Oct 14 2024 - Snowbird Burdens and Blues

 

It is the season of Snowbird Sob Stories. There are up to 500,000 such stories - that's the number of Canadian homeowners in Florida.   The Friday CBC call in show at noon had the topic of snowbirds and Florida after the hurricane. I wanted to boo-hoo for them and the increase in costs of insurance and house repair.  There is a sense of people living in a fantasy realm where things should be as they want them to be.  Perhaps there is some kind of  snowbird mental freeze.  Like eating ice cream too quickly.  But wait.  The Globe and Mail pops up with a story today that gives me a formal term that might apply here - Kayfabe.  What is kayfabe?  It is a professional wrestling term for staged performances that are combined with real wrestling to give an illusion that everything is real.  It is compared with the "fourth wall" in acting.  As in the "suspension of disbelief".  Maybe Kayfabe applies to quite a few things. Here's the headline that backs me up: "Kayfabe in Postmodernist Heterotopic Society" "Postmodernism challenges traditional narratives and structures, emphasizing the fluidity of meaning and the constructed nature of reality. Heterotopia, a concept introduced by Michel Foucault, refers to spaces that exist outside of regular societal norms, where alternate realities or truths coexist. In today’s postmodernist heterotopic society, kayfabe becomes increasingly relevant as the lines between reality and fiction blur." I think this is a word that is going to get a lot of use.     I found this picture of Niagara-on-the-Lake in Autumn.  I can see the street sign - Gage Street.  This is one of the pretty streets there.  I had to remove all the poles, etc.  And in doing that we can live in the illusion of an old-fashioned town, where things are simpler and calmer.

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May 11 2020 - Snowbirds vs White Mercedes

The Snowbirds flew right over our houses yesterday.  They are heading out west after this.  The Blue Angels and Thunderbirds are doing the same in the U.S. - they flew over New York City and New Jersey for 35 minutes.  We got a 'swoosh' - I was able to get 8 shots so not even 35 seconds. Look at the stunning Canadian Press picture of the flight in Toronto yesterday.  I would expect the photographer Frank Gunn has taken that picture of the skyline from the Toronto Islands a few times.       How fast does a Snowbird jet fly? 190 km/hour - 590 km/hour.  How fast was the 19-year-old driving the Mercedes on the QEW in Burlington on Saturday night?  308 km/hour.  What was he charged with?  Stunt driving and street racing.  Stunt driving carries fines up to $10,000 and six months in jail, and a loss of licence for up to two years. I expect no Mother's Day will never be the same for that family.  Tomorrow is the start of road safety week.  Here' the philosophical quote from the Officer. "You may think you're in control until that moment you're out of control," said Schmidt. You can see that the sky was a flat grey yesterday, so we give thanks to Luminar4 for these California sunsets showing off the Snowbirds' formation.  How far apart are they?  The separation between aircraft can be as little as 1.9 metres in some of the formations.

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