Winter, 2010

Since my car is being worked on, this morning I drove Mel to school in Kim's car and dropped Kim off at an el stop. I dropped her at the el stop across the street from Wrigley Field, which is near Mel's school. I took a second to snap a picture of Wrigley Field, where the only sport going on right now is ice skating in a rink set up in the parking lot.

The Cubs were sold recently to the Ricketts family, who made their fortune as owners of TD Ameritrade. I think that old fans like me are subdued in our excitement over the change in ownership, remembering how everyone thought that when the Chicago Tribune bought the Cubs from the Wrigley family in 1981 that we'd see some championships. While we went to the playoffs in 1984, 1989 and 2003, we're still waiting for that championship.

One bright note in this typically harsh Chicago winter was the news, yesterday, that former Cubs great Andre Dawson ("Awesome Dawson"), was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I was living near Wrigley Field, and young and single around 1987 to 1989, some of Dawson's greatest years with the team, and spent many a lovely afternoon in the "friendly confines" watching him play. Not only was he a great player, word is that he's a great guy.

When I got home, I ate breakfast and went to shovel the snow off the porch and front walk. I saw my elderly neighbor across the street doing the same. I wondered why her grown son, who lives with her, wasn't doing this. I thought about going over to help her when I finished our walk.

Then I saw her son come out of the house, and figured he was going to help her. He did no such thing. He walked past her, spent ten minutes brushing snow off of his car and then drove off. And it was then I recalled a neighbor referring to him as "unemployable."