A lot's been going on lately. Here's the scoop:
Severe Thunderstorms
Last week we had a line of severe thunderstorms blow through the area one morning, right as we were getting ready for work. They were brief, but powerful, with wind gusts of 70-80mph. Over 800,000 people wound up with no electricity, the worst storm-related outages in over a decade. Our power went out, too, so I manually opened and closed the garage door for Wendy, took a shower in the dark, and shaved by flashlight. Then I went out to survey the damage.
We were very fortunate: our yard was littered with small branches, but that was it. A few houses down, two trees were uprooted, and one was lying on the roof of another house. On the drive to work I saw a number of trees completely uprooted. It was crazy.
When Wendy got to work, she discovered it was closed for lack of electricity, so she turned around and headed home. By the time she got home the power at our house was back on, which was, again, very fortunate. A lot of people had no power for several days, and a few unlucky ones had no power for nearly a week! It was unbelievable how much damage was inflicted. Here’s a collection of photos from around Chicago-land.
Surgery Not Required
A couple of Saturdays ago, I was all set to perform major surgery on our laptop. The hinge kept coming undone, making using the laptop a precarious proposition. The laptop is almost 5 years old, so it's close to needing a replacement, but I couldn't bear buying a new one because of a broken hinge. So I got everything ready: an operating table, an assortment of screwdrivers, instructions for hinge-replacement, a pair of new hinges I got off ebay for $7, and a youtube video showing the procedure being performed. Once I got the laptop opened up, I discovered the hinge wasn't really broken: it was just missing an interior screw which had come out. So I screwed it back in, patched up the laptop, and it was good as new, and only took about 5 minutes. Much quicker than I was expecting!
Some Assembly Needed
We've kind-of, sort-of been half-looking for bedroom furniture for the past 5 years, with no luck. To make do, we've been using college leftovers and $20 K-Mart nightstands. Over the years, we've trekked to nearly every furniture store within an hour radius, but never found anything that:
- We both liked
- Was priced right
- Most importantly, fit in our bedroom
However! In last week's Sunday newspaper was a World Market ad with a bedroom set that was on sale and appeared to meet every requirement. After looking at it in the store, we agreed it still looked good, so we went for it! It took two trips to two different World Markets, a lot of creative arranging of boxes in our car, and 4 days to assemble everything, but our quest, and our bedroom, is now complete.
Precognition
We've been waging a war against chipmunks this summer. They took up residence underneath our porch and started chewing up parts of it. I hired a wildlife company to trap them and take them away, and it worked, but they kept trapping more and more and more chipmunks. Eventually it got too expensive and I decided I could do the same thing they're doing (using a cage trap with peanut butter bait) but much cheaper. So I bought a Havahart for chipmunks and set it up. It worked; I caught a few, which I transported a few miles away and set free. It was a bit more work for me, but was a lot cheaper.
Then one night I dreamed a skunk was caught in the trap and I got sprayed trying to set it free.
A couple of mornings later after I finished getting ready for work, I looked out the window and saw something big and black in the trap. I couldn't figure out what on earth it was until it started to move and I saw the dreaded and tell-tale white stripe.
I absolutely could not believe it. I slowly realized that 1) I had dreamed this, and 2) I now had to go outside, get within inches of a skunk, and release the trap door so it could escape. And if I got sprayed, I'd probably have to take the day off just to remove the smell. Ugh.
So with Wendy's help, I formulated a plan of attack. We figured out the best angle of approach to minimize the chance of being seen and thus freaking out the skunk. I went outside, crouched close to the ground, and slowly made my way to the trap. Once I got close, I noticed the latch to free the trap door was jammed.
At this point I was certain I'd have to get out a set of tools and pry the door open. But I decided to just pull hard on the door, hoping the latch would give out. It did, and as soon as it did I sprinted to the deck, and through the sliding doors which Wendy had thoughtfully unlocked. The skunk, thankfully, ran the other way and I escaped unscathed.
That was an exciting morning!
Lap One
During one of my recent hikes at Moraine Hills, detailed in the last post, someone rode past me on a bike, and I thought "Man, that looks fun." A few days later I dusted off my bike, which I hadn't used in about 5 years, aired up the tires and went for a quick ride around the neighborhood. I was surprised it still worked after years of neglect.
A few weeks later I got a spiffy new bike rack for the car and immediately started planning a bike trip to Moraine Hills. I decided to take the Friday before July 4th off because the weather forecast said it would be the hottest day of the year. Unfortunately, the weather was a complete bust. It was cloudy, with a slight breeze, and disturbingly pleasant.
Looking on the bright side, I was able to ride longer than if it was hot, so I managed to ride every trail in the park:
10.8 miles in 1 hour 3 minutes, for an average speed of 10.2 mph. I discovered Friday afternoon is the perfect time to go for a bike ride there. I rode for miles without seeing anyone.
Frozen Treats
Wendy's been making Popsicles thanks to some Popsicle molds she recently got. So we've been enjoying some delicious homemade frozen treats as the weather has gotten hotter. Here are the flavors we've tried so far:
- Lime Mint
- Strawberry Mango
- Chocolate
- Chocolate Mint
Next up: Chocolate Peanut Butter!
