Two weeks after the big storm

I've been busy lately. I'm looking at the recent activity on the blog, and I made all of one posting for the entire month of August. So much for my rule of writing at least one entry a week.

I wasn't affected too much by the major outbreak of storms we experienced in the Chicago area on August 23. "The Girlfriend" (now "The Fiancee") had an umbrella on her back porch that was lifted out of its table by the wind and hasn't been seen since. The damage in her neighborhood was much worse than in mine.

Many large trees were uprooted or otherwise destroyed by strong winds along Irving Park Road between Clark and Sheridan. While waiting on the Sheridan Red Line platform, I used to admire a 60-foot-tall cottonwood tree growing in a back yard adjacent to the north side of the tracks. Its trunk was covered with ivy that grew into its upper branches, and I thought it was remarkable that the vines climbed so high. The day after the storm, I stood on that platform and saw that this tree had fallen over into the back of a two-flat. It knocked some bricks off the top of the back wall and absolutely crushed the enclosed back porch, converting a window into a skylight.

Also, sadly, the awning over the entrance to the taqueria Caminos de Michoacan, a landmark at the Sheridan stop, was blown down.