Photo Friday: Big and Small

The BP Amoco building looks down to the “not-so-small” Cloud Gate in Millenium Park in Chicago, Illinois. Photo taken July 13, 2008.

A “Pooper” of an Invention

I cannot believe that anyone would want to buy this for their bathroom. Could you imagine rolling up the “turf” when guests come over, knowing what may have landed on the turf while it was laid out? I saw this commercial while watching 365gay News this evening and I thought it was a more like a Saturday Night Live spoof.

What do you do when you miss the cup and the golf ball starts rolling across the bathroom floor outside of your reach?

Pride Parade Recap

It could not have been a better day for a parade and a celebration of pride. I made my way down to Evanston where I picked up the purple and red line trains into Chicago. The further south we traveled, the more rainbow-clad revelers boarded the train. It was good to see such “visibility.” I myself was relatively conservatively-dressed. I had a white pride t-shirt on with six embroidered flamingos, each in one of the six rainbow colors. Then hanging around my neck were my pride freedom rings.

I recalled getting off the train at Addison last year and thought that it was a bit of a hike to get to where everyone was meeting on Halsted Street. So I decided to stay on until getting to Belmont. Oh, what a mistake that was. It was a crammed train trying to get off in the most congested part of boystown. People were EVERYWHERE outside the train station and they were moving like chilled molasses. When I got to Halsted and Belmont, the flow of pedestrian traffic came to a complete standstill. What was so annoying were the people who would stop and look behind themselves as everyone else behind them were trying to make their way through the crowd at 15 MPH.

When I got to our meeting place, it was good to see that many had already made it there. What was also nice to see was that the security guard rails that were erected all the way up and down Halsted Street were brought out into the street and covered the bike lanes. In previous years, the guard rails were set up on the curbs, which made things VERY tight for people who were both set up in their spots and those that were trying to walk by on the sidewalks. The guard rails, unfortunately, also went across the side streets. In previous years, the side streets remained open which would allow me to get out into Halsted Street to get a big group picture of everyone who was in attendance from WSGA. So, unfortunately, I had to settle with photos of smaller groups.

The parade was just like any other parade. Nothing really stood out among the floats that went by as far as a float that had pizzazz or a float that represented a particular current “movement.” What was nice to see were old friends that I haven’t seen in a while, both during and after the parade.

Summer arrived last week after one of our major storms of the season, and after that, the warm weather moved in to stay for the season. We were fortunate, however, to experience a bit of a cool down yesterday, where the highs were only in the low 80’s and there was almost no humidity to speak of. The temperatures earlier in the week were absolutely unbearable, particularly with the combination of high humidity. Yesterday, it was only fun in the sun. Which my face really illustrated when the parade was over with.

It was great to see “Alex”, his partner and another couple that we knew. They asked me to join them for dinner at Jack’s again. Last year, we went to Jack’s for dinner which I think was more of a reason to get out of the rain which started to come down toward the end of the parade. But the food was delish. It was amazing to see how fast the crowds dissipated and cleared. This year, the weather was beautiful all day, so there were plenty of people who lingered for a long time after the parade. We were seated at the window table that overlooked the busy corner of Halsted and Belmont. There was plenty of “eye candy” to see. It also provided a lot of sun. We all ordered great meals, and I ordered a delicious salmon dish with wild rice, caramelized onions, red peppers and cherry tomatoes. To die for!

After the dinner is when it seemed that things were starting to turn on us. There was a drunken patron who had just been seated five minutes prior to us leaving who started to throw around a chair. She then got up and started yelling at “Alex” stating that he rammed his chair into her. I had perfect view of her and “Alex” and he didn’t even come close. She then went to the manager to complain. The manager politely came over and said that “Whenever a customer comes to her with a complaint that she always looks to rectify the situation.” “Alex” stated that he was unaware of anything that had happened and the other two who were with us started to chime in as well as I looked in other directions as if I couldn’t hear the belligerent woman. The woman wanted us thrown out of the restaurant. I saw this guy that she was with and he was looking the other way with his head down embarrassed by the whole situation. The woman became belligerent with the manager when the manager asked her to leave the restaurant. The belligerent woman started to make a scene and everyone inside was looking at her like, “What the heck is wrong with that woman?” Eventually the manager called 9-1-1 and threw her out of the restaurant. On her way out, the belligerent woman knocked over a glass bowl containing mints and a smaller upright cup that held a bunch of toothpicks that were on the manager’s table.

Afterward, the manager apologized profusely for assuming any culpability on our part as everyone in the entire establishment had seen what a little too much alcohol can do to one’s demeanor and character. We thought it was over and done with until we left the restaurant and were stopped by a police officer who was standing at the corner with about three other police officers. Evidently, the woman ran to the officer with the same complaint. All but one of the police officers chucked it up to the woman being drunk while that one officer started giving “Alex” the “third degree.” The other officers were a bit taken aback. Eventually one officer stated, “Let them be on their way out of here. If we need to, we’ll follow up with the restaurant manager.”

We said our “goodbyes” at the train station as “Alex” and the other three had to head south on the red line and I headed north to Evanston. I boarded the train and discovered it was time for another ordeal to go through. Many of us who boarded the train soon noticed that there was a man on board who was doing some preaching while rapping. Couldn’t really tell if he was intoxicated or not. It was your typical stuff you hear from people on the corner. Only this time I felt a bit uncomfortable with all my bling-bling rainbow necklaces, my flamingo t-shirt and freedom rings necklace. A few minutes into his diatribe, he started laying into me. I didn’t know what to do other than to ignore him. I didn’t know who he was, who he was with, or if there would be any problems should I try to flip him off or tell him to go to hell. Although there was one thing I DID want to say when he said the infamous, “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” It was within a matter of seconds that a few people started telling him to shut up and that they’re trying to bear the train ride. I felt quite embarrassed about the whole thing. I am thinking that it was the numerous people who spoke at the same time that gave him a quick clue that no one was interested in what he had to say.

I got to Evanston and went to pay for parking and it was nice to discover that there was no charge. I don’t know if it was because it was a Sunday or other reason, but I was expecting to pay about $15.00 for the almost nine hours I was parked there. I can recall the days I used to drive all the way into Chicago and find parking on the side streets. As years passed, it was harder and harder to find a place to park. This is sooo much easier and convenient. I remember how long it used to take just to “exit” the city and get to the Interstate highway.

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse…When I got home, I tried to open the garage door a few times with my remote control and it wouldn’t open. I entered through the back door of the house and heard this beeping noise which turned out to be the battery pack to my AT & T U-Verse equipment, which includes my telephone. Because the battery pack was beeping, that meant the telephone system would soon go dead. Good thing I had a cell phone. I called ComEd whose automated system said they were aware of the outage and would hope to have the electricity back on by 2:00 AM. Looking at my grandparents’ “golden hour” clock in my living room, I noticed that the power was lost shortly after one o’clock in the afternoon. At about 1:30 AM, I was awakened by two ComEd trucks that came down the street. When they came to a stop, they let out “a bunch of gas” from their compressed air brakes and had their yellow lights flashing all over the place. Within a matter minutes, I thought I heard my ceiling fan turn on. I looked up and saw that my digital alarm clock had power restored to it. Then came the mosquito trucks with that “all too familiar sound” they make as the drive up and down the streets spraying whatever it is that they spray. I think I finally fell asleep about 2:00 AM.

Today half of my face is still a bit redder than the other. But in no time it will have only turned tan.

Overall, it was a great Pride parade celebration and perhaps I will put together a video of the parade like I did with 2007.

Remember to click on the photos in the gallery below to see them in larger size.

Photo Friday: Debris

French doors, that once led from the breakfast nook of my brother’s home to his backyard, lay in a pile of debris after a tornado’s path went right through the home on January 7, 2008. No portion of his home remained standing, except for the toilet in the guest bathroom. The homes on either side remained standing but were damaged enough to require rebuilding. My brother’s family re-built and were moved back in four months later by mid-May of 2008. The brown home you see on the left in the far background (blue tarp on roof) was finally demolished back in April of this year.

Birthday Gifts and a Fateful Arrest

Yours truly thought that I better go out and do some splurging for myself for my birthday. Fortunately, I did not have to travel further away than my keyboard. I don’t know what led me to Amazon.com, perhaps I was doing an image search and I landed there, but I came across some things that I thought would be great additions to my DSLR camera. Oh, I know…it was a book search that led me to Amazon. I came across a book that was all about my surname and how many of them settled in the United States after leaving Canada. Unfortunately, a day or two later, I got a notice from Amazon stating that the book was no longer in print, despite what their site said just days earlier. But I digress.

I came across a tripod that would stand 58″ at its tallest, yet, it takes up very little ground space. My current tripod is great as it collapses to something VERY small and light. But my new DSLR camera is a bit too heavy for this little tripod. I came across this tripod from Sunpak (#620-060 6601UT) which is very sturdy and light and has a quick release for the camera.

The other thing that I came across, which would be perfect for the upcoming Fourth of July fireworks is the Opteka Wireless Radio Remote Release for my digital camera, which in layman’s terms is a remote control for the camera to operate from a distance; up to 320 feet mind you. So when I’m hanging on the edge of a cliff after backing up too far, I can get some nice action shots of myself. When I first saw the photo, I thought the remote and the receiver were somewhat large.

Well to my surprise, the tripod came Tuesday and the remote came yesterday. When the remote came in an envelope, I thought to myself, “Oh no, they screwed up my order and sent me something different. But I opened the envelope and there the remote and receiver were.

In other news, the colleague who passed away on Monday suffered from “severe cardiac arrest.” It blew me away considering how young the colleague was (54 years young). Something that I have on my desk which I first thought was a bit tacky but has since taken on a new look is this souvenir, which is a small “uncorked” glass bottle from Florida, filled with sand and little colored seashells that this colleague of mine bought me while vacationing there about eight years ago. I commented that I barely knew this colleague since I had just started working here and the colleague had stated that I was such a nice guy. Tomorrow afternoon is the wake.

Oh, and I heard through CNN that Farrah Fawcett had passed away today after her battle with cancer.