Mating Rituals

Let a man turn to his own childhood -- no further -- if he will renew his sense of remoteness, and of the mystery of change.
-- Alice Meynell

Thursday, September 30, 1999
Two years ago: Launch Window

Tonight I went to my sister's house for dinner, to make up for my aborted effort to get there last week. I brought along some educational software I bought for my nephews a few years ago. I'd kept it at my place because they were too young for it at the time; now I think they are almost too old for it! "My Personal Tutor," from Microsoft, is a four-CD set of drill-games for arithmetic, reading, and so on.

The boys enjoyed it, even though I don't think it will challenge my older nephew J--- for long. They had a blast doing the elementary math problems to make the T. Rex win a tug of war against three alligators.

During dinner, discussion of my new job led to trying to explain the stock market to J----. You buy shares of stock, which are pieces of a company. But how do you make money from it? (A concern for him, because his allowance system is under reconsideration right now.) Dividends, sometimes, but often you are betting that the price of the stock will go up. But the person who sold it believes that the price will go down, and one of you is wrong!

I admired the new pets in the house: a small corn snake, and a parakeet. The parakeet doesn't seem too lively. I hope it's not sick! The corn snake was quiet, but looked healthy.

My sister had sent me this email earlier in the day. B----, my six-year-old nephew, has a very characteristic way of emphasizing certain words dramatically.

Driving home from swimming last night, B--- and his friend X were discussing the new parakeet and snake. X said he wanted to get a chameleon. B---- suggested he get two, a boy and a girl so they could have babies. X replied that he could just get one, but it had to be a female so she could lay eggs. B---- said "but what about mating season? I think you need a boy and a girl."

Later that evening he asked me, "What do human males do to impress the females? Do they fight or something?" (his words) I replied in a general kind of way, it depends on where you are, etc. This led to a discussion on sports, fancy cars, having a lot of money, duels. Then he asked his father, "Did you do that to impress Mom?" I said I was attracted to his sense of humor, cuteness, and he was nice.

Is B---- watching too many nature videos?

I came home to find my street all filled with traffic cones, trucks, pumps, and equipment. I'd gotten a charming message on a card hanging on my doorknob: "Sewer Work Scheduled. Please stop/reduce your sanitary sewage usage..." The hours of work are from nine tonight, until seven in the morning. The equipment was impressive! One truck had the largest spool of hose I've ever seen, about twenty feet tall! I tried for a picture, but without a hunky sewer worker standing in front, you couldn't get the scale. I'm not sure what they are doing: clearing roots, blasting?