The Fog Comes on Little Cat Feet

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems (1916) "Fog"

US biographer & poet (1878 - 1967)

I awoke this morning to these incredible foggy views from my window in the city....Lake Michigan, Navy Pier, Ohio Street Beach and Olive Park.

(Click photos to enlarge...)

 

Bike the Drive

(Click photos to enlarge)

We have a yearly event over Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago called Bike the Drive.  Lake Shore Drive runs parallel to Lake Michigan from near Evanston up north, way down south, more than 30 miles.  Along all of this is, in addition, a lovely biking/walking paved path that I ride most days when I stay in my city condo.

But on this one special Sunday, cars are outlawed on Lake Shore Drive itself from 4:30AM until about 10:30AM, while volunteers set up, conduct and then dismantle Bike the Drive!  This year 20,000 bikers participated in the ride.  (The event is hosted by MB Financial Bank and the Active Transportation Alliance in the city, which advocates for cyclists throughout the city/state.) 

What a marvel to be biking down Lake Shore Drive (strains of the old tune in my mind) in absolute quiet, except for people's laughter and birds singing!  Couldn't we please have this every Sunday?!

The Damage is Done -- Boycott BP

The White House said Sunday the Justice Department has been gathering information about the oil spill. Press secretary Robert Gibbs didn't say whether the department has opened a criminal investigation. He would only tell CBS' "Face the Nation" that department representatives have been to the Gulf as part of the response to the oil leak.

Even if BP's top kill procedure works this week, the damage has been done.

On Sunday, some brown pelicans coated in oil couldn't fly away on Barataria Bay of the Louisiana coast. All they could do was hobble. Their usually brown and white feathers were jet black, and eggs were glazed with rust-colored gunk.

When wildlife officials tried to rescue one of the pelicans, the birds became spooked. Officials weren't sure whether they would try again, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Stacy Shelton said it is sometimes better to leave the animals alone than to disturb their colony.

Pelicans are especially vulnerable to oil because they dive into the water to feed. They could eat tainted fish and feed it to their young, or they could die of hypothermia or drown if their feathers become soaked in oil. Just six months ago, the birds had been removed from the federal endangered species list.


From "Frustration Grows Along With Gulf Oil Spill" by Greg Bluestein and Matthew Brown, AP

 

Boycott BP

A few years ago, BP petitioned the EPA to allow them to INCREASE their waste dumpage into Lake Michigan.  Where is their environmental conscience?

Here in Chicago, a grassroots movement and boycott of BP products ensued and BP printed a statement of retraction, seeming to reverse its decision.  I am not sure if they have stuck to that decision or have secretly implemented more dumping.  Maybe a reader can fill us in.

Now the massive oil spill in the Gulf, which officials are saying has topped the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. 

View some of the tragic results happening to the island off LA which is home to hundreds of nesting brown pelicans and other birds.  The oil has desecrated hundreds of miles of beaches in LA and AL already and is sitting at the gulf of the Mississippi River.

Throw the book at BP.  Revoke any rights to oil drilling in the U.S.  BOYCOTT BP!

(This video shows oil-damaged pelicans, many of whom can barely fly, says one of the filming biologists.)

The Recital

Well, I'm back home after 6 1/2 months in Florida and Georgia. I am slowly adjusting.

The bad: It's not nearly as pretty here as it is in the Atlanta area where my son lives and, of course, he and my grandchildren are there, not here. And I have the flu with major aches. Ugh.

The good: I'm out of the humidity (whew!) I could never live in Florida or Georgia during the hot months. That humidity just drags the life out of me.

So here are photos from Madison's dance recital....sorry the quality isn't the best, but they were taken from far out in the audience with the zoom. And my camera is 10 years old.

(Click to enlarge photos)

Ballet Picture Day

Today, a week before the ballet recital, was picture day at class.  Fits were thrown, heels were dug in -- until Mama did a little tough love stance and "I-don't-wanna-wear-that-costume-cuz-it-itches" granddaughter capitulated. 

See if you can figure out who granddaughter is.  She's the one with the "itch fix."

(As always, click to enlarge photos)

Good Morning, Everyone!