Four on the Floor

Pride in the Before Times - CPA offices on Bloor Street East,
June 8, 2019

It's Pride Weekend. 

The neighbourhood's vibrating to a four on the floor beat. 

The power keeps cutting out ... only for a couple of minutes at a time, but we lose the Internet and have to reset the clock on the stove. 

According to COVID watchers, we are ramping up for another wave. 

And the United States Supreme Court has had a busy week ...

I guess it's always like this. There's always something to celebrate and dread at the same time. 

I hope the power stays on.

Happy Pride!

Karen

Unlimited

Self portrait with Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Room.
Art Gallery of Ontario, June 16, 2022

With the lifting of all COVID restricitions in Ontario, the world has unfolded like a time lapse video of a blossoming rose. 

Since Saturday, June 11, I have

- attended live theatre (2 Pianos 4 Hands), 

- visited friends for dinner, 

- had a mani-pedi, 

- gone to the periodontist, 

- chaired a condo board meeting (with our band new property management company), 

- attended a yoga class, 

- had tea with my yoga teacher, 

- had dinner out with friends, 

- stood in Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Room at the AGO, 

- visited with a book coaching buddy over drinks in the afternoon and 

- eaten lunch out with friends.

In other words, except for our trips out west and to Ireland, I've done more this past week than I did in the past two years.

But, it's easier to fall into a hole than climb out. Isolating to help fight the pandemic came naturally to me. Now, it's hard for me to be entirely comfortable with all this activity and all these people. I feel awkward and anxious at times. I worry about things, like my grey hair, that I didn't before. I assume this will pass. I'm not looking back.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Hot, Hot, Hot!
What summer in the city feels like
- part of the Faith and Fortune Show
at the AGO. 

 

  

Open Up!

The R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant during Open Doors Toronto, 29 May, 2022

The travel booking aggregator KAYAK is currently running ads on the Internet showing families having hysterical fights because one of them is a “KAYAK denier”, which is a nervy appropriation of a painful cultural wound. But the ads are funny, especially the one with the mom telling her kids, just before she stalks off, to OPEN THEIR EYES. 

Speaking of open wounds, I watched the first episode of the January 6 Committee hearings on June 9. The Committee told us then what we've known all along. January 6 2021 happened because Donald Trump wanted to overturn the results of a free and fair election. 

Video footage showed rioters reading Trump’s tweets aloud, just to dispel any doubts about what motivated them.

But, of course, there will be doubts. Doubts manufactured by disavowals of the process. 

People who lie for a living will accuse the committee of spreading falsehoods. Not everyone will believe the professional liars, but everyone's attention will be focused on those who do, because of our fascination with the idea that nothing is true anymore.

Well, KAYAK is true. So there's one thing to hold onto.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

This week's charcuterie was on Lil Clark's vintage
glass and chrome lazy susan -
so a lazy charcuterie perhaps, or a 
charcuterie susan. 

Ugh

As it was foretold, and because the Liberals and NDP sucked so much, Ford won Thursday's election with 40% of the popular vote, awarding him an even bigger majority in the legislature. 

I missed Dianne Saxe’s post-campaign party last night because I was headed out of town on a train for a birthday party in Belleville. She took 16% of the vote in University-Rosedale, which shows how hard she worked. The Green in my riding got 5%, twice what they won in 2018.

Mike Shreiner, the head of the provincial Green Party, was re-elected to his seat in Guelph.

The standout factoid from this post-pandemic election is that voter turnout was 43.5%. So, more than half of the voting population (who'd heard for weeks that Ford would win a majority) was either unconcerned with the outcome, or happy with the way things are.

That's Right. The Pandemic is Over.

Filmore's (the local strip club) has been slated for demolition, so I'm using other pandemic bellweathers. 

One is Union Station, deserted in May 2020 and 2021, and bustling in May 2022.   

Union Station May 14 2020

Union Station May 14 2021

Union Station May 14 2022

There's also the Eaton Centre:

The first tentative reopening, June 2020

Late on a Saturday, May 2022

And we've had guests, my all-time favourite post-pandemic indicator:

Charcuterie: before

Charcuterie: after

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen