digging ditches

chicago is tall, fast, windy and fun.  it is full of good food, taxi cabs, el trains and people who laugh at my accent.  there are rivers and buildings - tall, both old and new.  and i had a good time.  well, except for that sit inside while it's beautiful outside kinda thing.  and that whole cheerleader thing they do when we states get together.  trying to force ditchdiggers into superhero mode.  since when did it get to be a bad thing to do something well?  my daddy said, even if you're a ditchdigger you have to do a good job or the whole system collapses.  right?  on the boat tour wednesday, the guide told a good story about it.  it seems a while back, there was a company in charge of replacing pilings in the river system, they drove one set of pilings too deep and it pierced the tunnel system.  then, they didn't get around to fixing the hole (cost = $10,000) and let it go until the hole grew and burst into the tunnels, causing $1 billion in damage. 

see, proper ditch digging is important.  and admitting to your mistakes.

we were asked to come up with a theme song during the meeting....somehow the powers that be didn't like my suggestion of "jump in line"....but i'm rather fond of mr. belefonte. 

places visited:  the theater district, the navy pier, architecture boat tour, shaws crab house, monk's pub

items left in hotel:  pentax camera, shoes and 1 book (they are shipping the camera and shoes, i said they should keep the book)

books read on trip:  three (the gurnsey literary and potato peel pie society, staying at daisy's and the three weissmanns of westport)

today on my ipod:  grind me in the gears (edwin mccain), smoke gets in your eyes (the platters), dream a little dream of me (the mamas & the papas), stuck in a moment (u2), all in all (my friend steve), rebecca (pat mcgee band), broken (peter searcy), wanted it to be (sister hazel), all apologies (nirvana)