Working in the City (Part 2)

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent a couple of days working in Chicago. The views got even more interesting on day two, when:

1. There were bears.
2. It was sunnier out.
3. Did I mention there were bears?

It was still awfully windy from my fifteenth-story vantage point—so much so that I expected to see the sturdy brick buildings that surrounded mine begin to sway. Fortunately, they didn't move. I guess that's why they call this place the Windy City, eh?

The views improved even more in late afternoon, when a blue sky and less wind motivate the bears to come out and play. No, not the Chicago Bears. If they were out playing I imagine there would've been a bigger crowd. But when I looked down, typing away, I saw a black bear pacing back and forth around a little pond. I didn’t even see the bears last time I was here and went to the zoo, but there one was, right in front of me (well, 15 stories below that is). He looked even more restless than I felt.

Here he is:


(Looks pretty good, eh? That's what I get for taking a photo of him from 15 stories and a half a block away, through a window, with an incredibly cheap point and shoot digital camera.)

After I get done staring at the black bear ... OK, that’s a lie. An hour later and I’m still staring at him. But anyway, an hour later, I realize just how inextricably linked sky and water are. If one is moody, the other feeds off it. Today, whichever one runs the show is serene, even happy, although most certainly cold. And so they are, both smooth blue, a few fluffy clouds above and a few instances of ice below, otherwise like friends—brothers maybe—united.

And just before I finish work for the day, still the black bear paces. I spot something—sea lions, I think—swimming. And what looks like dogs–maybe wolves?—chasing one another.

This is the way to work in the city.