We saw Julius Ceasar at the Lyric. Awesome!

I am way behind in posting my quick takes on what we have seen. Problem is that we had to reschedule a lot of stuff that that we should have seen while we were travelling. Life gets in the way of posting.
We saw an outstanding production of the opera Julius Ceasar by Handel - on December 1! Not only was the experience engrossing, we found street parking near the Opera. As can be seen the performance was in anachronistic dress, but it worked. A clear twofer!

Two Days with Two Grandchildren

This raises a variation on the old test question: If two grandchildren can wear out two grandparents with two cameras in two days, how long will it take for three grandchildren to wear out one grandparent with no cameras?
We took Julia and Abigail downtown for two days (Jacob would have come as well, except for a bout of stomach 'flu.) We had a busy two days - Spertus Institute, the park, Chinese dinner, and the Field museum. I amused myself by switching the D300 with the Tokina 16-50mm to P mode with Auto ISO and firing away. The combination is great up to ISO3200. Don't worry - if you don't know what that means, you also don't care. For those who care, the Raw images were processed in Lightroom with default Noise Reduction. I did mess with other parameters, obviously. This small set is edited down from about 170 originals - the rest are only for the family:-) A few are G9 - obvious from the aspect ratio.

Its been cold and snowy in Chicago

I went for a walk in the Botanic Gardens last week during a brief respite from the cold and snow.

S. Africa's Liberation Movement Demands Accountability - washingtonpost.com

S. Africa's Liberation Movement Demands Accountability - washingtonpost.com
This Washington Post report confirms to me my decision to emigrate from South Africa in 1976 - even if my forecast for the future of SA was partially incorrect. Actually my decision was made many years earlier - ultimate timing was dependent on affordability and the Vietnam war - I did no want to be sent to fight a no-win war soon after moving my family to the USA which was the fate of new legal immigrants.

Many knowledgeable people, hearing "1976" and "emigrate" and "South Africa" think that the uprising of 1976 precipitated our departure from South Africa. In fact, when the rioting started, Hilda and I were already in the USA interviewing with the folk that would ultimately bring us to Poughkeepsie. We received a message from Johannesburg, saying "Don't worry, the children are OK".
We did not know what it was that we were not supposed to be worrying about, so of course we went into panic mode. Something bad had happened, we thought, but it could be worse.
In South Africa at that time (only two years since the availability of television), it was assumed that all issues related to unrest or politics were inventions of the foreign press - so of course, we would know about what was happening even before the South African press reported it.

The primary reason I wanted to come to leave South Africa was the conviction that if I did not leave, my children would do so. I wanted to live near my children and the prospect of relocating in my later years did not appeal to me. The other reason was that I worked in computer systems technology - South Africa was far removed from the center of this activity. I did not want to live as a colonial all my life.

My perspective on the political future of South Africa was wrong. I foresaw a government like that of Mugabe in Zambia. By this I mean, quoting from Wikipedia:

"The Mugabe administration has been criticised around the world for corruption, suppression of political opposition, mishandling of land reform, economic mismanagement, and deteriorating human rights"

The government of South Africa has been way better than my expectation (apart from its idiotic view of AIDS). On the other hand I did not expect the level of apolitical criminal violence.

In hindsight I should have seen it coming. A short time before we left SA, our maid's boyfriend arrived at our house, with a stab wound in his side. We put him in our car and rushed him to the nearest hospital. ("Why not call 911" I hear my American friends say. Because I wanted to get him to hospital immediately, not sometime that week.) As we arrived at the emergency room curbside a hospital lifted his upper lip and looked at his gum. She said "Its too late". We went inside and after a wait the ER technician came out and told us he was dead. He had been killed for his jacket.

Criminal violence of this type is the order of the day in South Africa. My white ex-compatriots continue to live privileged economic lives, and make inordinate amounts of money, while living in beautiful houses surrounded by high walls and electrified barbed wire fences, while they and the less fortunate continue to be killed or robbed simply because they have something that that others want.

I understand, now, why this has happened. A generation or more more of Black South Africans missed years of schooling and are unemployed and unemployable. To survive, they rob, steal from, and kill the more fortunate. The policies of the government offer them no hope. Violence for them is the only means of survival.

So - I know now that I was right to move to the USA. The USA has been kind to me and my children. We all live in the same city. We feel safe. What more can be asked?

My solution for South Africa? I have none. Historically every redistribution of wealth and power anywhere has been accompanied by horrendous events - and the outcomes have been awful for many of the participants - on both sides.

Nelson Mandela has been an incredibly effective leader and has held the country somewhat together. What happens next I can neither prescribe nor foresee.

Its been snowing in Chicago!

Our Deck

The city - Lakeview

I attended a watercolor class(3)

The last three posts are my attempts from the last sessions I went to.

I attended a watercolor class,,,(2)

I attended a watercolor class...(1)