I can’t really say that I have reached a state of nirvana on my first birthday as a Chicago resident. I am, for instance, still trying to figure out exactly what shape my “second career” is going to take. But I also know that I am a very, very lucky guy.

I get to spend each day with the woman who has put up with my many idiosyncrasies and seen me through the best of times and the worst of times for more than 30 years. A Facebook feed jammed with birthday greetings from near and far reminds me how fortunate I am to know so many people who are both very talented AND very kind.

And every clear day, we can look out our west-facing windows and see this…

… and every morning, we open the blinds and see something like this.

And now, thanks to the new toy I got for my birthday — a telephoto lens for my Sony Nex-3 camera — you’ll get to see lots of new views of my new hometown… up closer and more personal.

Here is how the Chicago skyline, about four miles from our apartment, looks through the original short lens:

Now, take a gander at how it looks in the maximum range of the telephoto.

Now, if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you might remember that I mentioned that we had guys washing the windows outside our 30th floor apartment a couple of weeks back. At the time, I said that the only way you could ever get me to do something like that once  is if you paid me enough money that I’d never have to work another day in my life. And now, thanks to the miracles of telephotography, a graphic illustration of what I meant — because the window washers happened to be out, about 300 feet up, working on the high-rise across the street.

And, of course, I will now be able to take extreme close-up photos of my favorite subject: Gracie the Cat.

So thanks again for the kind birthday greetings, and I hope you’ll enjoy the pix I’ll be posting.

For convenience sake, I’m going to dispose of the latest installment of the Cooler on the Lake Shore Chicago vs. D.C. Weather Smackdown.

On Sunday, according to Weather Underground, Chicago O’Hare recorded an unseasonable high of 70 (just three degrees short of a record set in 1989), with a low of 47, no rain and some pretty gusty winds. Washington Reagan National reported a high of 64, a low of 44 and no rain. Just on the basis that it could be the last time we see 70 degrees here for a very long time, yesterday’s point goes to Chicago, putting its overall lead in the Smackdown at 60-42.