Elizabeth’s Journal

Potpourri

I read a fascinating article in the 1 Sep 2003 issue of The New Yorker last night. It’s titled “City of Water”, written by David Grann, and is all about New York City’s water supply, and the “sandhogs” who build the tunnels. There are two pictures, one current and one from 1910, that are pretty neat to see. If the issue is still on newstands, it’s worth picking to read this article. I think this country (as well as most other industrialized countries, probably) will have some serious reckoning to do in the next 50 years or so to update its infrastructure, not just with water but with electricity and other services that we tend to never think about but that are all aging day by day.

It was quite fun being part of Matthew’s entourage as he moved into his dorm room. Probably a good experience for him too, in discovering that one can’t always pick the members of one’s entourage! It certainly brings back the memories and it’s rather astonishing to me that it was 15 years ago that I was doing the same thing. I’m glad that I realized even at the time what a wonderful and special time it was, being at college. What a blast! I am resisting the urge to say hello every time I see Matthew or Courtney come online on IM; I figure another week or so and Matthew will be happy to come for food cooked on a small scale. Particularly since Jonathan thinks he’s spectacular. It’s hard to resist unconditional adoration.

Speaking of cousins, if you haven’t checked your e-mail, Karl women, the first Girls’ Weekend in Austin is scheduled for 19-21 Sep. No matter who else comes, at least Courtney & Kathleen will be here. I am so tickled to have achieved a relationship with Courtney & Matthew all by myself, rather than as one of the Karl herd. I remember hearing one time upon a proposed trip to Austin that one of them wanted to know if the “cool cousin” was going to be there—and it wasn’t me, I can tell you that, but someone whose name begins with “J”. Since I’ve had Jonathan and have visited John & Kathleen’s house with him, I’ve learned to be friends with them, and I love it.

I learned a revolting roach fact today from our pest control service: once a female roach has mated once, she can lay eggs the rest of her life without having to mate again. That’s just horrible.

I am looking forward greatly to having Daddy here—he arrives on Friday, and Jonathan and I get to pick him up from the airport. On Saturday we head to Houston for the Cinco Ranch triathlon, and then we’ll be back on Sunday evening so that Jonathan will make his “school” on Monday. I have all sorts of plans—coupon at Borders (my dad’s always good for a bookstore), getting the calamari at P.F. Chang’s (Stepan introduced me to it and it’s far and away the best I’ve had, and it’s one of Dad’s favorites), see Jonathan order him around , etc. Unfortunately I also have a million things I’d like to do before his arrival, but I think I’ll be able to accomplish maybe 30% of them. We’ll see. Last time he came by himself he drove, and when he arrived at the house and we took his stuff back to the guest room, he looked at the candle I’d lit in there for his arrival and said, with a worried expression on his face, “You know Mother’s not coming with me, don’t you?” I told him he was deserving of candles too. But I guess that probably means he doesn’t care if I don’t wipe down my refrigerator shelves before he comes either.

I am very disappointed (to put it lightly) with the state of things in Iraq. Before we went to war, I did not believe George Bush’s case, but I thought that if Tony Blair was going for it then he must have access to compelling information that I didn’t, and I thought he was much more trustworthy than Bush, so I was cautiously optimistic that there was a possibility that attack was justified (NOT indicating support of it, just saying I allowed the possibility that it might have been right). But always I felt that there was not enough evidence that Bush’s team that there was much contingency planning going on, nor that the people doing what little planning there was had any real experience with the region, nor that the assumptions made by the planning folks had much basis in reality. I am so sorry that my misgivings appear to have been well-founded. I recall having it brought home to me on a near-daily basis at Dell when I was there as a project manager how no assumptions are sacred, and you should always have at least two layers of back-up plans ready to go at a moment’s notice. How could that possibly have been escaped by the entire US government, or at least those in charge? At the very least, it was Bush’s responsibility to point out to his team that they were making a lot of assumptions and to ask what the backup plan was. Even if he lacked whatever was necessary to recognize that and ask the questions, Cheney certainly had the experience to do so and failed.

Jonathan is turning into quite the little guy. Tonight he insisted on brushing his teeth by himself, so he stood on his stepstool and solemnly scrubbed at his teeth for quite a while. Yes, Dale videoed it. What chroniclers we are! He’s very giving with his affection these days and often looks at me and says, “I love you, Mummy”. His imagination is also running rampant, and he is acting out stories that he’s seen or read nearly all day long. Sometimes I think he’s a little overwhelmed by it all himself! Mostly I’m “Spud” from the Bob the Builder show, and he’s either “Roley” when he’s rolling around Dale’s big exercise ball, or “Travis” the tractor when he’s playing with his car toys. Tonight I read him a new Thomas the Tank Engine book that he’d not seen before as his bedtime story, and he was so thrilled about it that as soon as we were done, he insisted to Dale that he was going to read a story from it to him as his (Dale’s) bedtime story. I got many “thank you, Mummy”s from him too for his new book. It’s a thrill to see him be so excited about new stories.

Posted by elizabeth at September 2, 2003 11:20 PM