Home again

I wasn't so sure I'd make it home last night. Sometime during the night on Christmas Eve, it began raining in St Louis and it basically hasn't stopped since. In the past week, they've gotten 16 cm of precipitation--all of it as rain, too, because it's been much too warm to snow, just like here. Christmas night we had thunder and lightning, so by Sunday I was really worried about the state of rails. My father's story about being the last train let through before water submerged the railbed during the floods in the Great Plains some years back was at the forefront of my mind.

We had one slightly dicey moment, outside Carlinville near the junction of Shipman and Macoupin Station Rd. Water stretched away to both sides and lapped at the edges of the foundation. As we crept past, my seatmate pointed out a half-submerged electrical box. On the other side of the train I saw a street sign just above the surface of the water. The gregarious bear conductor who had to get out and flag the crossing (presumably because the electrical signals weren't working) told me it was seven foot high. But after that, it was smooth sailing; officially, we were only 16 minutes late. So in the end the greatest threat to my journey were the rivers of traffic for the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert at the Scottdale Center that I had to ford to reach the train station.

Union Station was nearly deserted, but in short order I caught a cross-loop bus. It wasn't one I was familiar with, so I asked about the route, and from this I think the guy boarding behind me assumed I wasn't at all familiar with the CTA. I kept expressing a preference for the express bus and yet he insisted I'd be better off taking the Red Line. Finally, he came out with, "You must not live here!" and I replied, "Only 25 years." He didn't speak a word after that, and I caught a northbound 147 within seven minutes of disembarking. As I sped homeward with whitecaps crashing on the shore to my right and the sumptuous lights of the Gold Coast on my left, I thought I hope he enjoys his trip through the sewers.

monshu had fallen asleep in the comfy chair waiting for me but perked to life when I walked in. So instead of waiting until this evening to fill him in on my adventures, I disgorged them in a marathon session that kept us up past midnight. Our tiny tree is now swamped with presents from the post-Christmas sales he hit and will stay that way until the big reveal in a couple days time. Meanwhile I've got to hold off the cold long enough to make it into work tomorrow, since some things just can't wait until the New Year.

Meanwhile, winter has at long last arrived in Chicago. We were predicted to get freezing rain turning to ordinary rain, but it did get up above freezing before sunset, so instead we were pelted with jagged bits of ice for the entire day. I went out to scatter salt in the morning, but it had basically no effect and the Old Man was back out in the afternoon to shovel. At least he got some help with this from the high school teacher in the other building. But the storm has passed through and the next few days should be mild and uneventful--and not just weatherwise.