Events

As promised, I took a 25-kilometer walk up the North Branch Trail yesterday, which did not disappoint: The weather cooperated brilliantly (though it did get a little warm towards the end), and my multiple applications of SPF-50 sunscreen seems to have kept me from crisping. The trail, of course, is lovely: In total, I got 40,707 steps, which would have been a personal record back in the day but I'm pleased to say didn't even get into my top-10 step days since 2014. Cassie spent the day at her usual day...

The hot, humid weather of the past week has finally broken, and on the last day of summer yet! In about an hour I'm starting the first long walk of several I've planned for the autumn, so the 19°C temperature—and, more importantly, 16°C dewpoint—is very welcome. Just 24 hours ago, they were 22°C and 21°C respectively, which one can only describe as "really sticky." I might not post about the walk until tomorrow morning, but I'm looking forward to it. I haven't gone up the North Branch Trail since last...

During this last full week of summer, I haven't had a lot of time at home because we had to work in the office every day. And what a week. I got home from work (and got Cassie home from day camp) right before some pretty impressive storms hit on Tuesday: After discussing with a friend how a lot of the humidity we've experienced this summer comes from corn and soybean transpiration to our west, he discussed it with Bing's DALL-E 3: (Not sure what happened with the spine of the book...or the windmill in...

A few weeks ago I planned a PTO day to take a 25 km walk tomorrow along the North Branch Trail with pizza at the end. (I'll do my annual marathon walk in October.) Sadly, the weather forecast bodes against it, with scattered thunderstorms and dewpoints over 22°C. But, since I've already got tomorrow off, and I have a solid PTO bank right now, I'll still take the day away from the office. And autumn begins Sunday. Good thing, too, because the articles piled up this morning, and I haven't had time to...

Our lead story today concerns empty suit and Chicago Transit Authority president Dorval Carter, who just can't seem to bother himself with the actual CTA: From the end of May 2023 to spring 2024, as CTA riders had to cope with frequent delays and filthy conditions, Carter spent nearly 100 days out of town at conferences, some overseas, his schedule shows. Most of Carter’s trips between June 2023 and May 2024 were for events related to the American Public Transportation Association, a nonprofit advocacy...

As of 3pm, the 37.2°C temperature at O'Hare made today, officially, the hottest day of 2024—and we even broke the previous record, set in 1973 (36.6°C). My house has has cooled down slightly from a couple of hours ago, but I still get to walk home from doggy day care in a 39°C heat index. We're taking the shortest route possible. And I plan to shower more or less immediately on getting home.

The forecast still predicts today will be the hottest day of the year. Last night at IDTWHQ the temperature got all the way down to 26.2°C right before sunrise. We have a heat advisory until 10pm, by which time the thunderstorms should have arrived. Good thing Cassie and I got a bit of extra time on our walk to day camp this morning. Elsewhere in the world: The Fifth Circuit has ruled that broad, geofenced searches violate the 4th Amendment, contradicting the Fourth Circuit, and setting up a likely...

I had planned a longer post this evening, but I had about 2 hours of chorus work to do and I didn't have any energy for half an hour after getting home. We may have our hottest night of the year tonight, with a forecast low of 26°C, before having our hottest day of the year tomorrow. (We had 36°C on June 17th; tomorrow could be 37°C.) So I'm going to drink another glass or two of ice water and pat Cassie for a bit, then gird myself for tomorrow's sticky walk to doggie day care.

I just walked Cassie about 7 blocks (1.4 km) and she took her sweet time, sniffing every blade of grass. Part of that I'm sure was that she spent 3 nights boarded, which she finds exhausting. The other part was that it's still 30°C just a few minutes before sunset. And yay, woo, we get even worse tomorrow: As Chicago Public School students return to class Monday, the heat index is expected to break [38°C]. The National Weather Service in Chicago issued an excessive heat warning from Monday afternoon to...

Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Big Time Brewery & Alehouse, 4133 University Way NE, SeattleTrain line: Sound Transit, U DistrictTime from Chicago: about 4 hours by airDistance from station: 300 m Let me start by saying Seattle had beautiful weather last week...until just before I arrived on Thursday. That didn't stop my friend and me from visiting Seattle's oldest brew-pub, just off the University of Washington campus. As you can see, though, we opted to sit inside...