Santa Test Drives a New Ride
On a test run with his reindeer team Santa noticed a big bright light in the trees over an area of Africa.
The light immediately piqued Santa’s interest! A light like this~ with this much power~ independent of an observable power source — WOW!
So Santa banked his team of reindeer down towards the light. He hollered “Whoa” and pulled mightily on the reins. His team pulled up next to the light source.
What a surprise awaited Santa!
An ELEPHANT with a bright green trunk!
“How did you get that bright trunk?” Santa asked.
“I ate some specially prepared peanuts.” The elephant replied with a proud twitch of his head. That made the light shine directly into Santa’s eyes. Santa turned to address his assistant, then he realized he had not appointed one yet!
“Where did you find these special peanuts?” Santa asked?
“Oh, a friend made them for me,” the elephant replied.
“Ok, what’s your name?” Santa asked. “It seems silly to call you elephant all the time.”
“Hey Stubborn,” hollered the elephant “Get out here.”
Immediately a small donkey appeared from the workshop.
The elephant announced “ My name is Santa and the donkey answers to “Stubborn.”
“Well, that might create a bit of a problem,” the original Santa replied. If both of us answer to the same name a problem might result. If a person hollered Santa we wouldn’t know which of us was wanted.”
“Hmm the elephant Santa,” replied.
“How about calling the elephant Waldo.” Shouted Stubborn!
So we have Santa, Waldo, and Stubborn.”
Everyone thought that would be fine. After some short and polite negotiations Waldo’s team signed on to work the period that Santa needed them.
They all hopped into the sleigh, except Waldo. The sleigh wasn’t big enough.
Santa pulled on his beard while thinking. He realized that Waldo wouldn’t fit in the sleigh and that would put a crimp in his plan.
At times like this Santa sure missed Rudolph with his red nose. He had always led the team. Unfortunately, he had an operation the required 6 months bedrest. His next problem was that he had come down with COVID-19. A few dogs had caught the disease but nobody had thought about reindeers!
That required rearranging the stables so Rudolph could be separated from all the other reindeer. Santa seemed immune from the disease so that he could continue to feed and care for Rudolph. He sure needed cheering up. The virus infection sure required the downtime for recovery. Santa got busy building a stable for Waldo. Waldo was great at designing things but it was hard for him to get into the racks where Santa stored all the wood for building.
So after Waldo and Stubborn pulled the wood from the racks they loaded a work sled that Waldo could pull to where they were building the new stable.
So Santa figured another project to make the sleigh able to carry Waldo and Stubborn could ride along and help Santa deliver all the presents. Santas not getting any younger as you know, and with the new roofing materials Santa’s rooftop shenanigans are more treacherous.
Santa’s plan to retool his sleigh was ingenious!
He would install a “caboose” on the sleigh. A sturdy, appropriately sized attached caboose (he may have been thinking about a boxcar for train) tickled his fancy. He could set up a latte bar for the trip home which was always grueling since he was cold and tired.
The second part of his plan was equally devastating in its elegance.
With Stubborn and Waldo along for the ride he could get some work out of them.
Holiday, schmalliday.
If he had to work on Christmas Eve and miss all of those fancy corporate parties, he would bring the party with him. Maybe he could even invite Mrs. Klaus along if he offered the right kind of sweet treat.
Stubborn and Waldo could lug the huge bags of presents from the sleigh to his entry point! Imagine the back breaking work that would save!! He would be able to work on the “sweet” for Mrs. Claus.
He would save so much energy!.
He was a genius. Nobody would be able to say that Santa was a slouch now. Computers, AI Goggles “phew” and he spit out a wad of snuff. It dribbled on his white beard and thanked the powers that be that Mrs. Klaus wasn’t around to chew him out for using snuff.
He had made the best toys forever and he wasn’t going to change now. Maybe he’d hire a fancy marketing person. His thoughts were running rampant. Time to haul them in.
He tucked his dreamy thoughts away and got back to the work at hand,
SANTA’S FIRST CHRISTMAS WITHOUT RUDOLPH
Dec 23rd
Santa had called “All hands on deck.” It was his way of saying! “EVERYBODY” get down here and work!”
Santa started waxing the sleigh runners. He works up quite the sweat since these were HUGE runners.
Stubborn started the special recipe for Waldo’s light. In between dashes of this and pinches of that, Stubborn stole furtive glances and the reindeer foal that was born shortly after he arrived. She sure had beautiful eyelashes!
Would she ever be interested in a raggedly old donkey?
Waldo made made a few more twists with the ratchet and now everything was ready for Christmas Eve and the magical ride.
December 24
Time for the elves to bring all the presents and load the sleigh.
Remer, the head bookkeeper brought the books the lists of good boys and girls and the toys they would get.
Now everything was set and the historic moment had arrived . Santa gave Mrs Klaus a goodbye smack on the lips, Waldo and Stubborn got into their caboose ( Stubborn brought an extra load of supersized peanuts — might run into some monkey bandits!) and Waldo cranked up his bright green trunk to the brightest power and they were off!
The first roof they landed on tilted a little to the left when the sleigh didn’t! Line up quite straight.
Santa had made many practice runs but the first delivery was always a little sketchy.
Santa’s 21st Century workflow was better than he had hoped. He took all the presents for the smaller houses and Waldo with the help of stubborn would bring the presents to the big apartment buildings where Santa would pick up the presents for one family, deliver them and then pick up another batch to deliver.
When he had a moment to spare Santa was giving thought as to how he would get Rudolph working again. Once he had healed.
He still hadn’t found the right fit by the time they returned to the North Pole.
There was Mrs Klaus with her special hot chocolate and Rudolph was happy to be able to be with the welcoming party of elves.
Maybe we’ll find another story of Santa, Waldo and Subborn- and Rudolph!
