timwheatley.org

I went to the Chicago Red Bull Flugtag last week, click here to view the photos.

An interesting statistic on today’s morning news:
328 people have been murdered in the Chicago area this year.
247 U.S. Troops have been killed in Iraq this year.

The thing is, the south-side of Chicago suffers a lot of gang violence and honestly, I’m perfectly happy to let them kill each other. If you took out all those news reports you hear about the South-side, the picture would be very, very different.

This is what you get for having this type of open availability to guns.

I went to the Chicago Air & Water Show on Friday and Saturday. Today (Sunday) I’ll be staying home and maybe taking shots if they fly over the house enough. It was my first (and second) time at the show and I really enjoyed it. It would have been nice to have seen the British Red Arrows there (who I think have far more exciting displays than the Blue Angels), but I guess they don’t fly too often over here.

B-2 Stealth Bomber. Photo by Tim Wheatley.

I took a LOT of photos at the event and you can find them all on the Photo Galleries page and attached to this post.

Yesterday evening we started to get severe storm warnings coming up over the programming on TV. This is quite normal, we get bad storms here (though usually they’re only really bad far away from the city). But when the weather service starts to break into programming entirely - you know it’s serious.

They started to say that there was rotation in the clouds (something else we’re used to hearing happen out to the south, west and north of us) and that this may lead to a Tornado… But something was different yesterday: This storm - unlike every other since I have been here - was on course to hit Chicago itself. Normally the effect of the Lake on weather systems helps to avoid this kind of situation for the city, but as the clouds got darker, the warnings started to happen more often and eventually, the Tornado warning sirens started to sound in the city - we knew it was coming!

Sheila’s parents had left for home just a little while before the sirens sounded, so obviously Sheila’s main concern was for them. They called us part way through the storm to tell us to look out for the windows blowing in as their car was being blown around and they knew it was strong. They eventually got home and are fine - as are we. It was just crazy…

The worst storms I’ve ever experienced in the UK were less severe then the smallest storm I have ever seen in the Mid-West. The storms out here are just unbelievable and with the temperatures approaching 100° - it’s more likely to get cloud rotation and if the funnel works it’s way down to the ground - a tornado.

The tornado apparently touched down in the suburb Sheila lived in when she met me and has caused a bit of damage. There are 238,000 people currently without power in the Chicago area… But you know what? Like every major storm it’ll get fixed and it’ll get fixed quickly.

The storm started off with what seemed a thunderstorm and then really suddenly the wind kicked up and our chairs on the deck all slid to the left side. One of them looked like it was going to fall down the stairs, so looking at the trees and seeing the wind didn’t seem too bad, I opened the door and pulled it inside (I didn’t have time to secure it or the other chairs, as I felt the air pressure and gusts starting to get stronger). We then came inside, shut off everything electrical that we thought could cause an issue and then I setup my camera to try to get some footage of the storm. Click the image below to go to YouTube and watch the footage…

Click the image above to view the video.

This is the single most annoying thing to me about Politics and Politicians. It happens at every level and it allows these departments and people to take our tax money and effectively burn it away.

Have you ever heard on the news that someone made a policy proposal, but that someone didn’t accept it, or ‘protested’ it, sat out the debate or didn’t sign for some other reason? That right there, is a politician, supposed to be earning their money (that WE pay them), who decides to ’sit out’ a debate because they don’t agree with the policy.

In my opinion, this kind of thing is nothing short of a travesty that burns away our taxes…

Here in Chicago it took the local Transit Authority (the CTA) repeatedly threatening to go on strike, cutting services and raise prices over months and months for the local government to come up with funding that would help support them. When they eventually did come up with funding, the CTA said that the funding would only pay off the debts that waiting for a decision had caused them! Soon enough, they’ll be back asking for more money and it’ll happen all over again…

Why don’t these people do their jobs and make some decisions? You win some, you lose some, so being the only person who is stopping legislation when many people agree on it isn’t doing anything except holding things up! Plenty of people vote against the winner at the very highest level of politics, but it’s the majority that usually counts. If you’re out of that majority give it up and save some time, and money.

This 360° panoramic image is taken from the upper edge of the north-side of Soldier Field. On the reverse 180° of the image you can see a full panoramic of the Chicago skyline. Soldier Field is where the Chicago Bears (an American Football team) play. The panorama was taken on ‘Family Night’ (a pre-season practice at the team’s home stadium), August 1st, 2008.

Ever since Sheila and I went to the beach the other week, my skin has been slowly peeling. It’s kind of hard to evade the baking sun here (it’s out all damn day), and I’ve probably had a whole Summer’s worth already and we’re only just dipping our toes into August.

Anyway, the really sick thing is that my skin sheds and the Kittens eat it. Gross, huh?

Well, thank you Skype!

I just signed up for one of the new subscription packages the guys at Skype are offering. It allows me to call any landline in 34 countries for nothing more than the $9.95 per month from Skype…

But that is not all, as a part of that subscription you get access to something else, something very cool. “Skype To Go” is given for free with this subscription…

What is Skype To Go? Well, I live in the USA at a 312 area code. Skype To Go gives me a 312 area code number to call (from any phone, including my cell phone), I enter a pin and then I can call those 34 countries, for free! All I might have to pay for, is a 312 to 312 call - which is free for me.

So, what this means is that I can be anywhere in Chicago, including on a Cell phone, I can call the 312 number (local, or usually free call), enter pin number, select speed-dial #1 and my mum will get the call to her landline in Britain. I don’t even need Skype installed on my PC anymore! That contact capability is just $9.95 per month - Skype rocks!

Here is a panoramic photo of the Chicago Skyline at Dawn. The photo was taken from North Avenue Beach near Lincoln Park.

I had intended to take a 360 degree image, but the sun moved so much and so quickly at this time of the day that it is impossible to accurately stitch that area of the 360 degrees together. I hope you enjoy this image anyway.

I Added another Photo Gallery recently. You can access it directly in this post. Feel free to comment. There is also a video below the photos.