piece of merriment to keep us in the spirit. Happy Holidays!

Decadence.

My husband and I made a wonderful discovery during our road trip today.

Speedy Choice Fire Roasted Sweet Corn.

OH MY GOD.

OK, now before we get all crazy, the bag you see pictured above is a total of 600 calories. There are four servings of this phenomenal delight in that bag, and like the gentlemen we strive to be, we evenly split the heavenly experience between us at 300 calories a piece.

Now, popcorn is my favorite food of all time. I love popcorn and have loved popcorn since I was a small kid and my mom would pop it in this silver kettle that was streaked with oil but would produce wonderful popcorn. Once in a while popcorn has basically served as a butter and salt delivery system, but as an adult I have experimented with different types of corn, different types of oil, and an assortment of spices. Basic popcorn is still wonderful, but this Fire Roasted Sweet Corn is absolutely amazing.

It’s buttery. It has a hint of sweetness that is not overpowering like Kettle Corn, and it has a bit of that Fire Roasted goodness to keep things interesting. Earl spent a good share of ride searching various online outlets to see if we could buy this in bulk. When I got home I mapped out the closest Speedway convenience stores so I could stock up on this stuff.

It is absolutely amazing. I look forward to enjoying many bags of this on our future road trips together.

Highly recommended.

Ads.

If we have to endure advertising to keep the world spinning, at least make the ad calm enough so I don’t feel like I have to take a tranquilizer after the experience.

Today’s television advertisements yell and flash and scream and tell me about all the bad things that happen when we take the medication they’re screaming about. Why are drug companies allowed to advertise medication? “Here’s a caffeine pill for pep. It’ll give you gas, hair on your palms, and you might get a rash.”

Do like the rest of the world and have a drink.

It’s hard to believe that many TV ads back when I was a kid were 60 seconds long. These days there’s 30 seconds of ad copy jammed into 15 seconds with strobe lights and screaming and things that you won’t believe.

And don’t even get me started on Internet advertising. That’s a whole separate blog post altogether.

I have requested for our Christmas Eve celebration (it’ll be the four of us) some Jeno’s Pizza Rolls or whatever the equivalent is these days. I totally based this request on an ad from 1967.

Sometimes the best ads just linger on.

Nieces.

Skippy June Jones, December 2019.

We’re not headed back East this year for the holidays (pandemic and all). I was looking through photos from last year’s visit and I still get a kick out of this photo of one of my niece cats. Her name is Skippy June Jones. She’s quite a character.

Another niece we won’t be seeing this year is our niece dog, Bella. Bella has had a rough year; she’s displaced knee caps, and while she was in surgery for that, the vet left her on the heating pad for too long and burned her side badly. She’s been a couple of months in recovery, having to wear a padded collar to keep from digging at her burns. However, reports indicate she’s coming along in her recovery, so I’m happy to hear that. Here’s a picture of Bella from last December.

Bella, December 2019.

Bella gets along with Skippy and their sister, Peach Dot, who hides all the time and stays away from the paparazzi. I’ve only seen Peach Dot once or twice; she tends to keep to herself.

Energy.

One of the most prevalent results of the pandemic is the closing of schools across the country. When I’m out for a walk, I see the schools in our neighborhood dark, blinds closed, and with little signs of activity. Someone finally changed the billboard in one of the school yards to no longer reference graduation activities this past June.

Private schools in the area are open. One Catholic school is surrounded by neighbors with signs in their windows urging the school to close due to COVID-19, but they still have plenty of kids running around on the playground each day. The German school around the corner hasn’t been using the outside classrooms in tents they were using earlier this school year, it’s been far too cold for young children to be outside for six hours learning their ABCs, but I haven’t seen signs of activity inside the school. Perhaps they’re doing distance learning right now.

Distance learning just isn’t the same thing.

Humans, no matter their creed or color, size or age, or whether they’re an introvert or extrovert, need some sort of contact with other humans. We are all social creatures, even if our needs for certain levels of social contact vary. It’s the exchange of human energy that keeps a society moving forward. It’s difficult for us to accomplish this when we could kill each other by doing the same thing.

A state of affairs ripe for despair.

I’m finally feeling the holiday spirit, albeit in a different manner. I’m not going to risk the health of my family or the folks we see just to exchange some human energy and yuletide greetings. This year will be one of the history books, that’s for sure.

I look forward to hearing the sounds of children playing in the schoolyards again soon.

Fireside.

As the family made Christmas cookies in the kitchen and dining room at Jamie and Chris’ house, I took a few moments to myself with a glass of wine by the fireplace.

Holidays.

We are over at Jamie and Chris’ for annual Christmas cookie formulation. Normally this would be a large gathering but that doesn’t happen in 2020. The four of us are still having a lovely time.

Jamie and Chris have the apartment decked out for the season. It’s festive and perpetuating my search for the spirit.

2020 will definitely be one for the history books. I’m happy that we are still able to have joyful moments.