The Car Mitzvah

​                      Books by Patti Liszkay available on Amazon:   
     "Equal And Opposite Reactions"      http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
     "Hail Mary"                                           https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
     "Tropical Depression"                        https://www.amzn.com/B0BTPN7NYY

​The Car Mitzvah

​...Continued from previous post:
        Mitzvah: A word that in Judaism, and also in the Liszkay family vocabulary, means a good deed.
      The following day, Tuesday, Claire decided to rent a Zipcar so that she and I could replenish her pantry with a trip to Costco and run a few other errands. 
     Zipcars are vehicles that can be inexpensively rented by the day, hour, or minute, and picked up then returned to any number of Zipcar lots around Chicago. Zipcars also tend to sport their logo, which makes it helpful to find them after you've parked them in a parking lot.

      And so whenever Claire and Miguel, who don't own a car, need to make a sizeable acquisition, they  conveniently rent a Zipcar.
       However we decided to start off the day with breakfast at the Bongo Room where we'd eaten the day before since, 1: the Bongo Room happened to be in the general direction of a Zipcar lot, and 2: the food there is so good. (See previous post, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/walking-and-walking-and-walking-in-a-chicago-winter-wonderland​).
         On this day the temperature was a little over half a dozen degrees warmer than the day before, just warm enough so that the ice and snow were was starting to melt a bit. Once again we walked the mile from Claire's house in Logan Square,

...to the Bongo Room in Wicker Park.

      Claire again ordered her Bongo Room favorite, the avocado toast,

...this time with an artfully presented side of fruit.

...while I tried the yummy breakfast croissant again with a side of those fabulous Bongo Room potatoes.

       After breakfast we walked close to another mile to the Zipcar lot.

      Claire was feeling a weence anxious about the Zipcar. It had been a while since she'd driven, but mostly she was nervous about the prospect of having to maneuver the car out of the particular lot we were headed for, which was rather small and cramped, especially in the slushy, still potentially icy condition of the pavement. 
      However, when we arrived at the parking lot Claire saw to her elation that whoever last returned the car she'd been assigned had been thoughtful enough to back it into its space so that she wouldn't have to deal with backing out, but could more easily pull straight out.

      "Look at this," she said, "somebody did a mitzvah!"
​      "A car mitzvah!" I said.
      Thus Claire was able to extract her Zipcar from its spot without nearly the agita she'd feared.

         After running her errands and dropping off her purchases at home, Claire returned her Zipcar, both of us wishing one of us had the savoir-faire to back the car back into that space for the next user, but, alas, "from each according to their abilities."
           We then walked home from the lot, passing along the way the circus school in Claire's neighborhood. 

     I love the idea of the  circus school. It sounds so whimsical, though I suppose circus folks must get their training somewhere.

      That evening for dinner Claire, Miguel, and I decided to go to Belmont Cragin, the Chicago neighborhood that is home to the large Hispanic immigrant community that was under attack while ICE was in Chicago (and sadly, will likely be under attack once again now that ICE has swarmed back to that city). We wanted to support one of the neighborhood businesses. Claire and Miguel suggested a restaurant that they'd gone to before called El Azteca.
​       And so we took the bus into the heart of Belmont Cragin,

...and made our way to El Azteca, a wonderfully charming little place all decked out for the holidays.

       I had a steak burrito that had sort of a coleslaw filling, which was a delicious twist,      

...while Claire had an equally yummy veggie burrito,

...and Miguel had a dish of pork nestled beneath a corn cake, which he also declared delicious.

       The following morning I said good-bye to Claire and Miguel's cozy little house,

...and the three of us set out in the drizzle,

...to a wonderful Logan Square eatery called the Cozy Corner, 

...located conveniently next door to the train station.​

     The Cozy Corner ambiance is pleasant and friendly,

...and the server was kind enough to offer to take a picture of us.

     The food was, as always, wonderful and plentiful.

     After breakfast the drizzle had turned to snow, and Claire and Miguel saw me off to the train.

      Surprisingly, I had the train pretty much to myself this morning,

...and soon I'd arrived at O'Hare,

...where this time my flight back to Columbus was delayed only 2 1/2 hours.