See You There in 2016

There's a senior citizens' home in Silver Lake, and when you drive past you see the residents staring outside while sitting in chairs, or their wheelchairs, lined up along the big picture window. The view isn't much of anything, just apartment buildings, but you sense they are content to soak up the sun and watch people walk by.

Today I made a trip to a local library where they have a similar deal going on. Several reclining chairs, about fifteen of them, side by side, looking out on a nondescript street, a parking garage, some retail stores. I've been here for an hour or so reading my book, and it's nice: quiet inside, overcast outside. There's no place I'd rather be.

Except maybe Chicago. I'm reading One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko, a collection of essays. I'm not sure if I was too young to read him while he was in print, or if I was simply oblivious, but it makes me want to move back, be a part of the city, and this time, relish it.

As if reminiscing weren't enough to bring me back, the announcement of Chicago winning its bid for the Olympics is pretty darn exciting. Is it too early to book a flight for 2016?

Daley with high school students in Millennium Park before appearing on the Today Show, photo from the Trib:

How's this for a rambling blog? Not much of a point here at all. Mike Royko I am not.