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Every morning I get up fairly early to get my day started. It is something that I have done for so many years.

One of the obvious reasons that I do that even now is that my start time at my various employers was relatively early as well in the morning. In Toronto, my various houses were a fair distance from my employers' offices. Although I was allowed to drive there and even park there in a company site, usually, I took the TTC there and back. It just meant that I had to get up early, eat a breakfast and then catch a bus and streetcar to go to work on time. In Windsor, I had a car that I really had to drive to work since the auto company was my employer but again I started working early in the morning.

I am still used to do things early. I just like doing it to be honest. After all, these days I can look outside early in the morning and see what my day will be like. It means that I can get ready for an early morning walk around the neighbourhood if the weather is pleasant. Nothing is better than heading out early on the weekend to our grocery store to buy our weekly requirements and to pay our grocery costs before the mobs of other customers get there.

In the past, I used to go to bed quite late at night because I was doing so much work. The number of hours that I slept were not overly long but were quite sufficient for my needs at that time. Now, after my serious illness, I find that I go to sleep pretty early every evening. I sleep relatively well except that I get up very early in the morning but stay in bed until breakfast time. What I am doing now is trying to stay up a bit later so that I can sleep later.

I am very happy with my timetable these days. I am living my new life now. It will be interesting to see where it leads.

Now for some new stories to report to you, dear reader.

FORD CITY PROJECT

What a nice story:

“Ford City’s recent revival will be kicked into overdrive by a newly crafted incentive plan, say excited boosters of the long-downtrodden neighbourhood.

“This is the firepower, this is real dollars, the carrot to (attract) real changes, the brick-and-mortar changes the neighbourhood needs,” Ford City Neighbourhood Renewal co-ordinator Karlene Nielsen-Pretli says of the much-anticipated draft Ford City Community Improvement Plan. If approved by council, this recently completed CIP would spur new investors to start up businesses and existing property owners to rejuvenate dilapidated buildings and build on vacant lots that have been neglected for years, she said.” (Brian Cross, Windsor Star, September 9, 2018)

Now that is a very nice story isn't it! Well, maybe not if one looks at these additional lines in the story:

“Ward 5 Coun. Ed Sleiman, who made the original motion calling for a Ford City CIP several years ago, believes it will do a “fantastic job” sparking development.

“I can feel my heart fluttering, seriously. I’m very happy with it,” he said.”

Hmm, I wonder why it took so long to bring this forward. Oh, it is being presented right before the election isn't it. Now perhaps this is why it is not that much of a surprise and why a Councillor can be so pleased right now.

ANOTHER ISSUE

Here is an issue about which some of the Windsor election candidates are silent for some reason.

Anne Jarvis of the Windsor Star wrote an interesting column on September11, 2018:

"The issue the candidates aren't talking about”

The column is a very large article on the following topic:

“It’s the opioid crisis and the epidemic of homeless people overwhelming downtown and spreading across the city.”

I will let you, dear reader, read that column for yourself. The reason though that I am bringing it to your attention has to deal with this short comment by Ms. Jarvis right near the end of the column:

“So where are the candidates? Mayoral candidate Matt Marchand says his downtown platform “is coming.” Ward 1 candidate Fred Francis works downtown. But so far, his platform doesn’t mention homelessness.

City council’s first duty is to care for our citizens. Political will can solve this.”

Can you figure out why she mentioned the brother of the former Mayor at the end of the story? Probably few people will go down that far anyway to read this column so it may not impact Fred Francis personally too much. At least, not right now

Why just him (and also Matt Marchand) and not so many of the other people who run for Council? After all, there are:

"50 candidates for mayor and city council”

Could this be a warning to Eddie Francis to make sure that his brother's campaign smartens up a bit and deals with matters that she believes are important? If not, is this her warning that she would go after him otherwise?

More Stories For You

Did the weather ever get cold out recently! What a switch and so quickly too.

No, we are not in the "freezing zone" yet. However, temperature has dropped significantly from the hot weather this summer. It just feels cold out now compared with what we experienced for so many days in the summer.

Interestingly, the weather really dropped right at the beginning of Fall. Honestly, I think that this is Mother Nature having fun with us. It will be interesting to see how long it takes before we start feeling below freezing temperatures. Heck, who wants to see snow falling soon? Not me for sure!

I don't know if you will remember last year but autumn seemed to last for a very long time then. My biggest memory was the leaves taking forever to fall off of the trees last year. They just seemed to stay on much longer than I can ever remember. It will be interesting to see if that happens again this year or not.

I thought that I read somewhere, but cannot find it now, that temperatures were supposed to be getting much warmer in the summer over the next four years. If that is true, that might explain why the leaves will not fall down as early as I have always expected.

It doesn't matter though. There's nothing that any of us can do about it anyway.

However, what I can do is write about something that interested me and which I hope you will enjoy as well. It told me a lot about how some people carry on business

WILL GROCERY PRICES INCREASE NEXT YEAR

Of course they will! In my opinion, they will rise dramatically higher amongst all of the major grocery company store chains since you will not see companies competing all that strongly against each other, on prices anyway.

I have noticed that a lot of the prices seemed to increase this year. Oh, don't ask me which prices I am talking about. I don't have any specific information on that because I have not done any work to try to figure out which prices I mean. 

It just feels that way to me because I have been commenting often to members of my family rather negatively about the higher prices I see in the stores for products we like and which we buy. Moreover, when looking at the advertisement materials put out by the stores, it seems to me that the prices set out are not so many "sales" prices for which I would hope to see but rather are the usual prices for that particular product.

To be direct about it, it just bothered me for so long. However, there may well be an explanation of what has happened this year and what is absolutely going to happen next year. To our detriment unfortunately I believe.

This is my point of view: the grocery chains need cash and may not compete by lowering prices on a lot of their products to get more sales. All that will happen to the price of the product dropped by one chain, if that happens, is that the other chains will drop their prices as well. So what is the point! They will all receive less cash with probably no increase in market share.

Now you might wonder how I can say that. It's easy. Take a look at this article that I just saw recently:

“The CEOs of three of Canada's major grocery chains doubled down on their expectation that food prices will soon rise at their stores.” (Aleksandra Sagan, Canadian Press, Sept 18, 2018)

Honestly, you must read this article. You have the Heads of three of the major grocery chains talking together in public in a meeting. They are telling you what you probably can experience over the next significant time-period.

I cannot believe some of the things they say about price increases:

"Metro CEO Eric La Fleche said consumers should eventually see a return to more normal inflation levels…

The company, which is the parent to grocery chain Sobeys Inc., held off on raising prices for some time, he said, but is now reviewing these tariff-related costs.

Empire will pass the extra costs on to consumers where it makes sense in the market, he said, adding it will be careful not to give away any market share…

Loblaw CEO Galen Weston...predicted food inflation of one- to 1.5-per cent, which he said is in the normal range as opposed to higher range in the five to six per cent level.”

Come on, aren't they telling you how they expect to price in the future? And, just as importantly, aren’t they telling their competitors what they're going to do so everyone knows!

Then, they talked about their delivery service. It is something now that is a new competitive tool for these three companies:

“The chief executives also outlined their respective plans to grow their e-commerce business, specifically home delivery. Canada's grocers have been slow to offer delivery, but ramped up their efforts after Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market last year."

There they are in public telling everyone what they are going to do and how they are going to do it. 

All of this is very interesting to me

It’s All Over

I just have to write and post this article now. It is shorter than other ones that I usually prepare but I think it is necessary for me to set out my point of view right away. I hope you will understand what I mean once you have finished reading it.

[Yawn] I have to admit that I expected this to happen. It was so funny reading all the media articles setting out the disputes amongst the three Governments involved for so long. It may not surprise you now why I have not written much about this subject considering what I believed was always going to be the result.

As you know, Canada and the United States have just agreed to the Trade Agreement between them late at night on September 30. It might have been the last night when these two Parties could have negotiated something final between them in the near term. The Americans had already completed a transaction with Mexico which was something that was never expected because of the Three Party agreement previously signed. It was therefore absolutely necessary that Canada do a deal with the Americans or else Canada could be in big trouble.

Oh my, what a difficult position for the Government of Canada. A failure to come up with a deal together could possibly ruin this country economically.

I will let you, dear reader, do your own reading of what this Agreement is all about and what changes were made with respect to the old one. 

Do you think that it was really that hard for all the parties to get an Agreement among them and then sign it? Or, maybe you might want to think that what took place was just a big game that certain politicians from different countries wanted to play to get the public onside for their own benefit in this and in other areas as well.

Just think about it. Here is an interesting comment I saw about two of the Governments that might explain why this transaction was completed now and perhaps why it was always going to be signed now:

“Mexico wants a deal signed before Dec. 1, when the new Mexican administration takes over, and the Trump administration wants the current, Republican-controlled Congress to vote on the deal quickly, given a potential change in control after the November midterm elections.” (Alan Rappeport,  New York Times, September 30, 2018)

What about Canada you might think? Oh please, don't you know now that this is a nice prize that Canada's PM has just won. With all of the negativity around Trudeau for the past while, this is a great victory for him and his Party the way it is being set out by the media. Oh sure, the next election in Canada is scheduled for October, 2019 but it can always be called earlier by the Government.

Think about it, dear reader. Wouldn't it be a fantastic idea for the Government with all the wonderful publicity around it right now to call an election relatively soon in order to be re-elected! Why would it want to wait for such a long period of time to give the Opposition Parties a chance to build themselves up when they are so weak now and could be defeated relatively easily.

There you have it, dear reader. I just don't have the time, or the desire, to write much on this topic anymore.

Brrr, Getting Colder Out Now

Yes, it is getting chilly outside now. Oh sure, some of the temperatures are in the 60s which is not all that bad but it sure feels a lot different than the summer temperatures that we had a short time ago that were in the high 80s, low 90s.

We are also approaching our Thanksgiving and people are obviously going out to buy good food to celebrate the holiday at their family gatherings. It should be a lot of fun very soon.

There are lots of things going on politically as well. We are approaching the municipal elections voting time in our area. I wonder who will be elected this time around. Fortunately, in my area some of the key people were acclaimed and there is a good election campaign going on for one of the key positions. In the City of Windsor, it is a horrific mess as far as I'm concerned. There are a lot of people running, especially for re-election, whom I could not support and for whom I would not vote. Yet, I'll be surprised if any of them lose office.

The fight going on between United States and Canada over NAFTA was settled late last night but what other fights will there be? 

Politically in Canada it would not surprise me if a federal election was called earlier than expected. There is no doubt in my mind that this will happen since the Federal Liberal Government got a satisfactory solution with the US. It gives something for Trudeau to brag about. A "plus" factor like this along with Opposition leaders who are not all that well known would make it much easier for him to be re-elected now rather waiting for the "official" election timeperiod.

Do you see what I mean? While it may be rather cool outside, inside sitting at my computer and dictating new stories makes things very hot here.

Here are some of the stories now.

BUYING A HOUSE

Have you seen how house prices have risen so dramatically over the last little while? I just cannot believe the size of the increase. Mind you, I have seen this dramatic increase happen before in the past so what is taking place now does not really surprise me. Nevertheless, I understand how difficult it may be for people to afford what is going on now in the marketplace.

Take a look at this quote:

"Canada’s housing affordability has reached its worst level in 28 years and is bound to deteriorate even further, say Royal Bank of Canada economists.

The share of income a household would need to cover ownership costs hit 53.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2018, the economists said in a report released Friday.

Based on their analysis, the cost of owning a home in the country hasn’t been this bad since 1990, when the share of income a household would need to cover ownership costs was 56 per cent." (Jonathan Hayward, Canadian Press, September 28, 2018) 

I have to admit that I do not understand all of their remarks. Quite some time ago, I remember interest prices rising dramatically. The interest percentage cost rose unbelievably to around 20% quite a number of years ago in order to get a mortgage back then. Can you imagine how people would react today if the interest rate rose that high with the amount of debt that they would have to pay every month given the principal outstanding!

I really don't know what is going to happen. I don't expect to see interest rates drop dramatically because they are pretty low now anyway. I do expect to see the rates rise slowly because that seems to be the position of the people involved in the financing these days.

With the high purchase prices of homes these days along with the increasing interest costs, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

THE UPCOMING WINDSOR MAYORAL ELECTION

I have to admit that the municipal election this time around is really quite boring. I don't see very much going on. The news media just don't seem to be reporting an awful lot in events among the various candidates running for office.

The best example I can give you is the campaign for the Mayor of Windsor. I don't see very much of an electoral fight between the Mayor, Drew Dilkens, and his main opponent, Matt Marchand. Oh sure, the Windsor Star posted a story recently about Marchand written by Anne Jarvis and another one by her about the Mayor's position on the E.C. Row Parkway. But what good is that since we're so close to the actual election? There are no long and detailed comments in those articles by one of them against the position of his opponent.

There's going to be an electoral debate on October 3 but it involves all of the five people who are candidates for Mayor. That means there will not be very much time for there to be real debate action to be taken between the top two candidates.

Then there will be a Chamber of Commerce debate on October 10 only involving Marchand and Dilkens. It starts at 11:15 in the morning and goes on until 1:30 in the afternoon.

Now that should be a pretty exciting one I would think. Except the debate itself is only an hour long starting at 12:30 with the rest of the time for eating lunch.

Moreover, if it is only written in one story in the Star and covered by a few minute story on radio or TV, then who would know what is really being argued between the two men. The public probably would not learn very much about what the candidates' positions are and whether the candidate should be supported or not. 

Heck, it is being set up so close to the actual election date then I don't think that too many people will be too interested in it anyway because their minds will probably have been already been made up. Or, more likely, most people are not going to go and vote anyway no matter what is said.

WOULD YOU VOTE FOR THIS PERSON 

I don't live in the City of Windsor anymore. Thank goodness for that after seeing what has not been done for the last four years there. I hope that good people are elected this time around to improve the conditions of Windsor. If you want to know why I'm saying this, take a look at what I am writing below.

Unbelievable, in a story in the Windsor Star, a person running for the office of Mayor of the City of Windsor has told us how bad the condition of Windsor is now. How could it have happened?  It is disgraceful!

Based on what this person said, I do not believe that any of the people who are on Council now can possibly be re-elected. Unless, the Council member can demonstrate that he/she is not in support of what Council has done, or rather, not done.

Here is just a brief summary of what the Windsor Story is all about:

     -- A vast improvement to E.C. Row is required. 

A massive amount of work would be required to get environmental assessment accomplished and the work done. The cost of the project would be huge and the  project would take years to complete.

     -- There are “nine other reconstruction or repaving capital projects covering city roads and intersections.” 

I am not going to detail what these projects are. You can see them for yourself by looking at the Windsor Star story. What is amazing to me though is that all of the people on Windsor Council for the last four years seem to have done very little to get these projects started, nevermind completed. Why would you want them on Council for the next four years!

If you want more details, take a look at this story in the Windsor Star that I referred to above:

"Dilkens promises E.C. Row will be 'world class roadway'” (Anne Jarvis, Windsor Star, September 28, 2018) 

I trust, dear reader, that you understand now that I am talking about Mayor Drew Dilkens who is trying to get re-elected. He is the one who has set out in the Jarvis story how horrible the situation in Windsor has become and has not been fixed up while he was the one in the Mayor's seat for the last four years.

Why would you vote in favour of him coming back again as Mayor?

What Should I Say Now

My writing on this Blog is a lot different compared with the way I wrote before.

I do try to write properly after all. As I am sure that you have figured out by now, I write about a lot more stories on a lot more different subjects than I did previously. I am doing that because I write about very personal matters quite often when I start out my Blog for the day. Just as I am doing now.

I hope that I don't tire you out if you read my introduction. I just have the need to write on subjects that I find very important to me and hope that you are interested in what I have to say. That is why this website is so valuable to me. I do want to let you know what is taking place in my life since my illness. As you get older, it would not surprise me if you are impacted in some of the ways that I have been. Hopefully, you may learn how to deal with some of these strange events.

As I have said previously, I do have a different way of looking at things now. It's funny but my past just doesn't take up so much of my time is it did did before. Why would it? After all, it is my "past." It is all finished. It seems I just have to worry about "today." Again, as I have said, today, I just don't think about my future as much anymore. After all, I don't have much control over what may come so why waste time on it.

No more about this. I did have to mention it one more time. Who knows, I may do so again in the future. Whether I like it or not, it is now part of me and there just seems to be a need for me to talk about it again when I feel a certain way.

By the way, just consider what I have discussed. It just may impact you in the same way one day in your future.

Enough of this personal stuff. I better start writing some more interesting news stories instead. There, that just made me feel a lot better. Thanks for coming to the website.

JOB PROBLEMS

Oh my goodness, unemployment rates have increased again in our area. These numbers are not very attractive:

“Statistics Canada says the jobless rate in Windsor climbed to 7.5 per cent in August.

The rate, not adjusted for seasonal changes, is a 0.8 per cent increase from July. The seasonally adjusted rate rose from 6 per cent in July to 6.6 per cent last month.” (Adelle Loiselle, Blackburn News, September 7, 2018) 

I am not going to talk very much about this in this article. Clearly though our optimism about employment improvement that seemed so positive that it was going to happen now has to be questionable. After all, the difficulties that we are having with the US President mean that there could be problems with cars being produced in the plant in Windsor. It can also mean that there could be a significant decline in jobs in the automobile industry and elsewhere.

Just so that you understand what may be considered now by the Federal Government, especially if the NAFTA Agreement collapses, take a look at this. It could result in significant changes about events that take place in this country:

“Early federal election rumours build

Liberal hawks, like those of a generation earlier, are heatedly debating a snap election call. Not entirely surprising, since have not seen a decade since the ’50s when a government has not been forced by events, or decided to seize a strategic advantage, and called an early election.

The Liberal hawks’ arguments are getting stronger. Neither of their opponents is ready, and each will likely be stronger a year from now. The Federal Court and Donald Trump have both just stuck a finger in the Prime Minister’s eye. This is an opportunity to return the favour with a much harder counterpunch, a strong new political mandate.” (Robin Sears, Toronto Star, September 9, 2018) 

Just keep watching and see what might be happening fairly soon.

WEBSITES

I am curious, dear reader. Are you having problems with the various websites that you visit regularly on the Internet? For some reason, I seem to have a significant number of them these days. I have to admit I don't know why.

Here are some of the things that seem to be going wrong these days on a number of these websites:

--I have a website where funds are deposited to my Internet "deposit" account after one of my tasks is completed. I usually then send the received money to my usual bank account. I completed one of these functions the other day and have not been able to send the money I received at my "deposit account" directly to my bank no matter how many times I have tried. It just cannot be deposited. Oh, I tried but failed every time even after talking to the Website's Customer Service representative. I eventually figured out a different way to do it but it bugs me that I have a problem which for some reason I do not seem able to solve.

--A "fun chat" was set up for a specific time on a website. As a member on the website, I was given a reason to participate: a "money" gift card. Naturally, I applied to join that chat but unfortunately the date set out and the day of the week were in conflict. I had to write to the website to get the correct information substituted. I think I was the first member to do so because the article was changed right after I sent my note and I was thanked for doing so.

--A website invites me all the time to click on one of their links and complete a survey for quite a number of points that would help me get a nice financial reward more quickly. Never mind that I have gone to that site quite often but never have received a single point because no survey has ever been set up. So, when a different event happened, I got quite annoyed and sent a note and thought I received a friendly response:

ME----"This kept on failing for hours today. Why? When will it be fixed?

THEM----"Thank you for participating; as soon as our partner confirms your activity your points will post immediately to your account.’

Of course, this was fixed up but naturally back to what I had before: nothing ever happened! Oh, and no points ever received.

Just Some New Stories

No big, long introduction today in this column. I thought that I would start giving my comments right away about the news stories I have seen recently

VOTE FOR JOE BACHETTI

I live in Tecumseh and this is my first time when I am experiencing a municipal election here.

It's an interesting one for me because both the Mayor here, Gary McNamara, and the Councillor in my Ward, Bill Altenhof, are not running for re-election.  They both have been acclaimed! I cannot ever remember that happening where I lived before. They must be very powerful political people because no one has the nerve to run against them it seems.

That is very good for me because they are people for whom I would have voted as MY representatives!

However, the exciting part for me now is that three people are running to be the Deputy Mayor in Tecumseh. This is a new political position for me because both in Toronto where I was born and in Windsor where I moved, I was not used to such a political office. Who gets elected then will be of interest to me.

To be direct, I have my favourite candidate for whom I am going to vote. He is the present Deputy Mayor, Joe Bachetti. I trust that you do as well so he will be re-elected.

I have met him a number of times since I have moved to Tecumseh and he has helped me with several matters that arose after I came here with which I had to deal. For that, I am very grateful. Moreover, I expect that he has helped a number of other citizens in this Town handle their concerns.

I was going to give you a bunch of reasons why I think you ought to vote for him. My view is that he will be a very excellent person to be in the Deputy Mayor position based on what I  have seen. However, I don't have to do it now. 

I am terrifically excited about what has happened to him that tells me that everyone should vote for him to be the Deputy Mayor here. Take a look at this Facebook page that I just saw a few days ago:

That absolutely gives you the evidence that you need that you ought to be voting for Joe Bachetti to be the Deputy Mayor. If our Mayor, Gary McNamara, wants Joe there helping him out and is prepared to tell people about that, then we better vote for him as well!

IS HE A WINDSOR MAYOR RE-ELECTION SUPPORTER

I have no idea

However, go and take a look at a very interesting photograph that I saw on the Facebook page that was provided online by Edy Haddad on September 15, 2018. It was quite a surprise because I have never seen anything like that before.

I'll let you go to his Facebook page if you want to see it for yourself. It is a photograph of Edy and former Mayor of Windsor and now WFCU Credit Union President and CEO Eddie Francis standing together and posing for the photograph. Eddie is also the brother of Fred Francis who is a Ward Councillor in Windsor and who is also running for re-election.

I have no idea exactly where that photograph was taken but given all the election posters with the name "Dilkens" on it, I assume that it may have taken place somewhere which is one of Dilkens' offices where he has his operation for him running for Mayor.

I also don't know why Eddie was there. I'll let you decide that for yourself, dear reader. I just thought it was an interesting photograph to tell you about in case you have not seen it.

Oh by the way, I happened to see this in another recent Windsor Star story. It is all about a different subject---Mayoral candidate Marchand looking for an Enwin audit. In the story's last paragraph, right at the bottom of it, I saw this:

“Former mayor Eddie Francis sits on one of the boards [Enwin Energy Ltd.], as does Dilkens’ campaign manager Abe Taqtaq [Enwin Utilities Ltd.]. (Brian Cross, Windsor Star, September 13, 2018) 

I'm not sure why it was added by the reporter in this story since it has very little to do with it but there it is.

DILKENS' PROMISES

Here is an easy task for you to perform to help make you a decision about whom you should vote for Mayor of Windsor.

You should make your own decision, if you live in Windsor, whether you should vote to re-elect Drew Dilkens as Mayor.

If you want a way that this could be done, let me make a suggestion for you. Here is a link to the first major speech that Mayor Dilkens made after he was elected Mayor back in 2014. It is his City of Windsor Inaugural Address. Just go to this web address and you can read it: Dilkens Inaugural Address 2014 

After all, the Mayor made this statement recently when he announced he was running again:

“In 2014, we made campaign promises and we delivered on most of those promises,” he said.

"People know what they get with me. I have spent four years as mayor and eight years on council. People know when I say I am going to do something, we get it done.” (Dave Battagello, Windsor Star, September 16, 2018) 

You decide how well he delivered what he promised four years ago!  That should help you decide who gets your vote in the election.

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.”