Robert Pence

kayteeohh, that's a most pleasing view. I like the the way the composition and the colors work together, especially the splashes of red that accent an otherwise cool-color image. That would be a lovely photo to look at when winter turns everything icy, gray, and dull.

Thanks, all! I did have a pretty good birthday; I gave myself the day off from all the family-business paper-shuffling and indulged in some much-needed self-gratification. No, not that! Dirty minds ... I rented a pressure washer and cleaned up my long-neglected patio, tended to my rapidly-growing zinnias that are just beginning to bloom, and kept busy at general outdoor tidying up under clear-blue sunny skies with a gentle, cooling breeze. In the evening I went to my grand-nephew's ball game - he's fifteen, and it was a high-school game at a pleasant baseball field in one of the outlying small towns. At his second at-bat he got beaned by a wild pitch and went down in a heap across the plate. He came out of it OK, but the impact gave him a cut on the back of his neck from his helmet. He sat out a couple of innings and then got a good, solid hit to center field that brought a runner home. They won the game 10-3. Nice relaxing evening with a small, friendly crowd.

Oh, I dunno; I might just play along. I've 'bout reached the point where I'll settle for whatever I can get.

South Shore is a pretty good deal, and there are some daily Loop commuters even from South Bend. The traffic really picks up starting at Dune Park and stations west of there, and rush-hour trains run full to standing-room-only from Hammond or Hegewisch on in. There are seven peak-period inbound trains from Michigan City (one of those originates in South Bend), arriving at Randolph Street between 5:43 and 8:52. Regular round-trip fare from Michigan City to Randolph Street is $8 and a monthly pass is $228.52 (There are some perks to being over 60; I pay half fare). Travel time is about 1:40. South Shore web site is here. My only beef is that, for someone like me who doesn't have built-in padding, the seats in the cars from the 1980s are uncomfortable on a long ride, and those cars are noisy, too, compared with the new gallery cars. Ongoing work to weld rail joints should help alleviate some of the noise; it's not bad on the nice manicured Metra Electric track between Kensington and Randolph.

Wow. Small town got even smaller!

As in wardrobe malfunction?

Hmmm. Looks to me like it's possessed. If it does this again, I'd take it to a priest and have it exorcised.

I often find sports fans in general more than a little annoying.

Situations like that, and when someone in the next seat on the train is yapping on one incessantly about nothing out of boredom, are why I'd like to have a cell phone jammer. I know they're illegal to use and difficult to obtain, but ... Used discreetly and with respect for people's essential business, and with a range of about 20-30 feet, I think sometimes one would be a blessing.

Chicago's Chinatown, June 23, 2010 All Photos Copyright © 2010 by Robert E Pence I had business in Chicago on Tuesday and Thursday, June 22 and 24, so rather than make the 4-hour drive home and then return so soon, I stayed in Michigan City and commuted via South Shore trains - cheaper than staying in a Chicago hotel while there are events going on. I made plans with a friend in Chicago to get together on Wednesday and tour Chinatown. Wednesday morning came up rainy at the Carroll Avenue stop on the east side of Michigan City, where I boarded Train #116, on time at 10:55a.m. The resurgence of bicycling has brought many older bikes back into the daylight after years of neglect in basements, attics, and garages. At the Carroll Avenue station this Raleigh Carlton awaited its owner's return on the train. It's been updated with alloy hubs, rims, bars, and crankset and lightweight mudguards and has been converted to a fixed-gear bike. The sticker above the original decals on the seat tube read "Working Bikes Cooperative." I detrained at the 11th Street/Museum Campus Station, with plans to meet Chris at the Red Line station at Roosevelt. He had decided to drive, so after we picked up a couple of his friends, we were on our way. Welcome to Chinatown! Random walking around and taking photos. Chris dropped me off at Millennium Park Station where I boarded Train #11, departing at 3:58p.m. for Michigan City. Back at Carroll Avenue ... The Raleigh Carlton still awaited its owner's return. By 6:00p.m. I was back in my motel. As I prepared to take a shower, I turned on my laptop and opened weather.com. There was a severe storm warning that some really bad stuff was headed our way fast, and it was almost there! I decided to defer the shower until later and get ready in case I had to evacuate. By the time I got dressed and gathered my camera bag and laptop, the sky had turned very dark and a torrential rain had started. Abruptly the wind started to shriek around the building, lightning lit up the room, and the power went out simultaneously as the tornado sirens started. I grabbed my stuff and headed for the stairway just as hotel staff came up and started banging on doors and yelling for people to get downstairs. The worst of the storm passed and the all-clear sounded after 20-30 minutes, but the rain continued at a lesser rate. I was one of the only guests who had a flashlight, and many people continued to congregate in stairways and in the lobby until the battery-powered lights petered out about 9:30. I turned on all the lights in my room so I'd wake up if the power came back on, and went to bed. About 2:00a.m. I awoke to a brightly-lit room, took my shower, and went back to bed. Driving to the station in the morning I encountered some flooded intersections and several traffic lights without power. The major roads had been cleared of downed trees, but many minor roads and streets were still blocked. Later that afternoon driving home through La Porte, I saw much more severe damage to very large old trees.

Great variety of beautiful photos! The shots of Pride with the city skyline as backdrop show what a great city Cleveland has become, and it continues to improve.

Excellent views. Looks like a gorgeous day.

Nice shots! Despite its problems, Youngstown has so much going for it. I just hope they can get things turned around before they lose too much more of their historic infrastructure. The downtown buildings that they've kept are impressive, some for historic value and some for sheer massiveness for a city that size.

Maybe they really are trying to sell their bicycle? OK by me, so long as they use the money to buy a dictionary.

Just visited Borders this evening and picked up a new addition to my Leftist Library: Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War, by David Corn and Michael Isikoff

"Then" for "than" as in, "My favorite city is better then your favorite city." "Peddle" for "pedal" as in, "Safety, common sense, and respect for others be damned! I'll peddle my bicycle wherever and however I f#cking please."

Ugh I used to get those when I worked at a prior company. While they couldn't legally make you donate...you had to donate, and they had a predetermined amount you had to give based on your title. They also loved the 'fair share' for annual donation to United Way. It was some crazy sh!t, too, like 1.8% of total salary. B!tch, please. Again, donating less got you a call from your manager explaining the importance of United way. I always did $26 annual donations, taken out as $1 per pay period. Whoever was at the top of our boss's sh!t list got appointed United Way Campaign Chairman for our section. For some reason, that honor fell to me numerous times.

There are wild parrots in Chicago.

Anybody wants my gay card, they're gonna' have to come and get it:

If you liked Devil in the White City, you might like Isaac's Storm and Thunderstruck, both by Larson. I got about two thirds of the way through Collapse and gave up. My doctor said that after she read Germs, Guns and Steel, she wasn't sure she wanted to tackle Collapse. I was going through some other depressing stuff at the time, and that book was more density and grimness than I could handle right then. Maybe if I tried now, I'd make it through. ... and I'm up 'way too late. I'm having a hard time catching all the typos that my keyboard causes.

Quite lovely. I would have loved to have seen it in its original incarnation, with the now-fenced-off buildings still functioning. I was born twenty years too late; when I was a little kid, many places like this still existed but already were going into decline. The Sunday activity restrictions remind me of Winona Lake, about 50 miles west of Fort Wayne off US 30. It was home turf for evangelist Billy Sunday back in the day, and my mom's aunt used to take her to hear in an actual revival tent with a sawdust floor. The town is still home to Grace College; thirty years ago, alcohol, tobacco, and dancing were banned there and the tennis courts and beaches were closed on Sundays. The long-time residents frowned on anyone traveling on Sunday other than to worship services and back. I don't know what the status is now on all that. Just about ten miles north of there is Webster Lake, mainly a Methodist camp back in that era.

I thought this was an interesting thread, and it had far too short a life (only 12 days). I'll try to resurrect it with my reading list from the past few months. These books went beyond affirming my Liberal observations and suspicions; they expanded my comprehension of some of the things that have happened out of public view. - Sands of Empire; Missionary Zeal, American Foreign Policy, and the Hazards of Global Ambition, by Robert W. Merry - Empire of Illusion; The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, by Chris Hedges - The Limits of Power; The End of American Exceptionalism, by Andrew J. Bacevich - Tear Down This Myth; The Right-Wing Distortion of the Reagan Legacy, by Will Bunch - Idiot America; How Stupidity Became A Virtue in the Land of the Free, by Charles P. Pierce Possible future candidates for the table beside my big, comfy reading chair: - Hubris, by David Corn and Michael Isikoff - Fiasco, by Thomas Ricks - Losing Iraq, by David Philips - Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran - The Creationists; From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design, by Ronald Numbers - Monkey Trials and Gorilla Sermons, by Peter J. Bowler

And what, exactly, is wrong with Tractor Supply, whippersnapper? I love that store because, along with updating my fashionable wardrobe, I can buy motor oil, tires, and welding supplies, all in one trip.

That pretty much describes me when I first discovered that there was a whole scene where I could actually connect with other men. I was a dumb, trusting, twenty-something farm kid who was ready to settle down with any man who would have me. I didn't comprehend that there were a lot of parasites out there who were very good at spotting vulnerability and then manipulating their victims. It took me some months to figure out that it wasn't a good relationship to be in, despite a couple of more experienced people taking me aside and telling me that I should get out of it as soon as possible. When I decided to try to end it, there was no graceful way to do it; he wasn't about to willingly get off the gravy train, and the tantrums and violence began. There was no way out except the way that I took. I heard stories of other people he got his blood-sucking fangs into after me, and of frauds including how he managed to pull of an identity theft to steal thousands of dollars from his own dad, a not-exactly-prosperous, hard-working widowed farmer. When I saw his obituary, I had a couple of drinks to celebrate his burning eternally in hell.

Sounds more placid than my getting rid of my first bf. Among many other transgressions including domestic violence, I was sure he was stealing money from me but I never saw him doing it. One afternoon I left my wallet in plain sight in the bedroom while I pretended to be napping, and I caught him in the act. He didn't go peacefully, and when he took a swing at me that was all the excuse I needed to literally kick his ass down two flights of stairs and out onto the sidewalk. I hope the nice guy is savvy enough to change the locks.