Tag: weather

The Weather In Chicago And How It Can Go Wrong

I figured out that until the season is over, I should try to incorporate the early morning swimming into my schedule at least twice a week, and Monday was a very convenient day to try. I was out of the house as planned. It was cloudy, but there shouldn’t have been any problem with that. However, Just a couple of minutes after I started walking, I heard the thunder. There was not a drop of rain, but I thought it still didn’t sound like a good idea and returned home.

I took a shower, got dressed, and thought if wearing shorts to the office was a good idea (and decided against it). At the very last moment, I decided to take an umbrella with me, just in case.

When I was in the courtyard, some drops of rain fell, and five minutes later, it started raining for real. In two more minutes, it was a legit Chicago rain, and it made absolutely no difference whether I had an umbrella or not! I didn’t take my sandals off right away, and in a minute, it made no difference either – I walked in the water to my ankle level. By the time I reached the train station, the only dry piece of clothing I had was my underwater. When I got on a train, I didn’t even think I should sit down. A passenger in front of me was making space, and I told him: I am all wet! He said it was not a problem, so I sat down, trying to maintain the distance.

I pulled my reading glasses out of a wet backpack pocket, only to realize there was not a single piece of dry clothes on me or in my backpack to clean them. And then, I heard the sounds of raindrops on the car window, and it sounded like they were made of iron (and no, it was not hail!).

When I came to the office, I realized I had made a mistake not trying to dry myself up at the train station bathroom: we do not have dryers! Fortunately, I had a change of gym clothes in my drawer, so throughout the day, I changed different pieces of my clothes to activewear pieces and hung the wet pieces on my chair to dry them up. I also put some paper inside my sandals and changed them often before finally letting them air dry.

I thought that I still had time at least to dip myself into the lake after work (although I had a number of other things to do!) But when I came to the beach, there were high waves, and the red flag was up, and the lifeguards were on duty!

I still sat there on the beach, and I even walked into the water to meet the waves by the shore, and got myself as wet as it was possible! I am proud of myself that I didn’t get upset about things not turning us as planned:)

You Can’t Plan Anything With This Weather

It’s a very hot week! Boris tried to choose a week with less chance of a heat wave when we planned his coming, but it ended up being a week with several extremely hot and humid days.

I had three good-seat tickets for a “Broadway Rocks!” concert at Millennium Park, and Boris and I agreed we could go (the tickets were originally for my French friend and her daughter, who were going to visit me but had to cancel). Retrospectively, I should have returned these tickets and gone to the indoor Bruckner concert on Friday, but it was hard to tell in advance: even when you know the weather forecast, it’s hard to say how it will feel.

It was definitely too hot, and also the music was not what I was hoping for (and not Boris’ thing) so it was almost a disaster. My neighbor to whom I gave the third ticket said she enjoyed it, but maybe she was just polite. I felt like I ruined the evening for all of us, but I finally agreed with Boris that it was impossible to tell in advance.

For this visit, I tried to minimize the outings and just come home after work – partially because of the weather and partially because I felt like we were not doing it enough – just two of us being together, not on a mission.

On the other hand, we had one unexpectedly positive experience: going swimming in the evening. I never went to Fargo Beach to swim before (technically speaking, it is not allowed 🤷🏻‍♀️), but it is a three-minute walk from our building, and – well, it’s the same lake, and it’s getting deep pretty fast.

After The Storm

We had severe weather for two days in a row, or I should say, for two nights in a row, because the most spectacular part happened at night both times. I made videos during both nights; here is the second one:

And that’s what I saw yesterday’s morning when biking:

Morning Biking

Saturday Early Morning – it’s foggy!

Lake Michigan Last Sunday

The ride in the direction to the South was so nice and pleasant that I knew it would be close to impossible to bike back – and it was!

Summer

I know it’s not summer yet, and no matter what your views on that subject are, the earliest you can think about the start of summer is the Memorial Day weekend. Still, I tend to think that Mother’s Day marks the turn of the seasons. Before Mother’s Day, the 50s feel “warm,” and after Mother’s Day, the 50s feel “cold.”

It was beach weather on Mother’s Day, and after that, a couple of days of cooler weather felt like “give me my summer back!”

Summer Days

At the beginning of March, we had several summer-like days, and although the weather had already returned to normal, these couple of days were amazing! I biked before dawn and in the afternoon, and I swear I saw people at the beach!!!

It might not be very visible, but he is playing the guitar sitting on a tree.
Just before sunrise!

Walking On Ice

That happened on Tuesday. It was a horrible morning, in terms that it started to melt the night before, and then it was sharply cold during the night, and when I left the house, there was ice everywhere. Since I had to go to Milwaukee after work, I still needed to get to the Rogers Park train station, and I didn’t think it would be much better later, so I left my house at the time when I usually leave for work.

Just one fun fact that would be the best characterization of how icy it was. I walk fast, so usually, about 10 minutes into my walk, my Alle Watch asks me: are you doing an outdoor walk workout? Let me know if you want to record it! On Tuesday, it asked me: are you doing an elliptical workout?

😂

Biking In Winter

It’s not winter yet, but for me, starting from the lower 40s, biking is challenging because my hands are getting unbearably cold. Same with my feet – that’s why I do not escort from November to March. Some time ago, I mentioned that to my one-level-up manager, and he suggested I try BarMitts – he said that that’s how he solved a similar problem.

I decided to give it a try, and it worked! I am not sure this would work when the temperature would drop to the 20s, and I still need gloves, but now i can bike when the temperature is in the 30s!

Fall

We’ve had a little bit of warmer weather recently, and on Tuesday, I moved my workday to an even earlier start than usual and came back home to take a bike ride. I was less of a traffic jam than I was afraid it could be, and it was really warm and calm – a perfect fall afternoon!