Life Without Water
The first time I went to Thailand I thought it was wonderful. I also thought it would be a wonderful place to take kids, once they were old enough to remember to brush their teeth with that bottle of water next to the sink, and old enough to remember to keep their mouth shut in the shower. Third-world water systems presented challenges I hadn't anticipated.
But guess what! I'm getting to have the experience of a third-world water system without travel! My city is on "boil water restrictions" because e-coli was found in the water system. My stove is covered with pans of boiled water and my counter is consumed with a case of bottled water. Empty plastic bottles are everywhere. Last night we had to carefully hose down the kids with the hand-held shower rather than letting them play "swimming" in the big tub as they usually do. I have to keep reminding myself to brush my teeth using the bottle.
Last week we lost power one night for almost nine hours for no discernable reason. There wasn't a storm; something just blew up. The USDA says that 4 hours is the max your fridge can go without power, so I had a festival of trash with the groceries I'd just bought.
My town routinely shows up on lists of the 10 best places to live in the U.S. Apparently infrastructure isn't actually a requirement to be on these lists. And if I'm going to have to deal with dodgy water and no ice, I want to be someplace fun with exotic things to see.
posted by Jenny @ 10:30 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Jenny - couldn't fine an e-mail address for you, and wanted to commend you on having well behaved children. My daughter-in-law does not - as she fits the profile described (the one you said wasn't fair - which it isn't in many cases - i.e., my own daughters, who insist on teaching good behavior and fine manners in their little ones) DIL doesn't believe in any kind of consequences or reprimand for bad behavior, and my beloved grand daughters are so bad I won't go out in public with them - nor will I babysit unless I am allowed to insiste that they behave. I see sooooo many of their contemporaries behaving (or mis-behaving) this way. This is not fair to the children, as they don't understand why people don't like them. One doesn't have to beat up on a child to teach it not to hit and bite and kick at age 7. (my precious Julia still does this - a good smack on the rear at age 2 would have helped.)
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