Hodgepodge

As I promised after living in the Chicago metro area almost all of the fifty plus years of my life - I will miss some things and not miss others.

Things I Will Miss

Family - While I have no family in Chicago (only child, no children of my own and Mom is already down here) jgaleckas has two kids who both live in the Chicago area. The son and his family we see not so much but Tamara is like the daughter I never had. She is fun to be around and I love her a lot. We usually got together at least once a week and always have a good time. I will miss that a lot.

Urban Convenience - No doubt about it, it is nice to live within 30 minutes or less of Best Buy, Sam's Club, Menard's, Lowe's, Petsmart, and movie theaters. Here at the farm, it is 2 hours to St. Louis for most of these except Lowes and Movies which are an hour away. So no last minute running out for something. Trips into the 'big city' will have to be planned and shopping lists made. In between trips we will just have to get by.

Public Transportation - As a child growing up my Mom and I went everywhere on the bus. I even remember the old electric buses that ran got their power from overheard wires. (Yes I am that old). Later when I lived in the suburbs the Metra commuter trains were a great to avoid the parking hassle when going downtown for something. The last dozen years or so that I have lived with Janice in Cicero, we were tow blocks from the L and always used that for trips downtown and to ballgames. At least the traffic here is not so bad and parking rarely costs anything.

Culture and the Lake front - If you have never been to the Lake front it is really beautiful. The city has done a wonderful job with the beaches and landscaping along the Lake and I have never seen any city do it better. That along with Grant Park and Millennium Park add to the joy of just walking around downtown, admiring the architecture and the plantings. The there are the great museums and such. It will be fun to discover what St. Louis has in addition to the riverfront and the Arch but I will miss those walks around downtown Chicago.

Baseball - I have been a White Sox fan since I was three years old, I remember my father taking me to the games (he was a HUGE fan) and how the ballpark was like a whole new world filled with people, sounds, smells and excitement. At that time I didn't care who won but I knew some of the player's names and shouted them along with the rest of the fans. By the time the Sox were in the 1959 World Series I knew a lot about baseball. I was a little bummed I has to watch the the Sox win the 2005 Series form our resort room at Disney but talk about the best of both worlds! I may catch a Sox game occasionally if it works out on return trips to Chicago and I will always be a fan even if I don't see them play much. I also enjoyed going to a few Cubs games and some Kane County Cougars minor league games as well. I don't see myself becoming a big Cardinals fan although I do follow them more since we have been coming down here.

Broadband - As I write this I am connected a whopping 28K over dial-up. Because we are on a very small trunk we are not cost effective for DSL. There is no cable here and we are too far from a cell tower for wireless. The only way we can get broadband is to go with a satellite dish and that has the disadvantages of hundreds for upfront costs, high monthly rates and a dish on the roof. We may have to go that route if we finally pull enough hair out of our heads over the crawl of dial-up but I miss my 1 Meg DSL.

Things I Will NOT Miss

The Neighbors - While most of the folks on the block are good, the one house next door has a family with several youth who are borderline delinquent. They sit o the front stoop every day drinking alcohol, smoking dope talking loud and profanely and throwing their garbage in out yard. The people they hang out with probably are the ones who stole our orange trees earlier this year and try repeatedly and unsuccessfully to break into the garage. Yeah I won't miss them at all.

The Noise - We live one block off Cicero Avenue near two railroad yards between two of the busiest expressways in the metro area. Trucks pound the pavement all day and night bouncing over bumps, using engine breaks and blowing their air horns. Add to that motorcycles screaming down the road, airplanes from Midway flying overhead and loud car stereo's rattling the windows and it's a wonder I got to sleep at all. The only noise I will miss is the train whistles - I love that sound and unfortunately all the tracks in the vicinity of the farm are abandoned. Of course here at the farm we have crickets, peep frogs, birds chirping and the occasional hoot owl but who's complaining?

The Foul Air - The same trains, semis, buses and airplanes spew huge amounts of soot into the air. When it lands it becomes a gray dust that gets on everything. In a week the fans on the computer are clogged with it and it coats everything. At the farm it takes weeks to build up dust and it is white. I breathe easier now.

The Traffic - Too many cars, not enough lanes. This applies to local streets as well as expressways. The Eisenhower is the worst culprit. That road can be backed up any time of day, any day of the week in either direction. Here at the farm if two cars go by an hour it is busy. The advantage to living on a road that turns into gravel less than a mile down the road. Yeah I like that.

Living on top of your neighbor - Lot size in Cicero 35' by 150'. Lot size at the farm 27 acres. Do I need to say more?

Too Many Rats In the Box - Cook County Population approx 6 million, Reynolds County Population approx 6 thousand. How's that for orders of magnitude?

I will miss Chicago for sure but I believe I will be happier here at the farm, surrounded by the person I love, four cats and the beauty of the forest. A new chapter begins.

Every month jgaleckas and I go downtown to meet some of here ex-coworkers (she is retired) for lunch. We go to different places near her old workplace on Wabash and Jackson. Afterward we usually stroll around Millennium Park looking at the gardens. During our walk today we went by Buckingham Fountain and whoa! - the pink gravel is gone. It was replaced by pink concrete pavers.

In fact there are 235,000 square feet of pavers around the fountain making it the largest decorative permeable installation in the U.S.
I think it looks nice and it certainly will be easier for wheelchairs, scooters and power chairs to get around the area.

For more technical details see this.

For a picture and some pro and con about it see this.

The second surprise was at the Harold Washington Library stop on the CTA Pink Line. As we reached the top of the stairs and looked toward the lake to see if the train was coming, I spied a couple of flat screen digital displays cycling through advertisements and public service info hanging from the roof of the platform.

It appears it is a way for the CTA to raise money in these tough times for city finances - to the tune of $100 million over the next ten years. My question is how long will the displays stay there before some delinquent figures it will look better on their wall than the CTA's.

More info here.