Chicago

Missing: One Snowman

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Anybody seen this guy running around?

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A couple of years ago, my mom gave us a “snowman kit” for Christmas. She combined a homemade scarf with a hat, a corncob pipe, a button nose, and two pieces of coal for eyes. She decorated the box with a picture of me at about age 4 in front of our house with a snowman we had built, as well as lines from Frosty the Snowman.

Not only was that a creative, awesome present, but it was *very* convenient! Whenever we wanted to build a snowman, we just had to grab the box. Everything was there. (Except the eyes, because I would never let my kids touch the ziplock bag containing the dirty, dirty coal.)

As you may have noticed, we’ve gotten a lot of snow recently, and the first thing the kids wanted to do was build a snowman. So we did, and it was tremendous fun. Unfortunately, this will be the last snowman with the “snowman kit”, because somebody stole it.

That’s right, some @$$#ole teenager stomped down my kids’ snowman and stole my mom’s homemade scarf.

For what? I’m guessing they’re not using it to build themselves a snowman. How soulless do you have to be to see that beautiful snowman and just destroy it? It’s clearly built by kids, and clearly built with a lot of love, and you just had to ruin it.

I could go on about the @$$#ole drivers recklessly cutting people off in 2 feet of snow so they can drop their kids off at the elementary school 5 seconds faster, but what’s the point? Chicago, I am very disappointed in you today.

I told the kids that the snowman must have come to life and walked away. “Well, he left pieces of himself and his arms behind,” said Sara. “Momma thinks teenagers did it!” said Evie. A slur if there ever was one in this house. “Maybe a homeless person needed the scarf and hat because he didn’t have one and he was really, really cold,” I said.” “Yeah,” said Sara. “Maybe.”

Can’t we have anything nice in this world?

There’s Been a Blizzard

/ Shane / Leave a comment

So we’ve been experiencing a bit of snowfall here in Chicago…

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The $25 car repair

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What is it about cars? From used car salesmen, to shady repair shops, they just seem to attract unsavory characters. I have a couple of horror stories (some even documented on this blog), and I’m sure you do too. Quite frankly, the negative experiences FAR, FAR out-weigh the positive experiences.

So when I do get a positive experience, I am more than happy to crow about it.

Turns out I had just such an experience with Aspen Auto Body. Remember that enormous scratch I put down the side of my car the other day? They fixed it. For TWENTY FIVE BUCKS.

I had some vague notions of buying the paint and trying to touch it up myself. The paint was about $10, and from what I read online people were saying like $700 for a shop to fix something like that (apparently they just replace the whole panel these days rather than repair them, and this was across both doors). So it seemed like I had little to lose. However, the car has to be warm for the paint to take which was a bit of a problem (I don’t have a garage), and after watching a few tutorials on youtube, I was worried it was going to be a bit more painstaking than I was willing to spend. Most recommend dabbing the paint on with a toothpick. Did I mention this was an enormous scratch?

Worse, while I dithered around trying to make a decision, it started to rust (in about a week…yay Chicago winter!). So now I would need to sand it, etc.

I decided to get an estimate, just to make see where I was at. Fortunately, I don’t have a “usual” body shop, so Aspen was referred to me. It was very close by work, tucked away on a little access road where you would never find it. I ran it over for an estimate.

“If there’s a cheap way to fix it and an expensive way, I’d go for the cheap way,” I ventured.
“Oh, in that case, we could just touch it up,” he said. “Maybe $30?”
“Thirty?” I repeated in disbelief, thinking maybe I’d misheard. “Thirty dollars?”

I honestly thought he’d laugh at me and say, “Thirty THOUSAND you idiot.” Repair shops around here usually charge something like $90 an hour. I can’t even get an estimate for $30. I’m lucky to get a haircut for $30.

The place was very low key, but by god if they didn’t fix it for $25. I paid cash. And it looks great! You can see the paint if you get close, but from a distance it’s pretty unnoticable. It’s *certainly* a lot better than I would have done, and the paint itself was $10, so they only charged me $15 in labor. $15!

Fast, cheap, and high quality to boot. Best $15 I ever spent.

A Very Chicago New Year’s Eve

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For New Year’s Eve we decided to plan a day in the city, something we don’t do as often as we should. We started with seeing Hansel and Gretel by the Emerald City Theater (right on Michigan Ave., in Water Tower Place). I really enjoyed the show. We see a decent amount of children’s theater, but this was really of the highest quality, probably the best we’ve seen with the kids. This was our first one by Emerald City Theater, and I think we will try to see a lot more shows here.

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 Ollie said, “I want a picture with the witch.”

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 Evie was very reluctant to take this picture, even though Gretel was her favorite.

Next we went to lunch at the Signature Room, on the 95th floor of the Hancock. I had never been up in the Hancock at all, and I thought the kids would enjoy it. I have to say, I was a bit impressed. The food wasn’t anything to write home about, but it wasn’t bad by any stretch, and the views were as advertised. If I’m going to pay to go up a tall building, I would much rather have a nice lunch (and a full belly!) to show for it.

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Luckily there was a New Year’s Eve buffet that day, so everyone was happy. Did I mention there was an *awesome* hot cocoa bar?

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Afterwards, we ended the evening in style: with games, puzzles, and (of course) popcorn. Maaaybe there was a little ice cream. After Ollie went to bed, we let Evie stay up and play some “grown up” games with us. (Forbidden Island and Bohnanza…ages 13 and up! She was excited.)

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Here’s to a happy 2015!

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It’s a car smash car world out there

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Driving in the city is a totally different experience. Parallel parking into spots one inch larger than your car, squeezing past double-parked delivery trucks, people darting between cars to cross in the middle of the street, merging across 3 lanes, construction, potholes the size of an elephant, you name it. You can’t be afraid to bull your way in there, sometimes using your car as a shield, sometimes using it as a weapon.

This is a long way to say that I put a 2 foot gouge in the side of my 1 year old car the other day. It was not pretty, my friends. I never really saw exactly what happened; all I know is I was late for ballet, there was a truck with its flashers on and traffic coming the other way, and I thought I could fit through. Ollie said there was a piece of metal sticking out on the side. It smashed my mirror (not broken!) and put a deep scratch across both doors.

A day in the life.

My point is, if you live in the city, you have to expect that your car is going to get a little dinged up. I don’t know how many times I’ve come back to find a ding in my door and no one around.

Whaddya gonna do?

So Sara was getting out of a tight parking spot the other day, and she maybe kinda-sorta backed up until she nudged the guy behind her. She was creeping backward, watching in the rearview, so it wasn’t a hit, more of a…gentle rocking. Let’s be honest, you’ve done it, I’ve done it.

Except this time, it turns out the guy was sitting in his car.

Super embarrassing. Sara could see the guy freaking out, gesturing wildly and yelling. So what are you going to do in that situation? You know there’s no mark on the cars, but you have to get out and look. Give your insurance information if he wants it, after all, you did technically hit his car.

So Sara gets out of the car, with this maniac still gesturing. “Is it all right?” she asked. “Oh,” said the man, poking his head out of the door. “I…thought you were a guy.”

Sara looked at him, and then they both got back in their cars. Sara proceeded to go back and forth until she was out of the spot, and then drove away.

So, what exactly does that mean?

What was this guy thinking? Is it okay to yell at guys, but not at girls? I mean, she’ll take it, because she didn’t want some dude screaming at her, but maybe you shouldn’t be screaming at anybody, you know? Is escalating a little, harmless bump into a fistfight on the street just bros being bros, but women are too fragile to take it? Or is it just okay for a woman to be a bad driver?

More importantly, if he’s so concerned about his car, and he’s sitting in his car watching this person going back and forth, back and forth, trying to get out of the spot, and he’s the last car in the row, why not just, you know, turn on the car and back up a foot or two?

I guess some guys are just spoiling for a fight.

But only with dudes.

See, this is why I like having a 2 foot long gash on the side of my car. If someone’s trying to merge in and I’m not letting them, or if *I’m* trying to merge in and they’re not letting *me*, I just lock eyes, nod towards the scratch, and they move out of my way. “I’m coming over,” says my scratch, and, “You should see the other guy.” And, “If you don’t want to get hit, turn your car on and back up. I don’t give a f@^k.”

I need my car to say that, because I’m far, far too much of a pansy to say it myself.