No Fixed Plans

Another Monday already?  It must be because Sami's posted her Monday Murals post on Colourful World and has invited us all to join the fun. My mural is from Pilsen this week. I'm not sure what all these eyes mean

  At the National Museum of Mexican Art's Día de los Muertos exhibit there was a circle of unique chairs. The artist honored her mother's family with decorated chairs that featured mirrors with photos of each deceased relative. Each chair had a different bunch of objects glued to the seat. No need for little signs saying "Do not sit." This is my contribution to Pull Up a Seat, graciously hosted by Xingfu Mama. To check out more spectacular seats, click here .  Here's a Dia de Muertos collection of seats. 

 

  Sculpture Saturday is an opportunity for photobraphers to share some carved, sculpted or other 3D art. To join, you need to: 1. Share a photo of a sculpture on your blog. 2. Link here to No Fixed Plans, the new hub for the challenge. Give it a try. It's fun. Chicago

  Cee's challenging bloggers to post black and white photos featuring a vanishing point. Here's one from Milwaukee's Third Ward. To see more vanishing points, click here . 

Weekend Coffee Share is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some timely catching up with friends (old and new)! If we were having coffee, I'd mention that I haven't had coffee in two weeks, which is something of a record for me.  I'd tell you that we had a lot of people in town starting last week and continuing till Monday. Friends and relatives came to my brother Bill's funeral. Lots of funny stories were shared. Perhaps my favorite was new to me. As a boy, Bill caddied at a local country club. He liked golf and the camaraderie, but he wasn't the most mature caddy they had. Actually, he'd been fired for being tardy or not cleaning all the clubs carefully, The grouchy caddy master would fire Bill. But the next day Bill would go back to work. His friend Paul shared the story. Paul would ask Bill, "Weren't you fired yesterday?" Bill would admit he was, but said he figured they'd let him stay if he came back. Go figure, it wo...

 Full Measure's Sharyl Attkissson goes to Lancaster County, PA to see how the Amish dealt with COVID-19.

  Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). This week I'm sharing a door I saw in the Monestery of the Holy Cross in Chicago at 3101 S. Aberdeen. It's covered in red leather and embossed with a cross made with brass tacks. To see more doors go to No Facilities . 

  Ukrainian Village, Chicago My entry for this week's Monday Murals hosted by Sami of Colourful World.  Just click here to travel the world through murals. 

  Weekend Coffee Share is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some timely catching up with friends (old and new)! If we were having coffee, there'd be a lot of people coming and going. Lots of tears and lots of hugs. I'd hoped I'd be able to share all my photos of Open House Chicago, but I can do that next week.  After a lovely Saturday and normal Sunday, our lives changed Monday night when my brother Bill had a massive heart attack. My sister-in-law called me at 6:50 pm distraught asking if I'd come to watch Will, their youngest while she went to the hospital.  By the time my mother and I arrived, Bill was gone. So fast. Bill was a mischievous boy, a lifelong Cubs fan, a history buff, a great family man, a Bronze Star officer who served 2 tours in Iraq and one in Bahrain, a community leader, a delegate to the 1980 Democrat Convention, an attorney for the state working to make Chicago safe. He leaves 5 terrific kids. The oldest is 20, the younges...

  Sts. Volodyrmyr and Olna Ukrainian Catholic Church Which way? This week go up these stairs and through those doors and you'll arrive in a stunningly beautiful church.  To see more ways, click here . You'll be treated to paths, roads, highways, byways, signs, stairs and more.

 

Sculpture Saturday is an opportunity for photographers to share some 3D art with the world. To join, you need to: 1. Share a photo of a sculpture on your blog. 2. Link here to No Fixed Plans, the new hub for the challenge. Give it a try. It's fun.

Hosted by Dan of No Facilities, Thursday Doors is a weekly blogging challenge allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing it, between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American Eastern Time). On Saturday I went to Lang House as part of Open House Chicago. It's been restored and furnished as authentically as possible. It's now a business so you can hold an event there or stay there.  To get to the hub where you’ll find links to dozens of doors, click here .

 or Squiggly I like the twists in this stained glass window in Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral. If you want to see more twisty, squiggly photos, click here .

  Ukrainain Village Chicago Here's my contribution to Sami of Colourful World's Monday Mural Challenge.  If you'd like to see more murals, click here . You'll be glad you did.

  Weekend Coffee Share   is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some timely catching up with friends (old and new)! If we were having coffee, I would say, "Let's go to Open House Chicago !" Like other cities Chicago opens its doors, many that are private, to the public to show of its great architecture.I could only go one day this year. I wanted to volunteer, but then this job requires that I work on Sundays.  While not as many sites were open as in the past at least this year some sites were open unlike last year when everything was either virtual or exterior only. Still there were well over 100 sites to view. Since I've done downtown in the past, I wanted to explore outlying neighborhoods. I started in Rogers Park with the Lang House, a restored Arts and Crafts home that's been restored and is available for rental for events or accommodations. Lang House I moved on to Edgewater where I stopped in the neighborhood's historical society bef...

 

  Every week Sepia Saturday inspires bloggers with a visual prompt like the one above. I went looking for drawings of babies.  To see more Sepia Saturday posts, click here .  Our Baby ., ca. 1873. December 31. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003654252/. What?! Oh Baby! . , ca. 1875. October 11. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003688613/. Crawford, Will, Artist.  Such a sad case! / Will Crawford . , 1912. N.Y.: Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, Puck Building. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2011649368/.

  This week Cee's challenging bloggers to share photos that eature orange.  I'm sharing art I saw in Melbourne.  To see more orange photos, click here . 

  This week Cee's challenged bloggers to share photos of straight lines and I've posted a photo of a guqin, a traditional Chinese instrument.  If you want to see more straight lines, click here . 

 Intrepid man in the street, Ami Horowitz goes to Berkeley to see if people would donate to . . . the Taliban. His freelance cameraman was shocked. 

  Pilsen, Chicago Here's my entry for this week's Monday Mural hosted by Sami. You can see more murals by clicking here . 

  Currier & Ives.  The great fire at Chicago, Octr. 8th . , ca. 1871. New York: Published by Currier & Ives. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2001704271/. This week I'm commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Chicago Fire of 1871.  Growing up I'd heard family lore of my great grandmother who was 6 at the time remembering that she'd been awoken by a knock on the door of a neighbor warning the family of the fire and telling them he had a boat in the lake. The left the house and got on the boat. Afterwards she went with her mother and sister to New York till the city was rebuilt.  Copelin & Melander, photographer.  Drake's Block, cor. Wabash Ave. and Washington St . Illinois Chicago, 1870. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2004682837/. I've written a pilot for a TV series which starts with the Chicago Fire and continues as the city rebuilds. If you know anyone who'd like to make an American Downton Abbey, send them my way. Greene, P. B. , -189...

  My contribution to this week's Pull Up a Seat Challenge comes from Milwaukee's Pabst Mansion, where they have a bounty of gorgeous 19th century chairs. I wouldn't say this is the most comfortable chair. Not by its looks at least. Visitors can't sit in the chairs so who knows. If you'd like to see more seats, benches, sofas, chairs and such, click here .