We took it easy on Tuesday, sleeping in, and eating up some of our instant oatmeal and other supplies for breakfast. Bernadette had a couple of Zoom meetings so we didn’t try to do any museums on Tuesday. We explored some more local options for lunch and again ordered online, this time at a place called Bibibop Asian Grill a block away. I did a little strolling around while B was in her appointments and discovered a Target store with a grocery section. I was delighted to find my favorite non-dairy creamer.
I have to confess I was a little nervous to go walking around alone in downtown Chicago, but what I discovered, of course, is that it’s no different than walking around downtown in my own city of Portland. Although, I don’t do that much either. The weather was unusually warm and it was very pleasant being outside without a jacket.
Our big excursion for the day was taking public transit to Win and Neal’s house for dinner with their family. It was pretty much a strait shot on the Brown Line train. We went a few steps down the block to the stairs up to the EL. At the top of the stairs, I touched my phone to the turnstile and it lit up green and let me through.
Then I switched to Bernadette’s card in my Apple Wallet and handed her the phone. When she touched it to the turnstile it did NOT light up green. She tried several times but to no avail. We finally got an agent involved and explained that we had two cards, each with a 3-day pass. The agent let us both go through, and said that we could not use two cards on one device. I said the website says we could and that is misleading. We didn’t have time to straighten it all out at the moment so we continued on to the platform, not sure if we’d be able to get home later.
As if that wasn’t enough anxiety, we were in the thick of rush hour. We, especially Bernadette, have been so careful to avoid any exposure since COVID started. The number of times she has been out of the house since March 2020 can be counted on one hand, well ok maybe two hands at the most. Literally.
Here we were packed, I mean packed like sardines, into a commuter train heading out of the Loop. Of course we had our masks on, but we were just about the only ones. That took some courage. The ride was about 50 minutes and as we got further from downtown the crowd thinned out a little at each stop. We had been standing at first and a kind woman near us offered her seat to either of us. I guess we look like old people. Eventually we were both seated next to each other. We got off at our stop and walked about five minutes to the house.
We were greeted with hugs and introductions and enjoyed a meal around the table with family. At the end of the meal, I was impressed with the two little girls helping to clear the table. They knew there was an ice cream treat for them when they were done.
Our hosts kindly drove us back to the EL train. I was glad to see an agent there because, again, we could not get both of us in using my phone. I decided I’d have to go in the morning to talk to a human being somewhere to get it straightened out. Maybe convert one of the passes to a physical plastic pass.
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Adrian Dee, flutist, composer 