Jeannie’s Brain

One day in early December, a very friendly and welcoming lady on WyldRyde PMed to tell me about a very nice man who’d been around WyldRyde for years. He was shortly to play Santa. She invited me to the #santa channel and introduced me as another possible “elf” helper. The soon-to-be Santa turned out to be Bob, a semi-retired grandfather with shoulder-length snow white hair and a beard to match. He lives in North Pole Alaska where he operates a squrrelcam year-round.

Last December, Bob made a Santa appearance on Chris Pirillo’s show as a holiday amusement. But this year, uStream asked him to do Santa Claus Live. They wanted him on six hours a day from December 9-24. Various WyldRyde regulars with technical skills helped him out with details. The first night, a regular made me a hop (half operator/moderator) and said, “go get em”. Toward the end of the run, #santa was called, “a honey pot for trolls”. It certainly was. The chat was thick with inappropriate, nasty, obscene and even malicious comments. But Santa persevered through all and managed to focus on the little kids.

Some children were typing in the chat, some were there through their parents, all were thrilled to see Santa. “I want a bike Santa”, “What kind of cookies do you want us to leave you Santa?”, “Do you like milk?”, “Where’s Mrs Claus?”, “How many elves do you have?”, “Say Merry Christmas to so-and-so Santa”, “I love you Santa!”. Bob deserves an award for patience, kindness, stamina and good humor. I hereby award him The Christmas Spirit Award for 2008. Thanks Santa!

Visit Bob year round in #databrokers on WyldRyde. His blog has the squirrelcam, plus the most amazing squirrel and bird pictures. Here’s one:

Bob surprised an owl at the feeder