mrmrjones

I drove to work today, and even though driving is much easier and somewhat more convenient, I prefer my usual routine of walking and catching the train. Normally I have about a 25-30 minute walk followed by a relaxing 10-minute ride on the Metra. Driving through the city at rush hour is an unpleasant experience. People are tense, and also angry at times. People honking, people giving each other the finger. Today driving north up Western Avenue I had a guy in an old black BMW tailgating me for a while. He's very angry that I won't speed up for him. I couldn't do that if I tried, since the car in front of me won't go faster than 25mph. He's riding my tail, then he whips into the next lane where he's held up along side me, since that lane isn't moving any faster. I eventually squeeze in ahead of him and he zips into the right lane (almost clipping my back end) where he's held up by a stopped bus. Poor guy can't win. I could almost picture the steam firing out of his ears.

Seen at Western and Lawrence, a very busy and chaotic intersection in Chicago (are there any other kind?). This morning it was particularly backed up, with two buses blocking things, a line of cars trying to cross Lawrence before the light changed, another line waiting for some pedestrians to cross Lawrence before turning right. There's a guy with a blue shirt and rainbow suspenders on an old bike in the middle of the lanes of giant six-laned Western Avenue, and he decides to fly across, missing getting hit by two cars as he weaves in and out, causing breaks to slam, tires to shriek. The cars missed him by millimeters. As people honked at him I saw him tearing the wrong way down Lawrence with this big grin on his face, satisfied at another victory.

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Seen and heard on the Metra's Union-Pacific North Line this morning: A woman on her cell phone having an animated conversation.
"Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Listen to me."
A brief pause.
"Listen to me. Listen to me.
Here's the problem.
Here's the problem.
Here is the problem. Here's the prob...
Here's the problem. Here's the.... here is the problem.
Here is the problem. You didn't show up.
You didn't show up. You didn't show up. You missed it. You didn't show up. You didn't show.
You didn't show up."

Use your imagination as far as what they were talking about.

A strange final week in Florida is about to draw to a close; if all goes well, this time tomorrow I should be on the Florida Turnpike heading northwest toward Chicago, with a large portion of my apartment crammed into my little Toyota. My back is almost completely healed... it no longer takes ten minutes to get up from a chair and I no longer walk like Gumby.

Friday we celebrated my sister's 50th birthday at a typical South Florida restaurant in downtown Hollywood... that is, expensive, with bad service and mediocre food. What is it about this locale that causes restaurateurs to believe that if they put their establishment in a hip locale and give it a nice design, people will pay lots of money just to sit there, even if the food is not much better than Denny's. Oh well... it was still nice spending time with the family and watching the people walk by. We even saw the mayor walk by with his family.

Today I'll hopefully get my security deposit back, I'll take a farewell tour around the mall where our store is, have the sisters over at my folks for an informal goodbye party, and if all goes well, tomorrow morning I'll be on my way. I should arrive in Evanston on Wednesday afternoon.

With all the packing and moving boxes around, my back has not been too happy with me, and on Sunday it got it's revenge. It was starting to stiffen up a bit on Friday and Saturday... on Sunday it started to really seize up, but with a lot of packing and cleaning left to do before my move north next Monday I tried to work through it. I think the kicker came in the afternoon... it was about to rain, so I made a quick run downstairs to throw out a bag of garbage. Just as I put the bag in the dumpster it began to pour, so I tried to go up my steep stairway quickly. My lower back, which has more control over how my legs work than I realized, was having none of it. When I got inside, wet and in pain, I went to the bed to lie down.

A half hour later my mother called to make plans for dinner. After I hung up I tried to get up, but at this point I couldn't twist enough to swing my legs over the side. I jimmied myself to the edge, but before I could get my feet firmly on the ground my butt slipped off and I fell to the floor. This forced my back to bend a bit... something it absolutely did not want to do. It was like a red hot pole was stuck up through me. I had to straighten up on the floor before the pain could subside.

Now, lying on the floor amidst all the boxes, I had to get myself upright. The problem was I couldn't move or twist my midsection, which meant my legs and my upper body could not work together. It was like I was tied down with a heavy chain around my waist. After an hour my Folks came over to help me up, but they didn't fare much better. I finally gave in and let them call paramedics... three strong men who were able to lift me by the armpits onto the bed. I tried to joke my way through this ordeal, but it was really quite humiliating.

I didn't take them up on an ambulance ride to the emergency room because I thought if I could get on my feet and take a hot shower everything would be fine. It didn't take long to realize that wouldn't work this time. So the Folks drove me to Hollywood Memorial, which has treated many of my relatives, as well as baseball great Joe DiMaggio. This is only the second time I've been in an emergency room for myself (the other time was in 1985, when I was a passenger in a car that drove into a clothing store in Evanston... long story). Got the full treatment... got to be wheeled around in a wheelchair, had my own room. Got wheeled on a gurney into the X-ray room. The worst part was having to go to the bathroom... I wasn't able to walk or stand on my own, so the nurse had to hold me up and then turn her head while I went into a little bottle. Blech.

Embarrassingly enough, the doctor couldn't find anything more serious than a severe muscle strain. The nurse, a nice filipino woman gave me a powerful shot containing a mixture of painkillers and muscle relaxers. While she was giving me the shot, I said to her "don't tell me if it's going to hurt or not." She said "okay, I won't." As I felt the needle entering my side, I joked "I'll just relax to the sweet sounds of Barack Obama." Mr. Obama was being interviewed on Larry King on the TV. "Did you vote for him," she asked. "No, I voted for Hillary, but he has his good points too," I replied. "I could never vote for Obama," was all she said. I asked her why, and she just repeated "I just can't." I didn't press her... it's probably not smart to debate politics with someone sticking a large needle into you.

And I'll tell you, whatever she injected me with knocked me loopy. By the time I got to my Folks' place I was starting to hallucinate. I put on some old episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and before long I was appearing in the episodes along with Larry David, being yelled at and abused by Susie Greene.

Now it's Tuesday and I'm able to walk a little better. My sisters have offered to help me get caught up in my packing, and I should be able to make to move to Chicago next week as planned. Otherwise, I've been basically useless for the last two days. It scares me that I can be incapacitated this easily.

I've entertained myself with a book about Moe Berg, a baseball player who was also a spy for the U.S. during World War II.

I still have not found any takers for my big comfy Queen-size bed, with a wood frame, box spring and pillow-top mattress. Only a year and a half old. So, if anyone knows anyone in Broward or Miami-Dade County or even Palm Beach County who is in need of a really really great bed at a criminally low price, send them my information! I admit, I'm getting desperate and I'm willing to deal!

I sold a couple of pieces of furniture to my downstairs neighbor... it happened quickly so I more or less dumped everything out before we hauled the stuff downstairs. Now my apartment looks like a tornado went through it.

Yes, folks, say it... it looked like that before!

Anyway, here's a cartoon that sums up my feelings on the Hillary vs. Obama boondoggle.



Couldn't have said it better myself!

This is an event that happened yesterday (Thursday, March 13, 2008). My father is involved in a lawsuit brought by developers against the condo association of the building my Folks live in. Said developers want to build a condo project right next door, but the city won't grant them the zoning variance. My folks' building has been fighting this development for years. We suspect the lawsuit is a SLAPP suit. My father isn't a party to the suit, but he was active in the fight so he's been subpoenaed a few times.

Anyway, around 8:30am on Thursday somebody pounds on their door. It's a woman trying to deliver something to my dad. He asked her how she got passed security, since they're supposed to call him before letting anybody up. When he asked this, she got really nasty. She said she's from the sheriff's department and can come up whenever she pleases. She then yelled that she wasn't going to stand for some "old white man" harassing a black woman. Dad told her that race had nothing to do with it, but he wanted to know how she got upstairs without his permission. He also asked to see her identification. She said "I don't have to give you ID."

After this exchange, he decided to go down and talk to security. Alas, he found himself on the elevator with this woman. "Why are you following me? You're an old white man trying to follow me! Get any closer and I'll shoot you!"

The punch line of this? The whole fuss involved her serving a subpoena for a deposition scheduled for Wednesday, March 12th -- THE DAY BEFORE! This woman is obviously frustrated at all the trouble she's having ordering people to go back in time. Dad had already gone to this deposition on Wednesday, only to find out it had been canceled! The woman was a process server for the Sheriff's Dept., but she'd been hired by the attorneys for the developers. Dad has filed complaints with the Sheriff's office and the lawyers. I'm trying to get him to go to the press.

I was having lunch at a little pub on the ocean next to my store. I felt a blast of wind over the top of my head as a little blackbird buzzed my melon! A couple of minutes later this bird landed on my table and just stared at me. A little blackbird, kind of like Heckle and/or Jeckle, except much smaller. He was soon joined by a little sparrow, no bigger than a golf ball with little beady eyes. Both birds were completely fearless. They weren't concerned in any way that I might do them harm or try to eat them (and I was dining on a Buffalo Chicken Wrap, so the risk was there).

So I leaned over to speak with the bird one-on-one. I said to him, "Go away. You're too trusting. Don't be naive! The humans may seem nice, they may think you're cute and they may feed you crumbs occasionally, but they are not your friends! They do not have your best interests at heart, and will do you great harm without thinking twice." With a wave of my hand I shooed him away, but I doubt he learned anything. They never do.

I left my apartment at 2:20am and walked down to the beach. Only one other guy was on the beach to look for the Space Shuttle, although I thought I saw another couple further down. Stood there and stared north but didn't see anything. Just when I was about to give up I looked up at the sky a bit to the northwest at around 2:30am and I saw what looked like a small comet streaking almost straight upwards. It lasted no more than two or three seconds before it disappeared. Very brief, and if I hadn't been looking at that part of the sky at just the right time I would have missed it. Very cool.

Probably my last chance to see a launch, since I'm moving north and the shuttle program is supposed to end in 2010. I've seen one up close once, when I was driving up to North Carolina and just happened to be passing by Canaveral. Another time I was driving north on I-95 in Delray Beach right at sundown and I saw the vapor trail go up from the horizon. That was really amazing.

And now I can go to bed.

The Space shuttle Endeavour will be making a rare early morning launch at 2:28am EDT, or about an hour and ten minutes from now. The last time the Shuttle went up at night I could see it from my street, a bright star rising over Hollywood Beach. That one was around 9:30 at night, but thanks to my insomnia I'll be up for this one. I'll try to take pictures of it, since this will be my last chance to see this spectacle. The Herald says we might be able to see the glow of the launch, though the shuttle will be traveling away from us this time.