Dec 20 2023 - Homes from the Past

 

We drove to Welland yesterday for Gerry's cataract surgery.  The Welland hospital does most of the eye surgery in Niagara.  It has grown so efficient and effective at cataract surgery that what we entered was an assembly line set of activities. Driving into Welland, I was shocked by what I saw.  Little houses.  Just ordinary little houses.  Bungalows. No monster  "Bungalofts" looming over everything around them.  I was transported back to the 1960s.  That was before the "big house" disease took hold.  Well into the 1970s, houses were built to be lived in.  How do I know this"  My test is that back then, two bathrooms were being included and no longer a luxury. After that?  How many bathrooms should be included to show your status?  One for every bedroom started to become vital.  Maybe it was a premonition that houses should be easily converted into Airbnbs.  Welland looked comfortable and homey, not the seeming reputation as the least attractive and most avoided town in Niagara.  Residents are considered lower income than other parts of Niagara.  The livability score has been low - 53/100.  On the other hand, it ranked 15 in the top 25 communities to live and work remotely in 2021 - in the nation.   So maybe these little houses turn out to be not so bad, and Welland starts to shine as a livable place with its parks and rivers.  It is a bit far out - equal distance from Niagara Falls and St. Catharines and Port Colborne - in the middle of the peninsula.   Looking at an article with "recently listed in Welland" houses - they had houses with prices between $300,00 and $500,000.    Welland, capital of eye surgery and inexpensive housing.  A good combination.  I waited for Gerry and watched all the people exiting their cataract surgery with their plastic eye shield over one eye.  It made me think of a science-fiction assembly line movie scene.

Here's a happy holiday card from the past.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 23 2020 - Something Different

 

I was thinking of this in relation to Christmas vs Monty Python.  Toronto and Peel region have gone into lockdown so there will be no Christmas shopping in stores.  Toronto's Mayor asked shoppers to not flock to malls.  But they did -  it makes me think of flocks of starlings over the vineyards.   All the 'changing the way we shop' articles were written in May and June 2020.  They are too perky.  They don't seem to capture the sense of loss we've experienced.  So much is encased in shopping - meeting with our shop owners and catching up with them, the visual stimulation of the displays, checking out goods that are new and creative, things like this.  We are encouraged to experience the 25 hottest gifts of 2020 that are so going to sell out online?  Let's try. StopWatt - Genius New Tech Slashes Your Electric Bill in Half - A German-based startup company has come up with a new innovative and inexpensive gadget that helps you not only lower your electric bill, but can also increase the lifespan on expensive household appliances. Within just one month, the device would pay for itself. BarxBuddy - Ingenious Device Stops Dog Barking And Makes Dog Happy  - Thanks to painless ultrasound tones, it helps the dog to calm down. He follows like magic.  It is also ideal to protect anyone from unfriendly and aggressive dogs they meet around the world. Just owning it can save you them one of the worst experiences of their life. StankStix - Eliminate Shoe Odor and Bacteria Instead of Covering It Up - Featured on Shark Tank Photostick - Save & Protect All Of Your Photos With 1 Click! FlipFork – The 5-in-1 tool will turn anyone into a grill master. ScreenKlean - Carbon Cleaning Technology Makes Dirty, Dusty Digital Screens Crystal Clear Again. MUAMA Translator - #1 pick: This Device Lets You Speak 43 Languages At The Touch Of A Button. I find this amusing since "holidaymakers, business travellers, and employee" won't be encountering many language barriers while travelling any time soon. So I know we have COVID fatigue when these start to seem intriguing.  This picture is one of my favourites - a Floyd Elzinga sculpture with the overlay of glow stars from aTopaz filter.  He has an open house at his studio this coming Friday and Saturday.  Lots of rust to behold!

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Season's Greetings vs Happy Holidays

Santa has arrived in New Zealand on the Google tracker. I learn yesterday that he left from time zone "whatever." He's already gone through the North Pacific Ocean to stop somewhere in northern Russia with a substantially long name, and then headed to New Zealand. So far he has delivered 21, 627,876 gifts. The Official NORAD Tracker says that Santa will be tracked starting in 5 minutes, 24 seconds.  He seems to be a little later than Google's tracker. NORAD is using New Zealand time. Considering time zones, the first place he would land with a time zone-oriented trip is Samoa and Christmas Island/Kirbati, then the Chatham Islands/New Zealand.  That's where one goes to enjoy the first new year's celebration. The NORAD tracker has Santa already delivering gifts, and he's stopping in Novoye Chaplino Russia. Off he goes! Is it ok to say Season's Greetings instead of Merry Christmas?  We are in the experiential age, so you can go to debate.org to voice your opinion.  It is HERE.  I went to grammarly.com to find out about the social uses of language.  They say that "Happy Holidays" is accepted as the broadest and most inclusive greeting.   If we ask the question of dictionary.com we find out that "Happy Holidays" is in jeopardy as it has taken on a negative tone with the "war on Christmas" - I made a side-trip to rationalwiki.org to find out about this conspiracy theory - it has been around for decades.  It's gotten bigger recently, so poor "Happy Holidays" is trending downward. I continued on the question of Season's Greetings. At dictionary.com is the discussion of  "Season's Greetings" vs "Seasons' Greetings" - they go with "Season's Greetings".  And they indicate it is interchangeable with Happy Holidays, but don't mention the "war". So checking in with NORAD on Santa's journey, the site is very entertaining.  You can rotate the earth as a sphere, and see the real shape of the continents. He's now delivered more than 115,000,000 gifts.  I wondered about the comparison  with Google's tracker - you can compare and contrast HERE.  Another Season's Greetings image today.  Nothing like tobogganing to say Winter.

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Dec 23 Festivus at the North Pole

I hadn't realized today's Christmas tradition originates with Seinfeld.  It comes from Seinfeld writer Dan O'Keefe who based it on a holiday his own father invented in 1966 (it wasn't tied to Christmas in the O'Keefe family - read more HERE). Google's top entry for December 23 traditions comes from Wikipedia:  The non-commercial holiday's celebration, as depicted on Seinfeld, occurs on December 23 and includes a Festivus dinner, an unadorned aluminum Festivus pole, practices such as the "Airing of Grievances" and "Feats of Strength", and the labeling of easily explainable events as "Festivus miracles". Would Norway fall for Seinfeld? It has the tradition of "Little Christmas Eve" on December 23rd. Traditions include decorating the Christmas tree, making a gingerbread house, or eating risengrynsgrøt; a hot rice pudding served with sugar, cinnamon and butter. An almond is hidden in the pudding, and if the almond turns up in your portion, you win a marzipan pig! Some sites report that Norway has the closest town to the geographic North Pole - Longyearbyen - it is 1,310.44 km south of the North Pole.  It is famous for the Doomsday Seed Vault, which is storing every known crop on the planet.   Yet there are different answers for what land mass and town are closest to the North Pole.  That seems unusual, as I thought it would be measurable.  Kaffeklubben Island off the northern coast of Greenland is said to be 700 km from the North Pole.  The nearest permanently inhabited place is reported to be Alert, Nunavut and it is 817 km away.  This would be Santa's market town - his workshop and residence are located at the North Pole - at postal code - H0H 0H0 - not very similar to Alert's at V0N 1A0. And what time would it be at the North Pole? The North Pole lacks a time zone.  Time is determined by longitude. The time of day is more-or-less synchronized to the position of the sun in the sky.  At the North Pole, the sun rises and sets only once per year, and all lines of longitude and hence all time zones, converge. Any time zone can be used there. Celebrating January 1st would be a feat in itself. We continue our Christmas Greetings series today - Niagara's Winter Orchard receives the Northern Lights of Christmas.

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