Signs of Life ... Again

This time last year I remarked on how few people were getting tested at, and how many bees were enjoying the dandelions across the street from, the Women's College Hospital COVID Assessment Centre.

As an indicator of where we are in the pandemic, knowing who's been tested seems out of fashion these days.

The hot new numbers that everyone's talking about are who's got their shot.

Today I joined the ranks of the max-innated and had my second shot of Pfizer at St. Michael's hospital. 

I haven't been across the street from Women's College in a long time, but I'm in the Allan Gardens almost every day, where the flower beds are lavish and cheerful. 

Now that it appears that we are on the way to vaccinating our way out of this, I'm going to stop leading this blog with photos from past posts. 

Next week, a working trip to Peru in 1997.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen  

Bunch of Yahoos ... Again (But Not For Much Longer)

I'm still waiting for my micro-chip - May 16, 2020, signs by Queen's Park.

This time last year, with COVID stretching infinitely before me, I reported on my conversation with an anti-masker on the lawn in front of the provincial legislature, and shared how food unexpectedly arrived at our doorstep, not once but twice, because of the pandemic. 

I needed to tell these stories because the virus was a novel force in my life.

I'm over that. As are, I expect, all of you.

Doug Ford and Friends have announced the re-opening plan for Ontario. As usual, it looks different from everything that has come before it, is complicated in a way guaranteed to confuse at least some of the people expected to comply with it, and, this time, errs on the side of caution. 

The plan relies on vaccination rates (if X% of the population has a shot, then Y activities will be allowed for the next 21 days), putting the carrot of a better summer under the noses of the vaccine hesitant. If all goes as planned, I'll be on a patio with three friends by the middle of June and having my hair cut by mid-July. First or second week of August, I'll have guests over for dinner. 

Whew. What a long haul this has been. But at least the end is in sight. 

Thanks for reading!

Happy Victoria Day!

Karen

An Obvious Metaphor ... Again

Union Station 2020 (Friday, May 15, 4:20 p.m.) 

Union Station 2021 (Friday, May 14, 3:00 p.m.)

Last year, I wrote that Donald Trump was a virus.

This year, maybe I can say that Joe Biden is the vaccine, especially since so many Republicans are refusing to take him.

But, a Trump variant has emerged, so there's no reason to think this is over.

***

Closer to home, while Torontonians may not be able to golf or get a drink on a patio, this May's lock down looks a lot different than last May's.

Last year, the streets and sidewalks were empty. 

Not so much this year.

Corner of Queen West and Bay, Friday May 14, 3:10 p.m.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Bruce doffs his cap to the art installation at 
Union Station, May 14, 2021. 

 

 

No Longer a New Normal ... Again

This time last year, I reported I was social distancing in my dreams. Last night, no word of a lie, I dreamed that the lockdown was over. 

I went to the gym, saw my yoga teacher, hugged her and wept.

Next, Bruce and I attended a wedding. I left him to sit alone at the table while I picked a fight about a soiled tablecloth with one of the serving staff. She tried to shame me in front of everyone. But I knew I was right and no one paid her any attention.

Bruce says I need to lay off the Kool Aid before bed.

Nothing's Going on Now ... How About in 1990?

In November, 1990, I sent a short note to the Jewinskis about law school:

... I just keep on sopping up more and more of the law on the understanding that it will someday do me some good.... [but], the more you look at the law, the more it disappears. It's pretty well arbitrary, all of it, and the only thing more chilling that what Lord Haldane (see fun facts below)* did to the Canadian constitution (when it was just the British North America Act) is that people actually believe we still have to take his decisions seriously. Weird. Why not just say, "Haldane was a maniac operating under insane misconceptions more than 100 years ago. His decisions were bunk and they've messed up the country long enough. Let's make our own arbitrary decisions based on our own misconceptions and when they, too, become injurious to the country, let someone else strike them down and start again."

But that would make the law seem capricious, I've been told, so we pretend that Lord Haldane wasn't saturated with laudanum when he decided that the provincial powers were the only thing that really mattered to Canada. You can see from this how people like [Donald Trump]** get their feet in the door. Everyone is so busy being REASONABLE, that truly crazy people have nothing stopping them. And their whimsy becomes the law. 

Some things haven't changed.

Thanks for reading!

Stay cheerful!

Karen

* As Lord Chancellor, Haldane was a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, at that time the court of last resort for the Empire. He sat on several cases from Canada dealing with the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments under the Canadian Constitution. He... showed a marked tendency to favour the provincial powers at the expense of the federal government.... 

The effects of some of these decisions have subsequently been modified, but they have had the long-term effect of recognizing substantial provincial powers.

Haldane's approach to the division of powers was heavily criticized as unduly favouring the provinces over the federal government and depriving it of the powers needed to deal with modern economic issues. More recently, one major study has characterised him as "the wicked stepfather" of the Canadian Constitution.^[53]

** Clearly I did not say Donald Trump in the letter. I said Hitler and Saddam Hussein, but, in the 21st century, those two sound a little dated when there are far fresher examples to use of over-powerful maniacs.

Your reward for reading the fine print:

Just Before the Second Wave Hits ... Again and Again

This time last year, I photographed a fallen tree in Queen's Park. Under lockdown, parks staff stayed at home, like the rest of us, their chain saws and wood chippers idle. 

I wondered in my blog post then about what seemed to me like a narrowly-focused policy reaction to the pandemic, attacking one problem (the virus) by creating loads of others. Recalling the words about the effects of the lockdown from a post a couple of weeks ago: 

we’re dealing with mental health, we’re dealing with despair, we’re dealing with broken lives, we’re dealing with overdoses, we’re dealing with domestic abuse, we’re dealing with child abuse... 

I also predicted Doug Ford's love affair with public opinion wouldn't last. It didn't.

But a year ago I could not imagine that, a whole year later, new COVID cases would number in the three thousands a day, nor that we would, in almost every other respect, be in exactly the same predicament. 

Leaf buds by the Necropolis, Cabbagetown.

Well, not exactly the same predicament. About forty per cent of Ontario adults are vaccinated, and a tsunami of shots is on its way. By the end of May, all you'll need for a jab in Ontario anymore is an 18th birthday and an appointment. 

A robin in a blooming forsythia bush - it just doesn't get more like Spring.

Another sign that things have changed is, last year, there weren't influential publications talking about a Roaring-20s-like boom once we've ridden the virus out of town on a needle. 

While that sounds like fun, we should remember that the 20s ended with the Great Depression, and that the Great Depression ended with WWII.  

So, while I'd like to imagine that the pandemic will end Doug Ford's political career the same way it ended Trump's, I'm not going to look for any other happy, historical parallels. 

Real life doesn't work like that. At least I hope it doesn't.

Thanks for reading!

Have great week!

Karen