Vancouver is now up 3 games to 1 against the Dallas Stars and what could be the final game of the series on Thursday is coming up fast. If the Canucks win, they move on in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Whoo hoo!
There’s a Canada Day Committee meeting I have to attend Thursday night so I hope its over before the game starts.
It’s days like today that remind me why I love this town.
I’m out on the road most days as a sales representative visiting customers and doing a lot of driving. Most of my customers are in the GTA and Mississauga specifically.
There are many intersections in Mississauga that you need to be very careful in and some you almost need an increase in life insurance and a security detail to get you through. One of those intersections is Dixie and Shawson, just north of the 401. What a mess. HUNDREDS of trucks flying through, congested traffic and many near misses can be observed in just 5 minutes near this place. I had that opportunity because I was running low on gas and decided to use the Husky gas station on the corner.
The sun had just begun to start shining (finally eh?) and off came the overcoat. With the car in plain view I realized the ol’ PT needed a wash. This Husky location has a car wash so while paying for the gas I got a basic. That’s all fine. Go to line up for the wash and find a car parked in the lane with no driver. An older gentleman came running up saying he entered his code and the door wouldn’t open so we waited for the manager to come. And waited. And waited.
He finally came by and after a few visits inside to see if he was coming back out, I decided I didn’t want to bother waiting anymore. I went to the cashier to get a refund for the wash, and got my cash back, seeing how I wont be by this area for some time and I’m not going out of my way to come THERE for a car wash.
While waiting I noticed something interesting on the receipt that they were still charging 7% GST on the car washes. Doing some mental math and grabbing my ever present calculator, it confirmed that the GST charged is 7% instead of 6%. The Conservative government in Ottawa recently reduced the GST by 1% and this should have been fixed by the retailers MONTHS ago.
Needless to say, Ive sent an email to the head office to make sure this problem gets fixed right away.
I traveled along to Courtney Park Blvd to find my regular Tim Horton’s, grab a double double, and go home. I get into the drive through, which at this time was moving, made my order and slowly moved up. Three cars ahead of my someone had a problem with their Iced Cap and found time to debate the cashier on how bad it was and “chatted” with management, all the while holding up the line. After about 5 or 6 minutes of this, people behind us started honking and getting restless. I’m normally very patient with these things and I didn’t chime in. That’s not to say I didn’t feel TEMPTED! HAHA.
On my way back to Milton, knowing full well the 401 traffic would be nuts I made my way around to go home via Derry Road. Its normally a very good alternate route to get back into town. I was enjoying the breeze from the open windows and having the warm air flow through the normally closed up car when I approached “favourite” intersection number 2. Mississauga Road and Derry Road.
Here I find a large truck in the middle lane stopped, with signal lights first flashing right change of lane, then left. As it inched forward ever so slowly the vehicle in front of me was trying to find what lane the truck DIDNT want to get into. Finally the truck made his choice and went from the far left turn lane over 3 lanes of traffic to turn right onto Mississauga Road. The truck narrowly missed about 4 or 5 cars as they did this almost causing a few accidents behind them.
Just let me get home to Milton I thought to myself. Drove along Derry Road, up over the 407, through past Trafalger and the warm welcome view of the all the new homes and the 4 lanes of Derry Road. I feel very familiar with all these homes and the streets seeing how only a few months ago, I spent what felt like every waking moment knocking on the doors in the last municipal election campaign.
It may seem over dramatic and all but its nice to appreciate what we do have in Milton. Although some of the roads aren’t completed and we have to spend a few extra minutes in the backup along Thompson Road in the evenings or waiting for an advanced light on Laurier (which I understand is now working going north…going south I’m not too sure). But compared to where I was today, its heaven.
That’s just one of the reasons I love this town.