Graduation Weekend – Friday

Going

An early morning departure gets us into Portland before noon, but parking spaces are in short supply on the Lewis & Clark campus.  

 

 

Arrival at L&C Holmes Hall

Finally we make contact with Ivi, who is putting the finishing touches on her custom/self-made dress.  We join Ivi and her visiting friend, Marina (also graduating from OSU in a few weeks), in the dorm where they have made a stab at packing it all up.

 

 

Honors Convocation

After we eat the sandwiches found in our cooler, Ivi heads off to prepare for the afternoon honors awardees’ event at the Agnes Flanagan Chapel.   Later on, the rest of us join the audience there for the proceedings.  This is to be the beginning of my weekend-long exercise in the arcane specialty of photography of subjects’ backs.

 

 

Hotel

Pretty much exhausted, we check into our nearby hotel.  Nik revs up a computer to take an online test, and we are soon all asleep.

 

 

rDay Fifty

Despite considerable reluctance to be photographed, Kim and Ivi invite me along on a plant nursery shopping outing for succulents and cacti.

Kim heroically saved the day when an elderly woman drove over the leash of a dog and psychologically froze in place, unable to take action.  The leash was affixed to a truck at the side of a driveway but it was long enough to extend across the entire width, so of course the dog went to the opposite side of the road, when the hapless lady drove over the extended leash, trapped under her self-stalled car, with the dog unable to retreat.  But Kim calmed the dog and the woman in turn, unlatching the leash from the truck so that the latter’s car could pass over and leave.  The dog’s owner came upon the scene later.  Should have done video to document the proper sequence, but it was over in a couple of moments.

 

 

Dennis and Mt. Baldy

Younger (by 20 months) brother Dennis sends me this picture documenting some of his past weekend.

Mt Baldy 10He says:

I was in a group of five, four men and one woman.  That trail is steep–4,000 ft. elevation gain in 4-1/2 miles, and the last half mile or so is SERIOUSLY steep, the kind that has you gasping for air (I realize not everybody considers that fun) and the strong separating themselves from the weak.  The strong in this case being the woman, who beat all the macho men to the summit.  Although the oldest of the group, I managed to get there in 3rd place.  This is not to imply that competition was the whole point!

rDay Forty-Two, Some Things Go Well

Despite a dental repair that becomes undone in barely over a day, the once-defunct HTPC (home theatre PC) was revived with a little solder and a replacement SSD SATA cable by Gary, whiz fixer (you met him here).  Earning him a well-deserved burger, fries and shake from the eatery down the street, which was occupied only by the Coke guy when I went there to pick up his order.  Putting the revived HTPC to work, Nik and I watch a couple of Game of Thrones episodes.  And Ivi called later on to tell us that she has completed her classes and assignments and does in fact expect to graduate on Saturday.