Mother Nature reminds us periodically of who really runs things – it ain’t us!

Never before in my life have I been thankful to be woken up at about 3 a.m. by a sudden surge of noise and light.

No, I didn't see ...

That’s what happened to me early Tuesday, because I was among those who managed to get their electrical power knocked out for a few hours by Monday night’s sudden storm.

I HAVE TO confess that the storm itself didn’t seem like much to me – a heavy rain is all.

I happened to be in my broken-down (but fully paid-for) automobile when the hard rain and stronger-than-usual winds suddenly came. My instinct told me that trying to drive in it could be risky.

So I pulled over and parked the car, then sat in the vehicle for about 20 minutes until things settled down to the point where it was just a normal rainfall.

I finished my trip (work-related) a few minutes later, and by the time work was “done,” the rain had stopped altogether. So I drove home not thinking much about it.

IT RAINED. RAIN is a part of our normal weather. It helped cool off the humidity somewhat.

But when I got home, I discovered that my home neighborhood had been devastated by those stronger-than-usual winds. There were branches blown all over the place.

Many of those branches managed to hit things. In my case, they knocked out the electrical power.

Which in my case was professionally devastating, because I had some work-related writing to do. It was on deadline. And the lack of electricity meant I didn’t have the wireless Internet connection at home that enables me to work there at my convenience.

... either of their big-game goals

AS I SEARCHED for a place with a wireless connection that did NOT lose electricity, I couldn’t help but notice how darkened the neighborhood was. Particularly odd since we’re at the time of year when daylight is at its longest.

My neighbors wound up using the weather as an excuse to party. The whole extended family swarmed their way out of the air conditioner-less home (no electricity), pulled out the barbecue grill, and the kids were running up and down the block in play.

I felt like I had to avoid hitting both fallen branches AND little children. Fortunately, I succeeded.

And when I got about one mile from my humble abode, I found a Starbucks’ coffee house. I’m not usually one to spend big bucks for their pretentious cups of coffee. Nor do I think much of people who spend hours on end with their laptop computers or other electronic devices – leeching off the wireless connection.

She can be mean when she wants to be!

BUT ON MONDAY, I became one of them. Although I made a point of getting my essential work done within a half-hour, then leaving (not long before they were getting ready to close).

When I returned home, the place was still dark. It was humid. It was miserable.  And the answer is "no," I didn't see any of the Chicago Blackhawks' Stanley Cup-winning victory over Boston. But in the dark, there was nothing one could do – other than stumble my way through my humble abode to the bedroom. Where I laid in my sweat, and ultimately drifted off to sleep.

Until! My alarm clock suddenly lit up (3:11 a.m., it was), the air conditioning kicked back on and a couple of lights that had been on when the power went out suddenly flickered to life.

The rest of my night was a little more comfortable. But I have to confess I struggled to remain awake Tuesday morning. It was NOT a good night’s sleep.

AS I WRITE this, I still have a few gadgets whose inner clocks are going to have to be re-set.

Although I learned that a colleague of mine who also lost power still had not had it restored as of the noon-hour Tuesday. And as I drove around my neighborhood, I still see some crews working to clear fallen brush and restore electricity to those whose power-less experience extended into a Day Two!

So as much as I want to gripe and grouse about a miserable night, a part of me can’t help but feel fortunate that it didn’t turn out worse. That’s something we all should keep in mind.

One little twist of wind can revert us back to the conditions of the days when all of this land around here was nothing but open frontier.

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Cop's coffee behavior not a surprise

The first real job I ever had involved working at a Subway Sandwich store in suburban Calumet City that remained open until 2 a.m. every day. I was hired to work the late night shift and often dealt with the on-duty police officers who patrolled the surrounding area.

We were their favorite “restaurant” to eat at, in part because we were open and also because my boss made it clear to me early on that I should give the patrolmen (I don’t remember any female officers) a break financially.

IN SHORT, WE gave the cops a discount, usually charging them something like two or three bucks for a sandwich, chips and drink that would have cost a regular person $5-6 (and would now cost about $8 – I worked at a Subway nearly three decades ago).

My boss considered it a worthwhile financial loss because it usually amounted to a couple of sandwiches per night and because those officers would usually keep a closer watch on her store. It made my boss feel more secure about keeping her Subway store open at late night hours.

So on the surface, it doesn’t shock me in the least to learn that a Chicago police officer had come to expect free food and drink while working.

Although she beat the rap on more serious criminal charges alleging that she stole fruit juice (she was acquitted of a “theft” charge in Criminal Court in 2005), the Chicago Police Board on Thursday noted that a Belmont District patrolwoman was suspended this summer for 15 months because of her behavior when it came to free food.

BARBARA NEVERS ALSO will have to undergo counseling to help her cope with her behavior.

Nevers received the professional discipline (as opposed to criminal charge) for claims that she demanded free coffee from six different Starbucks stores. Police board officials contend that she would sometimes intimidate store workers by flashing her badge, displaying her pistol and screaming at employees that she was entitled.

Her attorneys claim she never demanded anything, but also was not the type of person to turn down a free cup of coffee – if it were offered to her.

What caught my attention about this story was that the Starbucks stores she focused her attention on were all in the Lincoln Park and Lakeview neighborhoods – in short, upscale neighborhoods with some of the lowest crime rates in Chicago.

WE PROBABLY HAVE an officer who thinks she (rather than the upper-income residents) is personally responsible for the neighborhood safety.

But she probably does get a break financially at other businesses on her police beat, which made her think she could also get a free cup of coffee and something to eat to help her cope with the pressures of her job.

The Chicago Tribune reported that one store manager said Nevers would become hostile whenever she was offered just a cup of coffee, and not a pastry to go along with it.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Starbucks managers were willing to tolerate a cup or two of coffee being given out, and that the real issue here is just that a police officer got greedy with her expectations.

THEN AGAIN, WE don’t know how nit-picky corporate management in Seattle was. Would they have gotten worked up if a boss could not account for a cup or two of coffee per work shift? Would the cost of the paper cups really have hurt the financial bottom lines of the six stores in question where Nevers used to hang out while on patrol duty?

If Starbucks’ was really that petty, then maybe they should look at the bigger picture.

I recall that the Subway store I worked in was never held up during the time I worked there. It’s not because it was an overly safe neighborhood, as I know for a fact that some other businesses in the neighborhood (including the 7-Eleven store across the street) were robbed.

But if giving a cop a break on an occasional sandwich helped get us some additional eyes on the business, then perhaps it was worth it.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Two members of the Chicago Police Board thought Barbara Nevers deserved (http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/1096630,080708starbucks.article) a stricter punishment than a 15-month suspension.

“I get coffee for free” is the news quote of the day (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-starbucks-cop-web-aug08,0,6874669.story) on Thursday in Chicago.

Nevers at least has the possibility of continued employment with the Chicago Police Department, unlike a Daytona Beach, Fla., officer (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080718/D9206HC80.html) who was terminated after it was learned he was pressuring local coffee shops for up to six cups of coffee free per day.

Police in Fort Worth, Texas, are told they can take a free cup of coffee while working, but they should not (http://www.star-telegram.com/news/columnists/bud_kennedy//story/766626.html) demand it.

It feels great to be publishing again

There is bound to be somebody out there who will take offense and accuse me of exaggerating the significance of my predicament, but I can almost identify with the mood of those Chicagoans who were alive in the final days of October 1871.

It was earlier in that month that a fire allegedly started in a barn managed to grow out of control and devastate much of the city, and the people of Chicago in those days would have been justified had they just thrown in the towel and moved elsewhere, leaving the remains of a frontier town to become a ghost on the shores of Lake Michigan.

INSTEAD, THEY REBUILT. In the process, they created one of the great cities of the world. I’m not sure my attempts to rebuild the Chicago Argus (and its sister weblog, The South Chicagoan) will achieve the same level. But I feel the same spirit in wanting to resurrect the sites that were attempting to provide intelligent commentary and analysis of the happenings of Chicago (and of the world, as perceived from Chicago).

Insofar as what went wrong, I must admit it has taken me several days to figure out, and even now I only have a partial understanding of what caused the Chicago Argus and South Chicagoan to be shuttered for fivedays – it was only a few minutes ago that I regained control of the sites.

Basically, I wrote a commentary late Wednesday about Starbucks’ franchises in the Chicago area. Then, I went to bed.

When I woke up Thursday, I discovered that the passwords that allow me access to the editorial content were no longer working (which is why I did not provide an update indicating that the number of Starbucks’ stores in the Chicago area being closed was significantly increased in the hours after I published my say on the matter). It also is why I did not trash Gov. Rod Blagojevich for making a mockery of law enforcement problems with his ridiculous talk of National Guard tactics being used in Chicago.

THE EXPLANATION I received eventually was that Google shut down my account when it detected someone trying to use the e-mail account connected to the sites to send out the enemy of every Internet user – spam.

Because of Google security measures, I was unable to resurrect my ability to access either weblog.

Now as best as I can tell, none of the commentaries published during the past seven months have been tampered with. The archives of both sites appear to be un-compromised.

Of course, I have not re-read every single word I have written at these two sites, so there’s always the possibility that some clown decided to try to rewrite me, for kicks or to satisfy some sort of ideologically-inspired grudge.

THAT’S WHAT GETS me about this whole affair. I’m not sure what to think of the motivations of the people who started a chain reaction that resulted in the sites sitting idle for a few days.

Is this the equivalent of some computer geek who thinks he’s showing off his technological skills by messing with someone else’s site (like the time the New York Times had their website tampered with and turned into a promotion for soft-core pornography), or is this someone who disagrees with me (I know they exist, they are good at sending me excessively lengthy e-mails telling me I am full of caca for what I write).

Am I really dealing with the equivalent of white supremacist groups who like to print up their fliers, insert them into copies of a newspaper that have not yet been sold, then have the gall to complain their views are being censored because they can’t force their view on someone else.

All I can say is that I have started again, and I intend to resume the previous publishing schedule. It feels good to know that commentaries and news analysis will resume early tomorrow, and will continue to be published daily through Friday, with a feature-y piece for the weekend.

I LIKELY WILL never know the exact motivations of the people who caused the site to die for a few days. If it is merely a computer geek, then this is just sad. If it is somebody’s idea of a political statement, then it is pathetic.

Regardless, I have never been the type of person who lets sad or pathetic individuals get the best of my work. I only hope whoever did this doesn’t have delusions of having a Hollywood film made about their activities.

Even though the City Council later absolved her of any responsibility, Mrs. O’Leary and her cow wound up being the focus of that fictionalized version of the Great Chicago Fire from 1937 known as “In Old Chicago.”

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