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.

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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.

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.

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Family Trees and Rains

My sisters and I are trying to help my oldest daughter research our family tree(s). It appears we have a geat deal of information for both the Weir and Anderson/Wishart sides. If it ever becomes available in a digital form I will post it here.

Both of my parents were immigrants, my mother from Scotland and my father from Canada -- coming to Detroit in the 20s. I was born in the 40s and grew up in the 50, went to college in the 60s, and moved to SF in the 70s.

Have been here ever since except for one year in D.C.

Of course I am only one branch of their shared family tree.

***

Rainy and windy here today and tonight. Saw my oldest son this morning and he drove me to work. He's going to start working at Yelp next month.

I've been busy ordering presents for my children and grandchildren. This is a time of year I enjoy.

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My Cowboy Past

Courtesy of my cousin Dan, here is a photo of him, his brothers and me from the early 50s. I am on the far right, with the cowboy hat and gun. I remember getting that outfit but not when or why.

For me, getting together with my three Anderson cousins was always a highlight -- relatively rare (because they usually lived in other states) but fun. Not having any brothers of my own, they were like brothers to me.

Happy holiday season, everyone!

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Losing an Artist

There was a terrible warehouse fire in Oakland last Friday night, and one of the 36 people killed was a colleague at KQED, Alex Ghassan. One of his closest friends works on my staff and others who report to me knew him as well. I'd met him once or twice but cannot say I knew him well.

The link above describes him and his work and was written by one of my colleagues, David Markus. Soon after he wrote this tribute, David learned that his mother had died.

It's been a very rough week here...

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Julia Meets Bernie

Quite a day. We had a Facebook Live broadcast with Bernie Sanders today on our Forum program. It went an hour.

My youngest came to KQED to watch it with me and she got quite a surprise. I was giving her a tour of the building when we noticed a crowd of maybe 20 employees gathered at the window at the east end of the second floor (where the newsroom is.)

We decided to go down there and just as we arrived, a car pulled up to the building's entrance below as we were watching through a window.

"There he is!" someone shouted. Most everyone pulled out their cellphones and started snapping pictures.

We then gathered near the elevators and stairs, not knowing which way he would come up.

Elevator. He emerged to cheers and cameras snapping. He then walked up to each and every one of us to say hello and shake our hand. After he greeted me he shook Julia's hand and said hello to her. She broke into a broad smile and pretty much kept smiling the rest of her visit.

When he was finished with Forum, he proceeded across the floor to our TV studio, amid dozens more KQED employees, where he appeared on KQED Newsroom, one of the programs I manage. Julia was for a time in the control room with me. it was packed.

Back to the Facebook Live, views and interactions are still coming in, but already the numbers by afternoon were great:  1,529,000 reach and 189,797 views. We expect those numbers to go up a lot over the weekend.

Best of all for me? I got to seem a little bit cool for a change in the eyes of my 18-year-old.

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