Thomas in Yorkshire part 1: rustic bliss

As you may know, Thomas visited his English relatives this Summer, arriving mid-July and leaving early August. He has FINALLY managed to share his pictures of this trip with us, and we shall hereby share them with you. As is usual with Thomas, humans play practically no part in his photo-document, except incidentally. As far as he is (evidently) concerned, the world would be better off without them. What is also evident from these pictures is that his grandparents did him proud as far as "showing him the sights."

Moving Thomas into his room

The process for moving a student into a room is complicated, and a bit like those puzzles that you have to slide the pieces all around before you can slot them into the right order. The main challenge is that you have a carload of precious cargo (well, precious to one person at least) but no place to park the car near the dorm room, you have to get checked in and given a room key before you are allowed to do anything, and you need something to carry all that crap up and down 7 floors.

Since there is no parking lot near Thomas's dorm building, I parked in the lot across from my hotel and we walked over to the building, about 3 short blocks away. Once there, we got Thomas checked in: he needed a photo id card made and he was able to check out a giant cardboard open top box on wheels. I left him there, trying to get that beast into the elevator and down the handicap access ramp to the sidewalk, while I went back to get the car. (No worries: I kept the parking ticket and was able to move the car in and out of the lot as much as I wanted to up to 7 pm--the only difficulty is that the spaces are so damned tiny it was a major stress out. Hence the joy when I was repeatedly able to snag a spot that I could pull forward out of.) So, I brought the car back to his dorm and pulled up to the sidewalk. We filled the box with about half his things. So I drove off (it's a loading zone and I couldn't stay there) and went back to the same lot I paid for, and checked into my hotel (as mentioned previously). By then Thomas was done, and I went back to drop off the second load, again filling the box. And again I went back to park the car. Then I walked back to Thomas's dorm. He seemed surprised that I returned. Perhaps he thought I was going back to Flint? He seemed very surprised when I asked him to let me into his room so I could see it. Here is Thomas in his room.

It's a huge space occupied by 6 kids, 5 other boys and Thomas. There are three bedrooms, with two kids in each, and they share the rest of the apartment. Here is a peek into the kitchen and one of the roommates getting a snack.

Here is about half of the very nice living room--nice windows.  I'm sitting at the dining room table.

I didn't see the bathroom but I am sure it's the usual sort of thing.  Here is Thomas setting up his desk.  I put his things away in the kitchen.  I saw a lot of paper plates, ziplock baggies and soda.  I did not see any baking supplies or cooking materials (no oil, no spices).  I expect it's going to be a lot of cereal, toast and microwave dinners.....

After we got everything out of  boxes and more or less in the right area, I offered to take Thomas to Target.  My intention was to set him up nicely with lots of cooking supplies, as well as snack stuff.  Apparently we have different ideas of what it is to set up a kitchen as he planned to take a box of cheerios and milk only.  He seemed genuinely bewildered when I suggested pasta, sauce, yogurt, bread, butter, cheese, peanut butter and jelly, salad, dressing, and so on.  He begrudgingly allowed me to buy a loaf of bread, but that was it.  When I asked what his meal plans were he said, "Don't worry about it."  Which did not, amazingly enough, reassure me AT ALL.

Barton Fink Hotel again

It's a strange old building with odd features, like this in the hallway:

But the room is cheery enough, and the air conditioning (which is much needed today--I always forget how MOIST Chicago is in comparison to Flint) is working well. And I'm on the 12th floor, and you can't beat that.

And Simon will appreciate this:  I was able to park the car by pulling through the space which allows for easy exiting, which is a source of true happiness when trying to back this overstuffed car out of a parking space and trying to avoid hitting another car (which SOME PEOPLE can't quite manage, not mentioning any Simons).

Thomas off for his Sophomore Year

Jami and Thomas are on their way to Chicago RIGHT NOW in a car heavily laden down with all Thomas's most precious crap.  Here he is as they pause briefly for refreshment.

This is what happens to naughty hens

Fed up with chasing chickens around the yard we decided to take the plunge and clip their wings. (Apparently chickens "fly the coop" in autumn as they look for new places to set up their own living quarters. Or so the people on the internet claim.) The first step is catching them. Easier said then done:

This is puddlenuts, the fattest and therefore the slowest hen and so the easiest to catch. She is also the noisiest and let us know exactly what she thought of the process.

This is Zippy who allows herself to be caught because she loves to be carried around all the time. If she had her way, she'd leave the chicken life behind and move in with us. We cut the ends off the flight feathers, leaving the "meat" feathers" behind.

I think you can guess what Zippy thinks about all this.

We didn't do the roosters because (a) they are scary big (and Chimples is WAY too fat to get off the ground) and (b) they won't leave the coop if the hens don't leave. (Again, this is coming from all the people on the internet who claims to know more than we do.) I don't really mind if they do take off and find a new place to live, as they are just too damn loud. [Follow up: This morning (a) Mr. Chicken (the other rooster) got out by himself, thereby disproving Internet Person, and then (b) Zippy got out (and Mr. Chicken for a second time) thereby proving either that we need to snip more or that she can just jump high without her wings. Sigh.]

Chunnel II

Some time ago I mentioned that I had moved a back breaking number of granite stones from about the yard into one small area, to serve as a waterfall break. Because our roof is oddly angled and because the gutters are useless (they are about 12" too narrow given the torrential rains we get here) three small areas of our yard get pounded by rain, the topsoil erodes, and then the water washes toward the house and into our basement. Sick unto death of vacuuming up water our of our basement, I decided that landscaping was the answer. I made Chunnel 1 and it was an instant success. I have planted hostas all around it and they are doing well (when they aren't being eaten by ducks). Here is the second problem area of our roof, a point where about 1/3 of all the water landing on our roof runs out of that gutter onto the ground.

And here is the solution.

The small plants are "micro greens" because I didn't have anything else laying around that would sprout quickly and set roots in to keep the soil and rocks in place. (I don't seriously think the rocks are going anywhere, but it is better to have greenery keeping things in place than not.) Next year I will plant irises in the spaces as they can take a lot of abuse. Chunnel III (next to our side door by the driveway) is next.

Eclipse!

 I have fond memories of viewing an eclipse somewhere South of Los Angeles some time in the early 90's, so I was all excited for this one (the only time ever that the eclipse has only been viewable in North America).  Here you can see our back yard bathed in an unearthly light...

 I never got around to buying eclipse glasses, but unlike our President, I'm not stupid enough to look at it directly, so I followed the Washington Post directions and made my own viewing box!

 Here I am using it.

 As you can see, the view is AMAZING!

Sylvester was so confused he collapsed.  Vain attempts were made to resuscitate him.

Grandma at Thomas's Birthday Meal