The Sun! It's so simple...

I can't say that I've ever noticed how the short days of the winter months affect my mood as much as this year.  At least three days a week I take the train(s) to work, which means that I leave the house at 6:30 am and get home close to 6:00 pm.  In the winter, this means I leave when it's dark and I get home when it's dark.  The shortest days of the year this winter seemed to last forever, and this week was especially dragging, what with the four or five days of consistent gray overcast that blocked out the sun and the fact that I spend most of my days at work in windowless rooms.  I will admit, I hadn't felt like I really got over that virus I had after the new year fully until I walked out of the house this morning and saw that the sky was not it's usual, Chicago street light orange color, but the light blue of the first light of dawn.  Very poetic, sorry for the nausea I just caused you...  Anyway, I feel like a million bucks and I can't help but thinking that it's that morning sun.  It could be that it's Friday and we have Buick practice tomorrow, and the kids have been pretty well behaved this week, etc. as well, but that sun this morning really energized me.  Enough to post about it anyway!

R-E-A-D-A-B-O-O-K

I'd like to make it clear that I have no intention of critiquing any works of literature on this blog, as I am woefully unqualified to do so, but I figured I'd write about a book I just read.  It's a rather rare occurrence that I finish a book so I suppose it's worth marking the occasion with a few words.

I've been lucky enough to stumble upon a couple of really good reads in a bookstore in Oak Park called The Book Table while buying Ayn Rand books as gifts for people (and myself).  Anyway, the first of the pair I stumbled upon was Miracle In The Andes by Nando Parrado who was one of the survivors of the plane crash in the 1970s that left a group of Uruguayan rugby players marooned high in the Andes for 72 days.  The story is incredible to say the least.  It was made into a movie starring Ethan Hawke that was based on the book Alive.  I have not read that particular version of the story, and I'm sure that there are some discrepancies between that account and the one I read by Parrado.  Either way, it is an extremely personal, moving, and intense account of what happens at the extremes of human experience.  It certainly filled the void in my need for adventure left by finishing Chasing Che, another incredible book that has inspired in me an interest in Latin America, both geographically and socially.  I digress.  I recall feeling the full range of human emotion reading Miracle in the Andes, something I can't say I expected from any story.    Reading a story like this makes me think if I have what it takes to survive something like these men did and make it clear that I hope to never have to find out.

After plowing through Miracle in the Andes, I went back to the Book Table one day mainly out of boredom, and to replace my copy of The Fountainhead, which I gave away.  I walked around and felt lost.  I felt like what I expect a lot of people feel coming into a wine store for the first time: completely lost.  I didn't know what I wanted to read, I wasn't sure which section to look in.  I didn't want to just pick a pretty cover.  So I wandered around aimlessly looking for something to strike my eye.  After grazing around the fiction section, I came across Cormac McCarthy's area in the fiction section.  I'm not sure where I heard his name before, other than my cousin Jonny's middle name, but I picked up The Road and read the teaser on the back.  It sounded good, adventure, danger, very personal, fiction.

The book is written in a very strange perspective, sort of a little third/first/first or something.  Hard to explain, but it took a little getting used to.  It's a post apocalyptic world where a father and son are traveling, more or less aimlessly, and just trying to survive.  They scavenge and run, fight and evade.  It reminded me of a zombie story except no real zombies, just cannibals.  It was a fast read once I got used to McCarthy's writing style, but what really struck me was that, in spite of the very stripped down language (lots of abstract description and dialogue without explicit cues to who is speaking - "he said") I felt like I got to know the characters very well by the end of the book based only on their actions and words.  I think it actually felt more real that way, like I was experiencing them for myself.  I think that, if someone else were to read this book they might have a very different opinion of who the characters are.

Well, there you have it, some books I've read recently, yay I read stuff!

OXYGEN!!!

Sometimes when I'm feeling pensive or in need of a little oxygen, I take the green line out to the Garfield Park Conservatory.  This is one of my favorite places in Chicago, especially in the winter time.  It's a huge, old greenhouse with room after room of incredible plants.

I was hoping to skip town for the new year, but it didn't work out and I was feeling the need for a little warmth and fresh air.  Ironically, one of the only places to find fresh air in Chicago in the winter is indoors, here at the conservatory.  They usually close at 5pm, but on Wednesdays they stay open until 8pm.  It happened to be Wednesday yesterday and I decided to go and read amongst the plants.  When I arrived, I was surprised to find that, though the conservatory was open, most of the lights had been turned off (or perhaps not turned on, as it is a big, glass building with plenty of natural light during the day).  Reading in this situation proved a bit difficult, so I just walked around and enjoyed the smells and extra oxygen.  Here are some pictures I managed to take with my camera propped against something to keep it steady.  If you ever find yourself looking for a place to escape to in the city, I highly recommend going here, and calling me up.

Some HUGE palms in the main (palm) room.

They're Agave plant is flowering!  This, apparently, is a rare event and the whole ordeal lasts up to a year or so.  The flowers bloom on the tips of a stalk that shoots up from the middle of the leaves and grows up to thirty feet tall.  The stalk, though I couldn't see it well in the dim light, is said to be reminiscent of asparagus (as the agave is related to asparagus).

Cool, green lights on the desert at night.

Chihuly, the famous blown glass artist, had an exhibit here a few years back in which he displayed his artwork along with the plants.  I remember thinking it was very impressive, and I was surprised at how well Chihuly was able to integrate his man-made works into the natural beauty supplied by the plants.  These are a few of the pieces he left for permanent display at the conservatory.

Outdoor Adventure Club Weekend at Kettle Moraine, Wisconsin

The outdoor adventure club's latest escapade brought us to Kettle Moraine State Park, Wisconsin (Nov. 19-21).  Kettle Moraine is a beautiful place with a landscape carved by glaciers over thousands of years.  This was, aside from a very frigid ultimate tournament at UW Whitewater in college, my first attempt at cold weather camping.  The temperature on Friday night was supposed to get down to the mid 20s and we faced a high of only mid 30s on Saturday.  I figured that with all the money I've spent on camping gear, it was time to put up or shut up.  There were six brave souls in the group and we all managed pretty well for the most part (aside from some pretty vicious blisters and poor planning/bad map reading by myself).

 Cigars, Whiskey, and a fire with wet wood.

 Oh yeah, and Spotted Cow

 Farmer brought his HAM radio, but was unable to contact any extra-terrestrial life.

 Did I mention it was the first weekend of deer (and apparently road sign) season?

 Look, Matt's almost as tall as Sarah!

 This is what I looked like when I found out Farmer brought Ginger snaps.

 Matt Woodhead and I made chili for night two.  I thought we would have had enough for lunch the next day as well, but we ate it all.  I guess when you don't eat lunch and you hike 10 miles you get extra hungry.

 We were out of water and the well near our shelter was closed due to contamination so we had to resort to Dark Lord.  Thank you Matt!

 5 or so miles into our hike out on Sunday, we made it to water.  This tasted like liquid iron.  But it was some of the best water I've tasted (which I think was influenced by the fact that I hadn't had any since the day before).  We also met yet another extremely friendly Wisconsin resident at the water pump, which further proves our theory that everyone in Wisconsin is the nicest person ever.

 Victory beers at the cars.

 Did I mention it was 50 degrees and FOGGY all day on Sunday.  Visibility was probably down to about 30 yards.

 More victory beers and a pot luck at the Fifth Quarter.  Yes, this bar was having a pot luck for the Packer's game.  Sloppy Joes, string cheese dipped in cocktail sauce, taco-bean dip = Awesome.

Matt cheated on Sarah with some Packer fans and she got super jealous.

Outdoor Adventure Club Weekend at the Indiana Dunes

I've been trying to make sure I am justifying all the money I spend on outdoor gear so I put together a little camping trip to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore last weekend.  I went there in September with my school (for the middle school retreat) and found it to be particularly beautiful and interesting.  I also am incredibly fond of jumping down dunes.  It's great to be able to get away to some pretty sweet natural setting without driving more than two hours, and considering that the National Park is located between a steel mill and two power plants, the whole place is truly incredible.  They claim (I say it as if they aren't for real) that there are eight separate ecosystems within the park (dunes, oak savannas, swamps, bogs, marshes, prairies, rivers and forests).  We were able to cover most of these in the two short days we spent there and each one was truly beautiful.  I am hoping to get out again before the year is over for a weekend in Kettle Morraine, Wisconsin and possibly stay in a yurt or a teepee.

One of the power plants in the area, as viewed from Mt. Baldy

 Falling off of Mt. Baldy

 Trash we found on the beach

 Dune burpees!!

 This is how ladies walk through the oak savannah

 S'mores with tortilla chips, giant marshmallows and dark chocolate = best idea ever

 Coffee in bed.

 Lake Burpees!

The water was beautiful in October!!

And of course, jumping down the dunes!!

Adorable/Awkward/Hilarious/WTF?! child moment of the day

This actually happened a few days ago, but is well worth sharing with those of you who might be reading my thoughts here...

I almost didn't post this because I didn't want my blog to turn into a collection of fart stories, but who cares!  I'll offer you this disclaimer:
If you appreciate good old fart jokes, keep reading, if not... you're probably lying, everyone likes fart jokes.

So I'm proctoring the standardized testing that is done at my school (standardized tests are now done on the computer, and since I work in the tech lab, I have the pleasure of watching kids take tests for two weeks).  Anyway, I was reading the instructions to the test, which I have to repeat for every class that takes a test, and upon finishing my speech, someone very close by rips a rather loud, and pretty powerful fart.  Bear in mind the fact that this was the seventh and eight grade group and, for once in their lives, they were completely silent at that moment.  I braced myself for the eminent laughter and teasing that was bound to ensue, but nothing happened!  I did my best to hide my disgust (this was a juicy one after all) and my laughter and managed to sit down and bury my face in my computer.  Just when I thought we had dodged a bullet and the kids were settling into their test, I hear another fart.  This one was at least as loud and came with at least as much force as the first.  Still no reaction from the crowd, amazing.  To make a very long (and uncomfortable) story short, this seventh grade girl sitting no more than four feet away from me proceeded to thunderously pass gas in a room with no windows and limited ventilation, filled with her classmates who were to all to be stuck there for at least 45 minutes, upwards of nine times!  I had the dean of students come over and pull her out after number nine or ten, and when asked if she was feeling ok, she replied, "Yes, why?"  And when she was told why we suspected that her stomach was upset, she replied with, "Oh!  Do you think I was being disruptive?"  WTF?!!

She came back and finished the rest of her test without farting.

Somebody kept farting on the train...

Ok, so everyone knows I'm not the best smelling dude in the world (I prefer to think of my scent as an acquired taste), but at least I try to be courteous to other people when we're in close quarters.  Anyway, the story goes like this:

I was having a lovely time NOT driving home from work (riding the Metra train).  I happened to take an earlier train than usual and it happened to be very full.  I found a seat in the upper deck, as I call it, broke out a book and began reading.  Not two pages into my read, I detected a very potent oder in the air.  It was one of those seriously thick ones, you know, the ones you can't avoid because they pretty much have a TASTE in addition to a smell.  I'm not sure if it was because of some seasonal allergies or not, but I swear my eyes started burning at the same time.  It was bad.  No big deal right?  Sometimes you just have to let one go, I can understand that, I can't say I sympathize, but I understand.  Well, wouldn't you know it, no sooner had the not so well vented train car dispelled the oder than I practically saw another cloud of noxious gas rising up from the seats below.  Just when I thought the war was over, another salvo came rising up.  At this point I started looking around for the culprit.  No one was fessing up.  No giggling, no sneering, no over innocent-looking people avoiding my stare.  I did notice a few people doing the same subtle searching I was.  I hoped they didn't think I looked guilty.  I mean, not to say that I wasn't impressed, this took some serious talent, but it wasn't my brand, and it wouldn't be right to be credited for this.

I never figured out who dealt it, but I just want to see A. if anyone reads this anymore, and B. what your thoughts might be on public flatulence.  When is it acceptable if ever?  When is it taboo?  Is it one of those "if no one finds out who did it, then it's ok" kind of things?  What would have been the appropriate punishment for such a person?  Or have they suffered enough with the pressure they had to deal with before their "release?"