Day 1 of finals is almost over (looking at the clock right now, actually, until we can go grab lunch) as school ends for us Friday at 12:20 PM (I should be done before then as my grade book should be completed along with my check out list being signed out) while the wife and kids end next week. The park district neighborhood pool has been filled and seems ready to go, though the weather is not going to cooperate this weekend, which is typical for Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago. We also have a family pass to the Brookfield Zoo this season (actually lasts until the end of June next year), and even my wife and the youngest have season passes to Santa's Village. We took the boys when they were younger, and while they got too old for it, the youngest isn't, so we try to be equal with everything we got the season pass this year and figure we take her when the boys are busy with other stuff. So in our world, we can start warming this song up: (along with this one):
The cicadas are going crazy here. The combined 17 year 13 year emergence, for the first time since 1803! You might have heard. It's possibly bigger news than the total solar eclipse and the recent geomagnetic storm combined, times ten, or at least that's how I do the math. It's hard to imagine the little nymph underground for 17 years without internet, coating the inside of its burrow with its anal fluids until it's nearly as disgusting as a room at the Hampton Inn. here's the nymph climbing the tree looking for a spot to shed its baby bug jacket (I don't know about you but I really get into entomological jargon) here's the freshly minted adult emerging from its baby bug jacket new adult posing next to its baby bug jacket and ready to spread its wings and fly away
@Rylo Ken Yeah, my neighbor will allow our neighborhood pool to use his leaf blower to remove them from the deck every morning, as we assume it will be horrific. I told my wife we might even need to get them a shop vac if they don't have one. It's going to be nasty, but the only good part is they are only partying here, as you know, for a few weeks. They are not even sticking around for July 4th as they will be already recovering by then.
Midsummer has just past. That is both the biggest celebration of the year, except for Christmas, and especially in my region. It is also after Midsummer that a lot of people start their vacations, so that meanst that the local papers are either understaffed or filled with young temporary workers who simply try to fill out the pages. As roundup of this week's news: A write-in about how there was too much loud modern music and not enough traditional folk music on Midsummer's Eve in one of the towns. (where 30 000 people come to celebrate Midsummer) A huge battery that was installed to equalize power distribution when they there isn't enough wind or solar power is working well The herd of wild sheep that have been moving around town during the spring is now in the mine area, giving some nice photos of sheep on top of waste hills
A bunch of folks are getting stars on the Walk of Fame next year You'd figure the likes of Prince, John Carpenter & the South Park creators would have already had one, but alas.
The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile was involved in a collision and rollover on the tristate tollway. There were no injuries. Insert your own punchline. https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2024/07/22/wienermobile-crashes-tri-state-tollway-oak-brook
The Japanese musician MAD JAMIE's latest music video was shot in Sweden among the places are some of the stations of Stockholm's metro and parts of the road by the lake at Solstadström, in Småland, where my dad lives: MAD JAMIE - baby star【OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO】 - YouTube
I’m expecting great news now that my favorite bird (Blue Jay) “blessed me” this morning. I have no regrets standing beneath the tree branch the Blue Jay was using to sharpen its beak when it suddenly rained.
So, I believe I have mentioned before that we have a neighborhood pool. Due to staffing reasons, the pool was originally going to close earlier in the month, but another neighborhood dad/friend and I got recertified as a lifeguards so the pool could stay open until Labor Day weekend as we can fill in gaps in coverage/be an extra guard if needed and available. I did the swim test at school as we have certified staff for it as they teach lifeguarding here (I just did the brick test and then swam a few laps before they said that is good since our school pool is way bigger than our neighborhood pool) while was able to do the online class/exam at home. Therefore, last weekend, I made the precarious climb up the lifeguard chair for the first time since *checks watch* Summer 1999 when I lifeguarded a bit when I worked at the Y as my college roommate as we had to be a jack of all tracks for the manager. I must admit when I got up there (and realized I wasn't the young, strong man who didn't have a care in the world when I last did it), I basically quoted Maverick in TG 2: It felt really weird to be up there, very very weird. But I honestly think it's a good thing that even beyond that, we could keep the pool open for Labor Day weekend. As I was telling other parents, if there is a serious emergency at the pool and I and/or the other dad are there, we can assist now legally. It's much easier to carry the neckboard (particularly holding it underwater) with four people than with two people, especially since a couple of our lifeguards are on the smaller side. Plus, it seems to inspire my kids to be lifeguards now, particularly the boys, since they could become lifeguards come Summer 2026 and honestly bike to work. As we told them, it's a family business on my side. My grandfather started lifeguarding out in Jersey as a teen before moving here when the family store went belly up during the onset of the depression. He was a lifeguard through the CPD (Chicago Park District) for many years before my dad and one of my uncles joined him. Therefore, if they become lifeguards, it will be the 4th generation of lifeguards in the family as I been telling them for a few years that lifeguarding is a really good teenager job but it took me getting my old butt up that ladder again for them to say now they want to do it. But yeah, it felt really really weird to be up there again especially when this one woman began whistling at me. But then again she will be the only one doing that as she been whistling at me for over twenty years now.
David Beckham is in town for Sven-Göran Eriksson's funeral. There are a lot of creepy paparazzi-style photos of him at the hotel he's staying at going around in local media.
A stray reindeer is is walking around in the area. The thing is in the far northwest (250 km away) of the region where I live there are sámi groups with reindeer herds, but this reindeer seem to have walked in from the northeast, where there are no reindeers. Also none of the closest, but still more than 250 km away, sámi groups claim to miss a reindeer, so it is a mystery where it has come from. It is marked but so far nobody has come close enough to read the markings on it.
The owner of the reindeer is happy that social media exists, since he could identify that it's in all probability one of his. In that case it has walked more than 400 km south from the rest of its herd. They are now looking into how they can get the reindeer back to where it belongs.
A new Sheetz gas station is opening around the corner from me next Tuesday, and local residents are mostly complaining that we have too many gas stations already and wondering why we need two Sheetz stations and why the Sheetz that opened this spring closer to downtown isn't enough. Oh, and they're whining about Sheetz causing a new traffic light to be installed on a major thoroughfare (never mind that another light was recently removed half a mile away on a much more heavily traveled part of the same street).
Pharrell Williams' music festival "Something in the Water" has unexpectedly been postponed until next year. Reportedly local officials were blindsided by the news.
This is so local I saw it happen in front of my eyes like two seconds ago. Was at the YMCA cause the treadmill at my house doesn’t work right now and an exceruse ball was rolling and got caught in a treadmill didn’t even know a treadmill could lift that far off the ground. Person on the treadmill is fine
For some reason Trump made an appearance rally at the Nassau Coliseum last night. I guess it's so he can brag about the number of Long Islanders attending; even though he doesn't have a chance in a million of winning over the state as a whole (it's been 40 years since New York voted for a Republican POTUS candidate, and there's certainly no sign that that's going to change anytime soon).
@Ahsoka's Tano Four reasons: 1. Money (obviously). 2. House races: The balance of the US House could come down to about a handful of races, including in NY. If the Republicans hold the House, they can block certifying the vote this time, as they are already threatening to do no matter how much Harris wins. 3. Show strength when you are weak. Trump is still trying to show that his electoral map is still expanding even though it's clearly contracted. The campaign has privately admitted that they are pulling off places like Minny and NH, where they felt they could be competitive just a few months ago. 4. Ego. Trump still considers himself a "New York kind of guy," as his running off to Florida was out of necessity, not desire (You don't leave the center of the universe, which is New York City, to be in the swamp of Florida, no offense @blackmyron or any other Florida board member). There is nothing more in this life that Trump perhaps desires than to be accepted by the "NYC Elite," but they are the ones who saw him as a fraud since Day 1. Therefore, he has always wanted to try to prove him wrong, as he thought winning the White House would make them finally accept him, but the opposite happened. So, in his warp mind, he thinks trying to win NY will somehow change that even though there is at least a decent chance Harris might be Trump in New York state more than Biden beat him. So obviously, #3 & #4 are useless, but #1 and #2 are not particularly him trying to whip up support for House Republicans. Again, if they hold in the House, they will block certifying Harris if she wins no matter what happens.
