Christmas
...came and went without much fanfare. We did have the pleasure of having daughter Kami and her beloved Finn plus our oldest grand daughter Maddie with us.
Our 19 year old Maddie spent the better part of a month with us as her University dorm was closed for the holidays and Covid, of course. She is an avid TicTock fan and contributor and so we spent many outings scouting for locations for her to shoot her short videos. TicTock, to the uninitiated, is a massively popular Chinese program that allows young users to create 60 second videos and to edit them with special effects then upload them to the web.
Initially, I dismissed it as a light hearted pastime until she reported that she had over 6,000 views and 19,000 followers, compared to the few family and friends I coerce to read my monthly blather. Soon, grand pa started wondering how we could monetize this sucker. Imaginative beyond her years and without an ounce of self consciousness, she would dress in her fantasy outfits (including Elf ears) and perform to her cell phone camera in public places to the gawking wonder of passer-by's.
The bonus for us was that the time spent with her allowed grandparent conversations that were designed to gently guide and influence young thinking and to offer an alternative point of view from what she is exposed to from friends and school. There is a reason why it is said that if you are not still a Liberal at 30, you have no heart but if you are not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.
Other news you can't use
While not apparent here, we have been as busy as beavers with our house projects but as of this writing they are not finished so there is nothing to report. With 6 weeks to go before we transition to Europe (if they let us go) we are watching the calendar as well as the news with all the ongoing restrictions, lockdowns and new regulations of the day.
Ironically, our biggest issue at the moment is that we STILL do not have our car back from the dealership. When we first arrived in late October we discovered that once again, like last year, mice and rats had chewed through all the electrical harnesses in the engine compartment of our car. Our car is parked in our driveway for our 8 month absence and the critters had their way with it.
Last year it was a $5,000 repair, mostly covered by insurance. This year with a month long rental plus towing and the repair it was $6000. Within days we noticed the windshield fluid sprayer was not working so we took it back in. That is when they discovered the mice had chewed though the plastic tubing... as well as the fuel lines and the gas tank. A month later and the parts have still not arrived so we go from one rental to another. This latest repair? A cool $5000. ... but the rental is on us.
