When Will Warm Weather Arrive

A few days of much warmer weather have been predicted by different Weather authorities. Unfortunately, on a number of occasions already, we did get the warm weather, but the weather outside was terrible because it often rained or felt quite cold on that day because of the wind. Accordingly, I stayed in the house, again!

I saw a weather forecast recently that suggested that the month of March might not be all that attractive either. That means more staying inside the house for me. I have to admit that I was hoping for something a lot more different as I am sure you can imagine.

Even now I am hardly someone who can handle cold weather easily. I am just not someone who can get dressed up so well that I can go for a walk in the area for a relatively long period of time. That is not something I can do and I have no intention of trying it out either.

I can hardly wait until springtime comes and, with it, warmer weather. I will really like going outside then and watching the grass turning beautifully green. I am looking forward to seeing the leafs starting to fill up all of the trees around here. Can you imagine seeing so many beautiful skies with no rain or snow clouds in them. Naturally, I will have my camera and take more pictures of all the flowers as they start to come out and then bloom.

I am looking forward to going outside again as happened so much in the last few years as my illness declined and really enjoying my life in a much different way than I did before. It may seem silly, dear reader, if you see me on the streets just staring into the sky to look at its blue colour or to see big, fluffy clouds floating over my head.  As I may have mentioned to you before, I really do not remember doing that very much in all of my previous "life." It is just something that is so important for me to do today. And I truly intend to do it and to love doing it!

While it is still so cold, let me offer you some stories to read so that you can pass the time until spring arrives.

MORE BORDER NOISE

The New York Times just did a story about the noise that comes across to Windsor from somewhere in Detroit. So far, apparently, they do not know the source of that noise that bothers people so much. 

Every so often, a story about this subject is printed and even with the negative results, no action seems to be taken to figure out what the cause is and how to stop it.

Is this really why nothing is happening:

"Seeking intervention by government regulators for the hum is difficult because regulations typically address decibel levels that can lead to hearing loss or damage, not those that can affect quality of life, Rebecca Smith, a sound engineer and doctoral student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who researches urban noise, wrote in an email." (Christopher Mele, NewYork Times, February 19, 2018)

There has been one theory about this that has been expressed on a number of occasions:

"The University of Windsor report said the hum’s likely source was blast furnace operations on Zug Island on the Detroit River, which is densely packed with manufacturing. Activists complained that United States Steel, which operates the furnaces, has been uncooperative and secretive. A company spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment."

Regretfully, nothing seems to be done whatsoever in relation to this problem. Anyway, who cares about all this stuff:

"It’s possible that no matter what is done to relieve or attenuate the noise, it might never be enough,” 

Tough luck then to people who are impacted by it because no one seems to want to do anything about it. Just think, it may never be solved.

INFORMATION ABOUT CANADA'S MILITARY POSITION

I just read a very interesting story about:

"2017 Military Strength Ranking 

The complete Global Firepower list for 2017 puts the military powers of the world into full perspective" around the world." (Globalfirepower.com)

The story that I read was on MSN completed by BusinessInsider writer Christopher Woody on February 26, 2018: 

"These are the 25 most powerful militaries in the world — and there's a clear winner"

Naturally, I am not that naïve.  I knew that Canada was not in the #1 position but I expected that we did pretty well. Accordingly, I went through the list so I could let you know, dear reader, what our position was. Amazingly, I was shocked! We were not on that list whatsoever!

That is the reason why I went to the main website of the Company that did the work to find out where Canada was. I calmed down a little bit once I found out what our position was. Sure, we were not in the Top 25 list but, believe it or not, we were #26. Hopefully, we might be able to do something a little bit better next year so that we can be part of that Top 25 list. Or, is it much better if we go into a much lower position? I will let you decide that for yourself, dear reader.

By going to the complete Website about Canada, you will see quite a bit information. I will just give you the topics that were provided that you might want to look up for yourself: the total number of military personnel, Aircraft, Navy and Army strength, our petroleum reserves, the size of our labour force, road and rail coverage lengths, financing items and geographic values.

Just in case you are wondering, the country that was in the #1 position was the United States. And, if you wondered how much their Defense budget was, it also was #1 being the amount of $587.8 billion! By comparison, in Canada, which was #16 for this item, $15.5 billion was spent. 

Could this be why the Americans sometimes experience financial difficulties?  

A COMMENT FROM WINDSOR'S MAYOR

I will let you, dear reader, try and understand what this comment from the Mayor means, and also what impact it may have:

"Obviously, being in the Windsor area we rely on our ability to go across the border seamlessly and frequently. People buy groceries over there, people go shopping for the day over there." (Craig Pearson, Windsor Star, February26, 2018) 

It seems to me that he's telling people over here that owning a retail business in our area may not be all that smart an idea considering that so many Canadians shop in the US instead.  Yet, is he right in what he is saying since what he is describing has carried on in this area for many years and we still have a successful retail market here? Just go out to some of the retail grocery stores in our area and see what I mean.

I will let you make that decision on your own.