My son

My son and I don't have much in common, very little at that. We share a middle name and that's about it. He's 12 and his interests are video games, YouTube and reading, in that order. He plays video games so much that we have had to set time limits because otherwise he'd play them 24/7. What's worse is it's really only one game, Minecraft. Now when I say he's obsessed about the game, let me explain. Remember those 3 things I listed as his interests? Video games (obviously, Minecraft), YouTube (he watches other people play Minecraft) and Books (Not all, but some Minecraft here as well.) There's been times when he comes out of his room and I say "What'cha up to?" He says "listening to music." At first I'm shocked, because that would be one of my interests so I ask "what'cha listening to?" His reponse, "Minecraft music."  Ahhhh

He has been getting into Pokemon Go as well now. At least it's something different. It gets him out of the house as well. His friends will come over and they go Pokemon hunting. They used to just stay in the neighborhood but they have ventured further. There is a church and school down the road and they have been walking down to it because it has Poke stops. Yeah, I don't really know what that means but he's out of his room so I can't complain to much.

He came home the other day from one of his hunting trips and I stopped him and we actually talked a bit about Pokemon Go. I started making comparisons to what I do a lot of, collecting (organizing) my baseball cards. That's one of the first times he seemed to "get me" and I understood some of the game, or at least the collecting part of it. It was a little bonding, at least as much as I've had with him so I count that as a positive.

Since this post is about him, I'll throw out a couple of Tweets I posted this week about him.

Apparently he needs re-taught how to do his laundry.

This happened at the end of our bonding talk. It made me laugh.

Day 50, Zion, IL (154.6 Miles)

As you can see, I'm still in Illinois. That's partly because we just came off the weekend which as you know, means I didn't do much of anything. 

I'm currently in Zion, I haven't seen much as far as anything spectacular to show you, I'm right outside a church at the moment. I'm still fairly close to the lake, a little more over a mile and I plan on following North for awhile before heading west.

I had fairly big day yesterday, I came home with around 7,000 or 8,000 steps and it was so nice out (mid 60's) that I decided to take the dog for a walk and added another 5,000 or 6.000 steps. I ended up with over 12,000 steps for the day. I had planned on going for another walk today, but I ran by my mom's after work and hung out for awhile. By the time I got home I didn't feel like going. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not.

Valentine's Day? Is it Really?

I've been battling a little bug for a couple of days. That;s not an excuse for not walking much this weekend, because I rarely do anyways. Technically, I didn't get sick until yesterday so it's definitely not an excuse for Saturday.

I got an early Valentine's day gift from Spotify last night. I was checking my email and they sent one saying they added Prince's music. There are a few artist who refuse to put their music on streaming services, and one (that I know of) that took hers off. Generally, I try to find some cover bands and hope they are at least close to the original. I did that with the Beatles, Garth Brooks and AC/DC off the top of my head. The Beatles and AC/DC have since added theirs, I'm still waiting on Garth Brooks because I love his double live album and I would probably add most every song to my playlist. The artist who took her music off was Taylor Swift, I never heard an official reason, just rumors. I heard that she was trying for the all-time album sales, my guess is she's taking some kind of stand. She likes to do that. Anyways, back to the subject. I never went to find cover songs of Prince because I figured his music was just to hard to duplicate. Well, a couple of weekends ago, after hearing one of his songs on the 80's music channel on the TV, I took a shot at it and only found a couple that were decent. Mainly the 80's ones but I really liked some of his 90's stuff as well. I probably spent 2 hours trying to find songs. Had I only waited a couple of more weeks, I could have just added his songs.

I was excited when I went to bed and told my wife that I can't wait till the first Prince song comes up. The playlist I listen to has 2,841 songs so it could have been months before I heard one, really, it's on random so I could never hear one. I got in the car this morning, hit play on the song I last left on, it finished and was followed by, you guessed it, a Prince song. Kiss to be exact.

I figured I must be living right because on top of that, you all know what today is?

You thought I was going to say Valentine's day didn't you? Valentine's day doesn't mean much in this house, we share the love everyday, we don't need a specific day to celebrate. Of course, nobody in this house loves baseball but me but their opinions don't matter.

Day 43, Highland Park, IL - (135.6 Miles)

As I said above, I didn't do much this weekend but I did get 10,000 steps yesterday. I'm out of Chicago but it still feels like kind of a suburb of it. A rich one at that, lots of big houses and golf courses. I'm basically heading for Milwaukee as I don't really know where else to go. I'm sure it'll take me awhile, unless I actually start going outside and walking when I get home from work. Otherwise, it'll take me over a month (probably).

North Side

38 Days. Chicago, IL (118.9 miles)

I'm still in Chicago but I'm on my way out. Of course, as huge as it is, I'm not sure how long that will take. I went by one attraction today.

Even though I am a White Sox, I've been to plenty of Cubs games as a kid. My grandparents lived outside Chicago and would take us to games. I was going to walk by their old place but I had no idea how to get there. I know we used to ride out bikes into town so I looked over the area to see if anything was familiar and nothing was. I kind of vaguely remember them telling me the church was no longer there and that's mainly what I was looking for.

I got soaked

I woke up to thunderstorms this morning, it was raining pretty hard all the way to work. So when I get out of the car to head into work, I put my glasses (I wear prescription safety glasses to work) in my hoodie pocket so I don't have to wipe them off. Problem is, I'm blind as a bat. I'm walking up to the building and I hear splashing so I look down and there is a small river flowing towards the building and I'm walking in it, so I move over to the left, closer to the cars where it's not flowing. It is all flowing towards the drain by the fence. So I keep walking and the next thing I know I not only hear splashing again, I can feel the water on my feet. I walked right into a huge puddle that was a few inches deep and my feet got soaked. I never thought to look for a flood because the drain has never backed up before. I think it got backed up just because it was raining so hard and coming so fast that it just couldn't keep up. So basically, I get punished by having to wear soaking wet socks all day. I explained what happened to my boss and she actually got permission for me to run home and change socks but I didn't really see the point when I just had to put my wet, steel toed shoes on again. It felt so good to peel them off when I got home.

37 days, Chicago, IL (114.8 miles)

I only went about half a mile on Sunday so I didn't bother posting. I did walk my Buckingham Fountain though.

Yesterday, however, I walked 4.5 miles and pretty much walked myself out of downtown. We'll start at just after the fountain. As a matter of fact, I made the next left and headed downtown to see some sites that I always enjoy to go to when I'm in Chicago. I walked down to Willis Tower (used to be Sears Tower), it's now the 2nd tallest building in the US. Back when I last went up it, it was the 1st but that was many, many years ago. I really need to go back up, last time we were there, it was really foggy and would have been pointless to go to the observation deck (103rd floor). We did stand at the bottom, up against the building and look straight up which is something we always do, you should try it.

I left there and headed back East to Michigan ave. On the corner of where I turned on to Michigan ave, I ran into this.

The Art Institute of Chicago, in my mind, it's more famous for the lion statues on the outside. When I hit this building, I turned left and headed for downtown but made a stop at what we call the Bean. Technically, it's called the Cloud Gate.  

It's one of the many sculptures in Chicago but this one is cool because it looks like liquid metal and it reflects everything.

I continue on to downtown, or what is known as the Magnificent Mile which we pretty much hit anytime we are in Chicago. It's the upscale section of Chicago and has a ton of shopping. It's really great in the winter when they all have their Christmas window ads going.

I like to visit the Water Tower as well when in Chicago.

This was built in 1869 and was one of the few structures to actually survive the great Chicago fire. It used to be a water pumping station but I don't believe it's used for that anymore. It's right downtown and looks out of the place but as you can see, it just looks cool.

As I headed out of town, I ran by the John Hancock building as well, just to say I did. Originally, it was the 2nd tallest building in the US but is now the 8th tallest in the US and oddly enough is the 4th tallest building in Chicago.

That's most of my stops in Chicago, I do have one more to go by and may possibly hit it tomorrow but I'm finished with downtown. Any suggestions as to where I should head to next? Where ever I go, it won't be as in depth as this was because I know and love Chicago, from hear on out, I won't know anyplace all that well.

Over a mile, on a Saturday?

Spent a lot of time on the laptop working on my cards today so don't expect a post tomorrow, or at least one bragging about my steps. However, yesterday I did a little walking.

Day 35, Chicago, IL (109.8)

I didn't walk a lot compared to my work days but I did considering it was a Saturday. I tacked on almost 1.2 miles which just basically moved me up Lake Shore Drive a little further. I did pass a few things though.

Soldier Field where the Chicago Bears play. 

The Field Museum. I also passed the Shed Aquarium but it was to far away from the road I was on to get a decent shot. I did end up a little closer to the city though.

Day 34, Comiskey Park

My usual Saturday consists of sitting on my ass all day, usually getting myself less than 1,000 steps for the day. To be honest, there are some weekends that I don't get 1,000 steps combined. Today, however, was a little different. I did do my best to stay on my ass throughout the morning but we ended up leaving the house after 3 pm and ran down to Walmart to pick up a few things, pop tarts, make-up, dog stuff. Just a few things, but it did get me out of the house for awhile. After that we went over to my mom's for her Birthday party, we also celebrated my niece's and stepfathers. We hung out there for awhile, had some supper then cake and ice cream and then we had to leave because my daughter had her first high school dance this evening and she had to get home and get ready.

My little girl is growing up. She didn't have a date, she was going with a few of her friends and they were all going to hang out together. It was very odd to see her in a form fitting dress, really, just odd seeing her in a dress. She generally wears jeans and t-shirts. A lot of those t-shirts are concert tee's like Slipknot and Disturbed or she'll wear Deadpool and Suicide Squad t-shirts (you can tell who raised her.) So seeing her in a very nice dress with a little bit of heal was way weird. She's a beautiful girl and it was nice seeing her making an effort to look nice. Of course, the dad in me is saying, NO! Stick to baggy t-shirts and jeans, I'm okay with that. My little girl is growing up and I'm not liking it. Except for the fact that I get another year closer to no kids at home. I'm not sure I like that trade off though.

After she got ready, I picked up one of her friends and drove them to the school, now I just sit and wait until they get home. It didn't start until 8 and isn't over until 11 and one of the other parents is going to drive them somewhere to get something to eat. The plan is to stay up until she gets home, it's a father's duty. Let's just see if I can manage to stay up that late. At least it's the weekend and I can sleep in.

Day 34, Chicago, IL (103.7 Miles)

As you can see above, I broke the 100 mile marker today. I originally planned on 1500 steps this year but at the average of 100 miles in a little over a month isn't going to cut it.

As I said yesterday, I was only a mile from what I wanted to go by so after plotting my 5.54 miles (11,230 steps) that I did yesterday, I went back and took photos of what I wanted to see. I'm a White Sox fan so I go to games every so often and when I do I have a routine. Here's the full map.

Ignore the name on the stadium up there to the right, I hate that name. I will always call it Comiskey. You see the big lot on the other side of the tracks and the other side of the road (35th), that's where I park. Usually fairly close to 35th street because I get there early enough to go strolling the neighborhood.

You see where the parking lot (Lot G) is from the stadium. A fairly quick walk under the underpass where the tracks are but that's not where we start. I park in Lot G and head the other way.

That's the lot at the top left of that picture and I walk down to the Grandstand at the bottom left.

The Grandstand is a sports store as in lots of shirts, jerseys, memorabilia, ect. and since it's only a couple of blocks from the Sox stadium so they have a ton of White Sox stuff. Since it's not the stadium, their stuff is cheaper because they overprice everything at the stadium. 

After I do a little shopping, I keep heading west down to Morrie O'Malley's there at the bottom right.

It doesn't look like much, there isn't but a couple of seats inside but they have great hot dogs or better yet, Chicago dogs and I said earlier, a lot cheaper than the stadium. I pig out so I don't have to spend much, if anything at the stadium. After eating, I head back to the car and drop off my shopping from the Grandstand and then head to the game.

I'm definitely enjoying using Google Maps, this was fun.

Since I actually walked over 5 1/2 miles yesterday, I walked all the way down to the hot dog place hung a right went down a couple of blocks and walked all the way back to Lake Shore Drive and I headed North towards downtown. I'm still a little ways from downtown but I can see it.

I headed back to Lake Shore because there are all kinds of stuff to see on the way into town. Of course, I doubt you'll see it this weekend since I'm lazy, but maybe next week.

Almost there

Day 33, Chicago, IL (98.1 Miles)

So much for showing you the beauty of Lake Shore Drive. I zipped right past it with the 5.3 miles I walked yesterday. I supposed I could have stayed on it longer and to be honest, after I walk past what I want to go by, I may head back to Lake Shore Drive before I head downtown. A lot of the hot spots in Chicago are by the lake anyways. Since I promised you a lake shot, I stopped to take this at least.

I'm actually going to fly right past where I wanted go to tomorrow because I'm within a mile of it now and I had another good day today. Don't worry though, I'll stop by and take some pics for ya'll.

It's My Kind of Town

I didn't get around to posting yesterday because I got busy logging in my cards. So today, I'm posting first so I don't forget.

My forklift is still down, although yesterday, I still drove it without brakes when I needed it. Today, I got to work and their was floor dry all over the place. Apparently the 3rd shift girl was loading a truck and it just started leaking all over the place. So needless to say, I had no forklift today. I use the 2nd shifts forklift until 9 when he gets there so I get a few hours before I'm on my feet. I was doing pretty good on steps, but then we had a plant meeting the last hour of the day so I sat on my ass until it was time to go. They are supposed to be in to fix it tomorrow but we'll see what time they actually make it in.

I met Cheri at our insurance agent for a meeting. They had sent us a letter saying that we didn't have mortgage protection and we were pretty sure we did but we went ahead and made an appointment to talk to him. When he starts going into his spiel, we figured out, he didn't mean mortgage insurance like what we have on our homeowners insurance, it was more or less, a life insurance, only they charged more. We let him finish his pitch then bowed out and headed home.

Since we were out, and I needed some more steps, we ran to the grocery store and got this weeks groceries so Cheri doesn't have to go tomorrow morning. That helped out, I'm still not at 10k for the day but I'm close.

Day 32, Chicago, IL (93.4 miles)

I'm on Lake Shore Dr which, if you know Chicago, follows the lake. Of course, the spot I stopped at doesn't have any lake views, it's obstructed by trees. I have a few places that I'm going to go by but I figured while I'm heading into town, I might as well take the scenic route. Maybe tomorrow you'll get to see a lake view.

See, no lake view. I'm still South of town, working my way North so you'll probably get Chicago for a couple of days.