Checking In With Blackberry

I took a photograph of my sister Susan's dog Blackberry the other day, and intended to use it on this blog. However, it was taken in the sun, and Blackberry's face was streaked with white. She has not voiced any objection to photographs that show her age (which is 14), but instead, I decided to use a photograph that I took of her last month, on a cloudy day that mostly hid those white streaks. Blackberry is still full of energy, however, and likes to run as fast as she can on our "walks." In fact, young children, and some adults, think she is still a puppy. Keep on fooling them, Blackberry. And consider a dye job.

A Song For The Dark Times

I just finished reading A Song for the Dark Times, Ian Rankin's latest Inspector Rebus crime novel. Rebus is a retired Edinburgh police detective, who can't stop sticking his nose into the investigations being conducted by his old colleagues. This time his daughter calls to tell him that her partner, Keith, is missing, and Rebus heads to the small town on the Northeast Scottish coast where they live to discover what happened. He finds Keith's body in the remains of a former POW camp, and starts to investigate the murder, to the dismay of the local police. I really enjoyed this book - lots of local color and lots of twists and turns. I recommend picking up a copy at your local library today.

Spring Training Winds Down

I watched the final televised Chicago White Sox spring training game on MLB.com yesterday afternoon. The game was played at their Camelback Ranch baseball facility in Glendale, Arizona, as seen in the photograph on the left. Opening Day is this coming Thursday, and the White Sox will start on the road against the Los Angeles Angels. The White Sox came from behind to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7 to 4, and are expected to be playoff contenders this year. Now that sports betting is legal here in Colorado, I have the ability put my life savings on the White Sox to win it all. Since I would of course jinx the team by doing that, I will try to restrain myself.

I was very surprised to find that White Sox television broadcasters Steve Stone and Jason Benetti (the young guy from Homewood-Flossmoor High School), seen in the photograph on the right, were already back in Chicago, broadcasting the game remotely. What I still don't know is whether they will travel with the team this year, or remain in Chicago and broadcast the away games from there. Since on Sunday they mentioned having huge television monitors in their broadcast booth, allowing them to follow all the action on the field back in Arizona, I suspect the away games will once again be done remotely, just like last year. Kind of a bummer, but understandable, I guess. I do not know if Steve and Jason prefer to stay home, or actually enjoy traveling to all those baseball towns. If it was me, it would depend on the city. "Pittsburg! Perfect!"

Getting Nostalgic About The Indiana Dunes

The Indiana Dunes (now Indiana Dunes National Park) has been a popular getaway for people from the South Side of Chicago for many years now. When my parents Nelson and Mary were dating back in the late 1930s, they and their friends would often go there on weekends during the summer. It was really not that far away, just a bit east of Gary, and featured not only those famous sand dunes, but also very fine beaches along the southern end of Lake Michigan. The photograph above is of my mother and father on one such weekend back in 1937. When I was going to college, I would sometimes drive out there myself to take photographs, and often I would bring my bike, park in Michigan City, and then bicycle along the water to Grand Beach, Michigan, where the Daley family had a house along the shore. Richard J. Daley, who was mayor of Chicago from 1955 to 1976 (my formative years), and his wife Sis lived in a humble bungalow in the South Side Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago, staying true to their Irish roots. Until Friday afternoon, that is, when a helicopter would whisk them away to Grand Beach, where they would stay until Monday morning. I often biked to the gate of that beach house before turning around, seeing as how the Chicago cops guarding the place would probably shoot me if I tried to pay the Daley family an impromptu visit. Daley's son, Richard M. Daley, who served as mayor of Chicago from 1989 to 2011, and his family still own the place, by the way, but I haven't visited them, either. Yet.

Pondering An Opening Day Dilemma

Opening Day for the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field will take place this coming Thursday afternoon, April 1st. For many years, I attended this annual event, although not for the past 4 years (the ticket now costs a bloody fortune). However, when I did attend, I would take the RTD (Regional Transportation District) light rail train from my condo to the Union Station stop (seen in the photograph on the left) and walk the few blocks to the stadium. That was all well and good until after the game, when it seemed like the entire city of Denver was trying to board the train home. After I did get on, everyone in the car was packed in cheek to jowl. Coors Field will only be at 50% capacity this year due to Covid-19 restrictions (about 22,000 people), but I imagine there will still be a lot of people wanting to board those trains. Since everyone will be required to maintain a 6 foot distance, that might be quite a problem. I hope RTD will have a LOT of cars on those trains this Thursday.

Except for big events like Opening Day, staying 6 feet apart from each other on RTD trains is not too hard. A lot of potential riders are still put off after being told at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic that taking public transportation would be a death trip. I myself have been taking trains and busses all over town for the past year, and often find myself the only passenger. And one of the few passengers I did encounter on a recent ride back to the University of Denver stop (seen in the photograph on the right) told me I looked just like Bernie Sanders. Really? I mean really? Amazingly enough, he did not seem to intend it as an insult, or even as a joke. Just another one of those Millennials who think everyone over 40 is ancient. Get any closer, kid, and I'll gum ya to death.

Posing For Portraits On A Chilly Day At The Zoo

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I went to the Denver Zoo Wednesday afternoon to take a few photographs, despite the cold temperatures. It was pretty windy and overcast when I got there, and most of the animals seemed to be sheltering inside on my first pass. However, as the day went on, the sun came out, and it felt much warmer, prompting a lot of the animals to head back outside, including the four bachelor lions, one of which can be seen posing for me in the photo on the left during my second pass through the zoo.

Surprisingly enough, even the penguins were not out and about at first, either, but decided later on that it was warm enough to venture out, including the one posing in the photograph on the right. I would think that penguins would like the cold, since they hang out in places like Antartica, but I suppose that after living the good life at the Denver Zoo, they have just gotten spoiled. 

The llamas were some of few animals braving the cold when I first arrived at the zoo, and I promptly took the photograph on the left, thinking that might be the only zoo photo I was going to get on this visit. This llama is named either Fernando or Jorge. Both were outside, but I have no idea which is which, and since this llama was willing to pose for the camera, it won the honor of being included in this blog post.

Since there were virtually no monkeys outside, I went into a building called Emerald Island to see if there were any in there, which is where I took the photograph of the monkey in the photograph on the right. I assume this poor thing is trapped inside that building 24/7, which is a very sad thing indeed. And it did look very bitter about it all as I snapped his or her portrait. Sorry I can't help you make a break for it, guy. If I did, I would probably wind up in a cage even smaller than the one you are in, and although I sympathize with you, I have no intention of trading places. 

A Denver Zoo Mystery

I went to the Denver Zoo yesterday to take a few photographs, and once again was surprised that the lion pride that includes two year old Tatu and twin lion cubs Oskar and Araali - born not quite a year ago - is nowhere to be seen. Each time I visit the zoo, the four bachelor lions are either in the main compound at Predator Ridge, or in a smaller compound at the back, and seem to be rotating those two spaces with the African wild dogs. Am I going to the zoo on days when the lion family is sheltered inside, and missing them is just a coincidence, or is it something far more sinister? Has the Denver Zoo sold the entire family to a traveling circus to pay expenses during the Covid-19 outbreak? I tried asking one of the bachelor lions, seen in the photograph above, what was happening, but he isn't talking. All he did was give me an enigmatic look. But he's definitely hiding something.