2020 Outtakes

 

Okay, funny stuff from the pandemic...

My favorite delicious irony of the pandemic involves muslim women who choose to wear a niqab here in Canada. It’s a veil and headscarf that covers the nose and mouth – only the eyes are visible. Sound familiar?  To this day, you are not able to get any government services in Quebec dressed like that. Back in 2011 this was a big deal – at a federal level. The Immigration Minister at the time decided it would play well if no one could take an oath of citizenship while wearing a face covering.  Fast forward to June 2020 with COVID rising the Premier of Alberta similarly refuses to force people to wear masks – too scary. Until now when it mandatory to cover your nose and mouth in Alberta. You guessed it! It is all the same guy, Jason Kenney, “It’s illegal to wear…uh, not to wear…” You can’t make that stuff up.

 

In another notable flip flop, travel back to March in an NBA locker room scrum where no one is wearing a mask (you have to see it here) reporters ask the great LeBron James about the craaaaaazy idea of playing in a bubble with no fans. LeBron scoffs, “I ain’t playing…no way”. Great basketball player, very bad at predicting the future.

Reasons for hope...NOT funny...

I find hope for political and social reconciliation when I consider the resilience of the recent past. In 1963 JFK was shot. In 1965 the Watts riots in Los Angeles lasted for five days with 34 deaths. In 1968 Rev. King was assassinated; he would be 91 today. Shortly afterward in 1969 Bobby Kennedy was murdered dealing another blow to civil rights leadership. In 1970 the National Guard shot and killed four students and injured eight others protesting the Vietnam War on the Kent State campus. The military made up a dubious story about a rooftop sniper and student mob that threatened their lives. It is all as unbelievable as what we have witnessed this year and the democratic petri dish survived and moved on.

2020 Christmas Letter

 

David is the one who's kneeling

Our little family has, so far, been blessed through 2020. We have escaped physical and financial harm at the hands of the “gyna-virus” (as Trump would call it). Our worst symptoms have been inconvenience and disappointment. 2020 was challenging for many but still full of joy for us. Maggie and David were engaged. There is footage of this happy occasion on Instagram. We used to call people and force them to use their imagination. The happy couple also both recently switched to new jobs selling technology. We are expecting that Bandit the dog will soon also be a Business Development Rep for some software company. 

Hannah’s work at the TECL lab was changed from interacting with infants into mind-numbing coding of videotaped experiments. The basket of lemons made for some good lemonade. It challenged her to find a way to use a computer and AI software to code the videos. Her breakthrough will hopefully be part of an upcoming academic journal paper as a leading-edge methodology.  We are proud of her we just don’t know exactly what for.

Approaching the holidays, Carolyn spent quite a bit of time volunteering at the Women’s Habitat shelter and food bank. Carolyn has a knack for sorting and organizing, and also a passion for helping people. A food bank warehouse is her dream job. In the Summer and Fall we re-planned our cycle tours to our own backyard in Southern Ontario and discovered hidden gems like Northumberland County. Beautiful rolling hills and panoramic vistas and if you tear up a few hundred dollar bills each night and get a rude innkeeper it feels a lot like France. 

Of course, other families have not been so lucky this year. They have suffered physical and financial hardship and our hearts go out to victims of the virus and its deputies the Covidiots. 

Its hard to say how well we are managing COVID in Toronto. We tend to get Ontario provincial numbers. Actually, It is generally the one number: positive tests today. What I have noticed is that our main goal in Ontario is to be under Quebec’s number. This has its long adversarial history grounded in Montreal’s pro hockey dominance and the Plains of Abraham. 

As a country, Canada is performing quite well. Solid B when you look at cases per million people. We are now leading the Germans who have a fully functioning government and a society that balances rights and responsibilities. Canadians are grumpy but happy to not be entwined in the American political healthcare thing that is like the most tangled set of ear buds that you ever pulled out of your pocket. The U.S. makes us look better than we are.

It's like golf, lower is better

We really should be looking at the A+ performer, our favorite commonwealth comparator, Australia. They have less than 10% of the infection rate per capita in Canada. 

I don’t want a visit from the “Jews will not replace us” crew, but I am dying to ask… dude, if you want to keep the businesses open, why not wear the damn mask? Maybe that’s what they figured out in Australia?

American friends and family often enquired this year whether Canadians are aware of the political situation in the U.S. Rest assured that we are painfully aware of all of it. This theatrical spectacle may be the final area of true American exceptionalism, as it drives the global news cycle. Maggie, Hannah and I all vote and pay taxes as (dual) U.S. citizens. US politics has been the source of a lot of dinner table conversation in 2020. I would describe it using George Orwell’s text from the visionary 1984 “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing”. We are witnessing it happening frame by frame in disbelief, wondering if there is something more that could be done, should be done, beyond our casting a “highly suspicious” mail-in ballot in the state of Vermont.

Vaccines are dawning. Saved by science. For us in 2021 (don’t tell me it will be 2022) it will hopefully mean more time, better time, with our parents and friends. We will cycle tour in places beyond southern Ontario. Hannah will go back to testing and playing with children in the TECL lab on campus. Maggie will work shoulder to shoulder with her new colleagues and plan a socially proximal wedding. Carolyn will flash the billboard smile in public again and hug everyone, including the Women’s Habitat beneficiaries. 

We are not looking forward to seeing you in 2021. We are looking forward to BEING WITH YOU in the new year. Man, I hope it all works. 

For outtakes (aka the 'directors cut') from the 2020 xmas letter go here.

2019 Christmas Letter

The kayak paddles were slapping at the cold chop with the spray coming back at my face. The frothy swells were curling up over the sides of the small boat and the tide was dragging us back toward the mighty St. Lawrence. The dominant, depressing observation was that one hour into this exhausting six hour odyssey - the damn boat was not moving forward. But, Carolyn would be thinking, at least we are not moving backward! Aside from that afternoon on the Saguenay river fjord in Quebec, through most of 2019 the wind and tide were at our backs and we had more than our fair share of fun and good fortune.

Bandit just a little scary

Maggie and David felt lonely in their 1200 sq. ft. bungalow with two cats and a hockey bag. So rather than watch Netflix and post stuff on Instagram – they got a dog. Not an un-serious lap dog either. A decent-sized rescue mutt that Save Our Scruff hauled back from Mexico as a puppy. Young Bandit the unruly puppy filled our house with joy, feces and fear of being nipped.
But, at the time of writing we all still have all our fingers and Bandit is a well-behaved and only slightly fear-inducing pet. Bandit has spent countless hours training her owners both in and out of puppy-owner school and is now enjoying her daily role at Lakefront Graphix with David.

Hannah is enjoying her time as one of the Lost Boys and now knows where everything is at U of T. She is not particularly interested in “growing up” but does graze at the adult buffet from time to time. Namely, she works in a psychology lab on campus – the Toronto Early Cognition Lab trying to divine what very young children are thinking. She also spends a fair bit of time downtown, condo-ing with the boyfriend Callen. He has a distinctly adult lifestyle with a serious job (wears a tie), a car and now, an Instant Pot.

Saguenay Sunset at our Campsite

Carolyn and I tend to plan our holidays around some outdoor activity like the early September trip with friends to cycle Lac St. Jean and guided kayaking on the Saguenay river just north of Quebec City. Despite the hardship and discomfort, we do it because it looks good on Facebook. In 2019 we did that kind of thing in California, Vermont, Lake Louise. Don’t get me wrong, we mostly did it in the Greater Toronto Area but we don’t post that. The formerly broken hip is now working just fine.

Speaking of the hip I am happy to report that Carolyn and Maggie hiked the Appalachian Trail in Vermont for a week in the Summer. That trip was previously scuttled because of my bike accident last July. One year later I was still not recovered enough though to sleep out with the mosquitos, eat bad food, carry 40 lbs all day and forego showering. I may never recover enough to trail hike.

While technically not part of 2019,Carolyn left her job Jan 1, 2020. She is not actively looking for a new gig. She explained that she is “retiring”. At first, I thought that she meant that she was starting to retire, as in, “I am retiring…and it will happen in 2025”. But apparently it is for real, so book your lunch date early and often. I have encouraged her to consider Uber as she is driving around anyway.

Sorry for the delay in getting this annual note out to you all but we are not that busy and you know how hard it is to get stuff done when you are not that busy. On that note, we are not that busy in 2020 and look forward to seeing more of YOU. Carolyn has explained to me that relationships are the key to happiness in retirement. Of course, they are not, it’s money (don’t tell her). So I am still working at Lighthouse Consulting while I figure out how to make writing, cycling and cooking into a well-paid gig.

From our family to yours, all the best in the coming year.