Happy New Year in Trichotomy

The Break

The way the holidays fell this year, with Christmas on a Monday and New Year on the next Monday, we were able to get a 1 ½ week off by taking three vacation days, since the Fridays were used for Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. So a lot of my co-workers did that, making work really quiet. We planned to visit the in-laws from Friday to Friday, but ended up coming back a day early (see below).

This was the first Christmas since the pandemic that La Professeure’s family were together.

I am by now quite familiar with the Christmas ritual; La Professeure would propose to cut down on the number of presents we get, and then everyone promptly ignore it, and then we would stuff the car with presents (this year we also have to stuff the rabbit in), and then we would go up and marvel at the amount of presents we bring/get, and we would spend a week there, with Christmas mass and Christmas day-long present opening were the assured activities, then we would come back with the car stuffed with presents, and put maybe put a third of them to use, half of them in storage in hopes we would use it some time, and a third to return. Maybe I just view waste differently.

I actually only gave 2 presents this year: an album I made from our trip to the Caribbeans, and the chocolates that Viking would stock in our cabin’s mini-fridge, which my in-laws hoarded during their stay.

La Professeure did plan something different this time and booked an afternoon doing an Escape room. We did not win, though the room has significantly more puzzles than the ones I am used to - it’s designed for 8 people - so I don’t feel too bad about it. But everyone enjoyed it, so I won’t be surprised if we do it again next year. The only thing is La Professeure’s dad had to stand so long that his back started hurting.

I got quite a bit done for the amateur music group, so at least I have been productive.

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The Pet

Most of the entertainment was provided by the rabbit.

Our sister-in-law still gets reminded about the loss of her father every now and then, since it is still fresh in her mind. But the rabbit was a good distraction for her; she was happy to witness a binky.

One of the rabbit’s Christmas presents is a toy with strings attached to it, from where wood blocks and would hang, and he can chew on them. There are also pieces of compressed hay sandwiched between the wood blocks, so he naturally goes after the hay, but since they are wedged inside the blocks, he couldn’t pull them away from the toy. Then one day he discovered that he could chew on the string above the toy, break it, and take the whole wooden block down, then he could dismantle the wooden blocks and extract the hay block from it. He repeated the process for the remaining strings on the toy and got a lot of compressed hay. It was actually too much for him to eat, so he left some.

The next day I put the wood blocks and hay block back on the string and tied it back on the toy. He again went after the hay block, but apparently forgot about attacking the string. After a few minutes of trying, he gave up and asked us for help. I experienced an Asian parent moment: looking down at your child and marveling at just what a disappointment he is - not only dumb, but also lacking persistence.

After seeing we wouldn’t help, however, he hopped away, and then came back to try again a few seconds later. This time, though, he remembered he could chew on the string, and promptly got to the hay block.

Sometimes, you need to take a step back to remember a solution.

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The Bug

We came back one day ahead of schedule because La Professeure felt a sore throat. Our usual rest stop was closed so we had to stop at a Wendy’s drive-through in Monticello.

La Professeure tested positive the next day, but I, and everyone at her parents’, are still testing negative with no symptoms. It’s good that we all have the latest booster - we hear about the new variant spreading around, but in general infectious disease tend to get more transmissible and less lethal as they evolve (it helps them spread), so while La Professeure is going to be coughing/aching/sneezing for a few days, and we have to stay apart, we’re not worried it would last.

Covid is not over, but much less scary than before.

• S