Well, I have had more problems with getting blog entries in without losing them. On Tuesday, I wrote up a fairly long draft entry about my recent activities and other topics, and lost it when I tried uploading it to the blog. Now I’m planning on trying to systematically and carefully save draft material all along the way, and hope that does it. Wish me luck!
We live on the south side of Chicago, close to Lake Michigan, and when the wind blows from the southeast, it brings in airborne pollution from a very large BP refinery and various other industrial plants in northern Indiana. The refinery in Whiting, Indiana was rebuilt after an explosion a few years ago, and now it is BP’s largest refinery; it has a production capacity of nearly half a million barrels per day, and it processes heavy sour crude oil extracted from tar sands in Canada. Lots of emissions, and I seem to be more sensitive to them than most people are. Today we had a southeast wind blowing much of the day, and I was fairly miserable for a good part of the day.
Leo and I are both getting on in years, and in thinking about planning for the future we are looking into retirement communities with independent living arrangements. Depressing, but necessary it seems. We had received an invitation from Montgomery Place, a continuing care retirement community in Hyde Park, to come over for lunch and presentations and tours, and we did so. Montgomery Place is located nearby, just a couple of blocks away, so we walked over. They served a delightful lunch, and then there was a panel discussion by four residents, moderated by Linda Yu, ABC 7 news anchor and reporter. We really enjoyed the conversations with others who sat at our table, and afterwards we saw some other areas of the building, from an elegant apartment on the top floor, to the parking garage in the basement. Now, if only we could figure out how to cover the costs!
This evening,we joined several friends and acquaintances for Thursday evening dinner and conversation at Valois restaurant on 53rd Street. It was a lively conversation, mostly about politics and national affairs, but branching off onto a variety of other topics also. Thursday evenings are always enjoyable!
The setting sun, and music at the close, As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,Writ in remembrance more than things long past. – Shakespeare, King Richard II
