We Still Love our BEARS

What a wacky trip! We got to Chicago late Saturday morning after spending the night in the Miami airport (Motto: Welcome to the rudest F_____ airport workers on the planet) and took the Blue Line 'EL' to the Damen stop. Right at that stop is the Blue Line Diner and right in that diner was my daughter, her husband and, bonus, my newly married niece and her husband. We had had no sleep so a bloody mary was in order along with a BIG Chicago breakfast. Yum.

After that Sue and I napped in Leah and Jason's apartment. The temperature in Chicago was single digits. WOW! That brings back memories of waiting for buses and fixing flat tires. The temperature in Leah's apartment MIGHT have been double digits but we had no measuring device.

Saturday night we spent with our best friends, Kay and Gary, out in Brookfield and a giant game of RISK broke out. That was a surprise and great fun.

Time to get serious...game day...HOO! Well, we know how it ended but how it started was with us going to the first bar I ever walked into when I moved (hitched) to Chicago in 1972 - Bernies,- Across from Wrigley Field. Strangely it is Bernie's grandsons who now own it . . . but I knew Bernie. What happened? We went at noon knowing it would be crowded. Yeah...no seats. Damn! I'm usually TOO early. We walked on up Clark street to a joint called YakZies and they had a table right by the giant screen TV. We settled in with the Sunday Trib and a deck of cards. Leah and Jason's friends Mike and Barb joined us and we had fun playing the waiting game. Later, Leah and I walked back to Bernies and found good old Will! Bartender extroidinare and best man at our wedding. Leah got a free hat from 'Uncle' Will.

As to the game itself all I can say is that the opening kickoff was about the most exciting thing I had ever seen in Chicago sports. . . and I was there for Burt Hootens' no hitter! Bears are young and they'll be back but I'm not going to say W_ _ _ 'T_ _ _ N_ _ _ Y_ _ _...That's a Cub thing.

Our trip back to Florida was long and mostly uneventful (Not counting that we almost got on a charter Greyhound with a choir from a Baptist church before we figured out that that wasn't our bus!) Only took a ride to O'Hare, a plane to Miami, Greyhound to Marathon, Cab to the marina, and a dingy ride to our boat. Talk about planes, trains and automobiles!

Enee was fine although there had been a LOT of wind. As such our snubbing line had chafed through so we were pulling directly on the anchor chain. That, in turn, caused the anchor chain to try to open the anchor locker all by itself but all it managed to do was rip out one of the hinges. There's a new project! A neighboring boat owner came over this morning to tell me that his anchor had drug the night before and he bounced off our our boat a little but he couldn't see any damage. Me either but what a nice guy to come over and tell me.

We put off fixing frig until tomorrow for which we are going to a marina. Too tired to mess with all that today and it is still really windy. Me docking this beast in a heavy wind is perhaps a video that should be made ...but not now!

Weather is still ripping out of the north and then east. We will probably be waiting until at least Friday for a window to the Bahamas. That's ok...always have chapters to work on!

OH, one more thing. My daughter and her husband are coming to visit us in the Bahamas (yes, we WILL get there in time!) and then they are going to DC to lobby for funds for physics research. This is all early to mid March. As such, Dagney, the greatest little cat in the world (aren't they all) could use some TLC boarding (not the hockey kind!) while they are away. Any ideas just e-mail me. (listed on the side)