Walking Down The Funny Side Of The Street

Chicago, Much More Than Toddlin'

Chicago, as the man sang, is a town in which you'll lose your blues

There is a lot of truth to that lyric. It's seems to be impossible to have the blues in Chicago. That was evident this past week - it was hot on Sunday and Monday, 90 degrees or better, and yet people still were out and about enjoying themselves. 

Maybe it's the architecture. Chicago is not simply clusters of large steel & concrete boxes encased in glass walls, it is a broad band of soaring sculptures that seem to be dancing with each other in a ballroom that has a spectacular view of Lake Michigan.

Or maybe it's the art. Chicago has the best public art of any large city I've ever visited. There is the famous Picasso in Daley plaza (which I still think looks more like a brooding vulture than the Afghan dog that supposedly inspired it), and the iconic Alexander Calder Flamingo on the Kluczynski Federal Building plaza (the best view of which, by the way, is from the Willis tower skydeck) and at least a couple of dozen more great works by some of the greatest artists of the past 100 years, making Chicago a very large outdoor art gallery. 

An art gallery that grew organically and was funded primarily by subscription or private dollars, not foisted on the residents of Chicago by some government committee spending tax dollars on cliched, institutionalized, production line things produced by art school hacks. 

But I digress. 

It could be also be the food. The food in Chicago is awesome. Not a bad bite to be found. The pizza is not as good as New York's, I'll give you that, but it's still damn good. 

I could write page after page of praises for the food in Chicago...but that'll have to be done some other day, as it's now lunch time and I'm going to go get something to eat.

A Song For Taylor Swift

Everyone's in love with her

Yet, everyone breaks her heart

It begs the question

Begs the question

What's wrong with that girl?

(Repeat ad nauseam)

What The Hail!?

Crazy sudden summer storm on the way home from work today - car was being pelted so hard it felt like I was trapped in a snare drum.

Thus Spoke Rupert

The Impossible To Argue With Rear Window Decal

This car in front of me during the morning commute...

Dashboard Pony Show

On the plus side, it's way better than crushed empty cigarette boxes and unpaid parking tickets.

Another Old Adage For You

You can only kick a dog so many times before one of two things happen;

The dog runs away from you

Or

The dog turns on you

Last Exit For Food, Lodging, & Fire Extinguishing

The Burden Of Friendship

Epiphanies. Such a pain in the arse. Ever have one? I have

 Several

Had one just a few days ago in fact

It is a somewhat complicated, very involved story, but the gist is, I have come to the realization that I am a person's burden. And I am that burden due to my friendship with that person

This person, this friend, has evidently been put in a position wherein he has had to cover for my less than exemplary behavior. He has had to make excuses for me, justify his relationship with me

And, apparently, he has had to lie for me 

The entire time he has been under this burden I have been under the disillusion that I was carrying my own weight in the friendship/relationship we had

I honestly thought I had been holding up my end of the deal

Recently though, it was made clear that every motivation I had for doing anything that I thought construed as holding up my end of the friendship dealio was just selfishness on my part 

It's been a horrible realization, as it means there is only one way for me to relive the burden that I have placed on this friendship

And that, of course, is to dissolve the bonds which have connected us as friends

The First Blooms Of The Year

All Violent Crime Is Hate Crime

A club full of innocent people. Innocent people out at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, enjoying themselves, having a fun night out. One man. One 29-year old man went into that nightclub and started shooting. 

That 29-year old man killed 49 innocent people and injured another 53 before he was gunned down at the scene.

The word "innocent" is used repeatedly in the two previous paragraphs to stress that the people in question were not aggressors, were not combatants. They were people like you & I, just going about life in whatever fashion they found to their liking, without taking advantage of or harming other people.

Authorities have been quoted as stating that there are indications that the 29-year old man had "leanings towards Islamic terrorism" but that they can't say definitely that the shootings were motivated by religion.

The shooter is a Muslim, his parents immigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan, and the shooter has been linked to a radical Islamist movement, so it could be reasonable to assume that is a strong possibility.

Given that the shooter targeted a Gay nightclub, a source has been quoted in the media as stating that the possibility that it was a hate crime is also being considered.

The shooters father has been quoted as saying the shooter saw two men kissing in public and that is what motivated the shooting, so there you go.

All violent crime is hate crime, regardless of what motivated the criminal action.

A violent criminal either hates him or herself, hates the circumstances of his or her life, hates the more favorable circumstances of other peoples lives, hates the world as it exists, hates other peoples beliefs, lifestyles or...whatever.

It's all hate. There is no special level of hate. It's just hate.

The Problem With A Home On Wheels Is...

....the very real possibility you might run into a tree or some such thing.

Hellacious Hail

Big hail storm came through the South Denver metro area the other day, beat the hell out of Highlands Ranch. I was a bit north of the epicenter - the hail was pea sized instead of golf ball.

Heavy dark clouds started moving in in the late afternoon, and at first it was just an average storm as far as rain goes

 

Within minutes though the storm picked up, as if someone at storm central hit the "deluge" switch

 

Then the hail...buckets of hail, coming down hard like 

shrapnel from an exploding ice bomb 

Those little pellets of hail stung like angry bees, but this dedicated photojournalist  guy with a cell phone camera endured the onslaught with steel-like resolve in order to record the event for posterity

Full disclosure however...once the hail began to feel too saltrock blasty, I high-tailed it back into the store. That's a job for Weather Channel newbies who pull the short straw, not me.

 

After the storm passed the ground was covered in a layer of hail, in some places a few inches deep. Freakin' epic (as the kids say...uh, said, in like 2003)

He Could Be Normal

He had the idea the he wasn't thinking straight
That her laughing smile and cute crinkled up nose
Had somehow tripped him into an altered state

He forced himself to keep his ground
As his brain was screaming at him to run
Kept saying to himself it really wasn't that big a deal

Oh, he wanted to go, as far away as he could
But he forced himself to keep his ground
If only to save face, to prove his claim to where he stood
Maybe if he remained silent, didn't make a single sound
But the veneer was thin the disguise was no good
She saw right through it and he was instantly spellbound

He knew he wasn't thinking straight
When he started wearing freshly laundered clothes
And showing up on time for their weekly date

He had long since conceded every inch of ground
He had considered his and his alone
Even the garage had been cleaned and sorted out

Oh, he couldn't, wouldn't, dream of being without her now
His life was so much better, much more complete
Even while his friends wondered loudly how
This could happen to the man who was king of the back seat
He just shook his head and took a bow
To the memory of what he was, his last conceit

Bad Start To The Morning

As I was passing this rear-ender I once again thanked my lucky stars that it wasn't me standing at the side of the road looking at somebody else's insurance paperwork.

I also hoped the two parties involved appreciated their luck - probably not at the moment I realize, but hopefully they would be able to soon enough.

There are worse results to rear-end collisions. Having to call into work and explain that you'll be in late (if in at all that day), having to exchange insurance & drivers license info, possibly having to sign a traffic citation (Following to close? Careless driving? Texting?), may be aggravating, but it beats the hell out of a ride in an ambulance to the hospital, or a wagon to the morgue.