So the business travel was completed without incident. As a treat, I get to travel again next week to Denver. Chicago was nice. I was expecting it to be hot and/or smoky and it was neither. We lived there during my elementary-school years. I have fond memories of walking to school, and even walking home for lunch. The neighborhood was full of kids my age and everyone new everyone else. To summon us home in the evening, all my father had to do was go into our front yard and use his ear-splitting whistle. We’d hear him and come shambling back.
There was a radio tower visible in the distance (probably WBBM) from my bedroom window. One night my dad woke me up to see it covered in St. Elmo’s Fire. I’d never seen anything like it before and haven’t seen it since - weird blue flame stuff running up the guy lines.
Not-so-fond memories: we were living in the area when the worst airline crash in US history happened at O’Hare. You could see the smoke from the school. I remember asking a teacher if we should call somebody about it; she told me that people probably already knew. I also remember watching the news when they arrested serial killer John Wayne Gacy. When we moved to Atlanta, my dad’s transfer was expedited - someone seemed to be killing kids and for anyone working in law enforcement, it was all-hands-on-deck. The late-70s and early-80s were a weird time to be a kid.
In any event: looking forward to something of a long weekend and hopefully a bit of downtime. The garden needs weeding and the lawn could probably stand another cut thanks to all the rain. Looking ahead: road trip to deliver our student, a return to the rhythms of the school year, &c, &c.