Double Downtown

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.
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.
From time to time, I have this pattern: wake up early, run some errands at the nearby Walgreen’s, stop for an espresso at the French bakery.
This all happens fairly early, circa 7-7:30 AM. But it’s a nice start to my morning, in that I’ll sit and sip on this espresso for a little while, before heading home.
Nearby, about 4 feet away, I saw this. I’m all for some good graffiti, but I’m very much at a loss for what’s going on here. Random Google searches turn up very little.
Our walks have someone gone along the same routes, though we’re trying to vary things up a bit. I used to really prefer the same routes, back when we were running on a semi-regular basis. But for walks? I’m not so OCD that I want the same path every day.
Hats off to you, Ramani Asait. I hope some day in the future, when you Google your name, you stumble across this small tribute to you monster. Well done, sir.
On the way in to work yesterday, I happened to be sitting in the frontmost car. We were stopped for a long while, just as we were entering Millennium Station. In fact, we were stopped so long… I decided to amble over to the front window, just to take a peek at the station.
But this? I’m… not really sure what happened here. Or whether the prior owner is coming back? Though I’d really love to know what led up to this moment. Hats off to the polite person who decided to hang this thing up on the fence, just in case.
Another day of longer commuting – this time, I got dropped off at Dune Park to catch an early train in to Chicago.
Spotted this small little switch/box, on the side of the Metra train that arrives across from our platform each morning. There’s a predictable cadence to the trains that show up before ours (an express whooshes by, the South Shore stops, and this guy pulls up across the way).
Today, as I was walking through, I spotted some of the in-progress decorations and holiday prep. The sight of this enormous wreath, leaning on a small scissor lift, was a humorous juxtaposition of the seasonal and the mechanical.
Spotted this while walking to work. It’s been sitting in a nearby apartment complex lot for some time, at least since the Spring of this year. The windows have been open, and I think it’s seem more than one thunderstorm.
The fog added a sense of uncertainty to things: our commute was familiar, but slightly off.