Well now, back to updating and writing a blog article. The last couple of months has been quit busy, I realized that when I logged in that I haven't written something since April. It is now the first week of September, what happen...Aliens abducted me, I walked through a time portal to a far away place...hysterically smirking. I've been busy with a few courses in business management and that took up some of the months between then and now.
In July, I attended a family reunion and it was wonderful seeing individuals that I haven't seen for quite some time and reconnect through the social networks with newer members. Both my parents, deceased, came from large families as each had 10 siblings. Needless to say, one can imagine how many cousins, second cousins, third cousins, and so forth now exist. The oldest family member that attended, my second cousin, is 90 years old and I remember her from my earliest childhood memories when I had Great Uncles and Great Aunts. Great memories from 40 years ago.
Some place in a rural part of the country, the nights are extremely dark without light pollution and the entire Milky Way shines overhead in the night sky. The stars seem so bright and of course one can reach the moon if they just reach far enough with their hand. Awe...the imagination of the childhood self and the entire world is magical with fireflies and lighting bugs glowing in the late evening and early nighttime hours. Frogs, crickets, and a field of cattle that moo or occasionally a bellowing bull, firing the imagination and raising the hair on the back of even the friendly beagle that one once had. Overall, it was great to reconnect to a place and individuals that have always had a special place in my heart and soul. It was a wonderful family reunion, despite the rain storm that caused a minor delay of everyone enjoying swimming and possibly hiking activities around a small lake, Moncove Lake, out in the mountains of Monroe County, West Virginia. Hopefully, next year scheduling will be better and more individuals within the larger multi-families can attend. Multi-families, are family members over multiple generations and family reunions allow individual to reconnect in traditional methods, beyond the social networking of the 21st Century and the vastness of the web.
Awe, but the night sky still beckons and calls....
The planets and the Moon are still visible and more information about them exists than in the past. Thanks to the scientific community of astronomers and professional astronomers and their observations and discoveries. Remember it was less than 70 years ago that science minded folks thought that life existed on Mars or under the moisture laden clouds of Venus.
Atlast, I am going to call Chicago home. Two weeks ago, arrived or beamed in by Amtrak transporter technology, it is great to be here. Going into the City and walking along the water font near Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium is a peaceful joy. Walking through the redesigned Grant Park and then under Lake Shore Drive from Michigan Ave is fantastic. I am so looking forward to a bike ride in the city around Grant Park and up to the Art Institute. What is there not to love or like about Chicago, because when I look around and travel here, I always see something new. Chicago just has that lifelong "WOW" signal factor. The burbs are great and the new lanes on I94 North and the multiple IPASS lanes do make driving around here tolerable, course I have seen the traffic backed-up for quite a distance and I'm just enjoying learning the CTA train routes. Like I said, Chicago has the wow factor.
