Thursday, September 30, 2010

What's not to Love...?



...? except that Indigo doesn't live here....today was just one of those "I love Oak Park days."
In fact, it reminds me of when I first moved here and walked around chanting, "Better than Berkeley."

Here are the kids, out on the sidewalk this evening (what a concept) while Peter was out previewing a movie about how we are destroying our kids' lives by pushing them relentlessly( Race to Nowhere).

He was out all night, so I had to drag them to the IM celebration party (Jack just finished Chesapeakeman) and IM sendoff party (EP and Stec are going to IM Hawaii this week).  Addie says that nighttime riding is the best and I agree.  Here's proof.  Two gorgeous kids out enjoying a magnificent evening in a place where the weather is usually TERRIBLE.  We biked all eight blocks to Eligio's, and since we were early played around on his sidewalk.  Needless to say, there was nobody out except three African American guys, one who was holding a small dog on leash.  Ashby: "cute dog."  Man: chuckles.."thanks...."

yes, we have practically no homework, and we love our parents, and we don't have cell phones or electronic toys.

 How we missed a photo of the lovely Ave, I don't know, but only certain fabulous photos of Ave get exposed to the outside world. As Jack said: "Karen likes to call herself the unencumbered woman.  Ave is the unencumbered prototype."  Well, yeah!!!! Thank goddess for Ave!!

 I said to Mike and EP, just be yourself on race day.  Kona is certainly a big deal, and by the time you actually qualify and then train and drag your family there, who knows what's on your mind, but these are two guys who have the capacity to truly be in the moment and soak it all in.  They are the personification of Chicago.  Loyal, Macho, Tough, No Bullshit.  We are so lucky that they are our friends and bother to ride with us.


Two peas in a pod.


yes...our mother actually lets us out of the house AFTER dark....

Cook County Forest Preserves, Salt Creek paved trail

running buddy
So if I can get out with this guy once a week and run this year I'll be in good hands. Whatever pace I pick, he'll do.  It's sort of evil.  Today I said he was going too fast and he claimed that I had set the pace.  And on and on.  We're trying to figure out when the guy behind me (here, at Starbuck's post run) has to be smoking, but alas...

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A trip to School!

Kris and Tango!!!! Happy in Oak Park!!!!

Karen and Ashby, going to the Children's School!!!!
After we stopped and said good morning to Kris, I thought, "What is it about biking around Oak Park that makes me Totally Depressed????" Since we updated our commuter rides, I've noticed (actually I've noticed for years) that lots of people riding around our area are downright glum on their ride. Why would anybody NOT smile or nod or even acknowledge another rider on the road, whoever they are?  I have passed so many dour commuters this week, they never offer a smile, a nod, a good morning, or anything!!! I usually try something to broach communication but it's nearing time to pull out all the stops. For crying out loud, it's not like we're in Portland and EVERYone is on a bike, we're like, special here in the Western Suburbs.  It's easy to raise a hand, a head, anything.  I've had it, and just to make my point I'm going to start photographing these glum souls who should be working harder at forming community with me and my family as we brave the mean streets of outer Chicago in the state of Illinois.  So there....be prepared to either say a chipper, Good Day or....Cheese!

Monday, September 27, 2010

The Colony of Unrequited Dreams

"Like most cynics, he seemed to have contrived his own disillusionment by starting out expecting more from the world than he knew it could deliver. There was still the faintest trace of the youthful idealist in him, though, and it was that which made him dangerous."



I think that anybody who truly wants to emigrate to another country must take it upon themselves to invest in learning more about that country and the history of such.  Earlier this year I accidentally found myself entangled in a novel about the colony called Newfoundland, which, of course, is now part of Canada.   Written by Wayne Johnston, it's a piece of historical fiction that tells of the life of Joey Smallwood, who was a politician counted as responsible for bringing Newfoundland into the Canadian Confederacy in 1949.  

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Old Oak Park

Michael's not in the photo, but witness the phones: where are you?
So yesterday we drove to the far south suburbs (Oak Lawn) for Sam's wake.  I looked at Mark and George on George's porch, and I felt that pride of living in Oak Park.  I think that Oak Park in the 1980's was like Berkeley in the 1980's.  Now both of these places are quite a bit different from what they were, and they haven't exactly evolved in the same direction.  Driving all the way back home up Central, then Harlem, I observed that the two of these guys, plus Michael, were a great collection of old Oak Park. An awesome group, during this two hour trip, we deduced that we are only one degree of separation from Tavi, that Mark is more interesting than all of the other alums of his fancy college: "I am not a number...I am a free man!"  and that there are some really big cockroaches crawling around one of our local hospitals.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

The stores are air conditioned


OK, no air conditioning here


So I was out and about today.  I had about three hours, with a minivan, and a laundry list of items to seek out in the retail universe.  What better first stop than an antique store that I've passed many many times?  When I entered, I realized that I had entered a "unique" antique store.  I initiated that I had finally stopped at the store after so many years.  She exclaimed, "well, that's because I'm never open." So I asked: "why are you open today?"  Reply?  "I have to make some money."  And so it went.  I might go back for the sideboard....we'll see if it sticks in my brain.

Then on to Sportmart to buy some gear for teaching.  I've got a spiffy tax exempt form, and although I spent about thirty bucks on PE equipment and two hundred on tennis supplies for my family, I still had the presence of mind to decline the tax exempt status for the racquets, etc... so, i cling, eternally, to the hopes that the ethos of this place doesn't swallow me up.  Really, as Peter said at the dinner table:

Mom could have saved fifteen dollars on those racquets.
 Next stop Dan's Bike Shop, if there ever was a place that totally reflects all that is Berwyn, IL.  I loaded up on headlamps, water bottles, carriers, Dan gave me old reflectors for Addie and Peter's broken ones.  I was in the place for nearly an hour perusing all the stuff that I need to spruce up our commuters.  But then there is the dread bumper sticker drawer.  Years ago, on my very first visit to Dan's I encountered the bsdrawer, and I basically vowed to avoid the place, it seemed too redneck and harsh for me.  Well, here I am, seven years later:
one of the less offensive stickers: I don't get mad...I get even...
 And yes, with 20 minutes to spare who wouldn't stop by the Salvation Army around the corner.  I had quite a discussion with another customer who insisted that society is falling apart and people are too loud in retail settings.  She told of a story in a Family Dollar store where an employee was engaged in a prolonged argument on a cell phone with his (girlfriend/mother) and was screaming a string of profanities.  We agreed that we're all going down, and that this rare retail moment of quiet and kind service was one to be celebrated. By the time I was sifting through my change purse looking for about two dollars to pay for eight short wine glasses, she proclaimed that she was going to beat me, because the pin she was buying was only one dollar and change!  I howled with laughter and agreed that she was a better woman.  Little did she know how much I had dropped at 1. Sports Authority 2. Fruitful Yield 3. Dan's.
and yes, it WAS 89 degrees farenheit on September 23.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

PRPR!

I just got an email from a fellow athlete and Oregon-o-phile.  He says that his wife is attached to a local online news source and she might like to do a story on my so-called accomplishments.  I replied yes before inquiring what those accomplishments might be: driving across country and back? full-time blogger?  Ironman Canada?  Part, part-time PE teacher?  Most bumper stickered van in Oak Park, IL in 2010?  I can't wait to find out. 

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Here I am!

OK, anyone would feel unencumbered here.

 It's been eight or nine long years since I was sitting on the washer/dryer in Vermont and Peter and I were brainstorming some sort of business idea for me.  I was actively coaching clients and my practice was growing, I had a web presence, a class, and I was reaching for the next level.  We stumbled upon the idea that presenting myself as removed, perhaps even above all of the baggage and worries that most of us drag around, well, what better than being "The Unencumbered Woman"?  Peter and I, to this day, argue about who came up with the phrase first, was it, indeed, He or I?  I suppose we'll never know.

minivan AND unencumbered...is it possible???