Not just snow... it's POWER SNOW

Greetings from Bishop International Airport, Flint, MI. No, there are no public tubes to the internets here, so I'm posting from my BlackBerry. This is probably the last time I'll do this since the posting interface sucks on a two-inch screen, but I digress.

There is apparently some kind of apocalypse at O'Hare because my flight is over two hours late and rising. This storm has wreaked havoc with air travel. O'Hare was scrod all weekend and apparently isn't much better right now, even though the weather is just moderate IFR (2mi visibility, 900 broken/2000 overcast).

When you cram every possible takeoff/landing op into a place, and things slow down even a smidge, any delay ripples through the system like a tsunami. Hence, sitting in the Flint internet-less business center giving myself BlackBerry Thumb.

New link.

Someone sent me a link to this blog written by someone staying over the winter in Antarctica. This is the kind of interesting stuff that makes it worth sorting through all the spam, HERBAL V!@GRA, porn and other crap that clogs the tubes to the Internets.

Go check it out. As most of the Upper Midwest braces for the STORM OF THE CENTURY!!11!11111!!!!!!, read about how it's 90 degrees below zero with 100-mph winds. Then go outside and be grateful for sleet and freezing rain because it means it's close to 32 degrees above zero.

Route 96. Lunt. To Bryn Mawr. Red line.

New bus!
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

Now that we live in the (relative) wilderness of West Rogers Park, my commute to downtown is a bit more complex than before. Any decent way for me to get between here and there generally involves at least one, and usually two, transfers between buses and trains.

I've been taking the Lunt bus for a while now because it's usually the quickest way to work and doesn't involve a long slog on the California bus into Evanston (go three miles north to go south? Only on CTA)

Well, Lunt is the red-headed stepchild of CTA. It runs only during the week, ends at 7pm or something similarly early, and usually gets equipment that looks as if it was salvaged from the Glorious Socialist People's Transit System Of Moscow, circa 1986. Needless to say, these buses break down a lot and don't run on time.. so there have been countless mornings standing at California and Lunt waiting on a transfer that's not going to arrive.. blackberry messages to the office saying "guess what? bus is late again!" - that sort of thing. It's like The Little Bus Line That Could, but actually can't.

This is one of those cases where CTA is deferring maintenance on their equipment, because the state doesn't fund them.. and this is the kind of crap that happens, which makes riders want to use cars instead, meaning ridership goes down, fare collections go down, etc etc, vicious cycle, and so on.

Well, look at this. CTA put a new bus on the Lunt line the past couple of mornings! It even has straps for people that have to stand! It runs! On time! And doesn't break down!

Too bad I'm not going back downtown until next Wednesday again (travel) so by then they'll get the Moscow buses back, no doubt.

Roadblogging: Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

Not the greatest picture ever.. but these days the airport people aren't real keen on people taking pictures inside the airport. They think you might be a terrorist or something.

As of last fall, I have switched careers.. sort of. I used to have a back-office operations gig, where they sit you in front of a computer and make you actually produce things. In my case, I had people working for me that actually had to produce things.. but the same concept applies. Management generally doesn't let the back-office monkeys out of the back-office to do anything of interest.

Now I have one of those jobs where I don't actually "produce" anything, but I'm exponentially busier than I was before.. how does that work, again? A big part of the job involves travel to visit clients, conduct training seminars, that kind of thing. This travel takes me to glamorous places such as:

• Stamford, CT (I did not visit the Dunder-Mifflin office, as it had closed by then)
• Jersey City, NJ (please don't be jealous)
• Pittsburgh, PA

..and others. As I travel this wonderful country -- mostly one city in one day, out and back on the same day -- I'll try to take a picture or two of something interesting and share it with everyone. Sadly, all I saw of Pittsburgh was the inside of the airport, the expressway from the airport to downtown (nice traffic, gang; what urban planning genius said that you can only have one two-lane expressway into downtown from the west side of town? ..and hey, what a great idea, let's run it through the side of a mountain?) and an office building/operations center.

Plus it rained. So we had that going for us, which was not really nice.

Next week brings Flint, MI. When I signed up for this, they said, "Hey, you'll go to New York sometimes, California, Seattle, that kind of place." Instead, I get Flint and Troy, MI.

No disrespect intended to Flint or Troy, but c'mon.. it's not New York.

Best graffiti ever.

Best graffiti ever.
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

Found at Metropolis Coffee Company.

This picture is for Corey and Eric

Hardware clock
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

I bet you wish you had this in front of your place...

The 'numbers' between 12, 3, 6 and 9 are hex nut heads.

Not a very fancy website, but it fits a place with wrenches for clock hands.

Well, that didn't take long.

So you know that promise I made to not be political? ..the one I made yesterday? Well, it's gone.

A friend pointed me in the direction of this article in the Washington Post.

Please take about ten minutes and go read it. Read the whole thing. Do not skim. Do not skip sections. The ten minutes it'll take you to read it will be minutes well-spent.

Regardless of your:

-- political leaning
-- opinion about George Bush
-- opinion about the war
-- opinion about the military

this is a must-read article.

Frankly, the fact that our soldiers, hurt in combat, are coming back to conditions such as this is deplorable. Everyone, this is not ok.

The current leadership spouts, "Support the troops!" and makes it sound as if any kind of dissent whatsoever is seditious and gives the terrorists more ammunition to use against us. Well, guess what? How can this be considered "supporting the troops?"

When soldiers who lose their arms are forced to come back and live in roach-infested hospital rooms... when soldiers who lose their legs are forced to wear shorts because they don't have any pants to wear, and are then kept away from a ceremony for a comrade... when soldiers get Purple Hearts but no underwear... how can this be considered supporting the troops?

I support the troops.

I am related to one of the troops.

A former employee of mine has resigned her position to become one of the troops.

I want the troops to come home in one piece. (side note: and now you know why!)

But I cannot, in good conscience, support an administration that uses money to build bridges to nowhere in Alaska ($423 million! at least!) yet allows wounded combat vets to hang out with la cucaracha.

Watch your back, Eric!

So one of the big reasons for this blog is to keep people updated on what's going on.. because I'm busier than (insert analogy here) most of the time.

My cousin Eric ships out to the Middle East today (via training classes somewhere a little less sandy.) He's Navy Reserve.. he served his time in the early nineties and is still in. When this whole fracas broke out in 2002, I lived a few miles from him and remember asking, "Do you think there's any chance your unit will end up going over there?"

Famous last words: "No, it's an Army and Marines thing. They don't need an F14 crew chief."

Without getting into any kind of political discussion -- if there's one thing the blogosphere doesn't need, it's another bloviating political blog -- watch yourself over there. There are people here waiting for you to come back in one piece, with all pieces attached.

For updates on what's going on in (as he calls it) "the crappy sandbox," visit his blog.

Lower your car insurance premiums?

...with this wonderful contraption.

What is there to do other than sail in Perth, Australia? I guess this guy answers the question for us.

Who the hell is this guy?

relaxed on Metra?
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

So you might know that we've had a bit of snow here in Chicago this week..

• Tuesday, we got about a foot or so, depending on where you are.. southsiders got more
• Wednesday, the closer you were to the lake, the more you got; lake effect!
• Saturday morning, we got another three inches or so

As you can imagine, it's slushy, dirty, salty, sandy, all of the above. Trains and buses are a mess, everyone's car is covered in grime, people are tracking salt and crud everywhere, and so on.

So what do you do if you're a Metra commuter coming in from Evanston? Well, apparently, you get on the train, snag two seats upstairs, kick off your shoes and stretch out! Meanwhile, people are standing in the stairwells, scrunched in the vestibules and packed in the aisles so the conductors can't get by. I suppose I should at least be happy he didn't leave his shoes on.. at least there isn't snow and salt on the seat, just foot funk.

Honestly, I'm surprised someone didn't bring him his pipe and slippers.

Asshat.

Is this thing on?

I am officially the last person to set up a weblog. All of these companies can now shut down because if I'm going to do this, then everyone who's interested in blogging has already started their blog.

Welcome to my Internet home for useless information. I figured that since everyone else in the family was doing it, and since I'm now officially the second-farthest away member of the family, I could join in as well.