Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

My heart breaks a little bit every time I hear of a firefighter or police line of duty death, no matter where in the world it happens. But my heart breaks wide open when that loss is here at home, and from the Chicago Fire Department.

R.I.P.
FF/PM Christopher Wheatley
Chicago Fire Department, Truck 2
August 9, 2010

Deepest sympathies to his family, his fiancé, and his Chicago Fire Department brothers and sisters.

Does this one look familiar?

It should.

Yup, still there, going on at least three years now. I have mentioned it on a couple of occasions when I had to actually speak to a cashier there. Apparently, a display of stupidity in extremely large type not only fails to be a primary concern, it hasn’t even rotated up the list in all that time.

I didn’t know if this one was going to be usable until I got home.

On the drive home from work, I noticed black skies and a rainbow behind me in my side mirror.
Strangely enough (or perhaps not strange at all for summer in Chicago), the skies were only slightly cloudy ahead of me, and I was driving through a sunshower right at that moment.

I quickly shot a few pics with my BlackBerry and hoped that even without aiming or focusing, at least one of them would come out. We’ve had some extremely nice rainbows following some of the summer storms here, but in the city, the buildings and overhead lines always seem to get in the way of a good photo.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 6 of 31)

I told you that wasn’t it, didn’t I? It was not that bad, or at least it would not have been that bad, had the snowblower not given up the ghost yesterday afternoon.

Compare these to yesterday’s shots!

Although most days it’s really less than a joy living on a main road, there are some good things about living on a snow route, like usually having it cleared quite quickly after a snowfall.

Rottweilers can’t run through it too fast when it’s this deep.

Freya compares today’s snow depth to yesterday’s.

This corner isn’t affected much by blowing and drifting, so the amount accumulated on top of the a/c is probably pretty close to the actual amount that fell between yesterday’s photos and today’s.

The snow is supposedly done for now. At this depth and at the forecasted colder temperatures, the backyard piles and drifts will be around for a while for the Rottweiler wrecking crew to enjoy.

So, on a totally unrelated note, then… you know I had to do this, don’t you? As always, I have been keeping a close watch for online and offline proof of the dogs’ latest accomplishments. Freya’s first set of APDT Rally Obedience scores have just been posted online. See?

We’re still watching for online confirmation and physical certificate for Axel’s Rally Novice title, physical certificate for Axel’s Canine Good Citizen, online confirmation and physical certificate for Freya’s APDT Rally Level 1 title, and photos from Freya’s APDT trial at For Your Canine. So you’ll have to share a few more of these moments with me still!

(NaBloPoMo | February ’10: 10 of 28)

Today’s commutes, both morning and evening, were not bad at all. Too bad it didn’t stop with this, though.

Our street is a snow route, meaning that our street should be cleared early on in the process, and that we can’t park on the street when snow is 2″ or deeper.

Here is the back yard before Rottweilers run through it.

Here is a Rottweiler (Axel) running through it.

Here is a Rottweiler (Freya) running past it.

Here is the back yard after Rottweilers run through it.

It’s been steadily snowing for most of the night, so I’m almost afraid to see what we end up with in the morning, although it won’t be as much as the East Coast was socked with. This storm is heading that way and I’m sure they are none too pleased about that.

(NaBloPoMo | February ’10: 9 of 28)

So I suppose I shouldn’t complain about snow and cold, because that is normal for this place at this time of year. And I suppose it looks even worse to complain about a mere foot of as-yet-unmaterialized snow after what the East Coast has been getting.

That doesn’t mean I won’t do it.

It’s almost midnight as I write this, and although the 10 o’clock news said something about snow being sighted in the far western suburbs, there is not a single flake to be seen yet here on the nort’west side. The dogs are not happy about this. Sadly, they will probably get their snow wishes granted. We’ll see!

(NaBloPoMo | February ’10: 8 of 28)

You might be wondering why I am writing about iPhones, since I have a BlackBerry. Or about the CTA, since unless every single one of our impressive stable of two- and four-wheeled vehicles is out of service, I rarely take public transportation.

I just want to keep up with the exciting news that now you can supposedly use your iPhone in the subway. Quite a few of my friends on AT&T, with and without iPhones, wish that it was possible to consistently use their phones without dropped connections in their homes and cars, let alone a noisy subway. Priorities!

But since it’s more important to use your iPhone in the subway than in your home, hopefully you’ll still have it when you get off the train. iPhone and electronic gadget thefts in general are apparently on the rise on the CTA:

Beware of iPhone thefts on the CTA
Hold the Phone: iPhone, Gadget Thefts on the Rise

And yes, I am one of those people who would have liked to have an iPhone (still do, really) but did not want to put up with AT&T’s spotty coverage for the “privilege.” Verizon sucks in many other ways, but I can’t fault the coverage in the places I live, work and most frequently travel to. And what’s the point of a smartphone or any cell phone if you can’t get coverage?

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 13 of 31)

Back in the spring, I mentioned two separate incidents in which dogs jumped or fell into Lake Michigan, owners went in after them, and humans and canines both needed saving. It happened again on Thursday night, and at this time of year, the consequences could have been really awful. Dogs and human were rescued, and are fine now.

Most of these stories involve dogs let off-leash where it is technically not legal to do so, and owners who either are not paying close enough attention to call their dogs back from a potentially dangerous situation, or dogs that don’t have a solid enough recall to come back immediately to an owner who is paying close attention.

I totally get that dogs should be able to run sometimes. What I will not get in the slightest, however, is if a rescuer, whether it be a Good Samaritan or a paid professional first responder, is injured or killed saving someone from their own lack of judgment.

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 9 of 31)