Ponderings and Musings

Monday’s storm definitely followed a marked path through our neighborhood. Walking the blocks to the north of our building, there wasn’t a lot of damage to be found. Small branches here and there, leaves everywhere, but not much beyond that.

South of our building, I’m finding more and more fallen trees, some resting on cars and houses. Power and other lines are still down. Cleanup is well underway, but there are still several streets blocked from fallen trees.

I guess a derecho can follow a defined path much in the manner of a tornado doing the same, though the National Weather Service reported and EF1 tornado touched down just to the east of us.

Perhaps our neighborhood was part of the approach.

So yesterday’s storm was quite feisty. O’Hare showed winds gusting over 80 MPH. An EF1 tornado touched down just to the east of us. I thought the clouds coming over the condo looked quite “swirly” as we watched the storm pass through yesterday.

I was surprised to see exactly how much damage was on streets in our neighborhood when I went for my morning walk. As of this evening there are still areas without power; ComEd is working around the clock to restore electricity to those areas. Luckily we never lost power.

So a very impressive storm blew through. All of our devices were alerting us to a tornado warning and to take shelter immediately. We had secured all the furniture on the balcony and made an exit plan. If it looked like it was going to overwhelm us, we’d go into my office, which is the furthest room from the windows and has a concrete wall.

We spent most of the storm on the balcony with our backs to the upwind wall, though at one point we came inside due to the force of the wind. We watched patio furniture fly off the roof deck next to the clock you see in one of the photos. The trees around us bent over in ways we’d never seen before. It was a very impressive site.

Then, in less than an hour, it was over and by evening the winds had completely died down and the sun was out.

It was probably the strongest wind I have encountered and part of me wishes I was out on the prairie chasing the storm.

So I focused on relaxing this entire weekend. We didn’t go flying, I didn’t embark on some sort of weekend project, we didn’t try to go out and have a drink or eat and end up dealing with the stress of maintaining distancing and the like, we just had a weekend of downtime.

It’s just what we needed.

I’ve had this habit of trying to maintain a certain level of productivity as well as not missing out on life (something I’m more aware of as I get older) during the weekend and I feel like I haven’t given myself a chance to relax. The world is stressful enough these days, why add extra stress when we don’t have to?

Hence, a weekend of doing very little. It was quite nice.

This shop in our neighborhood is keeping their message simple, clear, and concise. It’s brilliant marketing. I wonder how many potential customers take a self inventory before walking into the place. How many get worked up into a huff and take their business elsewhere? I’m sure the owners of this location don’t want the latter in there anyway.

Too often I see folks sharing images of receipts with tips of minimal amounts because the server wore a mask or they wanted their waiter or waitress to go back where they came from. I find it difficult to wrap my head around this concept. I didn’t pay close attention in Sunday school but I know there’s something about “Do unto others…”. Perhaps the cranky folks that leave bad tips with hateful messages think they’re above the commandments. They’re certainly not acting Christian.

So many false prophets here in these “United States”.

I’m occasionally amused by science fiction/alien arrival movies that assume visitors from another planet would start their visit here on Earth in the United States. We don’t have a particular large land mass. We barely qualify for “world leader” unless you want to talk about deaths during pandemics. I should think aliens would be more interested in smart cities, bullet trains, and societies that have universal health care. So many American movies have depicted aliens arriving to this planet as hostile. Years ago, back in the LiveJournal days, someone mentioned there would be no other reason for a race to cross the vastness of space for any other reason than hostile military reasons. It’s like crossing the ocean from Europe to a new land in the west.

I’d like to think everyone should just be kind to their neighbors.

I took a ride through rural northwest Illinois yesterday. My journey took me almost to St. Louis, following mostly backroads, until I decided to turn around and head back to Chicago. It was a mostly relaxing experience. I find it interesting to drive through the small towns in the Land of Lincoln.

Once outside of Chicago, a common theme in lawn signs is “Pritzker Sucks”. These reference Governor Pritzker, who in my opinion, has done a very good job in leading efforts to keep the pandemic at bay. The lockdown and subsequent measures have been unfortunate, especially for the economy, but if I had to choose, a business can be rebuilt or replaced, a human being can not.

Not even human beings that don’t seem interested in gaining or sharing intelligence.

The big installation shown in the photo is found along Interstate 72, somewhere between Quincy and Jacksonville. I’m not surprised at the size of it, when you don’t have much you make prideful displays of something. But I couldn’t help think how much more valuable the funds used to build that sign could be to someone that couldn’t afford a meal or the neighbors that couldn’t afford their medicine. For many, compassion has been replaced by idiocy and ignorance. This makes me sad.

Of course, the makers of that Trump sign have every right to build and display their political allegiances in such an egregious manner, just as I have every right to write this blog entry.

I’ve been trying really hard not to complain about the pandemic, or Trump, or the riots, or the idiots that are cheering on Nazi-like activity from our Department of Homeland Security.

My mood jumps up and down, a lot. These swings are much more frequent than they used to be. I can’t comprehend how people can still be “on the fence” about who to vote for. I can’t comprehend how people can still support the worst president in the history of the United States. Children in cages, mayors of major cities being tear gassed, a non-existent response to a global pandemic. And these idiots still think Trump was sent by God.

It’s hard to continue to maintain this blog but I continue to do it. It will soon be 19 years old. I’ve been blathering on about life for 19 years!

Who’s the crazy one?

I told Earl I should write my autobiography just to do it. While the main title would be “Trip The Moment Fantastic”, it’d have a subtitle that says, “You Really Have No Reason To Buy This Book”. As the Abba song goes, “I’m nothing special, in fact, I’m a bit of a bore”. But here I am still writing in a blog for 19 years.

Eccentric? Yes.

I won an award at work today. I was one of three recipients of a Quarterly Leadership Award. The announcement was made during an All-Hands Call today. I had no idea my name would be included on the PowerPoint presented through the Zoom interface.

I am only as strong as the team I lead. I thanked my team for their support in accomplishing our goals together. I have a great team with hard workers and a lot of brains.

Today was a good day.