Infrequent Bus Service on Saturdays

Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011--Chicago

I bought a weekly pass to use on the CTA, the buses and trains of the city.  When Andre brought me home yesterday morning, I commented about how easy it seemed to be to move around town in a car.  His comment was that weekends seem worse--that people seem to use public transport to go to/from work and then use their cars on weekends.  Now I can see why.

I got to nearby Lawrence this morning, and a bus was coming.  But when I stopped at Damon Street to transfer, I waited and waited.  I heard a man say that Saturday buses were sometimes up to 50 minutes apart.  After 35 minutes no bus had come going north, but a southbound one (toward town) was arriving, so I quickly decided to take it.  (North would have taken me to Andre's apartment where I had volunteered to help him put up some blinds if I could get there.  Southbound would take me directly to a Costco I had scoped out on the Internet.)

I'm very glad that our Costco at home is not as successful as the one here on Clybourn.  It was jam packed.  People couldn't easily move their carts.  The employees handing out snacks hardly ever had anything to offer, because if they put out a tray, everything on it disappeared immediately.  My only reason for stopping, however, was just to see if they had anything interesting for sale that is not at my local store.  I found a few chocolate items, a box of glass Christmas ornaments with a set of glass beads, Hanukkah wrapping paper, heavy wool winter coats for men, special cheeses from Chihuahua, etc.  While there, I ate a hot dog for lunch.  Then I found the ONE THING I WISH THEY HAD IN SAN ANTONIO--a Kirland Homemade Gelato Bar from which they sold 3-dip servings in waffle cones for $1.50 or hand-packed quarts to go for a little less than $5.  I bought a cone.  They had only 3 flavors available by the time I was there and bought it.  All three were fantastic--a berry flavor, a flavor that had chocolate chunks in it, and a nutty flavor.

The Costco was near Lincoln Heights, one of the well-known neighborhoods of Chicago, so I started walking through it.  It's commercial district goes for blocks with all kinds of stores.  I passed an Aldi and noticed a sign that said that seasonal items were in.  Every Christmas, Arne and I used to buy their German stollen stuffed with marzipan.  I went inside, and they had it.  I bought one to have as a snack during my final days here in Chicago.

From Lincoln Heights, I crossed the river and an expressway to take me to Wicker Heights. This area is supposedly the one that has most recently been redeveloping after years of hard times.  I saw the local Flatiron Building (an early skyscraper using steel framing that is triangular in shape),  two Polish Churches (including one with a wedding party standing outside), two Ukrainian churches (including one with everyone leaving a Saturday mass that had ended), a street party for local children in their Halloween costumes, etc.

I thought there might be adults heading out to parties in Halloween costumes this evening.  Last year, they were all over New York.  And I figured the best bet for finding this would be Boystown, an area along Halsted St.  Sure enough, there were a few people in costumes, but nothing like what I expected.  My guess is that they were going out later or that the parties will all be on Monday night.  Boystown is a nice part of town, anyway.  It's to the east of Wrigley Field and, like most gay neighborhood, has lots of nice restaurants and trendy shops.

Unfortunately, one of my neighbors had a party last night.  It was someone in back.  There is a sidewalk that walks around the side of the building (past my bedroom) to another entrance to a back portion of the building.  The people who attended got drunk and loud and moved the party into the outdoor walkway and courtyard.  They kept waking me up throughout much of the night.  It must have lasted until 3 or 4 a.m.!