I snapped this on my just-before-sunrise departure from SFO on Sunday:
Also, if you have any doubts that the earth is round, see the above. (And why are you reading this blog?)
I'll have my usual ranty news-related post after lunch.
A coronal mass ejection late last week caused Kp7-level aurorae last night that people could see as far south as Alabama. Unfortunately, I missed them, though some of my friends did not. Fortunately, NOAA predicts that another mass of charged particles will hit around 6pm tonight, causing even more pronounced aurorae for most of the night. This time, I plan to get to a dark corner of the suburbs to look for them.
Meanwhile:
- ProPublica has an extended report about how the OAFPOTUS uses pardons and clemency far more corruptly than Harding, Jackson, or Reagan could imagine. (Madison, Jefferson, and the rest of the founders could imagine it, however, and they did not like it one bit.)
- John Judis thinks "the 8 dissenters did Democrats a favor:" "I believe that as the shutdown dragged into Thanksgiving, and as more jobs were lost, social services suspended, and planes grounded, the public would have begun blaming the Democrats more because — let’s face it — they had initiated the shutdown. The polls also showed that far more Democrats than Republicans felt affected by the shutdown."
- Brian Beutler wonders whether the divergence between people's perception of the economy and reality has more to do with the fracturing media landscape than with people's ability to intuit reality the same way economists do: "Our collective, manic emphasis on the cost of things has both made people upset, and given people a peg to hang their political frustrations on—but people did not become upset over nominal prices in some organic way. Democrats shouldn’t convince themselves that if they manage to lower prices, they’ll be assured more victories, or that if Trump manages to get costs down (perhaps with the help of the Supreme Court) he’ll become politically invulnerable. They certainly shouldn’t convince themselves that all things unconnected to prices are politically inert."
- Amanda Nelson reminds us that in 2008, the wealthy people who got wealthier even as the housing market collapsed and impoverished millions weren't stupid; they just didn't care. And neither do the authors of Project 2025.
- The $1.5 billion Illinois just pledged to transit projects fundamentally changed the vision of passenger rail across the region, according to the High Speed Rail Alliance.
- Chicago has issued the first permits for construction of the new O'Hare Concourse D, the first new concourse built at the airport since Terminal 5 opened in 1993. Construction could complete as early as 2028.
Finally, the OAFPOTUS's latest demented assertion about crime on the "miracle mile shopping center" left people baffled and also led to city council member Brendan Reilly (D-42), whose ward includes the Magnificent Mile, clapping back: "My suggestion to President Trump: spend more time focusing on your struggling real estate investments, especially the 70,000 square feet of vacant retail space that has remained un-leased since the opening of Trump Tower, 16 years ago...."
Between meetings and getting into the zone while fixing a bug, I worked straight through lunch and only got Cassie out around 4. So before my next meeting at 8pm, I've got a few minutes to catch up on all...this:
And yesterday, as most people know, was the 50th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking in Lake Superior.
Before I get to the best form of public transit available in the US, let's everyone say hello to my sister's dog, Omen:
Omen is a whippet. Good. (She's quite devo-ted to him.)
Anyway, this is how I got from the BART to the start of my 5.5 kilometer walk on Saturday:
If you take the Powell and Hyde line, the best part comes at the corner of Hyde and Lombard, at the top of Russian Hill. Just look at this view, and imagine seeing Alcatraz, Angel Island, and Tiburon directly ahead! (I have seen them from here. Trust me*.)
During my walk, I got to the end of the fog bank just before the Bay Bridge, and caught these cool lighting effects:
* OK, don't trust me. Here are two other photos I took from the same spot, the top one in April 2005, and the bottom one in May 2012:
As threatened yesterday, we got a few rounds of lake-effect snow overnight and this morning. Since not all the leaves have fallen yet, it still looks pretty:
And of course, one member of my household really, really, really likes a fresh snowfall:
Right now we've got about 100 mm on the ground. That will melt quickly as the forecast calls for above-freezing temperatures from tomorrow morning onward, reaching possibly 18°C on Saturday. I hope so, because I've got a 20 km hike planned for the day, and I'd like it not to freeze important bits of me off.
I'll have some photos from San Francisco later today. Right now I have to shovel my walkway again, then take Cassie for a 3 km walk so I get my steps in.
I don't enjoy taking 6 am flights, of course, but they do have advantages. I left my hotel at 6:11 am and was through SFO security by 6:25. That's even faster than last year!
I'm a little less enthused about this, however:
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Chicago IL
224 AM CST Sun Nov 9 2025
Northern Cook-Central Cook-Southern Cook-Eastern Will-
Including the cities of Chicago, Peotone, Northbrook, Crete,
Evanston, Lemont, Park Forest, Schaumburg, Cicero, Oak Park, La
Grange, Des Plaines, Oak Forest, Oak Lawn, Calumet City, Beecher,
Palatine, and Orland Park
224 AM CST Sun Nov 9 2025
...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 9 PM THIS EVENING TO NOON CST
MONDAY...
* WHAT...Dangerous to impossible travel conditions due to intense
lake effect snow expected. Snow rates in excess of 3 inches per
hour, localized total snow accumulations of 12 to 18 inches, and
northerly wind gusts in excess of 30 mph are expected.
* WHERE...Central Cook, Eastern Will, Northern Cook, and Southern
Cook Counties.
* WHEN...From 9 PM this evening to noon CST Monday.
* IMPACTS...Snow rates in excess of 3 inches per hour will cripple
travel, including during the Monday morning commute. Strong
northerly wind gusts in excess of 30 mph will lead to greatly
reduced visibility, especially near the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Periods of thundersnow will occur, as well.
* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Lake effect snow is often very localized,
with conditions varying from safe to dangerous across just a few
miles. Snow totals in the Winter Storm Warning area may vary
considerably from one location to the next.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Persons should consider delaying all travel while and where the lake
effect snow is ongoing.
Unfortunately for me, my work laptop is in my downtown office, and my most important meetings tomorrow are between 10 and 11:30. Because the forecast is for lake-effect snow, we have no way to predict exactly where it will hit. I've seen these things produce 30 cm of snow on one block and nothing on the next.
Right now, though, the weather looks good for aviation, and my plane appears to be here and ready to fly. We'll find out tomorrow whether I'll be able to make it to the office.
After dragging my tired ass to Peet's just as they opened at 6 am (8 am back home), I got the same tired ass to the BART station just down the street and discovered that the Red Line operates as a shuttle between Millbrae and SFO sometimes. This knowledge came to me after I took an unplanned round-trip to the airport, learning this bit of BART lore at the cost of 25 minutes of my life.
I did make it to Powell and Market before 8:30 am, which allowed me plenty of time to take the oldest form of public transit in the city from there up to Hyde and Beach, then walk from there to the Caltrain station on 4th street, where I caught a train to San Jose and then a VTA light rail trolley to the closest stop near my family's house.
I'll have photos when I get back to Chicago, which I hope will be tomorrow. I've already ordered a Lyft for 4:15 am, which sounds awful except that I usually get up around 6:30 am in Chicago anyway.
For now, I'm going to digest this bit of rice I picked up from a local Millbrae Mandarin spot I like, then collapse.
I made it to the Bay Area, and I'm about to fall asleep. Tomorrow I've got plans in both San Francisco and San Jose, which, if you care to glimpse a map, are nowhere near each other. (Seriously, they're farther apart than Chicago and Milwaukee.) Fortunately they have trains here.
Right, well, I'm off then. Assuming I don't get re-routed involuntarily, I should be home mid-afternoon Sunday, and assuming meteorologists know what they're doing, I will be rewarded for schlepping a heavy coat all over the country today by not dying of hypothermia when I get back to Chicago.
Je suis épuisé, et maintenant, je dors.
I resigned myself to taking the delay and going home for a few hours, but before exiting the secure area of the terminal, I decided to try the American Airlines app one more time. Success! The reservation system suggested a 1 pm flight through Dallas and a connecting flight to SFO that gets in around 7:30 pm. Not ideal, but also not wasting two hours going home and back and getting to SFO after midnight Chicago time.
I won't be able to make the Brews & Choos stop I'd planned for this evening, nor does it look likely I'll get 10,000 steps today, but it does mean I'll likely be in a better mood tomorrow morning.
So, the airline did something right, and I can easily deal with a couple hours in the Admirals Club. And like I said yesterday, this is nothing like the 28-hour ordeal I went through in 2009.
I posted too soon. Obviously, I tempted the wrath of the whatever high atop the thing, and it noticed:
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Here's the ironic part: the government shutdown has (almost) nothing to do with this delay. The plane is broken. And because of the capacity controls today, the airline can't simply swap in another 737-800.
Fortunately, I live in Chicago, so I'll just go home for a few hours. Updates as the situation develops.