A day or so ago, Liz and I were driving down South Lake Park Avenue, and got redirected. Turns out, there was this enormous crane situated in the middle of the road… and was in the process of lifting up trees to a nearby rooftop.
So this thing happened, on my way to work. And it involved $300. Well, maybe.
Let me explain.
I can’t imagine the placement of this sign was an act of laziness. It must have taken some serious work to get it positioned so high. And then the thought again: why?
Today, the train slowed and I noticed out of the corner of my eyes that there was an actual train car being washed. The light was reflecting off the window something awful, but I got a few seconds of the process on video.
On the way up to work, in the elevator, I spotted the control panel… with a door slightly ajar. Curious about what might be hidden from normal passengers, I decided to open it up a little.
Spotted along 53rd. I like the backdrop of the arches. And how all that remains, all the eye focuses on is the mouth. And how you can almost hear the roar, even as the rest of the creature is fading away.
Other riders in my train were experiencing the same thing. And it slowly dawned on everyone that our ability to “pay” for our tickets was compromised. We heard an announcement talking about the app issues, and everyone basically got to ride the train for free.
What struck me was that this was like a mini-Y2K event for Metra/Ventra. The February 1 timeline resulted in a significant before/after shift, and perhaps they could have done a bit more QA before the big day.
It’s an odd thing, but I feel like I lost a skill. Not that my photos were ever that skillful. I’m talking about a way of looking at the world. I’m out of practice.
I felt this way about writing poetry, in particular. I did it a lot when I was younger, in grad school, and during my early years in Chicago. But as I slowly replaced writing poetry with writing code, I feel like I lost a certain point of view. I feel like I lost a way of looking at the world.
A pretty serious fog took over Chicago today, particularly close to the lake. Worth noting: this fog would stick around for the next two days, making any walk outside a bit eerie, and a bit more shrouded in mystery.
I was headed to the office today. And on my way out the door, I stopped in my tracks when I saw this across the street.
While waiting to disembark at Millennium Station… I was looking down, and noticed this outlet.
Or should I say: this forbidden outlet. Which is off limits to us “norms,” but apparently is only good for the conductors.
I can’t remember the last time we went in to work together. Definitely surreal. So much of our lives since the pandemic started has been working remotely, it’s difficult to even process being downtown together for work.
Waiting for the Metra train in to the city, I spotted this sign on the side of a car that was going the opposite direction as me.
Now that I’m actually commuting in to work a few times each week, I’ve been on the lookout more for stickers, graffiti – the small things that I really didn’t get to see, when we were working remotely all the time.
A fun thing about being downtown in the “early” morning (this was circa 8:30 AM)… you get to see all manner of folks setting up for the day.