The Daily Parker

The Arctic air mass has arrived:

We didn't actually get that much snow, though:

On her evening walk last night, Cassie wanted to run around in the snow in circles for a bit, so I let her. But even with her double coat, after 4 minutes she was shivering, so we had to go in. She will not enjoy today at all.

One other thing of note. I got myself one of the coolest and geekiest toys I could ever have imagined:

That shows the location of every CTA train running right now. I might have to get one for London, too. And in a couple of days, it might become a practical toy, when the weather gets warm enough to go outside and ride the CTA again.

The world continues to turn outside the Chicago icebox:

• Julia Ioffe sees an interesting power play between the US and China taking shape in Africa.
• Ed Zitron experiences unbridled Schadenfreude as three billionaires experience the Dunning-Krueger effect up close and personal.
• David Frum says we should thank Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for reminding us of our own history.
• 538 created an interactive map where you can see for yourself that moving time zone boundaries will probably make more people happy than year-round daylight saving or standard time would.
• A couple of crooks in Queens, with a little help from Russian hackers, scammed the Kennedy Airport taxi dispatch system for a year.
• Julia Alexander looks back at 2022's effects on streaming media. (Aside: what do you mean there won't be a final season of Warrior Nun?! Dammit!)
• From January, Jesse Baron digs into the bitter dispute between Tinder co-founder Sean Rad and his financier, Barry Diller.

Finally, dog biologist (?) Alexandra Horowitz explains how dogs tell time with their noses.

Look at that punim!

Remember the stew I made Wednesday? It turned out one of my best:

And I had a lot of leftovers:

Remember Cassie getting a long walk to the big dog park Thursday? We did the same thing yesterday:

And after dinner, I got this rare (inverted for your convenience) photo of Cassie getting a belly rub:

Today, however, it's rainy and cold, so we will have less walking—but possibly more couch/belly-rub time.

Photo number 1: Cassie, from above. (My office is in a loft over the master bedroom, where Cassie has a bed.)

Photo number 2: can anyone give this 1½-meter (5'3") scratching post a good home? I'm keeping it for a friend who went back home to Spain "for 6 weeks" in August 2020. He will come back to Chicago eventually—for a visit.

Photo number 3: a Tweet that made me laugh out loud.

I know that the super-rich in previous eras also had more narcissism than good sense, but watching Musk destroy Twitter in real time makes me wonder if our super-rich are massively stupider than the Gettys and Carnegies, or only significantly stupider.

I'm not quite done with my kitchen, master bedroom, or master bathroom, but I have absolutely no energy left:

The big spikes around 3pm were the concert I performed in this afternoon.

So, I'm going to do a couple of low-stress tasks (swapping out the thermostat, disconnecting the A/V equipment) and then I'm going to sit on the couch with Cassie and try not to doze off before 10.

I learned a new phrase in Farsi today: zag shusheet! It means "dog piss." And I learned it from the man who will clean and repair the two early-20th-century rugs that my mother left me.

I also learned the Farsi for "chewed edge," but I didn't write that one down.

And how much will it cost to restore the two rugs that my darling Cassie has in so many ways defiled? $2,400.

Fortunately the work will take a couple of months (Eli has a backlog), so I've got some time to dock her allowance. And our new house has multiple floors, so I can isolate her from the two rugs whenever I leave the house.

(Note: the rugs in question are legit antique Persians worth restoring. The rug Cassie destroyed last spring was not.)

This punim is the only thing that saved my zag today:

Go hiking!

It’s not “purple mountains majesty” for hiking, Jason King knows, but Illinois, Indiana and southern Wisconsin, are not without charm — they’re free, they’re close, their trails are uncongested and they offer a solace and beauty all their own.

“I love Illinois, I’ve lived here all my life. If you like simplicity, if you like the feel of the wind blowing through the trees … there’s no place better,” King said.

One of King’s favorite solo hikes to “get the world behind me” is about 90 minutes away from Chicago near Gary, Indiana, in the little-used western part of Indiana Dunes National Park. The Paul H. Douglas center is currently closed but the namesake trail (1) winds through Miller Woods and across the Grand Calumet River. It was named after the Illinois senator who helped make the Dunes a national park. It’s a moderately challenging 3.5 miles out and back, partly through sand dunes — which make it a workout.

King identified 19 other trails near Chicago that reporter Zachary Nauth listed in the article. Maybe next weekend? Cassie would probably love all of them.

Cassie, on Thursday night, not letting me go to bed:

You're welcome.

Ain't she purdy?

I couldn't decide which shot or aspect ratio to use, so you get a bonus photo:

She looks especially fine today after having two baths over the weekend. (I may drink Lake Michigan water, but that doesn't mean I want it tracked all through my house.)

Last year's birthday photo is here.