Fun and Games Dept

We’ve come to the end of what will probably be the last “normal” weekend (whatever a normal weekend has come to mean) we’ll have in the United States for a while. After this election, no matter the outcome, no matter when the votes are tallied, all hell will break loose.

I have taken Wednesday off as a Mental Health Day. As I made my request I jokingly said to the Director of the organization, “I’ll either be hungover, drunk, or stoned. Of course, I’m kidding about that”.

It might be the best avenue out of this mess.

I am so weary and tired and fed-up. I’m sick of hearing about every outrage that Trump has done or every set of clutched pearls because a Democrat did this. I’m also extremely tired of memes stating the likes of “If people can’t be friends with you because of who you voted for they’re not very good friends to begin with”. That’s just a sign of crass cluelessness, because why would I want to be friends with anyone that will gleefully vote for Trump? The man has lied through his teeth for years, has no plan at all for anything, worked with the Senate to shove through a Supreme Court justice that will probably vote to not only end my marriage but take away a woman’s right to choose, never mind the fact that his policies permanently separated children from their families at the southern border.

I don’t terminate relationships with people because they voted for Trump. I terminate those relationships because they have a very weak moral foundation and lack any sense of human decency or compassion. They are selfish. I have no desire to debate or discuss their reasons for voting for a man that has done all of these things.

And now my blood pressure is going up. I’m going to go off and enjoy what’s left of this Sunday. Daylight Saving Time is over and my circadian rhythm is happy once again.

At least that part of my life is normal.

I was encouraged by the number of Trick or Treaters in the neighborhood late this afternoon. Parents and kids were going from house to house. Familiar calls of “trick or treat” were yelled from the sidewalk.

The majority of houses had a table set up on the front lawn with an assortment of candy and a bottle of hand sanitizer. I saw a half dozen houses with some sort of candy delivery system, usually a bunch of discarded paper towel rolls affixed end to end. A grown up would send candy down the chute to the waiting child with a trick or treat bag. One house had a witch’s hat in the end of the delivery system, and the candy shot out the witch’s hat.

This little slice of normal in the neighborhood raised my spirits a lot. Of course, we don’t get trick or treaters, being five stories up in a condo building, but Earl and I are eating the candy in the spirit of the holiday. It’s the American thing to do.

I was happy to see neighbors still decorating their houses. This has been an ongoing thing since the beginning of the month.

It certainly helps the mental state of the neighborhood. Happy Halloween!

Some family pumpkin carving fun this evening.

I think the neighborhood has more Halloween decorations this year than the number of Christmas decorations last year. There’s pumps and compressors blowing up all sorts of ghouls and goblins. Lights adorn many fences and porches. Two and three flats are adorned with decked out balconies. Every once in a while a tree or a porch will make a screeching sound as one walks by. Motion sensor technology is cool!

My husband and I celebrated nine years of legally wedded bliss today. There was no fancy dinner at a swanky restaurant to celebrate the occasion as the pandemic has changed all that. We did, however, have a wonderful home cooked meal (yay for a husband that cooks!) and great conversation.

One should marry their best friend.

Even though we’ve been together for over 24 years and as a gay married couple. have multiple anniversaries to celebrate, each one of them is special.

Especially when there’s flowers involved.

I’ve been trying to take more photos to inspire me to write more. I took this shot off the balcony the other night. It’s blurry because I have an iPhone X, the last model before the night shot feature or whatever it’s called. The little buildings you see on the horizon are the Sears Tower, the Trump Tower, and the Hancock Building. They’re about four miles away.

There were no business gatherings on the rooftop patio across the alley from us this year. The trendy building has been mostly empty since the beginning of the pandemic. Once in a while someone will sneak up there to talk on their phone during the lunch hour but there’s been no one at the bar, no televisions, no games of pool. 2020 is certainly one for the history books. I wonder if we’ll learn from this round of history.

The clock on the clock tower is always 10 minutes fast. The clock was repaired the first week of us living in Chicago. Within a day of the crane coming down the clocks jumped ahead 10 minutes and have stayed that way for three years. I find it disconcerting. I like my clocks to be synchronized.

A video of a snowball fight in 1896 was recently colorized and speed-corrected. The result was shared on YouTube. I really enjoy it, as many photographs from that era don’t feature big wide smiles and tend to lend a more “somber” vibe to the time. Ooh, and the mustaches on the men are awesome.

It’s fun watching folks from the late 19th century having fun in the snow.

I rode the Lakefront trail here in Chicago for the first time this year. With COVID-19, rising water levels in the Great Lakes, and other construction work to mitigate the eroding beaches, I was never sure as to where and when the trail was open and when it was closed.

It turns out that as long as you keep moving and don’t congregate in groups, you’re welcome to enjoy this little slice of the city.

The Lakefront Trail runs about 20 miles along Chicago’s shoreline of Lake Michigan. It’s well marked, it has exit and entry points that tie the trail into the ever-growing designated cycling routes along city streets, and for the vast majority of the trail, it separates cycling traffic from pedestrian traffic (when joggers and walkers follow their signs). There’s a couple of places where it’s particular congested, mainly near the downtown and tourist areas. Chicago’s bike share program, Divvy, is quite popular and there’s a lot of folks enjoying the availability of these bikes with their classic ding-ding bells.

I rode the trail down to the south side of the city, deciding to turn around at the 2400 block, which put me about eight miles from home (as the crow flies). People were pleasant, and when I was taking a few moments to enjoy some water and get turned around, I had a nice chat with two ladies who were out for their Sunday stroll. They were laughing amongst themselves and we exchanged pleasantries as I passed them.

My bike is nearly two decades old and has thousands of miles on it. I don’t see myself replacing it anytime soon, if ever. It does what it needs to do and I feel very comfortable on it. I swapped out the saddle a couple of years ago after my last round of surgery. I don’t need something supporting my crotch and possibly causing “trauma” in that area. The split saddle I use now is quite comfortable and it makes the rides more enjoyable.

How much fun are these folks having in this performance? There’s something special about the Mod sound in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

From 1969 here’s “The Friends of Distinction” with “Grazin’ In The Grass”.