Category Archives: Weather

Snowy Thursday

Posted on by

As expected, snow followed rain today. But at least yesterday’s rain didn’t leave an ice glaze everywhere. Especially underfoot. I salted a few patches of driveway this morning, but on the whole the surfaces were dry till the snow started around 1 p.m.

Views of the snowy scene this afternoon from the front door.

Wish I could say I wrote this, but no. By a random soul online: It’s only a comorbidity if it comes from the Comorbois region of France. Otherwise it’s just a sparkling pre-existing condition.

I heard a song by a band called Modest Mouse the other day on the radio in the car. Apparently they’ve been around for 30 years, but I miss a lot my not paying attention to much.

Interesting song, though I don’t remember what it was. Maybe that’s because I was busy imagining that Modest Mouse is Mighty Mouse’s lesser-known brother. He didn’t care for the spotlight, and never went into the Mouse family business of saving the day.

Text message from Ann not long ago (edited for caps and punctuation): Seeing Princess Bride at the Normal Theatre.

With this pic attached:
Normal Theatre 2022

Message continued: The sword fight was really great on the big screen.

My answer: Oh yes.

Frog in the Snow & Other February Sights

Posted on by

Here we are, partway through paradoxical February, which is the shortest and yet the longest month.

Much of the snow has melted, but it will be back. Out in the front yard, near the front door, our metal frog peeps further out of the snow cover.frog in the snow

Elsewhere in the northwest suburbs, machines stand ready to deal with more frozen precipitation.snow plow

I’ve seen flags to warn, or assure, passersby about the solidity of ice, usually green or red for go or no go. But I’ve never seen one that hedges its bets. Red = no ice use. Yellow = own risk.hoffman estates

It’s theoretical for me anyway. I’m not about to walk out on any ice.

Spouting Off Thursday

Posted on by

Compare and contrast, as my English teachers used to say.

Dusk on February 1.

Dusk on February 2.

For comparison, about the same framing — the view from my back door — but a whole lot of contrast. We caught the edge of the aforementioned winter storm on Wednesday morning. Not a huge amount of snow, just enough to be the usual pain in the ass.

Speaking of which, wankers are on the loose. They always are. Taken at a NW suburban gas station recently. No doubt posted by a true believer, unwittingly on behalf of the listed grifters.

One objection to the Covid-19 vaccine I find particularly irksome — one quasi-rational objection, that is, as opposed to the microchip ‘n’ such crackpot ones — is that it was developed too quickly.

True enough, it was developed much more quickly than any vaccine in history. Know what I’d call that? Progress. You’d be mistaken in believing Progress can cure all of mankind’s many ills, but it does a pretty good job in treating a lot of literal ills.

The other day I read about a woman who favored certain famous quack treatments for a relative dying of Covid-19, and who pestered his no doubt overburdened health care workers about it. One commentator on the situation said that the woman had attended the Dunning-Kruger School of Advanced Medicine.

Next, something a little lighter. Some time ago I was watching a video of “Puff the Magic Dragon,” sung in by Peter, Paul and Mary in 1986. At 2:53, the camera points toward a fellow in the audience, the one with dark curly hair — and instantly I recognized him.

That’s Dave, an old friend of mine I met in in the mid-80s Nashville, where he was from. Later we hung out in Chicago, since he went to graduate school there. These days he lives in Minnesota and teaches art. According to his Facebook page, he’s also a fellow at the Center for Residual Knowledge, Division of Other Things.

Bet I could get a fellowship there.

I didn’t realize the Winter Olympics were starting today until I saw it mentioned online. Upcoming events, according to the site, include figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, snowboarding, curling, bobsled and Uyghur internment, which is special to these Games.

Genocide aside, and that’s a big aside, I can’t muster much interest in the Games, except maybe for luge and skeleton, the events most likely to inspire spectacular accidents.

More Winter

Posted on by

Kicked off February with a day above freezing. Two observations: The only thing good about February is that January is over. Also, winter hasn’t abated. It’s just lulling us with a temporary moment of ease.

The map below is lifted from the NWS, which of course puts it in the public domain. Looks like we’ll get at least a few inches tomorrow, while the real wintertime action is some distance away. Ann will probably experience some heavy snow. I’m glad that didn’t happen on Sunday. Rather, a bomb cyclone had just hit the Northeast. There’s a term I enjoy: bomb cyclone. But it’s not so much fun to be visited by one.weather map 2/1/22

Train of thought for the day, inspired by a Google doodle. Today’s doodle connects you to an page labeled Lunar Calendar, which is a discussion of that kind of calendar, not the specific Chinese calendar whose new year is always around now in the Georgian calendar. That might give people the idea that all lunar calendars begin around now.

Then again, there are vanishingly few people who care about the subject at all. There aren’t any ardent U.S. calendar factions, such as those pushing for a restoration of the Western lunar calendar, asserting that the pointy-headed solar calendar is just an interloper and Sosigenes of Alexandria was a con man, or communities of Julian calendar users in pockets of Appalachia who quarrel with the federal government every year about when Tax Day is. It’s just a fact that most people’s entire concern with the calendar is what day is it now, and how far in the future is this planned event?

Then again again, I don’t know much myself about the Chinese lunar calendar, except that it’s a lunar calendar, it’s Chinese, and new year comes around the beginning of February. And that each year has one of five elements and 12 animals, making for a cycle of 60 years, though that’s actually an aspect of Chinese astrology, which I hold in exactly the same regard as any other astrology.

What calendar knowledge I have is fairly Gregorian and Julian, and some about liturgical calendars, and a bit about the Jewish and Muslim calendars. So maybe I should learn myself some Chinese calendar facts. The remarkable thing is how easy that would be to do in our time, sitting right here at my desk.

Which can easily become a rabbit hole. When I was reading about calendars today, I found a page about Lunar Calendar and Standard Time, which as far as I can tell was made up by some Swedes because they perceived a lack of standard units of time to be used on the Moon.

Bare Tree

Posted on by

Sunny winter Sunday today, following snow last night, though only about two or three inches. Not enough to slow anything down. In the afternoon the back yard the sky looked about like this.Bare Tree

But I have to say that I took that picture four years ago in January. Pretty much all the Januaries here in metro Chicago have melded into a chilly gray blur. Still, the days are getting longer, which puts me in mind of days on the deck and distant roads.

Main Street, Bloomington

Posted on by

Seems like the pit of winter has arrived. That’s not necessarily a time of blizzards or ice storms, though it can be. Mainly the pit is unrelenting cold, and some years the pit is deeper than others — more unrelenting, that is.

So far this year, winter has been bleak-midwinter-ish enough, but not viciously so in my neck of North America. There’s still time enough for northern Illinois winter to turn more vicious, of course.

Ann returned to ISU on Sunday, facilitated by me driving her there. It’s a task I don’t mind at all. We had a good conversation en route and listened to music we both like. I won’t go into the details of that right now, but there is a Venn diagram that includes some intersection. Larger than one might think.

Just before I returned her to her dorm and drove home, we visited part of Main Street in Bloomington. It’s an impressive block. Bloomington should be glad it has survived down to the present.Main Street, Bloomington Ill Main Street, Bloomington Ill Main Street, Bloomington Ill

Not only survived, but the buildings are home to one kind of shop or another, mostly nonchain specialty retailers. In fact, all nonchain as far as I could see.Main Street, Bloomington Ill Main Street, Bloomington Ill Main Street, Bloomington Ill

The 400 block of Main between Market and Monroe Sts. has the strongest concentration of late 19th-century commercial structures, with facades looking well-maintained in our time.Main Street, Bloomington Ill Main Street, Bloomington Ill

Featuring artwork from our time as well.Main Street, Bloomington Ill Main Street, Bloomington Ill Main Street, Bloomington Ill

Not a lot of plaques that I saw, but I did spot one.
Main Street, Bloomington Ill

An organization that’s still very much around, but these days, the Harber Building is home to Illinois Tattoo. Ralph Smedley lived quite a long time (1878-1965), mostly in California, where the organization really took off.

Over a storefront occupied by Ayurveda for Healing, which promises a “holistic path for wellness and optimal health,” there’s a remarkable set of metal figures.Main Street, Bloomington Ill

Detail.Main Street, Bloomington Ill

Ayurveda for Healing, which I assume takes its inspiration from South Asian practices, has three locations, including this one in Bloomington, along with Chicago and Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Just a block over, the 500 block of Main isn’t what it used to be. This is what it used to be, in an image borrowed from the McLean County Museum of History.Bloomington IL Main Street ca 1930

This is what I saw, let’s say roughly 90-odd years later.Main Street, Bloomington Ill Main Street, Bloomington Ill

To take that image of the mural, I was standing in a parking lot where a Montgomery Ward store used to be. Too bad for what has been lost, but fragments are mostly what we have of the past anyway, and it’s good to spot them.

Icy Weekend

Posted on by

Just when the sidewalks were mostly clear of ice, along (on Saturday) comes freezing drizzle. Just after dark that day, Ann and a friend wanted to pick up a pizza, always a good goal, but I suggested that I drive, since I have a fair amount of experience with icy conditions.

The driving went as expected, a bit slick on the small roads, better traction on the larger ones. The first pizza joint we went to — which offers industrial pies for a fixed price (higher than it was last time, some moons ago) — was completely lighted but locked up. Odd for a Saturday night, but maybe that’s the labor shortage for you. Not actually a labor shortage, I suspect, but a wage shortage. Pay more and those workers will mysteriously reappear.

Would I be willing to pay even more for the pizzas as a result? Maybe. Then again, it’s completely mediocre pizza, best modified with additional toppings at home, to make it slightly better mediocre pizza. So maybe not.

We went to a more expensive place afterward. High mediocre, I’d say. It was open, but a sign at the door managed expectations by saying the place was short-handed, and the order did take longer than usual. I waited in the car while the girls waited inside, and I saw a parade of people come and go. Whatever the labor situation, the demand for high-mediocre pizza is certainly still there.

I saw another customer take a fall on the ice. She was walking in full view of me, and suddenly she wasn’t. But she got up and carried on, seemingly young and uninjured.

When we got home, I tested the surface just outside my car door. No traction at all. So I had Ann and her friend take the food in, and then spread the salt I keep outside, next to the front door, around the car to facilitate me getting into the house without a slip. I made it.

The sun was out today but temps weren’t warm enough to melt to ice, so I was out spreading more salt around. Now there’s traction, but even so, it was slow going taking the trash out this evening. But now it’s out and I’m inside, determined to stay a while.

Most of the Thoughts I’m Ever Likely To Have on Pickleball

Posted on by

Strong winds last night and into the morning. Strong enough that when I got up, I noticed that our sizable trash and recycle containers were both on their sides. I’d left them upright, ready for collection, the night before. I put on my coat and went out to stand them upright. An hour later, I noticed they were on their sides again. I set them up again and then quit watching.

Strong winds ushering in subfreezing temps, I should add. But no ice on the ground. That’s about all I ask from winter.

Received the following in an email today: “The Margaritaville USA Pickleball National Championships presented by Pickleball Central is USA Pickleball’s premiere event and features about 2,500 of the nation’s best pickleball athletes, including top players Tyson McGuffin, Matt Wright, Lucy Kovalova, Anna Leigh Waters and more…

“If you are interested in attending Media Day on Wednesday, or getting in touch with us for a future story, please see below.”

I wouldn’t mind writing about pickleball, at least occasionally, though I’m afraid it isn’t on my beat. Also, I wouldn’t mind being in Indian Wells, California, site of the event, about now. I didn’t know that anyone keeps track of the nation’s best pickleball athletes, but I do now. The thought of Media Day at the pickleball championships is also intriguing. Wonder how many journalists cover pickleball, even part time?

Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve

Posted on by

Been a distinctly winterish November this year, except that trees seem to have held their leaves a little longer than in recent years. But there have been a handful of warmish hours, such as on Saturday in the afternoon.

We made our way to Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve, south of where I used to live, but only by a few miles, and walked a while.Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve

Nice description of the place on the Forest Preserve of DuPage County’s web site:
“The 2,503-acre Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve in Darien is one of the most ecologically impressive parcels of open space in the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, if not northern Illinois. It is also one of the District’s most popular forest preserves, known for its Rocky Glen waterfall, Sawmill Creek bluff overlook, and extensive trails.

“Waterfall Glen offers gently rolling to hilly terrain with 11 miles of trails popular with hikers, bicyclists, horseback riders and cross-country skiers. It also offers fishing and an orienteering course, model airplane field and youth group campground.”Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve

Had an autumnal moment or two along the trails.Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve

Last year was a year of forest preserves. Didn’t keep up the pace this year. Rather, it turned out to be a year of vistas, for which I always try to be glad.

October Present & Past

Posted on by

Summer is lingering late this year. Sunny and in the mid-80s F. today.

Spent some time on the deck this evening, after dark, listening to the crickets — and the traffic. Looking at Jupiter and a waxing crescent Moon. Marveling at how not-cold or even cool it is. Warm enough, at least during the first few hours after dark, to sit around comfortably in a t-shirt. (One I bought in North Pole, Alaska, featuring the outline of a moose.)

Most the foliage is still green, though the honey locusts along the streets are yellow. But not the one in my back yard. Maybe it’s the carbon monoxide. The grass is still green too. I mowed the back yard just before sunset today. Last time this year, I hope.

Previous Octobers have sometimes been more October-like. Sometimes not. A picture from October 2006.

One thing I don’t do any more: visit places to entertain small children. They have grown, and usually entertain themselves, as it should be.