I got home with no difficulty and bypassed the dead El train at O'Hare through the simple expedient of taking a taxi.
I'm catching up on work right now, so further comments will issue later. It also turns out, apparently, that a virus had made a beachhead in my nose, so I will have to fight that off before my wit and verve returns.
In totally unrelated news, today is the 30th anniversary of the fictional Breakfast Club.
I'm now at Heathrow where I've got a really great perch overlooking the approach end of runway 9L. A JAL 777 has just floated down to the runway and a BA 747 is taxiing past the window. It's a little piece of aviation heaven in Terminal 5 as I wait for the 787 to Toronto.
As I mentioned earlier, however, my trip home tomorrow morning may end a little differently than usual because of this:
(Photo credit.)
Fortunately, no one was hurt. Unfortunately, the El still missed its flight. Never try to carry too much baggage up the stairs; use the elevator instead.
Boarding starts in a few minutes. Time to boogie. But I'll wait for this BA 777 to land. They're really amazingly graceful when they touch down.
Just checking the local news in Chicago a moment ago I see a weather forecast of -2°C and blowing snow for Tuesday, rain for the rest of the week, and a crash at the O'Hare subway station:
Thirty people were injured after a CTA Blue Line train derailed and hit a platform at O'Hare International Airport about 2:55 a.m. Monday.
The injuries are not life threatening, according to early reports from the scene to Chicago Police Department headquarters, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said.
It's not clear how fast the train was moving but it jumped a bumper at the end of the line and moved up an escalator, according to Chicago Fire Department Spokesman Larry Langford.
The CTA posted to its Twitter page that trains were stopped at O'Hare but running between the Logan Square and Rosemont stops.
Yeah, I'm in a hurry to get back.
Here are about 30 reasons, just from the last 48 hours:
CWB estimates that 21 people were taken into police custody during Wrigleyville's Saturday-into-Sunday St. Patrick's binge.
But there was only one tazing. (Rats!)
28 batteries were witnessed or otherwise confirmed by police. Few were formalized with police reports.
Ambulances took at least 17 people to area hospitals and officers were tied up with at least 19 calls from cab drivers who had disputes with their passengers over payment.
Here, now, are the notable moments in this year's green-laden blow out in the area (with a splash of Lincoln Park tossed in):
[Saturday,] 12:36PM - Huge party in an apartment, 600 block of Cornelia. It's big, it's loud, and people are urinating out the windows.
It goes on from there, and it doesn't even include yesterday's mishigos on Lake Shore Drive.
Some asshole with a gun and an arrest warrant has blocked the entire length of North Lake Shore Drive as every cop in Illinois tries to prise him from his car:
A car chase through the South Side and downtown involving a man wanted in connection with a murder in Georgia ended with a standoff between the man and police after the vehicle crashed on Lake Shore Drive on the Near North Side, officials and witnesses said.
According to Harvey Police Department spokeswoman Sandra Alvarado, the man in the vehicle police were pursuing is wanted in connection with a murder in Hampton, Ga. Alvarado said that at 12:24 p.m. today, Harvey police had been contacted by the Henry Country Sheriff's Office asking for help in locating a homicide suspect. Harvey police were given a description of the vehicle, its registration, GPS location and arrest warrant information on the suspect, who was wanted in connection with a March homicide. Alvarado did not name the suspect.
Harvey police located the vehicle, which fled from officers about 12:27 p.m., beginning a chase on highways and interstates in the south suburbs and on the South Side of Chicago. Eventually the vehicle ended up on South Lake Shore Drive, and then North Lake Shore, where it crashed about 1:10 p.m. near Fullerton Parkway. The dark-colored vehicle came to rest in the grass just to the east of the northbound lanes there and police were seen surrounding it with guns drawn, pointing at the vehicle.
This seems like an overreaction, but I'm not a cop. I will say that it took me nearly 90 minutes to get from Wilmette to home this afternoon, which happens when the 40,000 cars that would ordinarily go down Lake Shore Drive during that period instead go down Broadway, Clark, Halsted, and Ashland.
The incident is still going on about 800 meters from my apartment. I'll know it's over when the news helicopters bugger off.
Even though we have snow on the ground once again, the sun came out this morning, so my bus stop didn't look as grim as it did yesterday:
First, we get the worst cold and the most snow of any winter in the last 32 years. It even alienates many of its allies with its stubbornness in the face of popular (and meteorological) opposition, refusing to give up a fight it can't win. Finally, warm weather finally prevails, ending the snow's doomed effort to hold ground it will never be able to keep. This is Monday morning:
Then, just when we were loosening our scarves, Arizona hit this morning:
Winter, you're just making people despise you more. It's the middle of March already. Not only will you be gone and forgotten in two months, but an ENSO event is forming in the Pacific right now, so you won't even be back next season.
Go away, winter. You're obsolete, losing even your friends, and damaging the country.
Officially, at 1pm today, O'Hare reported no measurable snow on the ground.
And at 2pm, the official Chicago temperature was 11°C, the warmest we've seen since December 4th.
If only they weren't predicting more snow tomorrow...
In the hopeless war between spring-like warmth and the ice still covering Chicago, the heat has almost prevailed. Officially at 7am O'Hare had only 25 mm of snow left after an overnight temperature rise to 6°C.
The end is near. Those last few millimeters have no chance of surviving the day, between nearly 12 hours of sunlight and a predicted high of 14°C.
Still, today is the 71st consecutive snow-covered day here. No one under 30 has ever seen this in Chicago before. And it's unlikely anyone ever will again.
You had a good run, winter, but it's over now. Go home.