Used Car Saleswoman of the Month!

I sold 2 cars last Saturday!  If my daddy’s old used car dealership was still around, I’d have likely earned top honors as Salesperson of the Month!  But, no, I’ve not changed careers just yet.  These car sales were many weeks in the making.

When I bought the Lynnebago van in May, the driveway really became crowded and I decided to sell my Subaru Outback to my brother Randy (who’s current blue Subaru was getting up in miles).  Around the same time, we were also trying to figure out what to do with my Mom’s car, a Lexus SUV.  Randy’s good friend, Clark, in Colorado was needing a newer car, and since my mom always considered Clark her second son, it made perfect sense to sell it to him.

The biggest problem with all this was logistics.  They were both in Colorado, and the cars were here in Illinois.  We discussed various options, but ultimately decided to ship the Lexus and have me drive the Subaru out (since both guys were short on vacation time this summer).

I carefully reviewed potential freight companies on uShip.com (the last time I had used that service was 5 years ago when my 1st T@B Trailer had been totalled while being shipped back from Montana), and finally found one that had excellent reviews combined with low pricing. 

They called the day before I was to leave and said that the driver would be there “a bit late” that evening.  That worked out fine for me as I was running errands and packing anyway.  The driver called a few times that evening, but didn’t end up arriving until 11:30pm.  Still, I was happy to see that he brought an enclosed trailer and would be hauling the car on it’s own rather than on one of those big, open, multi-car haulers (less chance of rocks and hail damage that way!).

The “Midnight Trucker” took over an hour to meticulously strap down the car and secure the load, but finally at 1:30am, he was on his way.

The next day, I packed up the Subaru and started my long drive to Colorado.  Since I had worked the previous two days in downtown Chicago, I had already boarded Millie at her favorite Happy Paws Pet Resort, where she was, no doubt, frolicking with her other doggie pals and having a good old time at her “summer camp.”

My friend Judi from Bettendorf, Iowa was available for lunch, so she drove out to a restaurant along I-80 where we got to catch up for a couple hours.  I then set my sights on Grand Island, Nebraska, where I’d booked a nice hotel room with my Marriott points.  The drive was thankfully uneventful, and no violent Mid-Plains thunderstorms to be seen except for the final 5 minutes of my drive when arriving to the hotel!

After a nice, long, comfy sleep, I continued through Nebraska the next morning breaking up the boredom by singing along with Rogers and Hammerstein show tunes, and testing out the Subaru’s chops at doing a quick burst of speed up to 100 mph.

I managed to drive through Denver right at rush hour on Friday night, and feared I might be in for a few monster traffic jams, but incredibly, I managed to skate around most of them just fine as I turned onto I-70 to start the big climb into the mountains.

Unfortunately, soon after, I hit a 10-mile backup of stop-and-go traffic that added an extra hour to the trip.  A new tunnel is being constructed near Idaho Springs.

I finally arrived to Randy’s just as the sun was setting.  His girlfriend, Karen, made a lovely candlelit dinner on the patio and I enjoyed meeting her kids and seeing her cute Alaskan Malamute, Shine, again.

Later that night, the Lexus arrived to Clark’s house, and yep, the “Midnight Trucker” rolled in right around Midnight!   Randy and I met Clark on Saturday to walk through the car’s bells and whistles and sign all the paperwork.   After all the car transactions, I could now kick back and enjoy a nice weekend in the mountains!

Back to Work

After 3 months off for family leave, I headed back to work on July 1st.  It being a holiday week, there was not much actual work to actually do except to wade through 3 months of email and start catching up on a few training webcasts.

The next few weeks were slightly more productive, and I was starting to get used to my work-at-home office routine again when I was told to attend a training class at our downtown Chicago office for an upcoming upgrade to our corporate software system.

Yeah! A break to the routine!

My 2 class days were pleasant and sunny—perfect weather for commuting!  I set my alarm early and scrounged around the closet for a few outfits that actually had zippered pants and shirts with collars!  I then dusted off my laptop roller backpack case and filled up my water bottle to be fully outfitted for the journey.

  

The green-tinted train windows gave a retro look to the city skyline as we approached downtown Chicago.

As we headed into the final mile before the station, lots of trains passed us heading back out to the suburbs to pick up more commuters--

Making my way off the train and out of the station, I marched along with thousands of other “working stiffs” to our 9-to-5 jobs downtown.  Fortunately, in the summertime, the walking part of the commute is a wonderful way to get some sunshine and exercise as well as appreciating the beauty of Chicago’s architecture.

The walk across one of the Chicago river bridges is wonderful on a summer day (not so much fun in the dead of winter, though!).

One fun way to get over to Michigan Avenue from the train station is to take the water taxi (I didn’t need to on this day, but they were still fun to watch).

Part of my walk was beneath the art deco columns of the Civic Opera building.  It made me recall all the evenings of wonderful opera I attended here years ago.

I then passed under the iconic “L” tracks that give the heart of the downtown district it’s name ("the Loop” is formed by elevated subway tracks that circle the very center of the city).

Finally, after about 6 blocks of walking, my office building was in view.  Merchandise Mart was the largest office building in Chicago at one time and was owned by the famous Kennedy political family.  Today, it houses a mix of interior design/home furnishing firms as well as high-tech companies like mine.

 

2 days was just about enough time to completely enjoy these daily commutes to the office.  Any more than that would have become the mindless, boring routine that I saw on the faces of hundreds of other commuters as they stood at their same spots on the train platform each day, sat in their same seats on the train, and marched the same well-worn path to and from their office buildings.   I used to follow that same routine 15 years ago when I worked downtown full-time, but thankfully, no more!

After the couple weeks of leisurely July work and the trip to downtown, it was now time for a vacation! No, seriously!!!  I have 5 weeks of paid vacation time to use up before the end of the year, so after my 2 days to downtown Chicago, I headed out for my first week-long vacation.  More details on that trip in my future posts!

Eternity

78 years ago today, in the hot and humid small town of Augusta, Kansas, my grandparents were married.  My grandfather preached at a tiny little country church and also ran the portrait photography studio in town.  My grandmother was a teacher at an honest-to-goodness one-room schoolhouse where her students ranged from age 6 to 14. 

It was 1935, still in the midst of the Great Depression, and yet, they managed to scrambled together enough money for a small wedding at my great-grandparents’ home.  My grandfather also had scrimped and saved enough to buy my grandmother a wedding ring.  It wasn’t anything fancy—there was more white gold around the small flecks of diamonds than the stones themselves, but they were diamonds none the less.  A ring that could last for an eternity.

My grandparents had a wonderful marriage for the next 44 years (until my grandfather passed away).  Afterwards, my grandmother continued to wear her wedding ring (as well as a lovely diamond solitaire anniversary ring) every day for 20 more years after that.

When my grandmother reached her 90’s, in failing health, my mom and I had to make the decision to bring her to Chicago to live in a nearby nursing home.  The nursing home advised that she should not bring anything of value with her (as things could easily be lost or misplaced).  So, my mom kept my grandmother’s rings at her house for safe-keeping.

That was 13 years ago and long forgotten.  When my grandmother died a few years ago, I seemed to think she had been buried with her rings on.

So imagine my surprise this past week when my stepsister, Holley, called to tell me what she had just discovered while going through boxes of old clothes and such at my mom’s house (Holley has been an enormous help to sort through the mountains of stuff).

She came across an old, warn, wallet that looked empty, and was about ready to toss it into the trash when she thought she’d better take just one more look.  Inside, she found few old photographs and a whopping sum of four $1 bills. But, tucked deep into the last compartment, she found one more thing that was simply mind-blowing and amazing….my grandmother’s rings!

Now, if that’s not cosmic enough, when I went to try them on, I discovered that they fit me absolutely perfectly (unlike all of my mom’s rings which have been too small).

Remember the story about my grandmother’s gift of faith?  Well, I’m convinced that either she or my grandfather were up there doing a bit more “divine intervention” this past week to get these rings rediscovered just in time for their anniversary, and to give these rings a renewed purpose—to be loved and cherished by their granddaughter for an eternity!

Nature Weekend

To complete my Illinois Master Naturalist internship, I need to log 60 hours of volunteer service at a local park/preserve.  Doing some online searches revealed a wide range of options around the Chicagoland area.  The most-interesting ones were either already filled for the season, or required a year-long commitment.  No way am I staying in Chicago this winter!!!

So that left the most-common option for “drop-in” service – volunteer “workdays.”  I found 2 nearby parks offering workdays twice a month, so if I stick with these, I should hopefully have my 60 hours completed by this Fall.

I logged my first workday on Saturday at Poplar Creek Prairie in Hoffman Estates, IL  What a great experience!  I had not visited this forest preserve since I was a kid (during a huge Scout Jamboree weekend where thousands of scouts pitched tents and trompted all over).  Didn’t ever think there was much to see at this park, but this volunteer group began restoring the prairie in 1989 and has now transformed it back to quite a vibrant, natural place!

There were two other “newbies” volunteering with me, so one of the stewards, Steve, took us under his wing and gave us a great oral history of the park and the group’s work there.  For the first half of the morning, we went to the more established prairie in the Carl Hansen Woods section to collect porcupine grass seeds into large ziploc bags.

Porcupine grass is the thin yellow/brown stemmed grass with the long white/dark gray “whiskers.” 

I’ve not had a baggie full of grass since the ‘70’s!!!  But seriously, the seed stems really do look and feel like porcupine quills when there bunched together.  The moist paper towel keeps the seeds from drying out and curling up.

Halfway through our morning, the stewards gathered us together for a break complete with cookies and cold water (I’m gonna really like this group!).  We then split into two teams—the first stayed to replant their collected seeds in other areas of the main prairie, while our team drove down to a newer section of the park, the Schaumburg Road Grasslands, to plant our seeds down there.

 

It was interesting to observe the differences in plant diversity and insect wildlife between the main prairie (with 20+ years of restoration), and the grasslands site (where restoration efforts have only been underway since 2009).  Very rewarding to see what your restoration work might actually look like one day!

On Sunday morning, I headed out to do some photography at my old favorite (Bluff Spring Fen, in Elgin, IL).  Remember back in early March when I was out here to photograph one of the last snows of winter?  Well, a lot has changed at the Fen since then!  Here are a few comparison shots!

The main entrance stone

the banks of Bluff Spring are now nearly covered!

The hilltop of Burr Oak trees looks a bit different as well!

On this first weekend of Summer, the Fen was alive with waist-high plants, vibrant wildflower displays, singing birds, and interesting insects.

Foxglove Beard Tongue and Daisies were in full bloom--

and the purple coneflowers were simply magnificent!

Got a couple bird photos too--

A really pretty Baltimore Oriole

and the ever-squawking Red-Winged Blackbird!

While plenty of area forest preserves have birds, few have the diversity of butterflies, dragonflies, and insects that Bluff Spring Fen has.

This little lady was enjoying her milkweed plant (monarch butterflies were around, but too fast for me to photograph!):

 

While the butterflies were a bit too elusive for me to photograph, 3 different kinds of dragonflies sat and posed quite nicely for me!

 

a Black Saddlebags dragonfly

The cool-looking Calico Pennant

and this female Widow Skimmer who seemed to be saying “you lookin’ at me?”!!!

I’ll start volunteering at the Fen workdays in July.  Can’t wait to learn more about this little 100 acres of jam-packed biodiversity!

Graduation Day

“Study nature,

love nature,

stay close to nature.

It will never fail you.”

-- Frank Lloyd Wright

For the last 2 months, I’ve been attending classes at the University of Illinois Extension Office as part of the Illinois Master Naturalist program with 22 other like-minded nature lovers.

Each week, guest lecturers from area nature preserves introduced us to their particular specialty-- plants, forests, prairies, wetlands, soils, birds, mammals, meteorology, reptiles, and insects.  Perhaps the most memorable class was the one last week on herpetology when the lecturer brought a Blanding’s turtle, and a variety of friendly snakes to the class.

Of course, you know what happens when snakes come to class….one, inevitably, springs loose from its pillowcase and decides to try and hide amongst the audio/video cables beneath the presentation table.  But, never fear!  The class jumped into action to help safely find “Freddy the Fox Snake” before he could hurt himself.

 

We also got hands-on instruction in the field on a few Saturdays to further learn about forests and prairies at area nature preserves--

The class also did a workday to help Kendall County Forest Preserve stewards pull invasive Dame’s Rocket plants from a local park.

 

Our final session last night ended with the group picnic roasting hot dogs, banana boats, and s’mores around a campfire--

and being presented with our graduation certificates!

We now have graduated from Illinois Master Naturalist Trainees to now being considered “Interns.”  The program’s next phase will be for each of us to volunteer 60 hours of service at local nature centers and parks to complete our internships and become fully certified.

It’s been a fun and enriching experience, thus far, and a great way to meet others who care deeply about the natural world around them and wish to spread that environmental enthusiasm to the general public.  A number of other states have similar Master Naturalist programs, so if this sounds of interest to you, do a web search to find your program!

If no program is offered right now in your area, fear not!  There are plenty of other ways you can get involved to increase your knowledge, lend a helping hand to local land stewards, and meet others.

Many parks, nature centers, and local environmental organizations seek volunteers to help with a wide variety of needs from doing workdays (to restore habitat, pull weeds, collect seeds, and help with controlled burns). to collecting data as a “citizen scientist” (for annual bird counts, butterfly and  frog monitoring, etc).  As you become more knowledgeable and skilled in a particular focus area, you might be asked to serve as a volunteer docent, steward, or interpretive guide.

Study of our natural sciences and natural history can easily become a life-long pursuit.  No matter how much you feel you’ve mastered a particular subject,  there are always new discoveries and further research, outreach, and conservation work to be done!