Good morning all:

Weekly Wisdom:

“Everyone wanted the Wii. It was a huge hit. Almost a Christmas miracle.” — Marcia – reflecting on the company Christmas Party 2008 and winning the grand prize

Yesterday I cleaned the coffee carafe. This morning the tale will be told. The coffee is perking, but not yet tasted so, sorry, but no answer yet; just anticipation. Isn’t that what Christmas is all about anyway?

Remote – For a long time I’ve suspected that the Europeans are on remote. Now I read where the European Commission has kicked off project SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment). SATRE plans for automated cars which, using an array of sensors will form large convoys, led by a human controlled lead car, and so travel along long open stretches of highway. (does this mean that if the lead car spins out all the remote followers will play ‘follow the leader’?)

Recently I read where Google’s vehicles traveling to photograph cities for their mapping projects have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles while running on remote, but with individuals sitting in the driver’s position.

When I was a teenager in the 1950s I remember visiting a GM Autorama ‘glitz’ show at the Canadian National Exposition in Toronto. Here a movie showing the city of tomorrow was shown. Guess what the highpoint of the vision was? Yup, a family of four, seats turned to face each other so they could play cards while the car drove itself to grandma’s house. It’s fun to see this technology coming of age, exciting too.

Christmas shopping – This week Marcia headed out, destination was our nearby outdoors Mall. Returning there was a bit of shock written on her face. “Do you have any idea of what it’s like out there” she asked; “it’s crazy, people are just driving up and down the parking lots looking for someone to vacate a spot.”

Over the past few years we’ve done most holiday shopping on line. For me it’s one of those, “how quickly we forget the shopping nuttiness” scenarios. This week “Big Brown’s” truck rolled to the house and we had our first gift exchange. Our neighbor across the street had our package and we had theirs. Now isn’t that a much better way to get into the mood of things.

Planning – Things are falling into place beautifully. Gratefully Adrianne’s latest checkup could not be better. They discovered that it will be a….(I’ll let her tell you all herself). On second thought, let me just give you a slight hint… it’s a . Marcia and I are so excited!

Kirstin and Vince came through and once again managed to get a picture of the kids taken with, what has become, our favorite Santa. We’ve been promised a full set.

And for Jason and Cathy, they’ve now managed for everyone in their group to get through the flu—twice over. As you can see, the whole clan is now on the fast track towards enjoying the season in the best possible way.

This weekend Marcia and I will join friends from my former employer for Christmas festivities. This also means that we’ll be spending a night in one of the ‘Nati’s great downtown hotels. The place is a stunning example of Art Deco décor. Now that I am home more and therefore read more, I have become aware of a possible situation which was of no concern while I was traveling—bedbugs. As you can see, I have prepared a kit and we should be fine. I prepared the kit for you worry warts since Marcia and I are really not concerned. All kidding aside, it should be a spectacular weekend and we’re anxious for it to start.

Closing – Make it a great week! Stay safe. And if you’re in the path of what the weather folk claim to be the storm-of-the-century; hunker down. BTW, the coffee from the freshly cleaned carafe is great!

Cheers,

Dirk