Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Holiday Thoughts

This time of year is strange and in some ways wonderful. For those of us who grew up in families that celebrate Christmas, it is a magical time of year, especially for children. The excitement of waking up to presents under the Christmas tree from "Santa Claus" is palpable.

At the same time, the calendar year is winding down and for those of us who work, this is a time when exhaustion can take over. It has been a long, difficult year, for example, to those of us who are journalists.

We've had to cover many disturbing events and trends, and we are, frankly, very tired.

-30-

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Home for the Holidays

My three youngest came across town and had lunch with me at El Matate, one of our long-time haunts.

So great to see the boys, back from college, and Julia, out of school for the holidays.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Family Matters

When I bought my first and only new car, a 2004 Saturn Ion, in December 2003, I was so proud I sent photos of it to several family members and friends.

That was 13 years ago and it now has around 133,000 miles on it. In the past few years, I've been driving less and less. It is so crowded and dangerous around here, with people dressed in all black walking right out in front of your car at dusk, bicyclists dart in and out of traffic and many other hazards exist.

I  opened Uber and Lyft accounts for my younger kids plus the boys both have their own cars now. Except for going to Safeway now and then or my dentist, the only "trips" I take are to my kids' houses, on Bernal, Glen Park, San Jose or El Cerrito.

A couple months back I got a notice that I needed to get a smog certificate by December 28th in order to get my car registration renewed. Yesterday, after weeks of procrastination, I drove the car to a nearby Shell station but the smog guys were late and nowhere to be seen. So I drove down Potrero to a little hole in the wall place I'd noticed over the years and they agreed to give it a smog test for $40 (a very good price.)

It failed. Then, after the stress of the test it failed to start and could not be jump-started.

It has a new battery so I knew that could not be the problem. The mechanics determined it was the ignition switch. They also told me that once they installed a new switch the car would have to travel 300 miles to build up enough computer memory for it to pass the test.

Worse, they could not get the needed part until next Tuesday, the 20th.

As I absorbed this news, and imagined the very expensive tickets no doubt awaiting me as the registration runs out, I called my oldest son, Peter, and asked him if he might be able to drive the car 300 miles over the coming week.

He said yes.

-30-