Everyone’s doing it

Top 5 News Lists for the Year, in terms of what I think we’ll remember, or will have an impact, 5-10 years hence.

For Dave & Margie

1. Vacation to the UK: Our only real vacation this year, in many ways. But a fun one, with many memories (and pictures).
2. A New Car: Well, I remember it every day. And hopefully it will be around in five years …
3. Churchy Goings-on: My election to the Vestry, Margie cooking for ALPHA, elections for bishop, ECUSA’s turmoil, our rector leaving … quite an exhausting year.
4. The Buffet: Our major home improvement for the year. It’s not done yet, but it will be, and we’ll eventually wonder how we ever got along without it.
5. Dave starts GMing again: A milestone for me, and, hopefully, start of a long-term trend.

Margie starting her blog may be on that list, too. Time will tell.

For Kitten

1. Potty training: Nuff said. Though maybe it could have been on our list. It’s truly wonderful not having to pack either diaper bags or bottle bags any more …
2. A computer: The first and most crude of the many she will own (until, of course, they are replaced by something I can’t imagine at this point and will never master myself at any rate). But she has one, an obsolete notebook from the office, on which she plays games and becomes increasingly well-immersed in the desktop metaphor. Go, her.
3. Pre-school: Both at the rec center and then at the real school, and prep work for a new one in January. Important for her development, socially and educationally, and a nice mid-day relief from custody.
4. Speech screening: This will have a profound impact on her. I hope the program at the new pre-school is as good as the screening was.

She’s only three, so she gets fewer.

For the World

1. Columbia down: A major turning point in the US (and, by extension, world) space program. Where do we go from here? Or do we? The beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?
2. The Iraq War run-up: Profound impacts on international diplomacy — the Atlantic split, the Anglophone alliance, the marginalization of the UN (from the US perspective), the shuffling of interests and alignments. Things will never be quite the same again, for good and ill.
3. The Iraq War and postlude: Many lessons to be learned (and being learned, and mislearned, and applied, and misapplied). This will — unless something bigger happens in ’04 or ’05 — be as significant to the US as Viet Nam was, not to mention to the Middle East and the World.
4. Campaign 2004: This has been running since 2001, but this year it kicked into high gear. Whether you think Howard Dean is the new McGovern (or the new Perot) or not, his candidacy, win or lose, has already had major repercussions on US politics, and on the Democratic party.
5. SARS: The first hints of how a pandemic can occur — and how it must be combatted — in this age of global communication and transportation. It’ll be back in the spring, even if everyone’s forgotten about it, and other diseases will be, too. This could be the “sleeper” story of the year.