Old Home Week

I’m finally back to California for a much needed recharge, staying at my daughter’s house and fill my days with doctor visits for overdue medical tune-ups, playing bridge and poker at my old clubs and attending to a plethora of overdue paper work.

But that pales in comparison to the excitement of meeting and spending time with six new people. Six of my favorite grandchildren. Yes they were there last year but the old ones were replaced. I had a chance to spend quality one-on-one time with each of them. Some turned out to be star volleyball and basketball players, and I attended several games. One is a senior in HS and in the exciting process applying to colleges. He was accepted at Oregon and offered a $50K scholarships. One just received his driving permit and I was privileged to take him on his official first drive. He turned out to be a thoughtful leader and mature way beyond his age, similar to my late wife Barbara. Last but definitely not least – three of my grandchildren are contributing to the exponential growth of our family – Tara is getting married and Alexa and Jenna are expecting in January and May. I’m soon to be a proud great grandfather. I would be remiss not to mention that I missed seeing Mia. She is a junior at UC Santa Barbara and spending a semester in Madrid, Spain. Almost every time I track her on “find my friends” she’s in a different city. Munich for October fest, Amsterdam (we missed meeting there by a day), Mikonos, Malaga and Italy. She even spent time with my friends and relatives in Egypt – the adventurer.

The second highlight of my return was the car I had the privilege of driving. My last car was a Tesla model Y with full-self-driving option. Comparing that with my son-in-law’s brand new Tesla model 3 is like comparing a 1960s car to today’s …AI and Tesla have produced a totally driverless car with auto park and auto summon. I simply get in the car, input a destination address, shift to drive and go, then push and auto drive button. The car does the rest. It follows all road signs and maintains the posted speed limits, passing slower moving vehicles as needed. It detects and slows down at speed bumps and will not enter an intersection at green lights if there is no space for it to clear the intersection before a light change. The neatest thing is its ability to self-park. Once you stop next to an empty spot, it highlights the available parking spots, I pick the desired one, push a button and the car does the rest. It is significantly safer than my driving (LOL) and always picks the optimum routes.  I have no doubt that this is a major game changer and disrupter. In a few short years, cars will be able to scan your calendar and arrive at the proper time to take you to your destination. We won’t own cars, just pay to use as needed, therefore no need for garages or major changes to the infrastructure because existing highways will be able to handle a higher density of closer together vehicles. I wish to live long enough to witness this.

I’m boarding the Viking Sky for another world cruise on Monday Dec. 16, and not surprisingly, several fellow passengers from last year’s WC are doing a repeat this year, hence I anticipate my posts will be fewer this time. I will, however, maintain this blog and continue to post as needed.