29 July 2015, Part 2: CTA Edition

Here are a few of the things i saw on my travels today:

Urban canyon: Dearborn St. from the Library/State & Van Buren platform

Native flowers in the southeast corner of Graceland cemetery.

Outside the Morse Red Line station

26 May 2015: Spotted in Wilmette

I inadvertently took a trip to Wilmette yesterday because i was so wrapped up in playing a game of Words with Friends on my phone that i missed my stop on the L. I am not proud of this. But i did get to finally see the Linden Purple Line station for the first time and noticed this odd little figure hanging in the rafters. My first thought was that it was a forgotten Halloween decoration (note the resemblance to Count Chocula). But the more logical explanation is that it's supposed to look like an owl and is there to scare off the pigeons. I wonder how effective it is.

Count Chocula

27 March 2014: #4 in the Daenerys Targaryen Series

The Mother of Dragons would prefer to ride her horse;
but in the city, public transportation is far more practical.

19 December 2013: Here Comes Santa! **UPDATED**

After yesterday's frustration, today i struck gold: i timed the dog's afternoon walk to coincide with the arrival of the CTA Holiday Train at Morse station.  Santa was waving and calling to all the children on the platform and walking on Morse Avenue, and honestly, i felt like i was five years old again just seeing him. I don't know if other cities have a similar holiday custom, but they should (although i always feel a little sorry for Santa and his "elves" having to ride through miles of subway tunnels in an open car).  There were rumblings that the CTA would discontinue the Holiday Train because of budgetary concerns, and it is making fewer runs than in past years, but i hope the CTA will realize what an absolute treasure this is and keep Santa riding the rails for many years to come.

**UPDATE**: I've been assured by Kevin O'Neil of the CTA Tattler that the service on the Holiday Train has not been cut back, and I'll defer to him here since he has more knowledge of the workings of the CTA than I. Saturday looks like it will be a busy day for Santa on the Red and Purple lines; read more about it on the CTA Tattler.

Here are a few bonus shots because you've all been such good girls and boys.

And, in case you missed it yesterday, here is the schedule for the CTA Holiday Train. 

23 July 2012, Day 48, Pt. 2

I haven't posted on the station rehab at Morse Ave. in a little while, so here are a few pictures taken this morning. The first shows the progress made to the south entrance since i last photographed it on Sunday, 15 July.  

Entrance on south side of Morse Ave.

Tuckpointing on the West side of Glenwood Ave. at Morse.

Morse L Liquors

The final picture captures an interesting sight: the workers were removing merchandise from the liquor store at one end of the station housing and putting it in a trailer parked at the corner. "Ah," i said to one of the guys as he walked past me with a case of liquor bottles, "lunch time?" Fortunately (since i can't seem to prevent this sort of witty remark from escaping through my lips), he seemed to think i was as funny as i think i am, and we both had a good laugh.

15 July 2012, Day 40

Back to the Morse Avenue L stop for a few more pictures today. The first is a different perspective on the "dinosaur" seen peeking through the trees in yesterday's picture. The magic-hour lighting is kind of surprising since the camera was aimed almost directly into the brilliant early morning sun; i would have expected something a little more like the lens flares in Cool Hand Luke. But i really like the result, unintended though it was. One of these days, i'm going to take a photography course and/or get a more sophisticated camera.

The next picture is of the station exit on the south side of Morse. To the best of my recollection, it has been boarded up since i moved here twelve years ago. If, dear reader, you know more about when it closed, please leave a comment. 

I'm especially excited about this picture because getting it represented a little more of a challenge than most of my pictures: I even endured a very mild reprimand from one of the construction workers for sticking my head and camera through an opening between panels of the fabric-and-metal barrier screens. He caught me before i could take a picture, but it then occurred to me that i could hold the camera above the barrier, and voila! Here is the result. I've been dying to get a picture of this part of the construction site since the beginning of the project and can't believe it took me this long to figure out this simple solution.

One final note, when i say "mild reprimand" i mean it. In the fine old tradition of Bluebeard's eighth wife, i just had to see what was inside the forbidden room; the guy was right to tell me to that i couldn't go past the barrier, and he wasn't loud or rude about it. The crew from Kiewit Corp. working on this project have to be among the nicest construction workers in the world. They've been making great progress under some very difficult weather conditions, yet they always seem to make the extra effort to be courteous and friendly to the people in the neighborhood. This is a big project, causing a lot of disruption to business-as-usual in the area, but the professionalism and cheerfulness of the workers on the job make it a little easier to take. 

1 July 2012, Day 26

Scenes from Morse-pocalypse

Considering that the Morse Station was closed for construction only 36 hours ago, this job is going like gangbusters. Here are a few shots of Morse Avenue and the now-gutted station entrance. There's lots of noise and mayhem, and it's totally thrilling. Note how quickly--like a puppy or a small child--my attention has been deflected from melancholy nostalgia for the charming old station to an almost uncontrollable urge to plead with the guy operating the Bobcat to let me get behind the wheel and crash into a few things. 

Scroll down or click here to see what the station looked like two days ago.

16 June 2012, Day 11, Pt.1

Railroad to Nowhere

The reconstruction of the Red Line in the vicinity of the Morse Station continues. Traffic is a mess, but on foot it's a nice way to shake up the visual paradigms. Here's a big length of track stretched out in the middle of Glenwood Avenue waiting to be lifted up on the railbed. It made me think of this scene from Stand by Me, just without the danger, dead body, and adorable urchins.