Oct 14, 1972
13119 Hermitage, Houston
Dear Family,
It’s getting on toward 5 PM on
this fall day in Houston (perhaps a bit on the warm side but not
uncomfortably so) and I’ve just cleaned up after the day’s
activities and between now and when we leave for supper & a visit
with the Vanderwaters (Shell and El Cerrito acquaintances) I’ll get
this weekly letter written.
Jean has just gone to take a
short nap before the evening out, Laurel is playing the piano and
Muriel & Palma haven;t returned as yet from their afternoon of
shopping. Laurel isn’t taking piano lessons & has reacted quite
negatively to any suggestions along that line, so it’s a little
surprising to have her start in playing again all on her own;
hopefully her interest will retrn and maybe we can get her into
taking lessons again. Palma is now having a lesson every other week
from a lady just behind us and likes her teaching quite well.
Muriel is home for a weekend
visit and it surely was nice to see her again and to talk in more
detail about her classes at the university etc. Originally we’d
expected to have her come by bus and we’d pick her up at Katy (a
small town about 15 miles to the west of us) but she skipped a late
class and so got a ride home with a cousin of her dormitory roommate.
We’ve done a lot of talking since she got home and I for one have a
better picture of her school life now than I did before. She
continues not to like dormitory food and is I think a bit thinner
than when she left six weeks ago. She’ll go back tomorrow afternoon
for another stint at school until Thanksgiving when we’ll be seeing
her again.
This week Laurel had the second
two of the 4 teeth that the orthodontist wanted removed extracted, so
now she is ready for him to begin putting on the braces to start
straightening her teeth. She has an uncomfortable couple of years
ahead of her and I hope she doesn’t regret her desire to have this
dental work done. Her bill will be higher than Muriel’s (probably
because of inflation and also the tendency for higher dental prices
in Houston); I guess we were fortunate in having only 2 children
having to have this experience, as Palma only needed minor work
involving a retainer for awhile.
Work at Shell continues rather
busy these days — there appears to be a very marked turnabout from
the condition during the last months at Emeryville. In response to
the increased number of projects there has been an increase in the
dept personnel by transfer in from other parts of Shell. So I guess
for several years at least the dept will have a sellers market rather
than a buyers market for their work. Should continue I suppose till
about the time the new research center is completed in 1975. I heard
the other day that some concern had developed about the fault lines
under the proposed site that might affect the building plans —
seems that there are local salt domes in the vicinity that cause
shifting of the ground and consequent damage to buildings. I thought
that having left Calif I wouldn’t be affected by fault lines but
this doesn’t appear to be the case.
* * *
Yesterday was a fairly busy day
for me tho I did knock off early for our evening at the Vanderwaters
and also spent time at & after breakfast in conversation with
Muriel. I repaired a leaky mechanism in one toilet and also fixed up
some faucets that have continued to drip after my first effort at
fixing them (they don’t leak this time); also sprayed for bugs
around the outside of the house, particularly along the foundation &
around windows & doors. Still have to do some spraying inside.
We’ve noticed more bugs lately so I guess the effect of the
spraying we have done before we arrived is wearing off. Also went to
the bank in the morning & took Laurel on a brief shopping trip.
All for this time.
With love, Carl