Just Some Thoughts

February 1 is an important day for me. No, it is not a special day with respect to someone's birthday or anniversary or some other reason for which I shall remember this day for a very long time. What it is for me is the end of the month of January in the year of 2016 which is a very key day for me forever. 

In case you don't know what that means for me, it is the end of one year of my misery on the strange disease that I had that hopefully I am beating well now. It does take a long time to recover as much as I can because there is a percentage of my brain power that I have lost and will never be able to recover. I will just have to learn to work around it as I am doing now. 

I wrote this on my Facebook page and I thought that I would repeat it here because it is quite important for me and some of you may not belong to Facebook: 

"Thank heavens that it is February 1.  

Believe it or not but this January was a horrific month for me and also a fabulous one. Thank goodness it is now over and I am still around. 

This January was the one year anniversary of my near-death and then the start of recovery from a very unusual and virtually unknown disease. I survived very well all things considered and I am still getting even better. 

My friendships have become even better as well and I am so pleased about that. Thank you to all of my friends. 

Most of all, my family proved itself fantastic. My wife and kids have looked after me so very well even though they were placed under tremendous pressure because my health and possible success was not known at first. We have become closer and so supportive of each other no matter what. That will definitely last forever between all of us. 

My new life is now starting and hopefully will last for a very long time." 

I really do mean it. My family and friends have been so good to me that I just am in such a great mood all of the time. So thank you very much to everyone who has been so kind to me! 

One of the things that I thought was very interesting that I read about was how poorly our Councillors act or rather, do not act. It does bother me. The approach of their action with respect to approving the budget for the City is quite an example because it is so bizarre in my opinion. It just seems they got this big pile of budget material before the Council meeting to review so that they could approve the budget in the one Council meeting a few days later. Here's what happened with one very large item that I assume no one had prepared for. That made no sense to me. Here is what I read in an article by Doug Schmidt, Windsor Star on: January 28, 2016: 

"City councillors, particularly those representing wards that cater to cafés and bars trying to expand Windsor’s patio culture, are getting their ears chewed off as municipal notices go out of steep increases in licensing and administrative fees for sidewalk cafés. 

And some of those councillors are just as surprised upon discovering what they approved during last month’s budget-making marathon.  

“I’ll admit that I didn’t pick up on it in that big pile of material,” said Ward 9 Coun. Hilary Payne. 

Five councillors admitted they had no idea they voted Dec. 21 to steeply increase sidewalk patio fees, according to a phone survey conducted by the Star Thursday. Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac could not be reached for comment. 

Charging thousands of dollars a year now for a typical sidewalk café — up from a dollar last year — was “not on my laundry list of issues,” said Ward 7 Coun. Irek Kusmierczyk. 

Ward 2’s John Elliott, Ward 5’s Ed Sleiman and Ward 8’s Bill Marra also confessed they weren’t aware that council on budget night reversed a promise made last March to waive sidewalk patio licence fees for the balance of the current council term." 

Here's what Administration stated: 

"administration justified the reversal on waiving sidewalk café fees as necessary in order to help reach another zero-hike budget." 

What a mess don't you think. I find that very surprising considering that the Mayor found $10 million that he added to the budget just before the Council meeting ended. This is what he presented to Council members on budget night at Council: 

"But Mayor Drew Dilkens said the same budget process happens every year, including with former Mayor Eddie Francis. 

“This is something that councillors — certainly, the ones who are complaining the loudest — are very used to,” Dilkens said. “This is what we’ve done for many, many years.” 

I also read a very fascinating article which is part of a book written by Todd Rose that was quoted in the Toronto Star on January 16. The excerpt from the book is quite interesting and you ought to take a look at it all. It dealt with airplane crashes that no one could figure out at the time: 

"In 1950, researchers at Wright Air Force Base in Ohio measured more than 4,000 pilots on 140 dimensions of size, including thumb length, crotch height, and the distance from a pilot’s eye to his ear, and then calculated the average for each of these dimensions. 

Everyone believed this improved calculation of the average pilot would lead to a better-fitting cockpit and reduce the number of crashes — or almost everyone."

 

Unfortunately, the statistics did not accomplish this at all: 

"Before he crunched his numbers, the consensus among his fellow air force researchers was that the vast majority of pilots would be within the average range on most dimensions. After all, these pilots had already been pre-selected because they appeared to be average sized. (If you were, say, six foot seven, you would never have been recruited in the first place.) The scientists also expected that a sizable number of pilots would be within the average range on all 10 dimensions. But even Daniels was stunned when he tabulated the actual number. 

Zero. 

Out of 4,063 pilots, not a single airman fit within the average range on all 10 dimensions." 

Take a look at the rest of the article to see what happened afterwards. It was most fascinating. 

I saw this comment in a Windsor Star article that makes sense to me about the automobile industry and changes being made by Chrysler in the products they are selling. Unfortunately, I just don't see what Chrysler is doing as being a long-term strategy: 

"Fiat Chrysler’s decision to refocus efforts on its popular Jeep SUVs and Ram pickups is a risky strategy that banks on oil prices remaining low, a University of Windsor auto industry expert warned Wednesday. 

“The market is certainly into pickups, SUVs and crossovers at this point in time,” said Tony Faria, co-director of the Office of Automotive and Vehicle Research at the Odette School of Business. “Right now, that would be the market to be in. But I don’t know that you can count on that forever. I would hate to put everything I have on the whole hope that oil prices will remain low forever.” (Grace Macaluso, Windsor Star January 27, 2016) 

Let me just post this sports matter from Blackburn News as my last comment in this article: 

"Spitfires Working With Dwindling Support (Poll)

By Mike Vlasveld January 27, 2016  

The Windsor Spitfires are in first place in the OHL’s West Division, yet are seeing the lowest fan turnout since moving to the WFCU Centre in 2008. 

This season’s average attendance of just over 4,500 per game might seem like a lot to some OHL franchises, but it’s a far cry from the 6,200 seen in Windsor from 2009 through 2011." 

Obviously, what they have to do is get those numbers up if they are to be successful.  That should be an important challenge for them for which they must be very successful.