Sunshine on Leaf

Can I just say one thing right off the bat?  And, forgive me for shouting but…

I'M NOT READY FOR WINTER YET!!!

We've have just had an absolutely glorious weekend here in Chicago - temperatures in the high 70's, clear blue skies with oodles of sunshine and just the lightest of lakeside breezes to keep you comfortable.  It was, quite simply, perfect.  The kicker being, of course, that this is expected to be one of the last good weekends before the Chill hits the fan, and our weather starts to become deeply unsociable.  At least the Canada Goose coat is already on order, so this year, I'm prepared!

Anyway, how then to spend this beneficence of sunbeams, this deluge of D vits?  Enter Calvary Cemetery, which is located right next door to my apartment building.  I've driven past it now dozens of times but have not yet stopped in to explore.  Well, I decided that today was the day - i just received a new FitBit from my company (um, thanks) so now have a new gadget to play with for a few weeks before I get bored of it and it joins the Body Media and Jawbone in the Discarded Tech drawer. 

Note about the Discarded Tech Drawer: Its a pretty rough place to be, btw.  If you venture into the furthermost reaches of said drawer, among the tangle mangle of unidentifiable cables that you still can't quite bring yourself to throw out (and so dutifully cart along with you in every house move), you'll find lost treasures of yesteryear within.  A chronology of crap, with phones of ever diminishing size and ever increasing unintelligibility.  Apples, blackberries, peaches, whatever.  Its a veritable fruit salad in there)

But, for right now, its my latest and greatest New Shiny Object so off me and my FitBit trotted to get in our 10,000 steps and to explore da hood.

For those of you blog-watchers who are history buffs, here's some interesting factoids about Calvary Cemetery: http://www.catholiccemeterieschicago.org/history.php

For those of you blog-watchers who don't give a stuff about history but need to know the "in" place to be, well here's a link for you too - who knew you could find cemetery reviews on Yelp?!   http://www.yelp.com/biz/calvary-cemetery-evanston

  

Impressive, huh?

I think cemeteries are fascinating.  I'm not in the least religious, so they don't hold that type of significance for me, but as you look around at these massive memorials and edifices, you do wonder who on earth these people were?  What warranted such a grandiose crypt for the Cuneo family?  What did they do in life that enabled them to afford such material comforts in death?  Some of the family tombs rivaled any I'd seen in the Ricoletta cemetery in Buenos Aires (burial place of Eva Peron).   I wonder if any of them were "connected"? (fresh off of my Prohibition tour the day before-  more to come on that in my next blog).  Looking at the dates on the tombs and gravestones, a lot of them dated back to the mid 19th century, so the detail and handiwork of the engraving and ornamentation was very impressive indeed.

I wandered round for an hour or so, enjoying the peace and quiet and unexpectedly having to avoid really rather quite a lot of Canada geese poo on the roads (who knew they liked to hang out in cemeteries during the fall?).  Also, much to my delight, I came across a horse chestnut tree and - all Brits will know what that means - CONKERS!!!  I haven't played conkers since I was a kid, so I delightedly stuffed my bag full of a couple dozen to take home for Christmas (and perhaps Thanksgiving too, Sarah?).  Let the conker wars begin!

After my mausoleum meanderings, I strolled along the lake for a bit - again, enjoying the sound of the waves lapping against the rocks and imprinting to memory its gloriously unfrozen state.  Evanston does actually have some quite nice beaches along the lake - i'm not a beachy-type person (damn sand gets everywhere), but can still appreciate them from the safe distance of a nice tarmac-ed sidewalk.  However, just to make sure I wasn't forgetting who's really in charge, good old mother nature had left her calling card on just a few of the many thousands and thousands of trees here, a precursor of whats to come and a reminder that She's the Boss.  

Get ready for LeafMaggedon.

Here are some pics from my day's amble (13,000 steps and 7miles, btw) - enjoy!

Overcompensating, much?

(grave) Diggin' the scene

Reservoir geese

Probably one of the most imaginative tombstones
in the cemetery - a tree!

How thoughtful.  Not sure what the protocol is
for tombstones shaped as benches…didn't sit on it, just in case….

Mumsie….dont you be getting any ideas now….

Oh yes.  BRING IT ON.  ConkFest 2014, here we come….

Lake-side view

I can understand the dogs, but….

Could almost be Florida, right?…..

Except for this little reminder from Mother
Nature that WINTER IS COMING SUCKERS!
Thanks, bitch.

Rather unfortunate spacing on this signpost, don't you think?