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I'm sitting in a chair on the BNSF west line train to Aurora, so I have time to catch up on the latest events in the life of Stormdog.
When last we left our hero, I was in Kenosha for a few days for Super-mechanic Juan to look at my car. He came over on Thursday to check out the transmission I bought in Detroit back during Penguicon and which has been sitting in my parents' basement since (it passed at least a cursory inspection) and to take a general look at my car. Of course, in addition to what we knew of, unexpected problems cropped up.
First he tried to look at the engine, but the hood wouldn't open. I've had trouble in the past with the latch not wanting to operate very well (it's pretty badly rusted) but it was only partially failing, and was failing open, not closed. So Juan got under the car to look from down there and noticed that my radiator was leaking rather badly. That's also a new development, and the radiator is new as of April. I must have hit something on the way to Kenosha, because it was a significant enough leak that I would definitely have noticed before.
So, Juan asked if I could leave Percy the Swift with him for about a week to two weeks while he replaced the transmission, the radiator, and the hood latch. Wanting so very much to have my car in road-worthy condition again, I said that that sounded fine to me! So, with my car in skilled and capable hands, I was left to find a way down to Chicago without it.
Now, earlier in the week, I'd gone out for a bicycle ride up the Lake Michigan shore. It was just a little ten mile ride, but the weather was really hot and humid. I found myself feeling mildly faint or dizzy on the way home down Sheridan Road. I sat and rested when I got home and soon felt fine. But the next day, when I was planning to leave Kenosha, I was feeling that way again from time to time. A feeling like I maybe needed to eat something, but eating didn't help.
So, laden as I was with a laundry basket of clothing, a bag of board games, a backpack full of books and a laptop, and my camera, I decided that walking to the train station might be a bad idea.I waited a while, planning to get the next train, but wasn't feeling much better, so my dad gave me money for a bus and came out to wait with me. We had a really interesting conversation, but after a time realized the bus did not seem to be coming.
So, Dad gave me taxi money and I did it that way, arriving with just a few minutes to spare at the train station. A good thing as the Kenosha service only runs every couple of hours.
I rode the Metra down to Evanston, transferred to the Purple Line going south, and by that point it was late enough that I figured I'd just go straight down to see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lisagems who I'd be spending the weekend with.
The two of us had a few plans, all of which required continual revision as the weekend progressed. We had planned to take a road trip somewhere on Sunday, but that had to be postponed given that I currently have no car. We got a late start on Saturday morning (but sleeping in is just so nice) and went out to Niles for a bead show she had passes for. The bus schedule was a little wonky, so we ended up wandering around a mall briefly while waiting for the right one. From there, we took some combination of buses and trains to Navy Pier to ride the tall ship Windy! But it turned out that our Groupons were not good on Saturdays.
I was starting to feel kind of ill again, and the heat and walking were kind of getting to both of us. We had dinner at the Italian place near the west end of the pier and went back home. The time seemed to fly! And despite the weather, I had a fun time seeing new parts of the city and suburbs. But I was starting to worry about the way my illness was lasting multiple days.
Lisa suggested it might be heat exhaustion, and when I Googled that up, it seemed to generally fit what I was experiencing. I made sure to drink a lot of water. And a cold shower felt simply heavenly at the end of the day.
We started Sunday with another attempt at going out on the Windy. We took the Red Line down to the Loop, and walked to Navy Pier, with a stop at Burrito Beach for something passing for breakfast. I was feeling better, but was glad for the air conditioning as I tried not to push things .The same was true at the pier. We got tickets for the upcoming excursion at 1:30, then split an overpriced confection from Haagen-Daazs, walked through cold air in the stained glass museum, and finally sat for a while, chatting.
When it was time to get on the ship, we were a little worried at the number of people in line. Earlier, we heard, some people had been bumped, and it seemed like there were more people than could fit on the ship! But we made it onboard and found seats. Or rather, Lisa found a seat while I scampered all about the ship, exploring the fore and stern castles (That is what they're called, right? I'm not sure.) as well as the lower mid-deck, and wishing I could climb the rigging to the top of the four masts and look down from above.
A couple of story tellers talked about life as a working sailor during the age of sail on the Great Lakes, and a little boy got to fire the ship's cannon, and we sailed out by the big old lighthouse on the breakwater. It was a lot of fun and I got a few pictures I'm pretty happy with.
Once back ashore, we made our way back to the Red Line for a trip to Chinatown. I wanted to visit one of the bakeries for some fresh sesame seed balls, maybe visit the book store in the walking mall, and get some dinner. As it turned out, the bookstore is gone, and the bakery I stopped at didn't have sesame seed balls. But it was alright; Lisa and I got some yummy dinner (I tried her green beans and pork and I would actually have eaten the dish; yum!) and found some silly things (and even a birthday present for her) at the Sanrio shop. Finally, both once again feeling worn out, we went back to her place.
All the little unexpected things that popped up through the weekend didn't 'cause us any undue stress. We just enjoyed the experiences as they came. Happy birthdaylisagems! I had a great time with you!
From there on though, after leaving Lisa's place to head to Aurora, unexpected difficulties did begin to contribute to stress and problems for me. But I'll get to that next time and not spoil a happy story!
When last we left our hero, I was in Kenosha for a few days for Super-mechanic Juan to look at my car. He came over on Thursday to check out the transmission I bought in Detroit back during Penguicon and which has been sitting in my parents' basement since (it passed at least a cursory inspection) and to take a general look at my car. Of course, in addition to what we knew of, unexpected problems cropped up.
First he tried to look at the engine, but the hood wouldn't open. I've had trouble in the past with the latch not wanting to operate very well (it's pretty badly rusted) but it was only partially failing, and was failing open, not closed. So Juan got under the car to look from down there and noticed that my radiator was leaking rather badly. That's also a new development, and the radiator is new as of April. I must have hit something on the way to Kenosha, because it was a significant enough leak that I would definitely have noticed before.
So, Juan asked if I could leave Percy the Swift with him for about a week to two weeks while he replaced the transmission, the radiator, and the hood latch. Wanting so very much to have my car in road-worthy condition again, I said that that sounded fine to me! So, with my car in skilled and capable hands, I was left to find a way down to Chicago without it.
Now, earlier in the week, I'd gone out for a bicycle ride up the Lake Michigan shore. It was just a little ten mile ride, but the weather was really hot and humid. I found myself feeling mildly faint or dizzy on the way home down Sheridan Road. I sat and rested when I got home and soon felt fine. But the next day, when I was planning to leave Kenosha, I was feeling that way again from time to time. A feeling like I maybe needed to eat something, but eating didn't help.
So, laden as I was with a laundry basket of clothing, a bag of board games, a backpack full of books and a laptop, and my camera, I decided that walking to the train station might be a bad idea.I waited a while, planning to get the next train, but wasn't feeling much better, so my dad gave me money for a bus and came out to wait with me. We had a really interesting conversation, but after a time realized the bus did not seem to be coming.
So, Dad gave me taxi money and I did it that way, arriving with just a few minutes to spare at the train station. A good thing as the Kenosha service only runs every couple of hours.
I rode the Metra down to Evanston, transferred to the Purple Line going south, and by that point it was late enough that I figured I'd just go straight down to see
lisagems who I'd be spending the weekend with.The two of us had a few plans, all of which required continual revision as the weekend progressed. We had planned to take a road trip somewhere on Sunday, but that had to be postponed given that I currently have no car. We got a late start on Saturday morning (but sleeping in is just so nice) and went out to Niles for a bead show she had passes for. The bus schedule was a little wonky, so we ended up wandering around a mall briefly while waiting for the right one. From there, we took some combination of buses and trains to Navy Pier to ride the tall ship Windy! But it turned out that our Groupons were not good on Saturdays.
I was starting to feel kind of ill again, and the heat and walking were kind of getting to both of us. We had dinner at the Italian place near the west end of the pier and went back home. The time seemed to fly! And despite the weather, I had a fun time seeing new parts of the city and suburbs. But I was starting to worry about the way my illness was lasting multiple days.
Lisa suggested it might be heat exhaustion, and when I Googled that up, it seemed to generally fit what I was experiencing. I made sure to drink a lot of water. And a cold shower felt simply heavenly at the end of the day.
We started Sunday with another attempt at going out on the Windy. We took the Red Line down to the Loop, and walked to Navy Pier, with a stop at Burrito Beach for something passing for breakfast. I was feeling better, but was glad for the air conditioning as I tried not to push things .The same was true at the pier. We got tickets for the upcoming excursion at 1:30, then split an overpriced confection from Haagen-Daazs, walked through cold air in the stained glass museum, and finally sat for a while, chatting.
When it was time to get on the ship, we were a little worried at the number of people in line. Earlier, we heard, some people had been bumped, and it seemed like there were more people than could fit on the ship! But we made it onboard and found seats. Or rather, Lisa found a seat while I scampered all about the ship, exploring the fore and stern castles (That is what they're called, right? I'm not sure.) as well as the lower mid-deck, and wishing I could climb the rigging to the top of the four masts and look down from above.
A couple of story tellers talked about life as a working sailor during the age of sail on the Great Lakes, and a little boy got to fire the ship's cannon, and we sailed out by the big old lighthouse on the breakwater. It was a lot of fun and I got a few pictures I'm pretty happy with.
Once back ashore, we made our way back to the Red Line for a trip to Chinatown. I wanted to visit one of the bakeries for some fresh sesame seed balls, maybe visit the book store in the walking mall, and get some dinner. As it turned out, the bookstore is gone, and the bakery I stopped at didn't have sesame seed balls. But it was alright; Lisa and I got some yummy dinner (I tried her green beans and pork and I would actually have eaten the dish; yum!) and found some silly things (and even a birthday present for her) at the Sanrio shop. Finally, both once again feeling worn out, we went back to her place.
All the little unexpected things that popped up through the weekend didn't 'cause us any undue stress. We just enjoyed the experiences as they came. Happy birthday
lisagems! I had a great time with you!From there on though, after leaving Lisa's place to head to Aurora, unexpected difficulties did begin to contribute to stress and problems for me. But I'll get to that next time and not spoil a happy story!