Fun and Games Dept

As enjoyed a drive across the prairie on Saturday I couldn’t help but marvel at the “pink layer” in the sky at sunset. In the photos we are looking to the east and the south. Behind us the sunset was a glorious red and orange, but the reflection against the haze on the eastern horizon was quite impressive as well.

Mother Nature can be so beautiful.

One of joys I have about meandering around rural areas of the country is taking photos of things I find interesting. Yesterday my husband and I drove across this railroad crossing at 55 MPH as we made our way along the county maintained roadway. But something caught my eye.

I did a U-turn and safely pulled off into a pullout alongside the crossing.

The photo above looks to the east of the roadway. The following two photos look to the west.

The railroad tracks go nowhere. There isn’t even room to park a rail car to the west of the crossing. The county went through the expense of building the cross, complete with warning lights (that are covered) for tracks that come to an abrupt end mere feet from the roadway.

I found this very interesting.

Where were the tracks headed? Is this a future industrial area that will be served by a big loop of railroad tracks?

One of my Twitter accounts is currently in Twitter Jail for 12 hours. I responded to a woman claiming COVID is really no big deal because 330 million people die per year on U.S. roadways. I called her incredibly stupid and asked her to put her head in a microwave.

She reported me for encouraging self-harm.

Despite the fact that you can’t run a microwave with the door open, you must be incredibly weak and fragile to be insulted by something that was fun 35 years ago on The Golden Girls.

I used to get upset about getting thrown in Twitter jail because I felt I was being a bad Internet citizen. But since Twitter is so incredibly arbitrary with their rules and guidelines these days, I am happy that someone noticed my attempt at humor.

We quarantined for ten days to accomplish this!

The backlot to the set of “Christmas Again”, a 2021 movie being filmed in our neighborhood. The production has a house shrouded in black fabric and other light blocking tricks two blocks from our condo; this afternoon I walked by and they were filming on the front lawn amongst a bunch of Christmas decorations. I looked the production up on IMDB and I recognized the star from the front lawn.

I know it’s fairly common for television and movie productions to be filmed in Chicago; I still find it quite neat to be right here in the neighborhood.

It’s very windy at the moment. Converting the wind in knots at O’Hare to the more civilian miles per hour in the United States, the wind is currently blowing at 28 to 50 miles per hour.

It made for an interesting walk through the neighborhood.

As a weather geek and an amateur storm chaser I have always been amazed and fascinated by strong wind. Wind at this time of year is very magical for me. It’s like Mother Earth is clearing out the Northern Hemisphere to settle down for her winter’s nap. Bursts of wind were swirling leaves and such around the neighborhood as I walked over four miles this afternoon. Luckily, my flight jacket kept me warm and I was able to shield my eyes from the debris blowing around. The “roar” of the trees was magical.

While others were bundled up bustling here and there on their errands or walking their dogs, I was out for a nice Sunday stroll in 50 MPH winds. Sounds about right.

I walk a lot. I average about six miles a day, usually taken in three different walks. My beginning of the day walk is the opportunity to listen to podcasts. My playlist generally contains podcasts about tech, but I also listen to some featuring humor or news commentary. Now that I think about it, what news isn’t commentary these days?

I also walk twice during my traditional work hours, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. Lately I have been leaving my phone behind and opting to instead lose myself in my thoughts. I tend to solve work problems during these walks but occasionally I think about non-work topics as well. I rely on my Apple Watch to keep track of my steps and people are able to still reach me by text message. Responding can be a little tricky.

The only drawback is when I walk without my phone I have no way of capturing any photos. And lately I’ve been enjoying taking photos. The magic of taking the film to get developed is gone, but it’s fun to see photos on a bigger screen when I pull them up on my MacBook or iPad Pro.

But alas, my Apple Watch does not have a camera in it. And I’m OK with that.

The energy in the neighborhood has been amazing for the past 24 hours. Last night there were fireworks going off all over the place. Folks were dancing in the streets. Sounds of cheering and frankly, a happiness we have not heard in years, was present everywhere. The celebration of President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris is electric.

Here’s a few photos from our walk this morning.

There’s more in the way of blog entries coming this weekend, but I have to share, this song just keeps going through my head.

Congratulations President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris!