Cougar and the CTA

As some of you may have heard, there was a cougar on Chicago's north side Monday evening. What you might not know was that it was actually in Roscoe Village, roughly *2* blocks from my house. As I walked home, ipod in ears, I saw the cop cars, heard the helicopter and thought, maybe I should go check this out. Nah. Got home, asked Steve. No idea. So we went to Sam & George's. Laura called me later to ask why our mascot was just wandering around the neighborhood. There were reporters there last night doing "follow-up" to see if people were scared. Yes, terrified. I'm sure this is just one of a pack of wild cougars wandering the city of Chicago, ready to destroy us all. (Also, I'm not buying that it wandered down from Wisconsin either. Nice try.)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-cougar-shot-both-16apr16,1,2644556.story?page=1




In other news, the Chicago Transit Authority is officially the worst operated public transportation system in the country, though I have little basis of comparison. My two hour commute yesterday, which started with my normal bus ride, to my normal stop. The train was slow but I had O and wasn't super concerned since I was actually, early. Then it started getting real slow. "Defective train ahead." Yeah, we've heard it before. Then it stopped at Western, thankfully above ground and the conductor got on and said, "this train is turning around at Damon (mind you, not even close to my work) and we still have three trains ahead of us that need to be 'evacuated,' there's a shuttle at Damon but your best bet is to get off here and figure it out on your own." Super!! So I get off Western, take the Western bus, to the Madison bus, and make it. Thankfully, somewhat knowing the bus system helped me out in this one situation. Apparently, it was a mob scene at Damon. And oh, the CTA gave us all free rides home, and a piece of paper saying they're sorry about the inconvenience. That does pretty much nothing for someone with a monthly pass, but thanks. You can't handle 900 people during rush hour with one defective train and you want the Olympics? Dream on.

Isn't this the way you want to start your day?







Also, 10 days and counting. Kind of crazy.