Thursday, October 16, 2003
Danger Lay Ahead
My dad took Jonah to the playground yesterday. As they got ready to cross the street, my dad said, Be careful, Jonah. We have to keep an eye out for cars. It's dangerous.
Jonah said quietly, Danger lay ahead.
Yes, it's a line from a Thomas the Tank Engine movie. Now my four year old talks like an old fashioned dime novel. More worries about how he'll fit in at the local public school next year.
A 100 year old water main broke just a couple of avenues away. Amsterdam Avenue looks like Venice. The streets are flooded. Cars are completely submerged. People have been evacuated. And we have no water.
No electricity a month ago, and no water now. Biblical retribution? Will locusts fall from the skies next?
It's very disorienting not to have running water. With messy kids, I use the water a million times a day without noticing it. A hundred mechanical acts everyday.
I keep forgetting that the water's gone. Get ready to make dinner and need to wash hands first. Turn the water on. Not there. Baby spilled potatoes. Turn the water on. Not there. Change a diaper. Turn the water on. Not there. I must have done that twenty times tonight.
After Steve came home, I ran out to get extra bottles of water. We have a couple gallons hidden under the sink from the last time Steve got worried about a suitcase nuke in Times Square. I wanted one more to rinse off the dirty dishes. The supermarket was already empty of water. The hoarders had descended.
Mayor Bloomberg was just on NY1, our local news station. He's looking beleaguered. The Staten Island Ferry crashed into a dock yesterday killing 10 people. The captain of the book jumped overboard and ran home where he tried to kill himself with a BB gun. Bloomberg was giving a press conference on the investigation into the Ferry and the latest on the water main break. Would he have spent $10 million of his own money in the last campaign if he had known what lay ahead?
My dad took Jonah to the playground yesterday. As they got ready to cross the street, my dad said, Be careful, Jonah. We have to keep an eye out for cars. It's dangerous.
Jonah said quietly, Danger lay ahead.
Yes, it's a line from a Thomas the Tank Engine movie. Now my four year old talks like an old fashioned dime novel. More worries about how he'll fit in at the local public school next year.
A 100 year old water main broke just a couple of avenues away. Amsterdam Avenue looks like Venice. The streets are flooded. Cars are completely submerged. People have been evacuated. And we have no water.
No electricity a month ago, and no water now. Biblical retribution? Will locusts fall from the skies next?
It's very disorienting not to have running water. With messy kids, I use the water a million times a day without noticing it. A hundred mechanical acts everyday.
I keep forgetting that the water's gone. Get ready to make dinner and need to wash hands first. Turn the water on. Not there. Baby spilled potatoes. Turn the water on. Not there. Change a diaper. Turn the water on. Not there. I must have done that twenty times tonight.
After Steve came home, I ran out to get extra bottles of water. We have a couple gallons hidden under the sink from the last time Steve got worried about a suitcase nuke in Times Square. I wanted one more to rinse off the dirty dishes. The supermarket was already empty of water. The hoarders had descended.
Mayor Bloomberg was just on NY1, our local news station. He's looking beleaguered. The Staten Island Ferry crashed into a dock yesterday killing 10 people. The captain of the book jumped overboard and ran home where he tried to kill himself with a BB gun. Bloomberg was giving a press conference on the investigation into the Ferry and the latest on the water main break. Would he have spent $10 million of his own money in the last campaign if he had known what lay ahead?
