Weather extremes; or Dog Days in Chi

Remember the polar vortex?

That period of a few days back in January when the shift in weather traits actually gave in Chicago a taste of what things normally are like around the Arctic Circle!

Rocco (left) and Carmelo back in the winter months. Photos by Gregory Tejeda

IT WAS COLD. Particularly that one day where I got an assignment that actually required me to go outside and walk around the neighborhood in search of some colorful tidbits for a newspaper story.

Which I managed to accomplish in record time. No point in getting frost-bite for the free-lance pay rate I take in these days.

I also remember having to take the dogs outside during those days so they could “do their business,” so to speak. They’re not paper-trained, so their reaction to bathroom-type functions is to want to go outside – no matter what the weather is like.

While Rocco and Carmelo usually manage to linger out in the back yard for a few minutes before doing their “duty,” on those days they managed to run outside, complete their business them come charging back to the house.

LITERALLY CLAWING AWAY at the back door in desperate need of somebody to let them inside. Because it’s cold out here!!!

Anyway, these are the memories popping into my head on Friday as we’re enduring a heat spell that some are saying will be record-setting for the Chicago area.

The National Weather Service issued warnings for northern Illinois and Indiana, along with southern Wisconsin, going from Friday at 10 a.m. and supposed to last until about 7 p.m. Saturday.

It’s going to be hot and humid and people were advised to stay indoors as much as possible during that time period.

Rocco prefers the snow from indoors

FOR WHAT IT’S worth, I took the doggies out for a walk Friday morning and they managed to complete their business. But the walk didn’t last that long – pretty soon the dogs were panting heavily as they were hot.

They couldn’t wait to get back inside, and it was a good move that I refilled their water dishes before the walk. For they immediately went for the water and began gulping it down once we got back to shelter.

Now there have been some reports these days reminiscing back into history and 1919, when the heat of that summer was considered a cause of boosting tensions that ultimately resulted in race riots that left many people dead.

Although I suspect many more people had 1995 come to their minds. Much more recent – although even that is a quarter-of-a-century in the past.

I WAS FORTUNATE enough to not actually be in Chicago that summer – I was living in Springfield, Ill., at the time, although I got to hear the horror stories from my mother and brother of just how ridiculously hot it became and the extremes they had to go through to remain cool.

I recall the reports ultimately said the intense heat was because of a shift that, for a couple of weeks, caused Chicago to become something along the lines of Saudi Arabia.

And while those who actually live in the desert perhaps are capable of coping with such conditions, we managed to get caught off-guard. Causing the hundreds of deaths from that summer due to intense heat.

Carmelo wanted the water!

All I know is that if this is what other parts of the world feel like, it makes me all the more thankful to be a Chicagoan. The rest of the world can keep their weather extremes.

BUT I MUST admit to being uncertain about which extreme is more uanbearable. Polar vortex or Arab desert?

All I know is that I take one look at Rocco and Carmelo in heavy pant and know they were about as miserable as they were back in January when they virtually froze their paws off.

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EXTRA: It’s only 7 cents!

Considering how irate some people got over when Cook County government imposed a penny-per-ounce tax on the price of a bottle of pop, perhaps it shouldn’t be a shock that some people are getting outraged over the possible fee to be charged for plastic bags.

Will this bag cost 5 cents outside of Chicago

It’s already been done in Chicago. The city charges such a tax on each bag used by a shopper – to the point where many people buying anything within the city limits go out of their way to refuse to use the bags.

MEANING THEY’RE NOT paying the tax, but also aren’t using as many plastic bags – which are a serious problem when it comes to trash disposal and recycling.

For what it’s worth, Illinois state government now wants to impose a similar fee. Which means most likely that people in rural places are getting all upset – mostly because they didn’t think of this idea first.

Meaning they’re not collecting the money that does get raised from such a tax.

Now as Gov. J.B. Pritzker puts it, he sees the state tax as a 5 cent fee per bag, with people being given the choice of whether or not they want to buy the bags. Meaning they could avoid paying the fee altogether if they bring their own canvas totes, or some other form of reusable shopping bag.

Trying to reduce these landfills is the point of the tax

PRITZKER ALSO SAYS the state tax would not apply to purchases in Chicago or any other municipality that has its own bag fee. Meaning places such as Evanston or Oak Park – suburbs that like to think they have a progressive character about them that makes life superior within their boundaries.

Which also means that many people are going to diss such a tax as some sort of elitist concept. The Age of Trump type of people probably will claim they’re fighting some holy crusade by refusing to plop down a few pennies for their bags.

Ironic what I do with plastic bags from high-end stores

Although after seeing how such a tax works in Chicago, it seems to me that the kind of people who don’t want to pay it manage to find ways to get out of it. Mostly by carrying their small purchases out of the store in their hands.

Or by becoming the kinds of people who take a tote bag or two with them when they go shopping!

OR YOU COULD be just like myself and decide that 7 cents is a petty fee to pay for the convenience of a bag.

Which I’ll admit sometimes gets me an astounded look from cashiers who have gotten used to people going out of their way to refuse the bags altogether!

Because I’ll admit that I have no problem taking the bags home and finding uses for them. As in I’m recycling them in ways meant to reduce the amount of non-degradable waste that winds up in landfills.

Although I must also admit that many of those bags do wind up getting put to a particular use – as in I keep a few of them in my pockets whenever I take the dogs, Rocco and Carmelo, out for a morning walk around the neighborhood.

THE DOGS ARE well-trained in that they know to “hold it in” and not make a mess while inside the house. They wait for their walk, and in fact the dogs have actually developed a ritual where we walk to a particular front yard where they seem to particularly feel comfortable depositing their “poop.”

Carmelo (left) and Rocco help me with plastic bag re-use

Which causes me to slip a plastic bag onto my hand as a crude glove – and use it to pick up the mess and deposit it into another bag. With all the bags then winding up in the trash outside and hauled away when trash pickup takes place each week.

Maybe it means I’m creating many dozens of doggy-poop missives that will wind up in area landfills. Or it could mean my 7 cent purchases are helping to ensure I’m in total compliance with municipal ordinances concerning the cleanup after one’s own dog.

Which is something I take seriously, because there’s nothing I find more disgusting than someone who thinks they can leave their dog’s poop just lying around. Something I find more disgusting than paying 7 cents for whenever I buy something at Walgreen’s.

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Electoral confusion?!?

I happened to be taking my father’s dogs out for a Sunday morning walk when we stumbled across a house that had campaign signs galore posted all over the front lawn.

Carmelo, a Golden Retriever/Poodle, surveys the confusion of some voters as Election Day approaches in eight days. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

So many that the end result was a chaotic mess – with some of the signs actually being for conflicting viewpoints come Election Day.

DO WE HAVE people who think they’re politically aware who don’t have a clue how they’re voting? Will next Tuesday wind up being the end result of political chaos run amok?

Anything is possible. There are times when I think the only definitive thought would-be voters have in their heads is whether they want “four more years” of Bruce Rauner as Illinois governor.

As for the ones who don’t, I doubt there’s a true consensus of thought behind any one candidate, or even one political party. Which could be Rauner’s best chance of winning re-election.

But as for the rest of the ballot, I won’t be surprised to learn many people will walk into the voting booth without a clue how they’re going to vote.

WILL WE HAVE people picking and choosing at random just so they can fill out their ballots? Or will we have people leaving the bulk of their ballots blank because they don’t have a clue who, or what, to cast votes for?

I know some suburbs are putting “home rule” referendum questions on their ballot – asking voters if their municipal officials ought to have full authority to deal with local issues involving taxes.

There are some people who put their full faith in their local officials over any other, while others think government officials deserve to have as little authority as possible.

Yet I have heard some people come right out and say they’re inclined to skip that question, particularly if the concept of “home rule” in general is one that is alien to them.

OF COURSE, THERE’S also all those judges to pick from – and I’m sure that’s going to cause intimidation for many voters.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that as a reporter-type person who has written about courts in Cook County, I have an edge over other voters. I’ve actually heard of many of these judges – in some instances, I’ve covered cases in their courtrooms.

I’m not above refusing to vote for a judge who acted like a pompous blowhard while I was in his presence.

Which makes as much sense to me as those people who cast votes for as many of the white, Irish-sounding names they see. To the point where I’m astounded at the many judicial candidates who have their campaign lawn signs in Kelly green-colored letters. Putting the thoughts of St. Patrick’s Day into our subliminal thoughts.

AS FOR ME, when I cast my ballot last week at an Early Voting Center, I actually went with my own ethnic origins in cases when I was unfamiliar with all the candidates – hence, a slew of Spanish-sounding names got my vote. Although I’m also aware there’s been enough ethnic intermixing in our society that it doesn’t take a “Rodriguez” or “Martinez”-like name to be Latino.

I’m also sure there are others who have equally-goofy ways of distributing their votes in cases of cluelessness. Besides, when you think about it, does it really make sense to seek out a Bar Association endorsement list and pick off all those names? Those lists tend to be the legal establishment, and I’m sure there are those who’d rather be shaking up the established courthouse regulars for our societal good.

So those of you who have yet to cast your votes, I’ll wish you luck on wading through the many anonymous names that comprise the bottom half of the ballot that you probably haven’t paid attention to.

And I’ll wonder if your reaction will be something similar to one of my father’s dogs, who I swear let out a sigh when he saw the mass of signs cluttering a lawn that he probably would have put to better use by relieving himself.

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Brrrrrr! It’s cold outside. Or, only 90 more days till baseball Opening Day

As I write this, it’s 10 degrees outside, with the potential to rise to 14 degrees. Wind chill will create conditions that supposedly will make it feel more like 1 or 2 degrees temperature.

Rocco, Carmelo cope w/ winter weather

In short, this lull of a week between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays is friggin’ freezing. This week during which many people will look for any excuse they can find to get out of work is provided with a perfect excuse by Mother Nature.

IT’S COLD OUTSIDE!!!

There’s no reason why human beings should be outdoors if they can possibly avoid it. The perfect time to do as little as is humanly possible.

For some people, it’s the perfect excuse to contemplate finding some other region of the globe to live in – some place where the idea of the temperatures ever dropping below 32 degrees (the official standard point at which water freezes into ice) is just a bad nightmare.

I’m not necessarily talking about some place with sunshine and perpetual 70 degree temperatures. Just some place where taking the dogs out for a walk doesn’t put one at risk for hypothermia.

Even he's shivering

I BRING UP that example because I often do wind up taking my father’s pair of dogs (a Standard Poodle and a mixed-breed Golden Retriever/Poodle) out for their daily walk.

While I have noticed they still get excited at the thought of being able to go outside, all it takes is one blast of the Arctic-like air for them to immediately change their minds.

I’m amused at how quickly the dogs (Rocco and Carmelo) are now capable of doing their “business” before they suddenly give every indication that they want to go back inside. Back home. No more of this aimless wandering that they usually do because “it’s outside.”

It makes me wonder if dogs can have more sense than people, or at least some individuals, based on their public behavior.

With holidays over, we do countdown to spring

YES, I FEEL the cold temperatures, just as much as anybody else. Even my neighbor with the elaborately-decorated front yard came up with something appropriate -- an inflatable snowman that shivers because it's so cold!

Yet I have to confess something – maybe it’s evidence that I’m losing it. But I don’t feel the urge to want to flee Chicago, or the Midwestern U.S., just because it’s cold outside!

I still remember one December I spent in Florida just over three decades ago – the idea of a swimming pool at that time of year just seemed strange. And listening to the locals complain about the cold because for a couple of days the temperatures dipped into the mid-30s?

It elicited the same reaction I get whenever I hear reports of snowfall in the Southern U.S. bringing daily life to a standstill – What a bunch of wimps!!!

IT’S COLD OUTSIDE; I’ll be the first to admit it. But it truly is part of the natural cycle of life on this planet to have the seasons. Finding a place where it never freezes is the extreme of life – just as a place like Antarctica is the opposite end (a land of perpetual winter).

We’re in the cycle of life – about to end the current calendar year. And for what it’s worth, we’ve passed the point where the days are getting shorter and the sun sets about 4:30 p.m. Minute by minute, we’re getting extra daylight and moving toward the time period in which we’ll have the mild temperatures that make life truly sweet and pleasant.

Besides, if we’re to be totally honest, we’ve managed to avoid the most annoying part of winter weather – the slop of snowfall. That downpour we got on Sunday (a.k.a., Christmas Eve) was over by day’s end and wasn’t that hard to clean up.

It won't be long before springtime returns, even to Chicago

It added to the winter ambiance that we’ll be able to remember fondly come May. Besides, it’s only 90 more days ‘til Opening Day for Major League Baseball – a thought to keep in mind if the wintry weather conditions become too unbearable.

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EXTRA: Halloweenie creepies! Or, letting the childhood beggars loose!

About the most ominous memory I have of childhood trick-or-treat activity some four-and-a-half decades ago was one time my brother, Christopher, and I were walking around the neighborhood and we encountered a house where no one was answering the door.

'Letting the hounds loose' in my case would probably create a batch of kids wanting to pet the cute puppies, no matter how much they snarled and barked

Then, I happened to look over to the side, and saw the giant sign the homeowner had scrawled out by hand – informing all of us candy-seekers to “Scram!!!” No candy, or anything available at that house.

I DIDN’T FEEL like pushing it. My brother and I got out of there, and quickly found many other places where the local residents were more than willing to cough up the desired chocolates, sugary junk and occasional spare change that would make for a Halloween bounty.

To tell you the truth, I don’t really blame that guy (or whoever it was, I never did find out) who didn’t feel like giving out any candy to the neighborhood freeloaders who felt that Halloween was an excuse to beg publicly.

There’s a part of me that jokes about using my father’s dogs to try scaring away any kids who come near me seeking candy (not that they bite, it’s just that they’ll make a lot of noise toward anyone they don’t recognize). But I'll confess to having a small bowl of Snickers bars and other candy available for anyone who shows up later Tuesday.

In short, I always think of Halloween as something relatively harmless – and something I haven’t really celebrated since the last time I went trick-or-treating; which I think was at about age 7.

SO I HAVE to admit to wondering what the heck is wrong with our society that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan felt compelled to issue a statement telling people to check the state registry of people listed as sex offenders before letting their children loose.

MADIGAN: Warning us all of threat

You might just find out that someone living near you has something in their past they’d rather keep quiet about, but which Illinois law won’t permit them. It seems we’re far beyond the point in our society where we have to worry about that old urban legend about some kid getting cut up because they ate an apple with a razor blade inserted into it.

Which is something I always wondered was just a myth created by parents to justify confiscating some of the candy collected by their kids on the grounds they didn’t need to be hyped up on so much sugar!

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EXTRA: A Canine curse for Cubbies?

I ventured up to the Lake View neighborhood on Friday and spent some of my time checking out the construction taking place to turn Wrigley Field into a baseball-themed amusement park that allows them to justify the excessive ticket prices being charged these days.

New 'curse' source? Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

But what caught my attention about the park-like atmosphere of the grounds surrounding the ballpark itself were signs erected on grassy areas; informing people that pets aren’t a welcome part of the Chicago Cubs experience.

“NO DOGS ON The Grass,” we’re told.

Which to my mindset is virtually an invitation for a crackpot with a pet to let it do it’s business. Who knows, maybe some crotchety ol’ White Sox fan will venture up north to walk his (or her) dog outside the Cubbies’ home ballpark.

Could this be the invitation to the new curse that can afflict Cub-dom?

Somebody with a Chihuahua or a Cocker Spaniel, or maybe a Pit Bull, will claim they were denied their chance to enjoy the Chicago Cubs, similar to how “Billy Goat” Sianis got miffed that day in October 1945 when he couldn’t bring his goat into the ballpark for a World Series game.

CUBS FANS RETIRE the goat, only to bring on the Curse of the Canine, while also providing a contrary image to their crosstown baseball competition.

Goat curse lasted 71 years -- replaced in a single season?

Where the Chicago White Sox have made an annual promotion of its “Bark in the Park” event when fans are encouraged to bring their dogs – and where they claimed to have set a world’s record – the Most to Ever Attend a Sporting Event – in 2016 by having 1,122 dogs sitting in their seats during the third inning of a ballgame.

Set for Sept. 6 this season

Now I’m not seriously claiming to be some sort of pet fanatic who can’t envision not having a dog at my side when I’m at the ballpark. In my mind, there’s another reason why the Cubs deserve to be cursed.

Seriously, $155 for a single seat in the outfield bleachers (for one of next week's interleague games against the New York Yankees)? Isn’t the whole point of having bleachers to provide cheap seats – with the high prices charged for those seats right on top of the infield?

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