She's Gone

I remember packing for college and it involved dumping a few drawers from my dresser into an old foot locker that was my father's in WWII and throwing it in the back of the station wagon. My, how things have changed.

What you see above is a Surburban that I borrowed from my cousin in exchange for the Prius. It is packed to the max with what my daughter considers to be the "essential" items needed to begin college life. I don't know what the cubic footage of a Surburban is with all the seats down but for the front two, but it is more than my Audi wagon by a bit.

We carved out a little cave for the Wonder Dawg as you can see here. This was taken at a rest stop somewhere in Wisconsin. The girl looks happier than she felt at the time. I had gone in to do the basic reststop business and came back out to find one wistfull girl and one old dawg who was happy to have someone scratching her no matter what the reason.

The lead up to the move had been quite exhausting on all involved and it was no surprise to me that my daughter came down with a cold after burning her candle at both ends over the past few weeks as she attempted to pack up her life (not just for the college move, but also for the house sale) until the wick sputtered out and disappeared in a puff of smoke. She sniffled and sneezed all the way to Madison and was therefore not her best when it came time to move all of that gear into a room designed to accomodate two basic prisoners with a washcloth and a toothbrush between them.

As it turned out, we met her roomate in the parking lot of the dorm as we were starting to haul in the first bucket load of gear and the two of them got a chance to meet in the flesh after spending months talking to each other on facebook. The roomate had flown in a couple of days before and had moved most of her stuff into the room (not meaning that it was put away) before we even arrived.

While my daughter heroically muscled load after load into the dorm and up the elevator to the fifth floor, I stood guard over the SUV and the remaining gear and kept a cautious eye on the Wonder Dawg as she lay in the shade like a sensible person. After the last load was put in the big, wheeled cart, I put the dawg back into the truck, locked it up, and hoisted the two frame members for the futon couch that seems to be "de rigor" material for any incoming college freshman and followed my sherpa daughter into the bowels of her dormatory.

As you can see below, the room is not yet ready for Better Homes and Gardens.
That's her in the shadows under her trendy "lofted" bed. As you can see, I did a spectacular job of assembling the futon couch (hey, I'm an engineer) and after snapping this photo, I abandoned the field of fire, having declared victory, and retired to an air-conditioned pub under the excuse that I needed to take the dawg somewhere cooler (I parked in the shade). And that's where I stayed until it was time for one last dinner with my oldest.

I have to say that I never expected to be in this position. Long ago, I believed that I would be lucky to live long enough so that my children might be able to remember me at all. Seems that I was a bit premature - which is fine with me, but it causes me to re-evaluate my position on a frequent basis.

Anyway, my girl is now officially in college and now I have to pay the dues. I was about to write some stupid saying, but have decided that I will just end by expressing my profound thanks that we have all made it this far.