Author: leh

Nik, Again!

Friday we drive to Portland in fog that made for a beautiful, soft grey-white landscape.  After a quick stop at Trader Joe’s to stock provisions for the fierceness of the forthcoming winter, we go a few blocks to Portland’s historic train station to meet Nik coming in on a 7-hour ride from Klamath Falls.  From there it is down to Lewis & Clark to meet up with Ivi for dinner in Lake Oswego.  We return Ivi to her dorm shortly so she can resume finals study, then we immediately hit the road, battling Portland rush hour traffic and arriving home at 11pm.  On the way, Nik is interrogated about seemingly every aspect of his experience during the past three months, and we still haven’t heard enough by the time we drop off to bed; for some of us that meant 2am.

 

And She’s Gone …

… almost as soon as she arrived …

After a couple of days of visiting friends, hanging out here & there, shopping, listening to just a little music and watching a great movie, Ivi gets packed for her departure, well-stocked with food, cooking tools and Christmas decorations.  With a departure set for 11am, then 1pm, then 3pm, finally after 4pm, Ivi works on an essay, Jordan installs his snow tires, L&C classmate Esa waits to be picked up for the ride.  Somehow everything is stuffed into place, and they are off.

 

She’s Back (for a bit)

Ivi returns home on Wednesday night, late.  The next morning she sports her new pajamas,  inspects a new kitchen utensil, and regales us with tales of college life.  Then it is on to gourmet vegetarian cooking for the Thanksgiving celebration.  Ivi concentrates hard, prepares her totally hand-crafted spanakopita, and takes the frequent dance break (Vagabond Opera plays in the background), while Jordan and Kim look on and add an occasional assist.  We learn, through texting updates via Ivi, that Nik is enjoying his Thanksgiving exploring San Francisco with a college friend.

 

WWII in Photos

When I was a young child, growing up during and after World War II, a visit to my grandmother’s house meant that I could read from her encyclopedic collection of hard-bound books (I wish I knew who published that set; it seemed like it was at least a dozen large volumes), with photos on almost every page and eye-witness textual accounts. Two of her sons, by the way, saw action in the Pacific “theater” during the war, so I remember seeing air mail that was written on the inner surfaces of the envelope, as well as those WWII ration books.

PBS, of course, has run some excellent pieces, like the War of the World series, and sometimes reruns the very old period-produced films (including one series — its title eludes me — during fundraising stints) that we have probably all seen one time or another.

Now I find that The Atlantic has done an amazing 20-part retrospective of some of the best photography from the war. And it is fascinating. At least to me. Visit The Atlantic’s In-Focus site to see this amazing collection.