early spring

That whole rathole thing, I have to tell you I was not a big fan.  Oh I jumped on the bandwagon like everybody else it had a nice cynical vibe to it, but there was no actual animal to it like the alligator or the turtle.  It was just a little distraction in the winter.   And, except for that one big cold spell, not much of a winter.  And look what I spotted two days ago in the IBM planter across the street.

Time to get down to the garden store before they run out of tomato plants.

I wrote this a week ago.  I'd go out and get another photo of it but the sun has not yet risen.  

Meanwhile the Trumpist's case for impeaching Biden has fallen through since their main witness, who nobody outside of them ever thought was anything more than a Russian stooge, has turned out to be a Russian stooge.  But they are going to press on with it anyway because, because, Trump wants them to.  Not that that matters because no way is the senate going to vote against him, not that that matters either because, because, Trump wants them to.  

Meanwhile the Ukrainians, fighting on our front against the Russkies are running out of ammo, and the house can't find a way to give them any more dough because they didn't like the senate border proposal so the senate took it out, but then the house didn't like it because it didn't have a border proposal, but the real reason they don't want to give the Ukrainians any dough is because, because Trump doesn't want them to.

Meanwhile the sun has come out and I crossed State to get a photo of that shoot in the IBM planter.

Actually I am not sure if that is the same shoot as I posted last week, but hey close enough.  Daffodil I am guessing.

Warmest feb in history and I have to say I am enjoying it, even if it is  a harbinger of our doom from the hothouse effect.

Concrete evidence

When that story broke about the rat hole I was thinking, "Oh boy! Another opportunity to exercise my inner artsy-fartsy demons!"  Just gotta make a casting, then a plaster mold and then start cranking out ceramic replicas.  Ought to be a pretty penny in such an endeavor but Holy Moly it was cold that week and casting could be problematic.  And then I recalled one of those procedural cop shows on TV and they made a cast of tire tracks, in the snow, but they used sulfur, a technique I never heard of.   I was willing to try but I was fresh out of sulfur and it could be tricky showing up on a residential street with a camp stove melting sulfur.  Time passed, it warmed up but then everybody and his brother was showing up and just like that! the golden opportunity slipped away.  No worries, there will be others.

And speaking of sidewalks, I saw this warm sentiment scratched into the concrete near the Geezer Chateau.

Nighthawks

 Nighthawks.  Sure we have nighthawks.  Usually drop by it whenever I drop by the Art Institute,  The counterman is there because he is getting paid.  The couple are having a tryst, or maybe plotting a murder, likely her no-good hubby with the fat insurance policy.  But what about that guy with his back to us, the brim of his hat pulled down maybe a bit more than fashion would allow.  Is he an undercover copper or is he just a guy who likes a good cup of joe at two in the morning?  Why is nobody eating pie?

Can't say as I have every noticed the nighthawks here.  I don't remember them from Homan Avenue and probably they don't come downtown.  But it's nice to have something to welcome you to a new town.  In Champaign it was it was a Playboy magazine in an otherwise empty drawer in my dorm room.  In Herrin it was a big sign in front of  Red Top Liquors that read Cook's Beer, $2.80 a case.

That rat hole thing has been super-hyped here in Chicago.  Seems to me that since there is no real animal there like that Humboldt park alligator or that fat turtle in the river, that it doesn't deserve all that  attention.  But we Chicagoans like anything that can bring us together, and knocking catsup bottles out of tourists' hands in hot dog joints gets old after a while.