My Newest Blog

Labour Day was here and that means that the summer will just be about over. The children will be back to school and most people will be back at work full-time now after their holidays have been completed.

I have to admit that my life is a lot different now. Even though I did not work for an employer for a number of years, nevertheless I was literally working full-time and more on some of the projects in which I participated. As an example, I provided assistance to a US computer firm which was a subsidiary of a major Asian computer company. I reviewed their products and commented on them and even helped them look for new products in which to build their business. Of course, I am sure that you remember all of my website writing that I did for so many years.

As you know, dear reader, I don't "work" anymore. That ended several years ago when I was hit by that weird and virtually unknown disease that has changed the way I live today. I no longer have the obligations that I had before to meet the objectives that I was given and which I accepted. That produced a number of duties on me I had to fulfill. Fortunately, I really did enjoy "working" at the tasks in which I participated.

Even though my life has changed dramatically now, I still do a lot that fills up my day, every day. Sure, I don't have an obligation to work five days a week from 9 to 5 for an employer, but I still have duties that I must carry on every day to help out at home.

It may surprise you but I still kept the obligation on myself to write articles on here for you to read. To be honest, I do it primarily to keep my "brain" operating as best as it can after the changes that were made to it because of my illness. Yet, I loved doing it before and still am so keen to do it now. I want to attract attention to give people my views as to what is happening these days. I still put the duty on myself to write as good a story as I possibly can and then require that it be reviewed before it is posted on my website.

I still look for tasks that I can perform to assist others. I still think about initiatives that others should consider and offer of my ideas as to how they can be done. I want to do so many things that keep my brain working but my approach is so much different now than it was before.

I don't have the faintest idea of what I will be doing in the future. I really only look at what may happen to me "today" because I do have some control over this. At last, I have learned that what may happen "tomorrow" is something that I know very little about now so I have changed my way of approaching matters.

Now here is something that I must do "now." It is my latest article for your reading enjoyment.

FIREFIGHTERS EN ROUTE

I live in Tecumseh and just saw this story today. I had never heard of it before and was not aware of it:

"in Tecumseh, the fire department is reminding motorists to pull over or yield if they see flashing green lights.

In Ontario, volunteer firefighters can place flashing green lights in their vehicles if they are responding to an emergency call. The lights are meant to signal to other motorists that they are travelling to an emergency.” (Rob Heydari, CBC, April 28, 2017) 

There is no legal requirement for people to pull over if such a vehicle is behind them. Moreover, it does not appear from the story that a siren is involved probably because this is not an "official" fire department vehicle.

While I appreciate why this is being done, I am strongly opposed to it. At least at this stage!

After all, until now, I've never heard of this before. In my opinion, it does nothing to help people who are rushing to go to the fire department. Unfortunately, I also believe that it may cause problems if the driver of the vehicle assumes that others understand what is going on. That person might take steps that could result in an accident if the other drivers do not respond as expected.

In my opinion, if this is supposed to carry on, then significant steps have to be taken to educate the public in Tecumseh about what is going on so that they can act properly. However, my concern is that this action will not help very much. Too many of the drivers who are driving in the roads here are not necessarily residents of Tecumseh. They probably would have no real idea about what the green light on the vehicle means. Accordingly, they may not react as the volunteer fire department driver believes. There could be a significant problem that arises because of this giving rise to a traffic accident.

Over a year has gone by it would appear. It would be interesting to know how well this process has worked, whether there have been any problems, and if so, what were they and how they have been overcome.

STARBUCKS CHINA

Seriously, who would believe that the largest Starbucks outlet is not in the United States but rather is set up in China. I saw a story about it but it did not give the reason why it is located there.

Take a look at this comment about its size:

"... the largest Starbucks in the world, which offers a high-end experience in a flashy building spanning nearly 30,000 square feet…

There are only two Starbucks Reserve Roastery outlets in the world: one in Shanghai and the other in Seattle where the company is headquartered.” (Uptin Saiidi, CNBC, August 23, 2018) 

I assume that it is so large there because of the population in China and so that it can attract people who will purchase from Starbucks at its usual facilities in other areas afterwards.

Who knows, we may see similar operations in other countries one day although I did not see Canada mentioned:

"The coffee giant already has plans to open more outlets globally in locations such as Milan, Tokyo, New York and Chicago.”