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In 24 hours, I still won’t (quite) be in Chicago…

August 3, 2011, 7:59 AM

…but I will be much closer than I am right now and closing. Yes, 24 hours from now, Mom and I will probably be crossing through northern Indiana on the Capitol Limited in preparation for an 8:45 AM arrival at Chicago Union Station.

This trip is going to be fun. It will be a cool 83 degrees in Chicago while we’re there (it’s been a bit warmer than that in DC lately, trust me), and we’re going to have a lot of fun. Among other things, we’re going to see the new Marilyn Monroe statue, and see a play that Chris (my brother-in-law) is acting in. That I’m particularly excited about, because in all the years I’ve known Chris, I’ve never seen him act, save for a short demo reel on his site. I’m told this will be a children’s version of The Wizard of Oz, which should be fun.

Meanwhile, victory – I was able to explain to Mom in a way that she understood about why the monumental task of converting the site to WordPress is better than what I do now. I showed her the back end of the site and how I can update everything via a Web interface (once I finish building the skin), and how easy this is going to be. I think that Mom was able to wrap her mind around it, at least well enough to get the general concept, and understanding that this WordPress site I showed her really will be Schumin Web when it’s all said and done.

Then I was amazed to find what difference a little water makes. I didn’t have anything to drink all day yesterday on account of being so busy at the office, and I really started to drag in the evening. Turned out that I was just a wee bit dehydrated. All my energy came back once Mom and I got home and I drained one of my steel water bottles.

And lastly… I spotted one of Metro’s new Xcelsior buses from New Flyer on Connecticut Avenue on Monday. Take a look:

This is bus 7046, and I must say, that’s a pretty smooth looking bus. Note that compared to the previous group of New Flyers, the paint scheme is slightly different. There’s a red band right under the windshield on this bus. I found out that the reason for this is to mark whether the bus is an express or a local on the front, because I’m told that it was difficult for people to distinguish the two when viewed straight on. About the only way to tell the difference straight on is by the sign – the lettering on the sign is yellow-orange on the locals, and green on the expresses. But when the sign is not running for whatever reason, well, then you don’t know what it is until you can see the sides. Thus the red band.

And there you go, I suppose. See you in Chicago!

Web site: About the Marilyn Monroe statue in the Magnificent Mile. Mom and I are going to see this.

Song: The banter of the talking heads on the Today show. Mom's watching those folks as we speak.

Quote: And so, yeah, see you in Chicago!

Categories: Chicago, Family, WMATA