A hazy, humid Sunday morning.
Low flying clouds shrouding the city.
Tranquil waters. Quiet.
Sunrise shimmering upon the glassy surface.

Last night I went to see “Motown: The Musical.”
It was like spending the night at the best concert ever with all of the musical groups we loved in our childhood. The Supremes. The Four Tops. The Temptations. Diana Ross. Gladys Knight. Jackson Five. Stevie Wonder. Smokey Robinson. Marvin Gaye. Martha Reeves. All of ’em on one stage!!! Yes, I’m showing my age… and I don’t care.

I may not have known the whole Motown / Berry Gordy story…
but I did know EVERY word. And I was NOT afraid to sing along!!!

Click here for the trailer video for “Motown : The Musical.”

And here’s another fun video… showing Motown Opening Night when the actors were performing in front of the original stars themselves!!! Click here.

Oh yeah… and the theater itself was pretty darn impressive too!!!

Although it was a little bit over the top. In a weird way, it kinda made me feel like I was in Las Vegas?! Not that that’s a bad thing… I LOVE VEGAS!!!

Dark clouds everywhere… except over the City.

And about 10 minutes later… still TONS of clouds. Just a bit lighter…

The sky was very dark this morning. A lot of cloud cover spanning the horizon.
With just a small window for the sun to peek through… maybe?!

In this case… maybe NOT.

No sunrise this morning. Just lots of clouds!!!

After three weeks in Dover, it felt great to finally go home…

And hello Chicago… just in time for a beautiful afternoon bike ride along the lakefront. The perfect way to return home and get “back to normal” right away. Sweet Home Chicago.

So I’ve waited forever for Winter to end… and Spring to finally make it to Chicago.
We finally started to get some nice weather and it was looking like it might be time to do some gardening around my condo. The garden beds that go around the front of my building were filling in nicely. When I left for work this morning everything look normal. When I cam home tonight, the City of Chicago had come through and torn up everything. Ripping out the sidewalks. Tossing bricks every which way… even on top of the plants!!!

They just showed up. Did the damage and disappeared. With no advanced warning or anything?!!! Thank you Chicago City Workers!!!

So now we’re waiting to what else they’re going to do… rumor has it the street is going next?!!! I’m definitely waiting to see what’s next before we put much work into putting it all back together.

Congratulations to the Chicago Cubs on 1o0 Years at Wrigley Field.
A wonderful Chicago landmark… regardless of which baseball team you cheer for.
Regardless of if you’ve given up on the hopes of a World Series Championship season.
Either way, a day at Wrigley Field is always fun… a concert at night is even more fun!
Nevertheless, congratulations to Todd & Tom Ricketts on a milestone anniversary!!!

After a LONG Winter here in Chicago, we are now left with huge,
gaping potholes seemingly on every street!!!

I was so excited today to see that “someone” is creatively doing something about them. So much better than what the City is doing… just leaving a loose pile of asphalt “in, on, around, somewhere near” the holes and hoping that “somehow” it gets packed into the right place. This seems like a MUCH better plan!!!

Click here to see the video with mosaic artist Jim Bachor’s artistic remedy!

Sure, this might take awhile to catch on?… but if every artist “adopted” one pothole and did something equally as special as Jim’s solution, we might make an artistic dent in the pothole problem???

Those of us who live here already know it.
But those who haven’t been to Chicago might need a little visual “tutorial.”

Click here for a beautiful video about the beauty & strength of Chicago.

With the sun shining, I decided to pile in a few layers and go for a much needed bike ride. Sure, the temp was below freezing, but it was a beautiful ride with the warmth of the sun on my back. Not much snow left. Just a lot of frozen puddles & floating icebergs. So beautiful. So much fun!!! Okay, sure there are still a few sections that are frozen over or covered with mushy snow… had to portage my bike over certain sections!

It was beautiful when I got down to Fullerton with an incredible view of the skyline… and more than a few icebergs floating in the water!

Certain sections of the lakefront had more icebergs than others. I love how they’re so geometrically shaped… and oddly so evenly spaced from each other?!

While standing there admiring the icebergs, I stumbled upon this “frozen fossil” that has been carved into the stone. I’ve on that some spot so many times, so many mornings, so many rides… and yet somehow I just noticed it for the first time today?!

And then I also found this really cool, all pun intended, ice cube sitting on the shoreline. It was a big block of ice. Just sitting there. I loved the layers and crystallization inside!

Back on the bike… and more frozen puddles. But when they get to be this large, is it safe to assume I we can call them “ponds”???

As the sun continued to shine, you could see that the layers of ice & snow slowly meting away. I love how the leaves melt the snow a bit faster and create a halo-effect around them. And yes, if you look really close, those are indeed blades of GREEN GRASS poking through!!! And in some spots, actually supporting the thin ice layer so it appears to be “floating.”

Back on the bike and headed home… past several more beautifully frozen “ponds”!!!