Events

As forecast, the temperature dropped steadily from 3:30 pm Monday until finally bottoming out at -5.6°C (22°F) just after sunset yesterday. It's crept up slowly since then, up to -2.5°C (27.5°F) a few minutes ago. C'mon, you can do it! Just a little farther to reach freezing! Because the forecast for tomorrow morning (-13°C/9°F) does not look great. At least we'll see the sun for a few hours. You know what else is cold? My feelings toward the OAFPOTUS. I'm not alone: Peter Hamby looks back on the...

As the cold air mass to the north of us drifts southeast, Chicago has gotten colder. Today's high temperature was at midnight, both at Inner Drive Technology World HQ and at O'Hare, though the National Weather Service has teased us with predictions of above-freezing temperatures tomorrow, followed by the coldest day since February 20th. Cassie may not get a proper walk on Thursday until I pick her up from school. (Heck, I might not either.) At least being at school will give her some time to bounce...

As happens every December 1st, winter has begun. It's the first of 63 days with a 7am sunrise or later. And yet that's not as depressing as some of these stories: Jennifer Rubin argues (as do most lawyers with military backgrounds) that any order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to kill survivors of a boat the US Navy attacked would violate US law, international law, the law of war, and the US Law of War Manual, not to mention being morally abhorrent. An appeals court has ruled that Alina Habba's...

We got 220 mm (8.6 in) of snow at O'Hare by 6am today, which means the storm dumped more on us than on any November day in history (earlier reported as the worst in almost 10 years): As of 6 p.m., 6.9 inches (175 mm) of snow had fallen at O’Hare and 5.5 (140 mm) at Midway, making it the heaviest single-day snowfall since Nov. 21 2015, when 7 inches fell at O’Hare, according to the National Weather Service. O’Hare had been predicting its busiest Thanksgiving week ever, despite the FAA recently lifting...

It's nice when you can plan for severe weather. It's snowed nearly all day, lightly at first but turning a lot worse after noon. Since the temperature has stayed right around -1°C it wasn't a problem to give Cassie some off-leash time at the local park: She even made new friends: And you'd think after 9 hours of snowfall, my rain gauge might have registered some precipitation. I wonder what the trouble could be? As of noon we had 76 mm of snow officially at O'Hare. I expect it'll be more than double...

Cassie and I hauled out to Far Suburbistan and met friends (one dog, one human) for a 4.7-km walk around the St James Farm Forest Preserve: Because I wanted to get groceries ahead of tomorrow's snowfall, poor Cassie had to suffer in the car for about 3 hours. Don't feel bad: my friend had tons of leftovers from yesterday, so Cassie got enough turkey to last her until dinner next Thursday. She's now plotzed on the couch. She doesn't know it yet, but we're about to go for another walk. My 77-day streak of...

Cassie and I have gotten a couple of decent walks today, with a very long walk planned for tomorrow, because this is on the menu for late tomorrow night: The National Weather Service predicts a 70% chance of us getting 150 mm (6 in) of snow or more. Whee. Cassie will enjoy it, though.

Russia expert (and emigrée) Julia Ioffe picks apart the OAFPOTUS's clownish attempts to end the war in Ukraine one more time: Stop me if you’ve heard this one. President Donald Trump, eager to get another peace deal under his belt, sends everyone in Washington, Kyiv, Moscow, and Brussels scrambling as he announces that an agreement to end the Ukraine war is imminent. The proposal, on even the most cursory examination, is revealed to echo the Russian position, at which point Volodymyr Zelensky and the...

Not a whole lot going on today. Early departure from work, four days off, lots of couch time and walkies with Cassie, and oh my god what is that thing heading towards us: Yeah, looks like we might get some snow on Saturday. But since we know that on Tuesday, we'll adapt. Also, the A-Ring A-Hole is a dork.

So in case I don't have a chance to read all of these tonight: Did the White House staff put up tacky, gold-colored, signage outside the Oval Office because the OAFPOTUS is a classless tool, or because he's well along the dementia highway? Dan Rather puts the blame for declining educational outcomes in the US squarely on the party who has attacked public education for 40 or 50 years now. DOGE has officially ended, having accomplished absolutely nothing good, and of course it'll be up to my party to...