Now What?

Left to right, back row: me, my older sister Cathy and my younger sister Kim.
My oldest sister Carol may be the person in the pink shirt, outside the photo frame, next to Kim.
Left to right front row Sandy, Alan, Kerry and Debra Pfahl. 

When you send out holiday greetings to every name you recognize in your contacts list, sometimes you get unexpected things back.

Like this photo, sent to me by Alan Pfahl. Obviously, it's Christmastime. We're visiting our long-time family friends in Ottawa.  

The photo's from around 1975, just in case the fashion choices didn't establish that for you. I vaguely recall the photo being taken. We were told we needed to smile more. And I definitely remember the shirt I'm wearing, decorated with a rhinestone-eyed bunny embroidered in gold thread.  

Why my memory would snag on a shirt I wore 45 years ago is beyond me. 

What should be more captivating is what I'll be doing for the next certain-to-be-less-than 45 years. I reassure everyone who asks that I have a plan for the next three months:

• January - do nothing
• February - go to Amsterdam (only ten days, but that counts as a month)
• March - fire up the network and see what's going on

And that really is the best I can do right now.

Thanks for reading!

Happy New Year!

Karen

  

Happy Holidays

Every year for the holidays, the Allan Gardens greenhouse fills with poinsettias and other festive adornments, including mannikins covered in bromeliads, succulents, air ferns and pine boughs.

During December, more people pack the greenhouse in a day than visit for the whole rest of the year.

The happy Christmas memories for lots of kids in Toronto include the contented turtles hanging out in the pool by the orchids.  

I hope your holidays are peaceful, full of joy and as pleasant and memorable as a morning stroll through the greenhouse.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Karen

'Tis the Season to be Jolly

Today is December 21, the shortest day of 2019 and the first day of my new status as a former public servant.

I waited for this for almost a year, and, on some days, I could hardly wait. 

The guy slated to take my job could also hardly wait. He updated his LinkedIn profile a couple of weeks ago to say he was doing my job. 

It was around then that he stuck his head in my door and asked "When are you going to clean out your office?"

Yesterday, my last day, I opened my closet to hang up my coat and saw there was no room. The new guy had moved all his stuff in the day before.

It perhaps goes without saying now that there are a few mixed feelings.  

When I surrendered my phone, my laptop, my VPN token, my corporate credit card (that I never used) and my security badge, the finality sank in a bit. 

When I exchanged the last few blasts of small talk and congratulations with my team and gave most but not all of them a parting hug, I felt a little sad.

And when I heard, just before I left, my boss, my successor and the head of ministry communications brainstorming outside my office about how to stickhandle the most recent (and most assuredly not the last) major policy gaffe orchestrated by Ontario's stubborn, inept and gormless government, I felt a little less sad. 

Thanks for reading!

Happy Holidays!

Karen

As festive as it gets around here:
The Christmas coat tree in extreme close up

Greta Thunberg Rules

Salvador Dali: deconstructed Madonna at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

My Minister, Greg Rickford, got called out in the news recently for citing research from the climate-change-denying blog Climate Change Dispatch. Rockford liked the blog's position on the futility of green energy. It helped with his rhetorical sparring with ungrateful Ontarians who complain about the green energy contracts the Ford government has cancelled.

Another prominent conservative, Joe Oliver, now Chair of the Board of the province's Independent Electricity Systems Operator, does not disbelieve in climate change, he just thinks people need to give it a chance. 

On my sixth last day as a public servant, I attended a presentation given by one of our co-op students. He shared his research on how Toronto Hydro is adapting to climate change. He seemed to think he was saying something new when he noted that actions taken now will be much less expensive than actions taken in the future.

"Just like we said in 1984," I said, unable to contain myself.

What surprised and then dismayed me was the genuine surprise on the faces of the youngsters in the room with me, my fellow public servants, the ones holding the reins for now and the next thirty years. 

Apparently they think they invented climate change, too.

5 days left.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Women in the News - Part Two

From the Scottish National Museum of Modern Art: Magritte's only "shaped" painting. The note on the wall included Magritte's statement that he thought this picture of a woman reduced to her most forbidden feature would "create a sensation."

In this week of the 30th anniversary of the vicious assault on innocent women at l'Ecole Polytechnique, a few other stories about women are also worthy of note.

From the Globe and Mail: "In Canada, 72 per cent of senior-age women reported they were highly satisfied living alone." 

Other than 72 per cent of senior-age men, is anyone surprised by this?  

In other news, victims of the century's most prolific and successful child molester are speaking up for themselves.

One thing: the media should stop referring to Jeffrey Epstein as a "financier" or a "disgraced financier." He was a con man, a pimp, a pedophile and a convicted sex offender. He preyed on children for pleasure, profit and access to swanky friends like Prince Andrew. He wasn't a financier any more than P.T. Barnum was a social scientist.

When I'm not stewing in decades worth of suppressed anger from relentless, unceasing and still astonishingly tolerated violence against women, I'm counting the days to when I no longer will say "I work for the Ontario government."

There are ten left.

Karen

Par-tay

 

  



 

 

     

 

 

 

 

These photos record some but not all of the people who came to my "not a retirement party" party.  

Putting captions on these shots wrecks the layout, so use your imagination to figure out who among those pictured above are: 

• Bryne Brown, the first friend I made at the first job I had in Toronto at Ireland Graphics
• Mark Winfield from the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, my first job after my call to the bar
• Loren Vanderlinden and Sean Severin from the City of Toronto. I worked with Loren on the City of Toronto Pesticide Bylaw; I worked with Sean on the City of Toronto Air Quality Strategy
• My former boss at the Ministry of the Environment, Adam Redish
• My former boss at the Ministry of the Environment, Jennifer Hooper
• My current boss at the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, Carolyn Calwell
• Tim Christie, the guy I beat at United Way Trivia
• The bridesmaids at one of my many wedding ceremonies: Jennifer Backer and Hillary Cox
• Kim and Kevan 
• Bruce's cousins: Richard Brown, Bernie Brown, Marianne Galwas and Rich Galwas.
• Dolly Goyette, who I saw at Barry Duffey's retirement party on the 21st, and who came to my party on the 22nd, and I went to hers on the 28th
• Anne Fleming, a friend from law school and the talented host for the evening

In the last photo, I'm posing with Ryan Zade, one of the people on my team, plus my discarded 4" heels.

It hasn't been all retirement parties this past week. I also went to a "Division Day" at work. Austerity measures helped us have fun and build a stronger team by hanging out for the afternoon in a condo party room, eating pizza, playing board games and receiving "SNAPPY" awards from our boss. Aside from our salaries for the half day, no tax dollars were spent.

Thanks for reading!

15 days left!

Karen

Still Not Retired

Spread at the Peter Pan Bistro: yummy

Days to go count is at 20, but because throwing a retirement party on December 20 is doomed to fail, I asked 60 former and current colleagues, plus friends and family to join me for some food and speeches last night.

The venue was the rooms upstairs at the Peter Pan Bistro; catering by same. I would not hesitate to recommend it. Do ask for the charcuterie and the zucchini fritters.

Big parties that are all about me happen rarely in my life.  They are overwhelming. I have difficulty now remembering how the whole evening went, but the crowd was a good size, maintained a raucous conversation and laughed appreciably at all the dumb jokes in my speech.

Some guests assumed that Friday was my last in the Ontario Pubic Service. I said, nope, I have another month to go.

Another month ...

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Appearing tonight only:
 three former directors of the
 Air Policy and Climate Change Branch

  

Leadership

Field of poppies: Barbara Ann Scott Park by 777 Bay Street, Toronto

Under Trump, Republicans have become trash-talking conspiracy nuts, just like their boss.

The schtick plays well in pro wrestling arenas and political rallies, but loses its oomph in more grown-up venues, like impeachment hearings.

Not that the leader of the free world has noticed. The same day Roger Stone was found guilty of obstruction and witness tampering, Trump, in plain sight as always, did the same. 

Trump and his minions are the dumbest, least likeable, most egotistical guys in the room. They are the ones you hated in high school. And they have never really left high school. 

Meanwhile, in Ford Nation, a Finance Minister more self-directed than the last guy made it through the Fall Economic Statement (reverently referred to by insiders as the FEZ) without seriously embarrassing himself or his boss. 

That shows you the virtue of being your own man.

As for me, I'm counting the days (25), planning a big party, and wondering how it got to be mid-November already.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Let That Sink In

In commemoration of the US departure from the Paris Climate Accord: I photographed these guardian angels outside Le Bourget in 2015, about ten days before the Paris Agreement was signed

I thought that being on the off ramp from full time employment might feel similar to the time I spent between when I knew I was finally going to get my hip surgery in 2016 (July) and when I actually had the surgery (August). 

That was a few weeks of happy anticipation, ending, just before the anaesthetic kicked in, with a fleeting wince of fear.

But it's not the same.

A few times every week as the days count down, I do find myself thinking "glad I'm never going to have to do this again" or "I'm not going to miss this."

But most of the time I put retirement out of my mind because if I didn't, I would gather my personal effects from my office, drop off my security pass, and walk out the door. 

Bragging Rights

Another person leaving the ministry (because he has another job; not because he's retiring) is the fellow who ran office trivia contests to support the United Way. I described the first of these contests that I participated in a while back. He held his last trivia tournament this past week.

The games are like Reach for the Top, with four-person teams and a gizmo with a buzzer system. In a contest six months ago, my team and I did well, ending up in a tie with the team that usually wins. The captain of that team, an affable chap named Tim, is fast on the button and knows everything. The rest of his team is just table fodder, maybe getting one answer in per game, as Tim dominates every round.

I missed the first game for this week's contest because I had a lunch date. This was lucky; the person subbing in for me nailed the "Beyonce" category and cinched the win. 

The finals were held on Friday. The way the tournament had worked out was my team had to beat one very strong team in order to face Tim and his table fodder. 

As we played the semi-final round, it felt like the teams, both with captains named Karen, were pretty evenly matched. When the questions were done we all waited anxiously as the quiz master tallied the scores. He said "Karen's team wins." We all howled "WHICH KAREN?!?!"   

My team won by three points.

After a short break, my team faced Tim's. 

Before the match that day, despite there being absolutely nothing at stake, one of my team members fretted that we would be demolished by either Karen's or Tim's teams. I said, "no, we're going to win." I wondered if my power of positive thinking approach would work. 

When you play the buzzer game against Tim, you feel like you're up against a robot. A lot of the time he answers before the whole question has been read. And even when you know the answer, Tim will beat you on the buzzer nine times out of ten.

Sometimes the only break you get against Tim is when the category stumps him. "Beyonce" helped my team beat him on Monday. And, implausibly, on Friday, it was "Movie Catch Phrases." Tim got "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," but my team got eight of the nine other answers in the category, including "Rosebud." When I got that one, I looked across the table at Tim, stunned. "I'm faster on the buzzer than you are?" I couldn't believe it. Tim said it was because I was closer to the control box.

We beat Tim's team by eight points. I can retire undefeated, by Tim.

29 days left.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen


















 

Pretty Epic

That's a very dead Jesus: Detail from The Entombment at the Early Rubens exhibit at the AGO. 

Peter Paul Rubens created the 17th C version of Marvel comics: crowded composition, lavish colours, violent events and larger than life heroes and villains.

Detail from the Drunken Silenus

And he had a nice way of rendering large cats.

Featured in this photo are a group of "bureau-cats" -- the group Hallowe'en costume at the office. As is too often the case these days, there were also zombies. Plus an unauthorized set of antlers.

34 days left.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen