That’s right, “Milwaukee or Bust”.  So, while not literally driving a beat-up Model-T cross-country for the promise land, echoing back to 1930s Dust Bowl days, the metaphor helps dramatize my move and internal travails to find a new home.  Temporarily living in “God’s Country” (as my cousin’s refer to Wisconsin) shifted my mindset, which has evolved over the past couple months as a post-pandemic, 50s-something. My June blogpost “Exit Chicago” detailed uprooting myself from Chicago to try out Wisconsin while still buzzing back to the city one-day a week for appointments with Back to Natural Health and catch friends.    Read More

Fast approaching a year of dealing with Covid I am finally starting to feel better thanks to a friend of a friend and a Nobel prize winning substance, known in medical shorthand as IVM.  My journey is not over, but IVM has offered a major path to recovery which has been thwarted from the start.  This is my story… Mid-morning on March 23, 2020, I was knocked down with fatigue, slept for 2-1/2 hours and awoke to a growing malaise and brain fog.  Read More

I am not going to get all “soap-boxy” about what should have been done to combat this pandemic.  Plenty of that can be found elsewhere, but suffice it to say face masks are a good idea.  In Czech Republic they have used them quite successfully to curb the spread of the Coronoavirus (COVID-19). In my case, I believe (without readily available tests, still unconfirmed) I came down with Coronavirus last Monday (3/16).  I have no idea where or how I got it.  Read More

Hope you are enjoying your summer!  It seemed to take forever to get some consistently nice weather here in Chicago!  And then BAM!  Someone turned a switch and it’s full on Summer! Of course living less than a score of blocks from Lake Michigan’s cool water in the spring definitely makes for chilly and foggy days that extend into June.  In addition, all-time high-lake water has made boating more dangerous with submerged jetties and barely visible break walls — even the lake shore bike path is half underwater near Oak and Olive Street Beaches! Read More

In creating a podcast on Chicago history, co-host Christopher Lynch and I have discovered quite a few place and street names with origins reaching deep into the city’s past, often going back to Native American people and languages.  These fascinating tidbits were sprinkled into the podcast to spice up our storytelling. This adventure began by learning about the word Chicago, or as the French recorded the Algonquin pronunciation “Chicagoua” which means “skunk,” and was also used to identify the wild onion growing in the area known as ramps, and detailed in the first episode of the podcast.  Read More