We are back from a week in Chicago

 We are back from a week in Chicago.  We visited the MSI but spent most of our time at Montrose Beach.  It took a little bit of practice but once we got our groove, we figured out that Montrose had the best free parking and was easier to get to.  

Nightingale and I had dinner at Las Tapas, a place that is around the corner from our PP HOUSE.  I miss living there and wish I COULD get us back there.  alas, without employment, it is a pipe dream.  If my mom would sell her crapshack, we could buy this house.  but she won't.

did I get to do all the Chicago things I wanted to do?  no.  but what are the Chicago things anyway? 

headed to Chicago

 We are headed to Chicago for a week via Mt Vernon.  We stay at the Drury Inn to split the drive into two manageable 4-hour legs.

Katniss has graciously offered her house for us to stay in since she and the family are going out of town for a vacation with some extended family.

I didn't tell a lot of people we will be in town but I did tell a few.  It's hard to see everyone and it's just easier to do our own thing with an occasional lunch or dinner with another adult.

financially, we really shouldn't be doing this trip.  We are doing it so my mom can see her grandkids again, especially since I'm not sure we will make our annual Thanksgiving Day visit.  But it will be good for the kids and for me.  

If my mom could be a functional adult, we would have a better solution.  She could sell her crapshack in Humboldt Park and buy a nicer home.  Then we'd have a place to stay and could visit more often.  But she is afraid of change and doesn't care that I will have to spend tons of money when she finally dies and I have to deal with her hoarder issues.

Down the Zombie Rabbit Hole

On the Svengoolie Fans Group on Facebook a user asked

I answered with my theory is Zombies refer to the reanimated dead via VooDoo.

3

This is a throwback to something I wrote here a decade ago.  Which wasn't entirely correct as it turns out.

 and look at the rabbit hole I went down for this question:

Types Of Zombies

Biological zombies. Parasites modify the host creature's behavior. ...

Supernatural zombies. These are zombies that are created in a supernatural way. ...

Chemical zombies. Strange chemicals are discovered and are meant to bring back the dead to life. ...

Technological zombies. ...

Constructed zombie. ...

Magic zombie.

https://greatroomescape.com/blog/zombie-types/

Let's not forget that Vampires are simply intelligent, self-aware, zombies. 

This house has some serious electrical issues

 The other day I noticed the deck lights didn't turn on automatically.  We only have an outlet on one side of the deck, from which we run two power strips.  We have the deck lights and a few other things connected to these.

After some light investigation, I determined that the outlet wasn't providing any power.  Unfortunately, troubleshooting requires turning the junction boxes on and off and that isn't something I can do when Nightingale is working.  Last night I finally got a chance and while that didn't solve the problem, it did point me in the right direction.  We have a light switch in the kids' room that always throws a breaker on the circuit board.  I flipped it on, then reset the breaker, and then the deck lights worked again.

BUT...last night one of our Air Conditioning units stopped working.  The air was coming out but it wasn't cold.  After a bit of troubleshooting, I determined it was the same problem as last year.  In fact, it has been 11 months since a repairman charged me $240 to fix it.  

• $70 for a capacitor (they average $20)
• $50 for freon (this was just a precaution)
• $120 for labor, about half an hour of work IIRC.

I wanted to avoid that this time so I will replace the capacitor myself.  Amazon had one and I could have had it here tomorrow between 4 am and 8 am but I needed to find one more item for $1.10.  I could have selected literally anything, even two capacitors ($23.90 ea), and returned it.  But I wanted to find something we could use.  It indicated that I had until 5 pm to place the order so I put it down to go deal with feeding my kids lunch.

at 2:30 I picked this up again and now no option for tomorrow is available.  the earliest will be sometime Saturday and it might bleed over into Sunday.  I don't know if it is because Amazon just baits and switches the rapid delivery or because we live in such a shithole state that they only deliver here when it is convenient for them.

Update from the future:  While getting an estimate for a water tank replacement, the person was able to troubleshoot my AC and figured it was just the circuit breaker.  Since I had already tried that, I'm gonna say that the problem was the Capacitor and the breaker.

Look what I've done now

One of the blogs I frequent is Nancynall.com.  I'm probably more of a lurker but I do contribute now and again.  Usually, my comments are ignored don't lead to anything or there is a 1-2 response.  This is how most of the comments there work.

The other day I shared my unpopular opinion ...

Of course, I have an unpopular opinion that Sentence Diagramming is just an excuse to give Neurodivergent students lower grades and that cursive writing should go the way of the Dodo.

... and it seems to have short-term thread jacked the post.  I actually wrote a thing about Cursive Writing at ChicagoNow but since Alden Global Capital killed the site, you can find it here:

Who cares if Cursive Writing becomes Extinct?

I've met Nancy once, we had a beer in Grosse Pointe.  Her blog is a bit different as she posts a variety of things and readers comment on one or more of them, but then after a day or so the commentary takes over and talks about whatever until Nancy posts again.  

Speaking of Defunct Blogs

Here's one I happened across when looking for this particular piece.

Chicago History Today

https://chicagohistorytoday.wordpress.com/2015/09/16/chicago-grand-avenue-radar-track/ 

As a kid, whenever my mom drove us to the Brickyard Mall, we'd notice this Highway to Nowhere.  I thought it might have once been part of an expressway system and this was all that was left.  When I got older and more cynical, we joked that it was a construction pork project.  It turns out, there was a legitimate purpose to it.

This structure was located at 6650 West Grand Avenue. A curved driveway, supported on concrete pillars 40 feet above the ground, with no ramps. For most of the thousands who passed it everyday, it was an intriguing mystery. A Northwest Side prototype for the Skyway, perhaps?

The Grand Avenue whatsis was actually a relic of World War II. Built by Western Electric in 1943, it was a track used for testing mobile radar equipment. The location at the top of a ridge made it higher than any buildings for miles around.

Originally a wooden ramp connected the track to the ground. The mobile radar units would drive up to the top, then planes from Glenview Naval Air Station flew over. The data collected was used to determine the efficiency of radar, which was then a new invention.

Tales from Pidgeon Forge

 We got back yesterday from our trip to Pidgeon Forge.  It was a fun time without too much stress or drama.  Note, there's always a little bit of that, especially when you are spending extended time with friends in confined quarters.  

You see their daily habits and as they likely differ from yours, you cannot help but wonder, how do they live like this?  At the same time, they are thinking the same thing about you.  J and I had a secret "cold war" over the thermostat setting.  Admittedly, I'd set it too low and he would crank it back up, not realizing that the cold setting doesn't act like heat so all it does is effectively turn off the air.  It also irked me that he would leave empty bottles on the counter instead of putting it in the garbage (there was no recycling here: everything had to go in Bear-proof containers).

I've known the entity known as K&J for twenty years now, give or take.  I've also technically known Katniss since high school although we weren't close back then and there was the decade between college and re-acquaintance when we weren't connected.  Katness doesn't let J drink alcohol anymore, which while likely a good thing in the long run, is affecting his short-term dopamine intake.  Like many of us, he has ADHD tendencies and he now only has smoking to get his fix.  

In any event, I'd say we all had a good time (except for J) and the kids enjoyed it, which was the point.  The key was we had very lazy morning and didn't try to cram too much into each day.  The kids also took turns being sick from some sort of virus, which Nightingale and I went through when we got home.  That meant among other things that we couldn't go back to The Island for a second day of rides.

The cabin actually had a vintage video game machine with at least 60 different retro games from the 80s and 90s.  I was reminded quickly how frustrating those games could be.  For one thing, the device is analog so moving your ship, character, or whatever would sometimes not work the way you want it to or might be used to with today's video games.  A lot of video games from that area couldn't handle your ship and an enemy ship or bullet was too close on the screen so it registered a kill even though you could see space between the two entities.  

Let's not forget that often people would get frustrated and hit the controls too hard, which I'm sure adds to them not working optimally.  

I spent the bulk of my video game experience playing Burger Time and Time Pilot.