Daughter moved to Arizona several years ago ... about the time that the tech bubble burst, about 12 years ago. She took on a position counselling people who'd been laid off. I think they said that Motorola laid off somewhere around 10,000 around that time. Trouble was ... it was a bad time for such people, for finding a new position was really hard - they were about as scarce as hen's teeth.

She returned to this area for a time about 8 years ago, when her mother was ill, then lived in Toronto for a time, and returned to Phoenix several years ago.

She flew me to Arizona for my 80th birthday ... nearly 4 years ago, with a party of half a dozen family: part of that boodle was my "Did you remembr my SENIOR DISCOUNT?" hat.

She has a partner who's building a motorcycle rental franchise on Cozumel, an island 12 mi. off of Mexico and they are spending most of their time there, with their Phoenix digs rented out, to friends who are willing to have them bunk in with them when they are in Phoenix.

A couple of weeks prior to Christmas they were attending a motorcycle convention in Toronto, seeking to build some linkage in this area, so son and his partner and I drove to Toronto to spend most of an afternoon with daughter.

She'd sent me a baseball cap given out by the "Easyrider Motorcycle Rental USA" people in the summer, so I had to wear it down. I said that I needed two heads, so that I could wear the "Senior Discount" one, as well.

It was a wonderful afternoon: they had a room in the hotel attached to what used to be called "Skydome", now the "Rogers Centre", next door to the multi-levelled Convention Centre. We went out for lunch to a nearby food court, and I got to meet Joseph, the entrepreneur. He had operated a business in Atlanta until a couple of years ago.

That was my best Christmas gift.

I get to see son, in town, a couple of times a week, so that's not such a big deal, but I do appreciate the times that we get together.

ole joyful