Tag: march

March March

~ Jim Flanigan ~ 1 Comment

It’s March, so it was time to march today in our town’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. I was supposed to ride in the back of a snowplow with other St. Charles Township elected officials, but with snow in the forecast, the township canceled so that all snowplows would be ready for snow removal. That’s actually very responsible but no fun. Instead, I marched with fellow Kane County and St. Charles Township Democrats.

The group of Democrats marching has grown quite a bit over the years. This year we had 2 US House representatives, an Illinois House representative, various Kane County elected officials and board membes, and me as the sole elected township official. In addition, we had Democrat candidates for our upcoming municipal election in April and many other local Dems. We’re kind of a big deal now.

Can you see me in the back holding the “Be The Change! Vote Democrat” sign? Barely, right? Why did I get stuck in the back? Well, I am tall, and I also looked ridiculous. See for yourself …

Continue reading “March March” →
Advertisement

Solving the Daylight Savings Time Problem

~ Jim Flanigan ~ Leave a comment

I got a chuckle when I stumbled across this March calendar schedule on Twitter.

Cute. But losing an hour sleep this coming weekend is a real problem for some people. It is undeniable that losing an hour of sleep (or Netflix streaming time for you insomniacs) is unpleasant and upsets our circadian rhythms (good name for a band) quite a bit. Fortunately, I have a solution that should make the transition to Daylight Savings Time easy. Here’s my simple 61 step plan to ease into Daylight Savings Time.

  • Step 1: Start Daylight Savings Time on March 1st.
  • Step 2: Set the clocks ahead by 1 minute on March 1st.
  • Steps 3 through 61: Repeat Step 2 for 59 consecutive days following March 1st.

Who’s going to miss 1 minute per day? Nobody!

My March to Weight Loss

~ Jim Flanigan ~ 1 Comment

I need to focus on March for weight loss, because February was a disaster. I gained a pound. On second thought, considering world events, the added pound in February probably doesn’t really qualify as a disaster.

It wasn’t for lack of effort that I gained weight. My steps/cycles remained consistent.

Negating those consistent steps was my love for chocolate and Valentine’s Day intersecting. It would help if my wife bought me chocolate from the dollar store rather than from the fancy-schmancy chocolatier in town. Maybe she loves me so much that she wants there to be more of me to love. Well, in February, she got her wish.

But Valentine’s Day was just one day. That can’t be the whole reason for my weight gain. I think I know what the real reason is though.

Continue reading “My March to Weight Loss” →

Why I Love Chicago

~ Jim Flanigan

There are lots of reasons to love living in the Chicago area. For example, I loved being able to see the hit Broadway musical called Hamilton this past weekend. We drove. My rule is that if we are headed to Chicago for a big event, we take the train. If no big event is happening that will draw tens or hundreds of thousands of people to Chicago at the same time we are going, we drive. Or if our 10 year old daughter is coming with us, she overrules all and insists on a train ride.

On the day we headed into Chicago to see Hamilton, I knew of a march happening on the actual busiest expressway in the USA outside of California. That would be the Dan Ryan Expressway that often looks like this …

dan ryan

 

Yikes! My oldest son drives that to get to work. The march was to protest gun violence, but I knew it was taking place far south of downtown where we were headed. Here’s a quick look at the march …

Continue reading “Why I Love Chicago” →

Reunite & ICE

~ Jim Flanigan

We had a genuine, official MoveOn Families Belong Together rally in our sleepy little Chicago suburb today. Can you guess which sign I made?

signs reunite.JPG

If you chose the crappy looking one on the right that you thought may have taken me 5 minutes to make, award yourself 10 points. But then deduct 5 points because it really took me only 3 minutes.

The rally was so close to our house that we could have walked. It was bloody hot and humid today, so we drove. However, there were many more people at the rally than expected, and I had to park so far away that it may have been closer walking from home.

People were on every corner of a major intersection in our town holding their colorfully decorated and clever, or crappy in my case, signs. I think this was my favorite sign, although not from our rally.

Continue reading “Reunite & ICE” →