Friday night, late. We’ve been running errands after work downtown, and decided to try out a local place for dinner: Truth Be Told. Turns out, it’s the restaurant at the base of the The Study, a hotel on the University of Chicago campus.
It’s right on the midway, a place I’ve circled an awful lot last year… but I never ran down this side of the Midway. And I never noticed this hotel before. So I got to see it tonight.
Spotted this bumper sticker, after parking my car. I love how unassuming and subdued this bumper sticker is. I’m used to bumper stickers being these big, bold, declarative statements – a shouting of text, announcing a particular morality or point of view onto anyone who passes by.
I was changing in the bedroom upstairs, when I heard a lot of commotion outside. After listening a while, I realized that it was crows cawing. And not just one or two, but a lot of crows making a lot of noise.
And in a remarkable Goofus and Gallant moment, we spotted this guy nearby. Sculpted, formed, almost an art installation.
You can almost hear him asking: “Why am I here? Why am I out here in the cold?”
You said it, buddy. You said it.
We headed north from Hyde Park, and Liz showed me some of the paths she took when she was doing her marathon training earlier this year.
While the two of us ran five miles while we were at the lakehouse last week, it didn’t quite dawn on me the actual distance.
We decided to stop at Plein Air Cafe for breakfast, and found that a lot of the nearby parking spots were all taken up. We normally come here on the weekends, when there are fewer students around. But today, the streets were all jam packed. We ended up needing to park several blocks away.
This year, we dusted off the Operation game for Halloween. I’ve been making some variation of this costume for, oh… over two decades now. That’s a little crazy to say out loud.
I did my first version a long while ago, when I was a grad student at OSU. I think the first documented version I have of the costume is from 2004, which was a wearable/portable version.
Near the end of our run, with dusk and downtown Chicago in the distance.
For part of my run today, I did a loop around the Midway Plaisance, next to the University of Chicago.
Our neighbors put up some decorations, and it reminded me how close Halloween really is. On seeing this, I had a good chuckle… and was glad I didn’t see it for the first time at night, in the dark.
On closer inspection, it looks like they paved over the existing concrete paths with asphalt. Seemed a difficult job to keep people off of this path, but looking forward to checking it out when the barriers are gone (and running along the paths).
A bit further in the run, pausing along the path that runs alongside Lake Shore Drive. A lovely view of the lake, with the light starting to settle into dusk.
In addition to some papers (which I assume were part of the user manual), it turns out this was a Series 912 Elecronamic Tube Tester. Was not expecting this, when I opened the box up.
On my way home, my run ended near our location fire station (Chicago Fire Department, Engine Company 60).
The bay doors happened to be open, and there was a nice bit of symmetry from where I had stopped. So I snapped a quick photo.
For the second half, I ended up running by the Obama Library on my way to Promontory Point. As I entered Jackson Park, I started to see this slow and steady stream of people.
They were all runners, and were all walking. Most of them had these huge medals, hanging around their necks. It slowly dawned on me that I was entering the end of a race, and going the opposite direction of everyone else.