Oh no, it’s nibbling my toe,

Sometimes life sends you a victory, but sometimes it sends you a defeat and sometimes it sends you 2020, but only once, I hope. At times like these it is best not to dwell upon the negative. Instead, it is better to accentuate the positive and proclaim all of life’s victories, no matter how small they may be. 

Oh gee, it’s up to my knee,

Anne and I were walking yesterday, passing cars in the De Mun neighborhood. De Mun with its proximity to Washington University is quite cosmopolitan. This makes it ripe pickings for one of Anne’s favorite games, the license plate game. She has an app for that. In a normal year, with our multiple cross-country car trips, she can secure several victories a year, seeing plates from all fifty states.

This is anything, but a normal year and she has yet to win even one game. At the start of this month, she was sitting at forty-seven states. She still needed Vermont, New Hampshire and Delaware. She got Vermont when Dave and Maren texted her a photo of a plate. She has routinely taken my similarly texted pics, but then I play the game with her. She justified accepting Vermont from them, because she thinks that she saw a plate in the park. She just wasn’t sure.

Anyway, we saw Delaware yesterday. With the election, I take this as a good sign. She is now sitting at forty-nine states, with only New Hampshire left to go.

Oh fiddle, it’s around my middle,

Dan called us last night. Both he and Britt passed the test and earned their FAA certification as professional drone pilots. They next plan on making a promo trailer from the footage that they shot at the cabin and then begin shopping it around. His first stop will be with a producer who he once worked for. That project was a History Channel series. Mostly he worked at building the company’s studio, but he did get out in the field for the maple syrup episode. In the meantime, he’ll take union set dresser work to keep himself afloat.

Oh heck, it’s at my neck,

Dave had a birthday this month. At his request, I bought him a pair of crampons, so that he and Maren can hike more safely in the mountains of New England. Today, I texted him, just to be sure that they had arrived. He replied that they had, but then said that he had not used them yet. I told him that winter is coming and then I warned him about the wildlings up north. He asked, Canadians?

Oh dread, it’s over my head.