Got Any Jacks?

Miami Airport
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

The American Airlines terminal in Miami is undergoing "modernization" right now. Rumor has it this will be done in 2015 -- apparently in Miami, like most other places, public works projects take eons to actually complete. Going through Terminal D, it looks like you're in the middle of a giant construction war zone.. then you get to the "smoking room" - they still have one! - where all the smokers are in a hermetically-sealed glass room surrounded by clouds. It kind of looks like a "cancer under glass" exhibit. Further on, you get to the completed part..

There's some pretty cool public art in the completed spaces, too. This one, titled "Got Any Jacks?", are replicas of actual fish found off the coast of Florida.

Busy-ness

I seem to be on a posting schedule of about once a week here, so in the best tradition of infrequently updated blogs, let's do the Week In Review:

This week, I..

• ..went to Miami on Sunday evening, didn't get there until 11:30pm, and got to see absolutely none of the city except for that part of it between the airport and Coral Gables. Which, just sayin', isn't much.
• ..went to Troy, MI on Tuesday. Flying into Detroit was interesting. Now that I'm an American Airlines flyer, we get to fly into the "old" terminal at Detroit (also known as the Aviation Ghetto, apparently.) Wow. Someone described it as "retro." They were being generous.
• ..drove from Troy to Grand Rapids on Wednesday. Dear Western Michiganers: Why do you insist on putting "Gd Rapids" on all of the expressway signs? Is it really that difficult to spell "Grand?" I mean, really; budgets are tight and all that, but three letters per sign can't be that much.
• ..flew back from Gd Grand Rapids to Chicago on Thursday. The airport there is pretty nice, comfortable and certainly not busy. The flight was interesting because of chaos caused when one of the luggage conveyor trucks at O'Hare ran into the E-145 that American Eagle was flying into GRR, thus causing one full flight to be canceled. Not many rebooking options exist from GRR-ORD, unfortunately. I feel sorry for the gate agents at GRR that had to work that flight!

Next week brings Houston and Dallas. Then, believe it or not, I'm back here for about a week and a half, so I might actually be able to get used to sleeping in my own bed again!

Separated at birth?

Separated at birth?
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

Elmer Fudd, cartoon superhero and nemesis of "Wascally Wabbit" Bugs Bunny..

and..

Bernie Stone, Chicago 50th Ward Alderman-For-Life

Whoever advised Alderman Stone to put his picture in the 'o' in his name apparently has no recollection of Looney Tunes cartoons. There's another version of this campaign poster floating around which has his picture actually larger than the 'o' - his head kind of sticks out the top - making it much more like the Looney Tunes thing. Alas, these campaign signs have disappeared.

This ward, like most in Chicago, has a history of aldermanic election dirty tricks, including campaign poster/sign theft. I can't imagine why, but I think all of Stone's signs with his mug in the 'o' have disappeared except for this one, located way up the side of a dry cleaners on California and Rosemont.

Why steal it when you can take a picture and make fun on the Internets?

Stone's platform for re-election this year seems to be basically "I'm around, I've done some stuff, who the hell are these guys running against me?" His campaign lit brags up achievements from 1978 (!) I think he's actually running scared this time.. he's in a runoff, and he's sending his precinct captains (read "hired goons") around to bully voters into coming out for the runoff election in April. Usually no one gives a crap about the runoff elections, so the more people his hired goons captains can drag up, the better off he is.

part two in a series..

Urban Planning
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

..of pre-teen snickering..

This is in Troy, Michigan. My company's main office in Michigan is located on this road.

Yes, you perverts. There is also a Hooters on this road.

I suppose if there's one thing in my travels I'm finding, it's the ability to take these kind of pictures. Sad, isn't it?

the graffiti of love...

Walter Payton?
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

see on the bus stop bench at the corner of California and Lunt, Chicago. I wonder if "Jayne" knows that she's Sweetness? ..or that she shares a nickname with Walter Payton?

Down, down, down...

What's this world coming to?

In the Cleveland airport, the "muzak" is currently playing Rock Lobster by the B52's. And not some crappy "instrumental" mix, either; it's the real thing, Fred Schneider and all.

Hooray for the 80s (actually, 70s? wasn't this from then?) being considered elevator music.

Sweet merciful crap, I'm old.

*snicker*

boobys
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

I don't know what's better:

a) this dog stand is called 'Booby's'
b) Hank Hill apparently is holding up the sign

Discuss.

PS - for anyone in the area, this is in Niles on Milwaukee, a little southeast of Golf Mill Mall. I've never eaten there, so I don't know if it's any good. If anyone's checked it out, leave a comment.

It's much warmer than this now.

Remove before flight
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

Nothing interesting has gone on this week.. it's sort of been the "calm before the storm."

My travel schedule picks up in earnest Tuesday night. In the next week and a half, I'll be in Cleveland, Livonia and Grand Rapids, MI, and Houston (and perhaps Dallas.)

I'm beginning to feel like my grandfather. He traveled around the country fixing large industrial saws and other machines. For what it's worth, I'm glad I don't have to tote around his enormous case of tools. The laptop weighs much less. However, he didn't have to go through the ridiculousness that is the TSA screening... I suspect if he was told that he couldn't take his regular-size can of shaving cream through -- you know, more than three ounces! -- it would have been an interesting sight to say the least.

Hopefully more will come soon. If nothing else, I'll have some more pictures of the inside of airports. Try not to hold your breath in anticipation.

Part Two of an ongoing series...

metra
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

...titled "Goofballs On The Metra"

This evening's commute featured this fine specimen, who you can see loudly gabbing on his cell phone. This conversation was about his (hopefully ex-) wife. He regaled the entire half of the train car with stories of this woman, how childish she is, and how much he can't stand her because he's a "saint" and puts up with all her "shit." And so on, and so on. For at least twenty minutes.

Sir. Do you not realize that we can ALL HEAR YOU? Do you think we all WANT TO HEAR YOU?

No.

See that empty seat to your left? That person got up and went into the vestibule because he didn't want to hear you talking smack about this woman any more. He got sick of it. We ALL got sick of it.

Oh, and by the way. A piece of fashion and comfort advice might be in order. It's 25 degrees outside and there's still snow and ice around. No matter how nice that sun looks, it's still cold. Socks may be an appropriate attire choice. Consider it.

First commenter wins the prize!

Congrats, Corey.. sorry, no prize.

The car in the terminal is a 1949 Buick Roadmaster Riviera.

Random Chicago Holiday: Casimir Pulaski Day

Happy Casimir Pulaski Day to all six of my readers!

Happy what, you might say? In Chicago, the first Monday in March is Casimir Pulaski Day. Read all about it from our friends at Wikipedia: link.

I didn't even know this holiday existed until I moved here. Despite all the crap I take about "bankers' hours" and excessive holidays, I am actually at work today as are 80% of the rest of the people in town. City workers are, of course, off. Chicago schools are closed -- surprise! -- in their effort to move towards a blissful goal of zero actual instructional days in a year. And there's no garbage pickup today.. leaving piles of crap in our alley for the squirrels to rustle through. (a side note: these alley squirrels are vicious. They chew through thick plastic garbage cans. They're almost as bad as the rabbit in Monty Python's Flying Circus.)

I can't find in any of the CP Day lit (well, the two websites I saw this morning doing my diligent research for this post) why Chicago in particular would celebrate this holiday and other areas would not.. other than the fact that Chicago is the second largest Polish city in the world (actual statistic, not made up.)

for those old car buffs..

The most interesting thing in the Flint airport.
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

identify the car and win a prize! *


* no actual prize will be awarded

This looked cooler in person.

Delayed due to this?
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

Taken from Gate 6 at Flint airport. Yes, there are actually something like ten gates in this airport.

The snow looked a lot better in person. It was those fun fat snowflakes that feel like you're being hit by snowballs as they fall from the sky.

Something to see...

Frost
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

so I'm sitting at Rogers Park Metra a couple of cold weeks ago... but it was sunny, so here's what happens to Dish Network dishes when the sun shines on roofs.

The frost shadows are even in the same shape of the little arm thingy that holds the receiver out. This can't possibly have lasted very long...

My favorite Chicago picture.

Washington and Wells
Originally uploaded by bryenz.

I took this picture when I first moved to Chicago, in the fall of 2003. It's from the Washington and Wells El stop in the Loop.

Believe it or not, I took it with a crappy point and shoot two-megapixel camera....

Ugh, I'm tired.

Sorry, readers.. all four of you (or five, or something.. how many of you are there anyway?)

It's been a very long and exhausting week and I just don't have it in me to be witty, interesting or even post any of the pictures I took. I have some cool snowstorm pictures from my three hour tour delay in Bishop International Airport, Flint, Michigan.

Note to Flint airport authorities: Put the coffeeshop on the airside, not the landside. The War on Liquids means that the delicious coffee (is it delicious? who knows?) can't be taken through security and is thus useless to those of us on the airside sitting around waiting for nuclear snowflakes to end.

Work informed me of three new trips today that I get to book through our wonderfully easy to use travel website. So, here are the upcoming trips on which (hopefully) I might take an interesting picture or two:

Troy, MI
Grand Rapids, MI
Cincinnati, OH
Cleveland, OH
New York, NY
Wilmington, DE
Houston, TX

Hope all is going well with everyone, especially those of you in Minnesota, also known as Land o' Snow, apparently. I don't want to hear any more bitching from the winter sports people. You have enough snow now. Go play in it.

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.