My to-do list today only has 14 items on it, of which 6 are checked off already. The actual time it will take to accomplish the remaining eight items varies between 20 minutes (laundry, tonight, essentially a fire-and-forget activity) and four hours (Staging release of the Holden Adaptive Platform).
So, once again, I'm going to shove a bunch of articles to my Kindle:
Now to do the next few things on my list...and watch the thunderstorm outside my office window.
It looks like I went .500 yesterday in voting for mayor and alderman.
Rahm Emanuel won his runoff against Chuy Garcia:
With near-complete totals in, Emanuel had just under 56 percent of the vote, narrowly topping the 55.28 percent he received four years ago in first winning the office. He had 315,545 votes to 250,773 for Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, who got enough in February to force Emanuel to a runoff. Emanuel's 55.72 percent of the vote may rise slightly in coming days as thousands of mail ballots arrive and are counted.
My alderman, Michele Smith, also appears to have won her runoff, but it's very close and not all the ballots are in yet:
With about 96 percent of the precincts reporting,Smithwas leading with 50.4 percent compared to Caroline Vickrey with 49.6 percent.
That left two remaining precincts whose votes were not in as of late Tuesday as well as absentee ballots that will be counted in the coming weeks.
No surprises, then, though I suspect Smith might feel a little jittery. Ward races rarely go to runoffs, let alone to runoffs decided by 100 votes. I'll keep my eye on this.
Today is the runoff election in Chicago between Rahm Emanuel and Chuy Garcia:
"This is a big election, with clear choices," Emanuel told reporters at a Lakeview campaign office, with a backdrop of volunteers calling potential voters. "There's a lot at stake for the city of Chicago."
Defending his Democratic credentials, Emanuel pointed to backing from some elements of organized labor, his support for raising the minimum wage and having real estate developers set aside money for affordable housing.
"That is what people are voting for, they're voting for the basic things that they want for their families, their neighborhoods and their communities," said Emanuel, who added, "Yes, my name's on the ballot. That's also true, 'Chuy's' name is on the ballot. But what's on the ballot is Chicago's future. That's what's on the ballot."
I was in and out of my polling place in six minutes. It took five minutes and 30 seconds to check in, get my ballot, and go to a booth; 3 seconds to make two marks on the ballot (one for mayor, one for alderman); and the remaining 27 seconds to slide my ballot into the ballot box. Remarkably, I didn't have an undervote this time: I actually voted for 100% of the offices on the ballot. (Sometimes, though it pains me to say it, I skip the dozens of judicial retention votes.)
I'll have an update tomorrow. I don't think the election will surprise anyone, though.
Parker and I walked about 10½ km yesterday, resulting in plenty of sleep and (probably) sore paws for both of us. We also got caught in a pneumonia front, in which late-afternoon cooling stops driving a land breeze and allows denser, cooler air from the lake to spread outward over the shore. Temperatures dropped from 18°C to 9°C in twenty minutes—unfortunately, the 20 minutes coinciding from our farthest distance from home. This bothered Parker a lot less than it bothered me, owing to his two fur coats, but fortunately I had an extra layer available. And I walk fast.
I also stayed away from Opening Night at Wrigley, the first regular game of the baseball season, in which the Cubs got their asses handed to them by the Cardinals 3-0. (They went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position, too. Great work, guys.)
The New York Times called the game "beginning their 107th year of waiting for a World Series title." Sounds about right.
It's not a bad morning in Chicago:
I didn't post this yesterday for obvious reasons.
I've just executed a lease on a new place about 5 km northwest of where I live now. I'm extra-special-happy that I won't have to move a whole damn server rack, but not especially happy that I'm renting the new place because I can't yet sell my current place. At least, not for an amount that would make me extra-special-happy.
The new apartment is twice the size and has probably double the electricity bill of my current place. It also has lots of east and west light, a huge kitchen, and a separate room to house the IDTWHQ.
Parker also got to see the place and he approved, particularly because it's only one flight up instead of three, and he's pushing nine years old. (Fortunately he didn't mark it as his own; that would have been a problem.)
Possession is slated for June 15th. Updates as conditions warrant. And if anyone is interested in a cute 1-bedroom vintage walkup in Lincoln Park, email.
At least there isn't any more snow:
Sigh. I just don't have the slacker skills required to read these things during the work day:
Continuing, now, with a database migration...
The northern hemisphere's first full day of astronomical spring was Saturday. Yesterday, this is what it looked like in Chicago:
And here's this morning:
And, more than likely, it'll be sunny and warm on Wednesday. The snow on the ground this afternoon should be gone by then.
Chicago weather certainly builds character.
Just hours after a jury handed down a $26-million verdict against the company, Yellow Cab filed for bankruptcy protection overnight:
The verdict was reached around 7 p.m. Tuesday. At 3:45 a.m. Wednesday, Yellow Cab Affiliation Inc. of Chicago filed for Chapter 11 reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago, according to the court documents.
In its filing, company officials said Yellow Cab is "experiencing financial difficulty due to, among other things, a judgment entered against the company in the Circuit Court of Cook County."
Robert Clifford, the lead attorney for the couple, said the bankruptcy filing means "they may never see a dime."
Given that the verdict was announced around 7 p.m. and the court hearing ended at 8 p.m., the bankruptcy filing must have been a "long planned strategy to avoid accountability and responsibility," Clifford said.
Not that taxi companies have a history of shady dealings, despite my ongoing efforts to retrieve an insurance deductible from an incident a few months ago. And not that private-ride companies are grinding down taxi profits even more. But still, this is egregious.