The Daily Parker

Reggie (below) gets to walk on or near a beach almost every day. Today I got to tag along.

Here's the actual walk:

For some reason, on this trip I've taken a lot of photos—782 so far this weekend. Digital photography is wonderful like that. Plus, had I only 36 shots per roll at a cost of about 33c per photo, I might not do a lot of experimenting. On the other hand, I might have a higher proportion of good shots. On the third hand (?), the shots I've posted this weekend are only the highlights, as my "hit" rate is somewhat better than 2%.

I'm visiting my dad this weekend. Three guesses where he lives (and no cheating):

I took a walk this afternoon and wound up here:

And then this happened:

Cool.

Congratulations to Anne's home-town team, the St. Louis Cardinals, winning the World Series against the team that the Cubs last played for the same title. As a Cubs fan, I had some difficulty rooting for the Cardinals (the teams' rivalry goes back to the beginnings of professional baseball in the 1880s), but since the Tigers are in the American League I managed to do so.

Also of note to St. Louisians, it was on this day in 1965 that engineers completed the Gateway Arch.

Illinois changes to Standard Time at 2:00 tomorrow morning, making today's 7:18 sunrise the latest until December 29th. Despite the cold, I trekked over to Dawes Park in Evanston to see it:

Next year, most of the United States changes back to Standard Time on November 4th, making the November 3rd sunrise (7:25 am) unquestionably the latest one of the year.

Just now.

Earlier today I got all excited seeing the Census Bureau's population clock at just below 300 million. In a move that will surprise no one, I got the math wrong, so my guess about when this would happen was off by an order of magnitude. This morning it was at 299,923,329; right now, it's 299,926,233. At this rate it will be about nine days before the thing ticks over 300 million.

So check the population clock on the 15th. It's likely it will take about that long to add another 74,000 people to the U.S.

It looks like the Census Bureau's Population Clock will roll over 300,000,000 this evening. We'll check back throughout the day.