For this Thanksgiving, I was able to orchestrate a video call for a bunch of family members. That got me thinking about more things that are just different this year, and some things that need an update.

“Over the river and through the wood” seems a bit dated now, so:

Over the wifi and through the net —
To Grandfather’s screen we go
The router knows the way to send the stream
through the firewalls and filters

Over the wifi and through the net —
To Grandfather’s screen we go
We would not drop packets
for ’tis Thanksgiving Day

Over the wifi and through the net —
Oh how the links saturate
It buffers the stream
As over the internet we go

Over the wifi and through the net —
and straight through the ISP
We retransmit and buffer
it is so hard to wait!

Over the wifi and through the net —
When Grandmother sees us in HD
She will say “O, dear, the children are there,
send a FedEx for everyone.”

Over the wifi and through the net —
now Grandmother’s desktop I spy!
Hurrah for the fun! Check the tracking!
Hurrah for UPS!