Thomas's room

It took a surprisingly long time to unpack Thomas's stuff, at least it seemed that way to me. Including Thomas, there are four boys in his dorm room--two share one half and two the other, with the bathroom in between. Thomas was the first to arrive and so picked the bed he wanted--right next to the window. (I would have done the same.) Here is the view he can enjoy: Same view, looking over to the left. You can easily see Lake Michigan from his room.And now out the window to the right.Here is Thomas working hard to set up his computer/desk area. Yesterday he couldn't use his laptop as we didn't think to bring an ethernet cable but, once we bought that, he had no problem hooking up his laptop and his printer. Every room is supplied with enough landline telephones so that each kid has their own. Weird--I didn't think anyone used landlines anymore. He has free calls to anyone within the building and within a 15 mile radius of his room. That's a lot of people he can call, if he so chooses. I'm now standing over next to the as of yet non-existent room mate's bed. The room is small, but perfectly bright and pleasant. I am standing in the same place, just turned to the left. You can see the door to the hallway over on the side, next to the closet--this is Thomas's closet. Picking which closet to take took Thomas longer than picking the bed.

Arrival in Chicago

The drive was uneventful, if not boring.  Thomas slept most of the way, waking only to eat a monstrous mound of strawberry waffles at the IHop in Michigan City (which is not, confusingly, in Michigan but in Indiana; similarly, East Chicago is also in Indiana and not, officially, part of Chicago) and to inform me as I navigated downtown Chicago in noon rush hour traffic when I was about to kill a bicyclist (they do have a strange desire to fling themselves under the wheels of cars and buses).

We pulled right up to his new abode, a giant building called "University Center" which has dorms for students at six major Chicago universities.   So who knows what sorts Thomas will end up spending his time with.  I dropped him off at the curb and drove around, hopelessly trying to find some place to park.  Eventually Thomas called me and told me to come back, pull up behind the building where people were eagerly awaiting the opportunity to unload cars.  I did as he instructed and it was incredibly simple:  students and staff ran to our car, dragging decapitated refrigerator boxes balanced on cart wheels.  They tossed all his things into two, and instructed me where to find a pay lot so that I could ditch the car.  This was when I really started hating not having my car: the car spots are TINY and anything larger than a micro-compact bloated into neighboring spots.  I had a hell of a time finding a spot I could fit Simon's behemoth in.  Here it is, parked under the famous (infamous!) Chicago L track.

Feeling footloose and fancy free, I headed back to find Thomas.  He had to stand in many lines to get his dorm room key and get the low down on the cafeteria system.  I went up to the 10th floor to find his room.  This was stuck to his door.

 Here is a study room just down the hall from his door.

Also down the hall from his room is a very nice trash and recycling room--very convenient for getting rid of fridge and microwave boxes and all sorts of other things.

Thomas sets off for College!

Today our nest got a great deal emptier, because our firstborn set out for college!  (Specifically this one.)  Well, Jami and he set out, Jami grumbling because she had to drive the Prius (normally "my" car) because she reluctantly had to admit that all Thomas's stuff would never squeeze into her car, the smallest that Toyota makes.  Here is the car half-packed last night:

(The Keurig he won in a graduation bowling party at his high school.  I imagine it will soon go unused, because the coffee is crap and super-expensive.)  And here he is conspicuously not helping to pack:

Now this morning I finally shoehorned in the things he'd finally packed in the wee small hours after his parents had retired:

...and they were off!

(What the video does not show is that they came back five minutes later because Thomas forgot his phone.  No doubt we will discover over the next week or so what other vital things he forgot.)
It hasn't sunk in yet, but the house will seem very empty.  Martha will be inconsolable.  Little did Pretzel know that the tangy taste of Thomas's calf-flesh that Thomas allowed him to get this morning will be all he'll get until Thanksgiving...

A new structure in For Mar

I had not realized how long it had been since Frederick and I had last been in For Mar (or, rather, the main entrance, because we have been round the back a few times recently).  When we went there today we saw that an ENTIRE NEW BUILDING had gone up.  And it is a rather splendid tree-housey affair:

Thomas turns 18!!!

We no longer have two children!  Now we have one child and one hulking adult.  Here he is surveying his heaping mound of presents:

"Is that all?" he was too polite to say.

Face Recognition Test

I (Simon) have always fancied myself good at recognizing faces.  So I was curious, on reading this New Yorker article on "super-recognizers", to take the Face Recognition Test it refers to.  Turns out, I am good with faces - I scored 96.  What's your score?  (Good thing there's not a "name-remembering" test, because I would totally flunk that.)

Steamy weather!

It's been incredibly humid (and in the 90s hot).  Two days ago we were speculating how bad it would be if the air conditioning went out, as it often does at the height of summer because of power outages.  Well, yesterday, what do you know?  The air conditioning broke.  Fortunately (a) it wasn't a power outage, and (b) someone was available to come and fix it, and (c) it just required a replacement part.  Actually, most of the time the workman was here was spend hosing down the A/C unit (the one just outside our side door) because it had got SUPER hot because of whatever part it was failing.  But now we have blissful air conditioning again.  And maybe it's because the A/C is now running properly or the weather is just even more ridiculously humid even than it's been, but this is what our (double-glazed, mind you) windows all look like:

Grandma tells the world how it is

Here she is.
After seeing this, Thomas lamented, "When will the world leave Flint alone?"