After responding to the immediate issue, I fired off a message to my boss asking if we can somehow resolve these difficulties. Thursday after work I drove to Chicago to visit my friends Jim Rittenhouse and his wife Susan, as well as to visit my friend John whom I stayed with on my trip to California in June . It was pretty tasty, and was the first meal in my latest food-fest weekend. Friday I took the Metra into Chicago to see John. The Metra is basically the commuter rail from the suburbs to downtown Chicago.
Train travel is quite nice, actually.
If Madison had a local rail system that went close by my home and workplace, I'd use it more often. I met up with John at his hotel, the Chicago Hilton and Towers. He and his friend Ben were there for a big bridge tournament, and after lunch John dragged me to play in a match of duplicate bridge. Each table assembles two hands, so each table plays 22 hands, against 11 of the possible opponents. It's rather clever, really.