08/01/2009 Sweet Home Chicago

I woke up this morning about 6: 15am, thinking, "noooo I don't want to get up yet! " and wishing I could turn the clock back a few hours. Then the most wonderful realization set in and I literally yelled out loud, "oh my God it's Saturday! " And then we stayed in bed until 9: 30. I mean honestly, can a Saturday morning get any better than that? I got my hair cut last night and had the most interesting walk home down Diversey. For some reason the street is all backed up as I make my way home, and at Diversey and Halsted the oh-so-typical-Chicago thing happens where the lights change with a whole line of cars still stuck in the middle of the intersection. Which makes all the cars wanting to cross in the opposite direction blare their horns and curse. I, on foot, gingerly skip around the whole mess to cross the street. Then, further along Diversey, in an area we refer to as the line of dysfunction because it's where you see 75% of all the transient regulars in Lincoln Park, I pass a man that I call Lurch. Lurch is a fairly tall and skinny man whose thick black hair is always jutting out every which way beneath a blue baseball cap. He has an equally askew mustache. Lurch always gives you a friendly look as if to say, "I'm tryin' man! " but he is usually so half in the bag that I have never seen him successfully walk in a straight line. Poor guy. I get a hangover headache just looking at him. Lurch always walks down the middle of the sidewalk, so as a pedestrian walking in the opposite direction you are faced with quite the dilemma. You must choose to pass on the left or the right, knowing full well that in the middle of this execution, Lurch may make a very last minute stumble in your direction of travel, and, well. . let's just say that I have been very fortunate that I have never personally had to deal with that. I tend to choose my side, and practically run, so that Lurch doesn't fall on me. I get past Lurch unscathed, but am still confused as to why Diversey is still so backed up. Then, looking ahead to the Diversey/Clark/Broadway intersection, I see a massive collection of bikes heading north on Clark, and I instantly understand. There is this absolutely crazy group/movement/whatever in Chicago who, once or twice a month, round up thousands (I mean it- thousands) of bicyclists in the city, and basically they ride around en masse, ignoring all traffic signals, cars, pedestrians, you name it. If you go to their website, they admit that they have no singular agenda aside from demonstrating their right to assemble. The first time Jim and I encountered this group was on a Friday afternoon during our first summer here, while we were down exploring the Loop. The great thing was that the bikers going by kept yelling to those of us on the sidewalk, "Stop driving, ride your bike! " So apparently these folks did not notice that we were NOT encapsulated by steel and on four wheels. Anyways, last night I was trapped at the intersection by this group and took this picture from my cell phone: I like the guy who served as the Gandalf of the group, stopping in the middle of the intersection to allow the rest of the bikers to pass. My thought is, if people want to recruit thousands to make a statement, knock yourselves out. But what this group does is so dangerous that someone, one day, is going to get hit and killed. Drivers become so agitated having to wait (my guess is that, from start to finish, it easily takes more than 10 minutes for the entire group to pass through) and as soon as they find the smallest opening among the bikers, they try to shoot across the intersection. The bus seen in my picture kept inching further and further out looking for his opportunity to break through. I guess the cops can't do much to stop them, aside from having a cop car bringing up the rear. Finally this all came to an end so that I could cross the street and proceed with my trip. I was almost to Pine Grove when I came upon an apparent water main break, with water gushing through an opening next to a manhole and cones set up for cars to drive around the huge puddle that was forming. All of these obstacles made for a very entertaining walk home. More reasons why a) I love living in this city, and b) I love not driving in this city!