chi town adventure

snatching another week away from summer work projects to connect with my beloveds...here with liv and josh for some amazing days in chicago without the oppressive heat and humidity that you might expect here in july. chicago is a city to make a country gal like me consider going urban for all these and more reasons;

• there is so much to see and do,
• it is surprisingly clean and garbage-free,
  
• it has interesting history and architecture,
  
• it is easy to get around by foot or public transport,
• much of the town feels very safe,
• the ethnic neighborhoods are very much intact,
• there is much in the way of the arts and culture going on, much of it cutting edge,
• great restaurants and food traditions,
  
• plus, obama lives here!
  

but the sheer numbers of people still stagger me, and we got a chance to experience that a few times: once at a fireworks display in the park with our 100,000 closest neighbors, and then at a white sox ball game on the 4th with a nearly full stadium, and then at ravinia, where we set up for picnic under the shade while listening to prairie home companion along with seas of other fans of garrison keillor. josh and mom, diane, livie and i also got to talk to him after the show. he was so gracious to wait afterward while lines of people wanted to chat with him, take a photo or get his autograph. while i waited in line i had plenty of time to think of what i might say and to count back how many years i have been following his program--over 30, it turns out. so by the time my turn came around, i was so excited that i just blabbed on and on so there was hardly any space for garrison to say anything back to me. diane and josh acted as paparazzi for us with their video cameras, and livie got displayed as having been approximately in utero when i began to be a fan. anyway, it was a signal day, and the show, as usual, was great.

north to alaska

early june in alaska...hangin' with mom, vern, deb and the kids, lots of hours of light. little archie made his first sale as part of Archie's Artic Chickens. he is normally so wound up, but if he is holding a chicken, he becomes all soft and tender. evie has a chicken-killer reputation, not out of intention, but excess enthusiasm and affection. vern is still making steady progress in his physical therapy and we saw him stand up out of his wheelchair and step up a stair of a couple inches height. he is my hero. this visit i felt that he was much more his old self for the first time since his nightmare began. he was full of stories and jokes and ideas for the future--crackpot ones and good ones both. i got used to going to sleep when it was still pink in the sky and staying asleep in the light. mom's garden was in the initial stages, it being early in the season, but in the week i was there, the lobelia grew a few inches! Her little house and big yard is an oasis of order, neatness, cleanliness and beauty and we both slept in as late as we could and worked on relaxing....on learning that wonderful thing the italians call the ' bel far'niente' which translates as the 'beauty of doing nothing,' not necessarily that easy to do for some of us driven Americanos.