Update from Chicago - Gigi to College, Visit with Mama, JOHO

On the Way To Knox

I have a few photos to share starting with our trip to drop of Gigi at Knox. Only the "on our way" photo since the "moving in" photos of her dorm are dark and blurry. A transformer blew out the power - Richard was waiting outside for us (only one helper for move-in) and saw it blow (and couldn't stop talking about it!) So far, reports from Gigi and how she is coping have been fairly upbeat. She switched from Biology (way to many people, the largest class size for Knox, about 35) to Astronomy (one of her suitemates is also taking it) and her other two classes are History of Gender & Sexuality in the US (she loves it) and Children's Literature (also a favorite). They pick up their meals and take them back to their dorm room to eat to avoid the cafeteria wait but mostly she's in her room. It's only been 2 1/2 weeks and the first was mandatory lock down. We're telling her to get outside for walks etc while the weather is good.

Here's a photo Lucie took of me and mama when we visited. It was such a great visit. We stayed from Friday evening to Monday after lunch. Just touching our toes in Missouri required us to self-quarantine for two weeks when we returned (Chicago rules) which wasn't a hardship except for Jackson who had to stay home from his Swedish American Museum internship. He wasn't on the trip with us (he wouldn't fit with all of Gigi's stuff!) but because he lives with us those were the rules. (Today was his first day back!) Mama was delightful, full of stories and long political chats with Richard. We took care of some banking, insurance, newspaper subscription things she was worrying over and Kathie did the follow up so that made us feel useful. Richard even windexed the patio window. Which let me see this humming bird in the patio:

  Can you see it?

And here are some JOHO photos to share. We got our GUTTERS replaced, a huge improvement. They did it really quickly although it took them the entire summer to get around to starting. It required us to move the rainbarrel so Jackson helped me rebuild the platform, replant the clemetis (which survived!) and create a new path out of old pavers.

Kind of bare and ugly right now but it'll look better next spring when we replace the trellis and things start to grow. Any suggestions for low growing ground cover for the spaces?

Here's the other JOHO: my new organ pipe hack to create stands for my zoom meeting lights. I knew these would come in handy some day (as Daddy would say!)

That's all from here, at least for now.

Hope you are all well,

Karen