That Burning Smell is Me Thinking…

I was at a café this morning and they were playing bouncy dance music and I looked out the window and saw an older woman walking down the sidewalk perfectly in time with the music. It was one of those moments that pass by quickly and I realize that in a city of almost 4 million people, I was the only one who saw it.

In other news, the little iBook is dead. I am now using Darren’s old PowerBook. I came home and ripped the hard drive out of the iBook and transplanted it into the PowerBook. I am making plans to get another computer. I am seriously thinking about getting a MacBook.

I was sitting on the bus this morning watching the traffic signal at the intersection ahead of us change from red to green and back again six times before we moved an inch. I was thinking about how I wished I was riding a bicycle down the lakefront path freezing my ass off and feeling alive.

Cycling in the winter sounds harsh to many people, but the big challenge sometimes can be trying not to overheat. It is hard to convey the feeling of winter riding to those who haven’t done it because many folks have a hard time getting past the cold aspect of it. Beating the cold can be part of the attraction. I miss it.

Every day I am on the El train crawling along or on the bus sitting in the traffic, I long to be riding down the path and breathing the free air. Riding a bike to work sometimes feels like I am getting away with something, it is almost subversive. It is like I can have more fun in the morning before work than some people will have all day, and I can do it everyday.

So next next Wednesday I am going to look for a bike. I keep thinking about it all the time.

Last night I killed a mouse.

I woke up around 2am to pee and when I walked into the bathroom, I saw a mouse trying to jump out of the trash can. So I carefully picked up the trash can and dumped the mouse into the toilet. The poor little thing was swimming around trying desperately to get out. I tried to flush it down and it swam so hard that it didn’t go down. So I grabbed the plunger and tried to force it down. It stayed in the plunger. So I waited for the tank to fill up and tried a combination of flushing and plunging. Success!

I am sure it had a wild ride down the sewer!

I believe in Global Warming.

Living in Chicago the past 7 1/2 years, I have seen the winters go from snowy and cold to rainy and mild. Old timers here have told me that it used to be snowier and colder and a couple of years ago Tom Skilling, the weatherman on WGN, confirmed that. He looked back on statistics and showed how Chicago used to get more snow.

Today it is actually snowing. It is the second snow this season, but it is not really sticking too well. The first snow was at Thanksgiving and we got about 5 inches. All signs of that first snowfall disappeared after a couple of weeks. It has been relatively warm the past couple of months and right now it is 33º. Usually at 33º, the snow will stick, but it is not sticking. The snow plows are doing nothing much except driving around trying to look important and alert.

By this time of year (mid-January) the lake should be starting to freeze over to the point where you can walk on the ice. I saw a duck swimming in the harbor this morning.

I believe in Global Warming

I walked into Starbucks this morning, and the young punk behind the counter greeted me with, “talk to me.” He obviously didn’t understand that he was being extremely rude. I decided to treat what he said literally and with the most clueless face I could muster I replied, “what do you want me to talk about?”

At least the girl at the register was nice, so I only talked to her and ignored him from that point forward. As I was walking away he said, “I hope you have a better day.” Jerk.

It’s one thing to be unintentionally rude by not knowing better, I can tell when someone with inadequate social skills is being sincere. It is inexcusable to try to be cool and as a result appear extremely disrespectful. So this kid behind the counter lacks essential clues about respecting others, I hope he learns a few essential social skills for the sake of all the other people who will encounter him in the future.

This little exchange happened after I suffered through another example of how the CTA can turn my morning commute into a masochistic thrill ride. Maybe the train operators enjoy torturing us. They like to pack us in and toss us around, accelerating and stopping as hard as possible then randomly proceed at an extremely slow crawl prompting many of us to anxiously glance at our watches. At least it was Saturday so it wasn’t as crowded as usual.

There is an explanation for the bad train service. They are doing construction on the tracks and it is unfortunately going to get worse starting in April. I have been seriously considering getting a cheap bike.

After the bumpy and rude start, my day turned out good. I had to remember that life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of my reaction to it.

What kind of morning did this woman have that she had to do her makeup on the train? I can imagine her rushing out the door this morning. Maybe she woke up late, had to get little Joshua off to school, then jump into the shower, get dressed and out the door in less than 15 minutes!

She is about 40ish, brown hair with a touch of gray, and a slightly permanent expression of worry on her face. I watched as she pulled out one bottle after another and smeared stuff on her face. Then she did the eyes. I got off the train just as she was finishing everything off with the lipstick. She looked less human and more like a plastic mannequin after she was done.

This is Ivan

Shortly after this picture was taken, he climbed up my back, ran down my arm, and bit me on the hand!

So far, Ivan had peed on me and bit me.

I like the way these ink knives were lined up on the cart. This is at Belly Acres where I work.

In recent years I have been known to wear red clothing. This is me in the wee hours of the morning on December 25, 2005.