My Next Series Of Stories

As you know, dear reader, one of the things that I like to do is introduce my new series of stories by posting something at the beginning that deals with my own personal matters. I have to admit that I hope that it does not bore you. If it does, I suspect that what you would do is just skip it and go to the series of articles that I usually add that I believe are important to discuss.

Usually, what I set out are circumstances in which I am involved. They are not all that dramatic but involve personal matters in which I have participated. I set them out for you, dear reader, because I feel that something similar could impact you at some time so I want to let you know how I have reacted. I am hopeful that it is helpful to you.

Here is another story in which I have been involved along with members of my family. I am just so thrilled by how I have been treated and why as I just experienced. I want to let you know about it and hope that you may appreciate something similar taking place with you.

For many years now, my family has shopped at the Real Canadian Superstore on Dougall Avenue. I believe that it changed names a number of years ago to what it is now but I cannot remember its previous name. We shop there, even though we have moved into Tecumseh, because it was very close to where we lived before. Believe it or not, and notwithstanding the distance, it is still the place where we go once a week to buy our groceries. We do this even though there are many grocery stores located where we live in Tecumseh.

To be direct, we go to RCSS even though it is a much further away from where we live now because it is by far the best grocery store in this entire area as far as I am concerned. Plus, it provides excellent groceries at some of the lowest costs around including matching prices of other competitive, low-cost grocery stores. Thus, even if we use a bit more gas for going there, we still save quite a bit.

Again, my illness probably helped me out. Even though I had gone there quite often before when I lived in Windsor, things changed after my family and I moved to Tecumseh. Obviously, I did not go there for a very long time because I literally could not do much for quite some time as I recovered from my illness.  As I felt better, I started going again to RCSS for Saturday shopping. For some reason this time, something new started. I started meeting employees who worked there a lot more often. We actually started talking to each other even if it was merely "Hello" or "How are you today?"

And then one day, a remarkable event took place. As we had finished doing our shopping in the fruit and vegetable departments, we started going to another section of the store. However, before we left this department, for the first time ever, one of the employees ran up to us and asked us if we had bought a bag of potatoes that they were selling at a huge discount price of $1. 

I could not believe that he did that. It had never happened to me before. I was shocked, but with joy. I was so happy even though that probably does not make much sense to you, dear reader. I thought about it all the time that I was in the store that day and I still think about it every time we go back. In fact, I always ask to see if he's around when we return just so that I can say "hello" to him.

The first day, when this happened, we spoke with each other for about 10 minutes. Oh, it was not about personal matters, but just talking about things that had just arisen because of his wonderful gesture. I felt that he made me so "special" a person by treating me so wonderfully. He went out of his way to do me a favour, even if it was only to save me a few dollars. Now, when we go back to the store, we make sure that we try to see him again just so that we can chat again with a gentleman who has been so kind to us.

I should tell you that, when we meet, he will ask us if we are looking for anything special on that day. If we do happen to mention something to him, he will go to the back of the store to see if he can find something that meets our needs perfectly!  He also tells about something that he thinks that we should purchase and offers us the product. He has taken that on as his new responsibility. We are so happy about how he has made us feel. 

We all do speak with him now on some "non-grocery" matters for a short period of time and enjoy every minute of doing so. We do not get too "personal" in our discussions because it is probably not a smart idea to do so. We just enjoy our time together.

Not to make a big deal about it, we are having better conversations now with a number of the RCSS employees there that we see and have dealt with over a number of years. Nothing intense but just greeting each other now and making sure each other is in good spirits.

I am so pleased with what is happening now in my life!

ST. CLAIR COLLEGE STUD

I must admit that I was shocked by what I thought the language was in a Windsor Star story. Oh, it was not really that offensive but it seemed to me to be in poor taste for a newspaper such as this one.

Here's what I saw in the column on the left hand side of the Windsor Star News, All News page:

I saw this news story reference too:

I was rather shocked to be honest about that language.  Nevertheless, I went to that page to see what it was about. Thankfully, it was not at all what I thought. Here is the actual headline of that story:

Here is something else that is interesting. I also saw this short-form of the story title on a different Star page. Why it could not be used all over is beyond me: 

I trust that the Star will be a little bit more careful with what is shown on their various webpages in the future.

PERHAPS HE WILL NOT RUN FOR MAYOR IN WINDSOR

I have to tell you, dear reader, that is the conclusion that I have now reached. I am not sure if I am accurate or not, but I cannot see any reason why Fred Francis would be running for Mayor after what Gord Henderson wrote in his Saturday column on February 17, 2018 in the Windsor Star.  

I must admit that, until now, I just assumed that Drew Dilkens was not going to run again for Mayor but was going to get some other job. I did not know what that job was going to be but I thought that it would be at a very nice salary. I thought that he would wait until the last minute to let everyone know that he was not going to run and that was when Fred Francis would announce that he was going to run.  For anyone else to make a decision to run for Mayor at that late stage probably made little sense so it would be easy for Francis to be elected. Of course, after only one term of Councillor, it was similar to the time when his brother became Mayor for the first time.

What made me doubt my own earlier reaction about Dilkens was the number of steps that he was taking these days to improve his image rather dramatically I thought. You can remember that long column that Dilkens wrote a short time ago which started me really doubting my previous thought about his future.  I wrote about it here on my webpages and said the following:

"MAYOR DILKENS REACTS

One has to wonder if Mayor Dilkens will be running for re-election or will he be going somewhere else for a job with the new Mayor in Windsor possibly being the brother of former Mayor Francis who is in Council now.

I must admit that I thought that the Mayor was not going to run again. I figured he was going elsewhere to work with a high paying job. I must admit also that I did not know exactly where he would be going. Not giving us a decision early on just seemed to me to be nothing more than to make it easier for Francis to run and minimize the amount of time that someone could run against him.

However, I also note that the Mayor is talking a lot about his view of Windsor. In fact, he just posted on Facebook a very long letter about Windsor's downtown to counter a letter posted against the downtown. It seems to me that what he did certainly would support him if he was running for Mayor again because it glorifies all of the supposedly wonderful stuff he has done for the Windsor downtown."  (February 12, 2018, Time For Some More Articles) 

It is now absolutely definite to me at least, dear reader, that Drew Dilkens is going to run to be re-elected as Mayor.  More importantly, it means that Fred Francis will be running again to be Councillor for his 2nd term.  There may be a number of reasons for that decision being made. Let us see if something more definite happens in the future to help us know why he will only run for re-election for his elected Councillor position today.

The Henderson column was quite fascinating I thought and led me to my decision. Just look at these comments in his story:

"Krutsch, a likeable straight-talker who has studied the Grand Marais drainage course off and on for nearly three decades, took strenuous exception to the column’s claim (my hyperbolic indulgence) that the drain was “filled almost to the brim” following the storm and, quoting Coun. Fred Francis, that the data underpinning the park proposal was no longer relevant…

“I don’t think (the linear park) is a dead project. It’s just not a higher priority given the priorities through the sewer master plan,” said Winterton. In other words, it’s gone to the back of what could be a very long queue.

Mind you, if the project has lost the support of its most ardent political backer in Francis, who remains deeply skeptical of its post-storm viability, insisting he would need fresh technical proof, then it’s as good as dead."

If Francis could not get his project through, then how can he ever be elected as Mayor now? It means to me that he is not that powerful a political figure so far in his career so how can he be elected to the most Senior Position in Windsor.  It means to me that he will need another 4 years to grow up before he dares think again about running for the mayoral position.

One might want to think about something else, dear reader. There could be a major political disaster that takes place after the 2018 election. Why would Francis need that and be forced to handle it? 

As an example, what if a decision is made not to build the new hospital that is being proposed right now? I can see that happening since the size of the new hospital is not all that large. Accordingly, what is the purpose of just having only one major hospital for this entire region? Its size as described now, in my opinion, is too small for the number of people who are requiring hospitalization care with all of the medical issues going on these days. The issues will only get worse as the population here is more senior and since the greater number needs more hospital care in larger facilities.

What I can see happening is the cancellation of the new hospital building or, alternatively, its postponement for a good many more years while more study is done about what Windsor and the entire area around here requires. Can you imagine if you were Mayor and had to handle that situation!

Given all that, here is what I need to say about what is going to happen for the municipal election this year:

"Congratulations, Mayor Dilkens. That is why you are going to be allowed to be re-elected."