College Town

Hit Laramie after a good 8 1/2 hour drive and found my brother. He's in an old old old townhouse (with five other guys from his cadre in the honors program) that has been rented out to college students for at least 25 years. Think: five hyper really smart guys with internet access and order forms for 5 dollar grab bags from sci-plus.com in a big old falling apart house. This evening they were messing around with something that it turns out is a flash heater from a coffee maker, but that will melt itself down into a pile of slagged aluminum (through a cardboard box, both sides, of course), then tried to re-melt it into a desk ornament, but in the process made the lights in the neighborhood flicker and sparks explode across the front porch, just like the movies. So when my mother asks how my brother it's doing, she's going to get a "good" and not much else! It's a good thing their school starts tomorrow...