Happy December Day; Joe Biden Joke; Wuxi Tunnels; Lots of Police at Intersections; Annoying Things Speakers Corner; Christmas Break for Tony!; Blue Tooth is Wonky; Broke a Plate; Genius Defined

Happy December Day!  Laimigu Decembra Dienu!  十二月快乐!

0 Days since Joe Biden has had an accident. (No, I haven't given up hope that Trump can still be president.  I pray for it every day!)

Wuxi has a lot of tunnels for cars and for pedestrians.  The driving tunnels are nice except when there are accidents and a driver then can be really stranded.  I go through three fairly long tunnels as I drive Tony to school.  One goes under a lake; another goes through a mountain.

For the last week of November, there was a heavy presence of policemen and crossing guards at intersections.  I assume they were trying to get pedestrians and cyclists to behave more civilized.

December Day, the topic of my evening Speakers Corner was annoying things. One of the students told me that he was annoyed by a neighbor who was always starting his motorcycle at 4:30 AM. The neighbor worked at a vegetable market and that was when he would set out. The student that he had complained and complained, trying to get the neighbour to push the bike out of the apartment complex before starting it. He even tried confronting the neighbour but it turned out that the neighbour was a member of a motorcycle gang. At least, the government is dealing with motorcycle gangs, said the student. Other things that annoyed the students included apartment decoration in nearby apartments, cats in heat screeching, and a trumpet player playing across the canal from a student's residence.

Thanks to now attending an international school, my son Tony has a Christmas Winter Break to look forward to for the first time ever as a student. I just hope that my Chinese wife Jenny gives him some free time and doesn't overload him with activities.

Blue Tooth is sort of convenient, sort of not. One night for instance, my wife was listening on her blue tooth headphones to something playing on her phone when all of sudden, for no reason, the audio started playing on an external booth tooth speaker that was sitting at the side of my bed. And then my wife couldn't re-pair her blue tooth head phones with the phone. I have had times when I have tried to turn off my blue tooth, but the process is such that you can never be sure if the thing is in fact off. And then there are the times when I can't pair my devices with blue tooth. The technology is kind of wonky.

I broke a plate in the kitchen. What happened was I taking a plate off the dish rack above the sink, when I inadvertently pulled out this huge meat cleaver that my wife had put on the rack to dry. The cleaver was falling to the ground but I dare not catch it. The cleaver in turn took a plate with it and there was nothing I could do but watch the plate hit the kitchen floor, watch the plate shatter to a hundred pieces, and swear. I was annoyed but didn't tell my wife about this. It would somehow have been my fault. She likes to play the blame game.

Definition of genius: the ability to put one's underwear on after one has already on one's pants.