That Burning Smell is Me Thinking…

I have been busy with a new job and enrolling in school. I just finished reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and now I am reading On the Road.

I am realizing that I really like Chicago, I just hate the winters here. Maybe I will learn to embrace the winter, but until then, I am going to enjoy the summer. I have a job working outdoors and I love it. I maintain a large fleet of rental bicycles in downtown Chicago four days a week. I am working my ass off because I love it. The rest of the week I hang out and enjoy life.

Here is something I saw on the way to work the other day,

And I realized that I didn’t post a full picture of my 1971 Schwinn Racer so here it is,

I bought something red. It is a 1971 Schwinn Racer with shiny chrome fenders and it’s in really awesome condition.

On the way home from my new job today, I saw this:

Did I say New Job? Why yes I did. I am working as a bike mechanic for the summer. I get to do something I love and go outside every once in a while, so it is really cool.

I sat down for dinner and found an onion on the table. Somebody had sliced a chunk out of it and left it. I asked my friend, Bob, about it and he said it was there when he arrived. So I decided to make it into a dessert.

Enloy!

People like to leave their mark on the sea wall on Lake Michigan. Here is one interesting example. So are all those cave drawings that archaeologists find just simple graffiti?

I was looking outside and noticed a police man blocking traffic. So I went out to investigate and found a street blocked off and all the firefighters and police officers standing around doing nothing.

Then this other truck shows up and it said “Hazardous Rescue” or something like that on the side. I overheard someone say they hit a gas main digging down the street or something.

So since it looked kind of unexciting, I went back to the office.

There was a fire in a building on the next street over. I snapped this picture from the roof of the Wilson Building. I didn’t get there in time to get a shot of the flames shooting out, but I did get a good smoky shot.

I bought another iBook.

This particular iBook is a G4 1 GHz, it is less than 3 years old and it is in excellent shape. The gentleman I bought it from said this machine has seen very light use and has been sitting on a shelf for three months. This computer is very clean and there is very little wear.

The journey that led me to buy this computer is kind of complicated. When I bought my first iBook, I couldn’t afford a G4 iBook, so I found a G3 iBook for $400 on eBay. It already had an Airport wireless card in it so all I needed was a memory upgrade and I was set. I also bought another G3 iBook for parts but I was able to fix it so I sold it to a friend. Then my iBook started having video problems so my friend, Darren, let me have his old G4 Titanium PowerBook that needed to be fixed.

So I fixed the PowerBook and is OK, except that it is slower than my G3 iBook, is a little too big for my taste and it also is pretty worn out. I also don’t like the trackpad and typing on it is awkward. To top off all these lovely attributes, all the ports are located on the back beneath the screen hinge so it is very difficult to plug anything into it. The iBook has the ports on the side which is very convenient.

Needless to say, I really missed my little iBook. So I started looking around for another one when I saw a little ad for an iBook on Craigslist. The description wasn’t too detailed, so I emailed the guy and 11 messages later he answered all my questions and we agreed on a price. I was very fortunate because I was not the first person to make an offer. All the other people who were interested in it were not able to make it to his house because there was a big snow storm that day. So I was the only one who was willing to go out into the snow to pick up this little iBook. I think it may have been divine intervention.

On top of all that goodness, I found out that I am getting a new battery for free thanks to Apple’s Battery Recall Program. Bonus!

The Ground Hog did not see his shadow the other day so we should have an early spring, right? So after the Bears loss yesterday, my tears were freezing before they hit the ground. It is friggin’ COLD! Everywhere it is cold except in my bed when it is time to get up in the morning. So I am struggling with my faith in spring right now, but I do believe in global warming, so I have assurance that the ground hog is right. He better not let me down!

Each day is 2 minutes longer than the last, so spring will be here soon.