So far, we’ve been rotating between these 3 activities during our free time: walks around the Silver City downtown and residential area, exploring the Boston Hill Open Space walking and biking, and hikes outside of town (Gomez Peak and Gila National Forest). Rather than going chronologically, I thought I’d post about the Silver City downtown area, as seen on several days. First, some maps for reference! I’ll need to follow this with a post about Boston Hill Open Space, since as you can see it can intersect with a trip to downtown. On the map below, we are at the…

Speedy passed away peacefully on Dec 2, 2020. He is missed already by adopted brother Roux and human friends Maddie, Debbie, Jeff, Miles, Liam, Cindy and John. Speedy was born in late 2012 into a small-pet hoarding environment and was rescued by Petraits soon after. He, along with his birth brother Mr T., was adopted by Miles, Liam, Cindy and John on March 3, 2013. Bonded from birth, Speedy and Mr T were close companions who shared a cage and before they got too big would snuggle in one hut together. Speedy was named by Petraits, and it was explained…

One of the reasons we choose Silver City New Mexico, is its proximity to Gila National Park, a huge expanse of federally managed mountainous land just about 45 winding miles north of the town of Silver City itself. It’s famous for some cave dwellings of the Mogollan people from about 700 years ago, as well as some wonderful hiking trails. The first thing to note is how unbelievable huge this national park is, as we drove up, we came across constant vistas where you could see for miles, with no sight of any human habitation, in total silence. Here’s a…

We are in New Mexico! But first, and I guess also on the subject of people relocating, Miles had some nice news this week, he was called out in some yelp reviews for the moving company he works for. Good job, Miles! Back to our trip, here’s a map of the route here. At the end of driving day 1, in St Louis we got to see some Louis Sullivan architecture, which is always a treat. Then Saturday morning, we set the GPS for Oklahoma City and drove through a very damp and drizzly Missouri then Oklahoma to get there.…

At first I thought I must be jumping ahead a bit to be calling this mid-November, but wow, it’s here already. Thought I’d share a few things that have been spotted around here since late October. The fall color continues to impress! In the last two weeks we’ve pretty much gone through all the bright colors and have moved into some brilliant browns. I’m not sure if this is because we’ve spent so much time outdoors in wooded areas this year, but the shades of golden to deep browns is very impressive. Below, trips to Humboldt Park, Palos Heights for…

Since so much of our entertainment this year is walking around outdoors, we’ve had the chance to see a lot of the fall season. It’s actually one of those silver linings – some years fall can go by really quickly, without near enough close watching of the seasons changing. Here are some photos from about a week ago of the larger West Town area and Humboldt Park. And in the scary category, people may have heard we have an election coming up. The Violet Hour mural in Wicker Park has been updated with this: Also scary, Halloween decorations this year!…

We don’t have a lot of political signs around us like some areas in the US do, but that doesn’t mean the upcoming election isn’t on people’s minds! Also, jumping a bit out of order here but to cut to the chase, we voted this morning! Last weekend we rode bikes over to our friend Emily’s apartment. She lives in a high rise on the lakefront and we had a lovely time with her on her balcony. We also got to meet her dogs and see her very cool art from Mexico. Another great Saturday activity was a bike ride…

I have quite a few photos on my phone to post, so I thought we’d start out with a look at the second half of September. We’ve had the flooring in our basement bathroom refinished. Here’s it with tiles installed but before the fittings were put back in. We definitely felt the temps drop a bit and leaves start to change as we moved into Fall, so I have quite a few photos of the seasonal change to share! Here we are heading out on a walk and then the park in late-September glory. My birthday sometimes falls on the…

We’re going to split into a few timelines and universes here as C and the Kennymen go from having a lot of together time to spreading out again. First, we left off with Miles heading off on a cross country drive to Minneapolis then Portland. It was a long trip and they did really well, stopping the night in between Minneapolis and Portland to camp in Miles City, Montana. Once in their new house in Portland, Miles and friends started applying for jobs, getting essentials (like beds) delivered, and cooking some nice meals together. Here is Miles’s first meal cooked…

Miles has been working at Big Guy’s Sausage Stand in Berwyn since June with his friend Dylan. Dylan’s dad owns Big Guy’s, and she told us that while her dad is the big guy in Big Guy’s, the name is also a tribute to a friend of his who was known for using the term affectionately. Our little guy, Miles, had a real crash course in restaurant work there this summer, with a lot of interesting innovations as they adapted to staying open during Covid. On Miles and Dylan’s last night of work we decided to surprise him by coming…