Welcome To Chicago!
Welcome to one of America’s great cities – Chicago!
The “Windy City” has so many great things to offer – like this spectacular view of the downtown area from 91 stories high – at the John Hancock Tower just north of Chicago’s famed “Loop” – and that building also offers a spectacular view of Lake Michigan and many of Chicago’s terrific beaches:
My wife and I live part of the year in Chicago – on the 25th floor of an apartment building that looks out at Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, and directly east of us was this empty lot, which in the beginning of November started becoming home to a new high rise building:
Since then, I have taken pictures of the new building as it creeps higher and higher into the sky – by April 2, it looked like this:
It’s not obstructing our view, so who cares, right? Then I saw they were adding another construction crane to the northwest corner of the building – except something was wrong…check out the video:
Talk About Your Tower Of Terror!
That’s right: as you saw in the video, something clearly needed to be tightened, repaired or otherwise worked on, and these two guys were 30 stories high doing it!
Fair to say you can’t take a job like this if you have a fear of heights!
Can you imagine begin on your hands and knees repairing something 30 stories above traffic?
As you saw on the video, and can see here as well, they are attached to the frame by a safety cord – but still – is this a job that YOU’D WANT??!?!?!?!
This is just one of the dangerous jobs I wouldn’t want – here’s another one – a skyscraper window washer – like this guy outside our window:
I saw this construction repair work going on and was fascinated by it – in fact, you see a lot of things from our window:
Yes, I witnessed a lightning storm once that lasted for several hours, with massive thunder as well….
Here is the video:
This thunderstorm -with lots and lots of lightning, was amazing to experience, and I was equally fascinated by this skyscraper repair work high above Chicago’s Grand Ave.
Let me know if you’d take this job!
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I never really thought of Chicago having a beach, maybe a lake but there you have it. Nice to learn something new from a local. Did you ever meet Roger Ebert?
Lloyd, Chicago has an 18-mile bike path along the lake, and there are at least a dozen great beaches. As for Ebert, I met him at the Cannes film festival, where he told me he met a guy downstairs int he marketplace “selling movies by the pound.”
Oh that’s so cool. 🙂 Made my day John.
Well I dug your voice John and respect you making the effort not to drone on but still provide good commentary. My God it’s like you’re a professional at doing this or something. 🙂 In answer to your question….uh fuck no. Or as some Americans would say awww hell no.
That looks like a pretty exclusive part of Chicago to reside in, John. Was that your voice on the tape? If so, it was good to hear you! Many moons ago, I had a job selling hydraulic hose fittings. One time, I had to go up on a crane to inspect a very expensive item that the company claimed was faulty. I was wearing a suit and tie at the time, no harness or helmet! Then again, it was only just under 100 feet up, not as high as this one. (I didn’t last long in that job though…)
Best wishes, Pete.
Pete, that’s a great story! That was my voice, wanted to give a little insight without droning on…adding more videos to my stuff – I include them on things like Barcelona, but want to add more to the everyday things as well! Thanks as always for your comment!
Looking forward to hearing you more often, John! You will probably not hear my voice. Think Michael Caine meets Bob Hoskins, add a touch of Anthony Hopkins, (when I am being ‘correct’) and you will get the idea. 🙂
Sounds like a classy mix!
Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins were in a movie together after Mona Lisa called Beetley Pete about a Ambo who had 24 hours to stop terrorists stealing millions from the Terror of London all the while driving an ambulance that could not go below the speed 80.46 kilometres an hour while rescuing Princess Diana from Kevin Costner who wanted to cast her in a bodyguard sequel. The movie was based on a real life story of a British ambo called Pete. Now that is not a lot of people that know that. The duo were cast because they sound bad ass and Pete sounded like a mix between them so both were cast.
Nicely done, Lloyd. I am still waiting for the royalty cheques though…
Beautiful views and thrills too! reminds me of that time in NY when a couple guys got stuck on a scaffold up high and hung there a few hours before being rescued! takes someone special to do that kind of work!