Costco Martin County: Fill & Download for Free

I am from Winnipeg. I spent a few months working at the Canadian Consulate General in Detroit, but living in Windsor, during a delightfully mild winter. I had my car with me, so could live a little bit like a local. Both are car dominant cities.This Question could be answered in two different ways, could you stand living in either city, or, if you could, and had a choice, which one would you choose? I will answer the second possibility.Of course, it depends who you are. A college student would not look at it the same way as a retiree. If you were Queer, or a member of an ethnocultural minority, you would be considering what facilities are available to you in either place. I am a retiree, and, at least for the moment, mobile, so that would be my “take” on it.The Basics of Canadian Urban LifeHow much of a Canadian's life consists of driving around to buy stuff? Say, if you are still working, out of the hours left between commuting home and bedtime, how many of them are taken up with going to the strip mall, going to the still extant regional mall, going to big box and factory outlets, and getting your haircut? And for that matter, how much of the rest consists of going for fast food, to family restaurants, getting your teeth fixed, etc. And, if you have kids, how much time is spent nurturing them, and worrying about your teenagers starting their reproductive lives too early? How much is spent watching hockey on TV? And, if you have the magic bungalow I mentioned in my Answer yesterday, how much time is going to be spent, mowing the grass, gardening, snowplowing the driveway, and looking in desperation for a reliable plumber?As I have mentioned previously, any Canadian metropolitan area of more than about 100,000 people or so fills the basic, consumerist, lifestyle bill. So, Winnipeg and Windsor have very comparable shopping facilities, with the usual Canada-wide chain stores. A Costco in Windsor isn't significantly different from one in Winnipeg. Once you are inside a Shopper's Drug Market, does everything outside, and the local sense of place evaporate, while you look for the best cough medicine and investigate the cosmetic section? Windsor does not have a full IKEA, but it has an IKEA pick-up and order point. There is an Ikea in the Detroit Metro Area, but US Immigration and Customs nowadays tend to be at times grouchy, and there is Canada Customs to face on return.If you have sufficient money to live in a suburb, or a respectable, secure, downtown apartment, what Canadian city you live in, can turn into a residual. Or, it isn't the city as a whole, it is where you live in any given city. Winnipeg is notorious for having rough areas, but most of the city isn't. A few of the suburbs suffer from what you might call ”intrusive” crime, from poor and troubled areas of the city. Some of this is driven by the meths epidemic. I suspect that this will lead to rather more intensive home security measures, cams, alarms, employing security services, better fencing, more secure doors, all of them imposing costs. But Winnipeg housing is still much cheaper than in some of the more popular Canadian citiesWindsor has cheaper housing too, maybe even somewhat cheaper than Winnipeg. And, crime rates are much lower, if one is referring to the city-wide average. (So, in Winnipeg, a large part of the numerous crimes are committed at night, downtown, and in parts of the North End, while an outer suburb would not be much more crime-ridden than one in Windsor.)Some Significant DifferencesIn Canada, nowadays, the most desirable lifestyles seem to be defined by the upper middle class. So, we are told to dream about a high-end home, or high end condo, being money-suitable for shopping in the boutiques, joining the right golf club, sending the kids to a school where they have to wear a uniform, some serious input into local riding associations and candidate selection decisions, driving a Lexus or a BMW, even if you just lease it, your particular suburb is pristine, with no local shopping whatsoever (Which means that it is pretty easy to spot people who shouldn't be near where you live.), and so on.Neither Winnipeg nor Windsor are especially high on people who get to live this good life, but Winnipeg has rather more. Winnipeg is much the larger city in population (The Winnipeg Census Metropolitan Area is getting on 800,000, Windsor, maybe around 340,000.) It is quite economically diverse, nothing quite as dominant as Windsor's car plants. Winnipeg is remarkably not boom-bust, so once you work your way up, while it takes longer than in places like Calgary, there isn't much to knock you down. So, Winnipeg has rather more of the boutiques, although compared to some other cities in Canada, it is the boutique minor leagues. And, some of the better restaurants are even affordable.Both cities are as flat as a pancake. In my opinion, given the absolute lack of hilly terrain, the view across the Detroit River is somewhat more impressive than any vista you are going to get in Winnipeg.The ethnoculturalism of the two cities is complex to compare. Windsor has big Italian and Arab-Canadian communities. It is not a “charter nation”, British-Canadian environment. Neither is Winnipeg, but Winnipeg's ethnocultural mix is more complex.The Somewhat More IntangiblesLiving as I now do, in Ottawa-Gatineau, I know that there are local residents who get a sort of buzz simply by living in Canada's national capital. I don't. When I see the federal parliament buildings, which are just up the road, and think about who is there now, I feel a sense of sadness.Living in Winnipeg can sort of give you a feeling of local centrality. After all, it is the provincial capital and well over half of all Manitobans live there. Winnipeg is one of the five major Prairie Cities. There is nothing like that to feel about Windsor.Winnipeg is quite geographically isolated. Windsor isn't. If you prize getting to another city for a break, and have a car, Windsor is pretty easy. Toronto is a day drive. But then, a Windsorite has to evaluate how they feel about the adjacent parts of the USA. I don't think anybody could call the City of Detroit a desirable destination. However, having driven around the Detroit metro area, it is more complex than that. The Detroit Metro Area population is still about 4,300,000, most of them not living in the city of Detroit.The suburban municipalities differ, and some of them are quite pleasant. There isn't that much wrong with Bloomfield Charter Township, Grosse Point, Farmington, Bloomfield Hills, or some of the other municipalities beyond the Detroit city limits. Some of them have good shopping and some picturesque streets, in a reasonably safe environment. A Windsorite could do some exploration, as long as they know what Interstate exit to get off of.Winnipeg International Airport has a relatively limited selection of flights. Windsorites can access Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, one of the biggest in the United States. If you do not want to take your car across the border, there are shuttle services from Windsor to the airport. If you have an urge to travel, the Detroit airport can offer you a non-stop as far as Beijing.Windsor winters are so warm! Yes, I know, Winnipegers will boast of the crisp, -40 cold in January, full of Prairie sunshine. Winter in Windsor is very, very different, driving about in winter without a blizzard, nor a frozen engine block, and tires not frozen square. By late February, the quite limited Windsor winter ordeal, is getting on over.It depends on what kind of nature you like. Unlike most Canadian cities, Windsor is far from the”bush”. There is no driving to the more or less pristine Canadian shield, or mountains, in an hour and a half. However, there is the agriculturally rich Essex County, and some very pleasant beaches on Lake Erie, with warm water in a longer than Winnipeg summer. It is really a personal preference. However, for me, Point Pelee National Park is a place I would go back to repeatedly.Then, there is what I could call, the edge versus no-edge difference. Winnipeg is not quite as slumberous as Windsor, but not necessarily in a good way. Winnipeg has ongoing social issues, a history of social class and interethnic struggles, and, now, a whole range of challenges that are not necessarily being met, about especially, a lot of poor, and sometimes traumatized, urban indigenous people, understandably fearful of Caucasians, and frequently angry. They assert their outrage in various ways. The local media talk a lot about help and redress, but this is compared against a limited local tax base. A lot of things do not get done.Windsor does not have much that is comparable. I would call it one of a set of smaller Ontario industrial cities, maybe past their prime, but not in anything like acute distress, nor are large parts of the population within them. The Province of Ontario has resources. Better expressway access got built. Another bridge across the border gets attention from even Ottawa, and promises of funding. The University of Windsor, and the Windsor hospital system, are supported by the province. Windsor is definitely not a place for upheaval.Us LifestylersNeither Winnipeg nor Windsor are really conservative places. When I was there, Windsor had two gay bars. The customers there did not seem traumatized about their lives. And then, there are the gay bars of Detroit, providing you feel confident about where you are going. One of the ones I went to was in Dearborn, much different and safer than the City of Detroit, and the bar and parking lot behind a well-secured barb wire perimeter.Winnipeg still has a sizable Jewish community, with facilities. Somewhat to my surprise, Windsor was no desert for the likes of us. There was kosher food to be bought, two synagogues (Still apparently running.) and a Jewish senior's residence.A lot of more than basic life in Windsor is about something that Winnipeg has no comparison to, what I call, the challenge of Greater Detroit. If you are prepared to brave out the United States customs and immigration, and cross that border, there is a very large American metropolis, a ring of decent suburban places, around an awful City of Detroit. You want gay bars, they are there. You want synagogues, they are there too.Going In ColdSo, say you know no one in either city. You have no friends or attachments there. For young people, Windsor has a limited job market without much of a top end. Having said that, if you are going there to be a doctor, you very likely will be able to afford a very nice house, with gardening through much of the year. And, the golf courses are open quite late into the season.I found that many Windsor people were friendly and informal, without much in the way of issues to grind. However, I am not sure it would be easy to make local friendships. In Winnipeg, there is a fair amount of grinding going on, and the people are not known for being that willing to get involved with outsiders.For another retired person, deciding to go to a city where you do not know a soul, as long as you have a decent income and a car, and unless you yearn for the bush, Windsor is much better. Crime is not a big issue, almost anywhere in the city, housing is almost exceptionally cheap, the winters are mild, the slip on ice period is limited, the pace of life is slower than Winnipeg, gerontological services are available, precious few people have an “attitude”, some very nice parks and beaches are close by, there are not a lot of upper middle class younger people around to deride your values, and the shopping is as good as you need it, without much distance to drive. Windsor is stable in its own way. And it doesn't seem if there is much that would disturb that. And, if you can control your fear of the border, you are not in a small city, you are at the edge of a big one. And, if you have the money to travel, that Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport will get you all over the place.For anybody, I would say, go have a look at, at least one of them, before you decide whether you would like to go to either. Winnipeg can be a substantial shock to people who don't know it. Windsor itself is relatively small, and not at all trendy or modern looking. If you are afraid of that border, in Windsor, you are going to be limiting yourself quite a lot.Martin Levine

Why do people say it's easy to make money once you already have money? What are some common ways rich people make even more money?Don’t need to be rich, just need to think ahead.Here’s an example:Bob makes X amount of dollars. Bob spends X a month. He’s barely making it.Sandra makes X amount of dollars. Sandra doesn’t go out to drink twice a month like Bob and she’s got $100 dollars. So Sandra take $100 which is a bare minimum for her investment plan she’s signed up for and she puts away $1200 at 9% a year, taking some risk in the longer term.Bob thinks that Sandra is being ridiculous.How much difference can $1200 make?Well, let’s see.They’re both 20 years old.The $1200 from the first year becomes $2400 by 28, $4800 by 36, $9600 by 44, $19200 by 52, and $38,400 by 60 when she’s thinking she is close to retirement.But she also put in $1200, when she was 21, 22, and 23, and when she got pay raises, she put more in. The money doesn’t stop earning when one retires, and that’s what many miss. Project year by year instead of a lump sum and you’ll realize as you make more, you’ll be investing more, perhaps when you need it more and as a hedge against inflation.Now what’s interesting is down the road, Bob realizes he needs to put away something, so he starts to panic and starts in his 40’s. He’ll be putting away far more money than Sandra needs to during the last two decades of work and he won’t catch up to her, but he’s still better than Paul who never does catch on.It’s easier to save money when you have money.OK, Owen got a nice big fat bank account when he did security overseas for a corporation. He’s sitting on $300,000 after taxes.Owen wants to buy a truck. Owen goes to Ford and looks at an F 250, and looks for a high interest rate, low down payment loan. the dealership and bank are drooling because he’s going to be paying way, way more for the interest, they give him a MUCH better deal (lower price) than if he bought the truck straight out. He signs, they sign, and drool.Then he pays off the principal.Boom!He’s done! He got that truck at a very low cost!Dealers hate that.Making money when you have money.So along with many others, I’ve got piddly investments, putting the money in, taking some risks, but having some security, and if I’m really, really lucky, with the market, I’m averaging 9% like Sandra.Owen, with his now $250,000 in the bank looks around. He lives in my county, Pierce County, Washington with the hottest real estate market in the nation. Houses are going up!The stock market is mercurial, up, down gains, losses, with the long term the plan of most regular investors.Owen doesn’t want to wait.He could put in $100,000 in the market and he may, if fortunate, make 9%.$9,000 in a year ain’t bad.Owen says F that.He takes his $100,000 and puts down money for three houses valued at $750,000, with some of that $100,000 reserved for payments in the interim.The houses go up say 10% during that period.Those houses are now worth $825,000 combined.yes, there are fees and taxes, but he’s up $75,000 GROSS.Now that’s how you make money when you have money!I’ve seen people do this.ResourcesThere are many forms of false economy that people with out money often fall into or have to accept and this is beyond poor choices.Years ago, when married, we had a washer that couldn’t take certain items due to size, for example a big, thick comforter, and we’d sometime stop at a laundry mat. I’m willing to say that I can come to certain conclusions based on what’s being washed, and the vehicle people arrived in.On the poor decision scale, I’d see people buying laundry soup from the vending machine. It was very expensive, one little box for X dollars. Some people didn’t care, but it was more consistent with people who didn’t appear to have much.It was a poor decision because just a few shops over was the Dollar Store. You could get a few loads out of a little bottle for a buck. This was a far better economic decision and it only involved a short walk. It verged on practical.Then I’d see someone with nice clothing, driving a newer SUV or mini van and they’d have a regular laundry jug with them, a more cost effective method. They’d migrate toward us. “Machine broke.” they’d say. “Big comforter.”Someone getting a big bundle of toilet paper from Costco, or ordering it online is going to pay what may seem a nominal amount of money to them and they’re getting a lower cost per sheet, than someone who is buying a single role or a four pack of ‘economy’ rolls. ‘Economy’ is usually that only with one time use items.With gas, I see something interesting. I got to an unmanned station, gas is high i our area, but the price at this station is lower. For example, I’m getting my gas at what for us is incredible $3.04, and $2.99 when others are paying from $3.17 to $336. So I’ve one coworker who complains about not having money, but he’ll go to the gas station that is .18 to .37 cents higher per gallon, because he doesn’t want to drive over to another place and get his pack of cigarettes and six pack of beer. It’s not worth it to him. I don’t smoke and I seldom drank, but if it’s a regular expense, I’d buy cartons, and cases at Costco and pay much less overall.

Basically, masculinity means, having a penis and testicles, and the notoriously volatile and threatening prostate gland. It isn't about an ideology. I think that, in some counties, women accepting this has become a problem. Even the most committed feminist cannot stop their menstrual bleeding. A male cannot stop producing sperm, no matter how progressive they might be.And, I will be bold and take my biological and body fluids based approach to being a male rather farther. Heterosexual and bisexual makes are biologically programmed to want to discharge their sperm inside a female, One's wanting to do that is not a bad attitude. A male homo sapiens is not that utterly different from a male bonobo or chimpanzee.And, like our Great Ape brothers, straight and bisexual males are prone to visual arousal by females. I concede, there is a role for cultural modulation. Preferred female body types vary over time, although not the male search for young, healthy-looking females with symmetrical bodies. Males have their female body type influencers, for example, in Canada and the USA, and with local editions in some of the countries of Europe, the Playboys of Hugh Hefner. His centrefolds were basically a set of cultural rules about how to evaluate women when they are naked.I think also, that changing access to food, has an influence. Prehistoric males had to concern themselves with their female having enough body fat to nurture a fetus, even in times of scarce nutrition. If you were married to one, being able to keep your female plump, displayed your own superiority. But now, that isn't necessary. If, at any point during the relationship your girlfriend looks a little peaked and too thin, you could just take her for a Big Mac with a large fries.I rush to say, all this ideation of mine about a bio-based approach to the meaning of being a male, does not oblige women to do anything. There is no reason, at least in a prosperous, modern society, for a woman to build her life around the male ejaculatory drive.There Is Nothing Like A DameThere is Nothin' Like A Dame. “There is nothing like dame, nothing in the world...”I have a personal theory. Male-female relationships in North America have been coarsened by the decline of the Broadway musical. What do you need, in order to make a desperate to procreate male act like anything more than a very frustrated Big Ape, Inceling and MGTOW'ing around the fringes of the social media? Rogers and Hammerstein used to help. They were not writing classic songs about “bitches” and “ho's”.Non psychopathic men can be socialized into having a civilized psychological framework about women. What was Fred Astaire about? It is all about establishing a non-violent, non coercive, entertaining for the women, approach to doing to them, what any female beyond the age of thirteen, knows you want to do them anyhow. The songs raised the value, from the female point of view, of men who knew how to dance in a duo, dress up nice, which incidentally gave a woman a good means of estimating your bankroll, bring flowers and chocolate, and write Broadway arias.And no, I am not declaring that civilized North American masculinity can only be achieved in the context of very big city urbanity, and cultural and artistic values being disseminated primarily by my own ethnocultural group. What did Roy Orbison have to say?: Roy Orbison - In Dreams. What about Leroy Van Dyke: Leroy Van Dyke - Walk On By. Neither of them began their praising a particular woman by talking about her booty hitting the floor. It is about their idealized woman, being a sort of person, even if, at times they could be kind of difficult: Ray Price- Heartaches by the Number. I propose that Ray Price was once an important influencer with regard to non-elite American men's understanding and comportment towards women.I believe that we see a cultural contradiction. The type of very vile, threatening, toxic masculinity that some modern North American women, with good reason, fear about men, is the result of the decline of popular male conceptualizations about women, that are now deemed as politically incorrect and too conservative. While women advanced in the labour force, and their defences against harrassment in the workplace and in public greatly improved, the male popular culture about women became more vulgar and ever more misogynistic.The Hell With You, You Fascist Sports Coach, I Want to Study TorahIs it possible to have a culturally neutral concept of toxic masculinity? I do not think so. The concept of toxic masculinity appears to have originated among middle class women in the United States. However, in any given country there is likely to be a men's culture, or more correctly, a set of them. Men's understandings about masculinity are not indifferent to ethnicity, regional, social class, urban-rural or ideological differences.To concretize, I will refer, as I frequently do, to the ancient Winnipeg of my youth, or by far the most unpleasant part, junior and senior high school. Toxic masculinity suggests a kind of unity in bad values and attitudes among boys, trying to include inoffensive types like me. Did we, the Jewish male adolescents of my prime, have much, if anything, in common with the others? No, next to nothing.My junior, and then my first senior high school years, were in parts of Winnipeg where it was, really, Anglo versus Jew. That versus was emphatic in high school. Us guys did not drink, parental control was tight, and, despite our emphatic desire to keep up with Israeli examples, sports was no big deal. At least officially, our girls did not put out. The thing about women was to marry them. Jewish girls were not expected or wanted to have their booties hit the floor.I was going to say that, by the mid-1950's, we had departed the old Ashkenazi Jewish religious male culture of Eastern Europe, but, really we hadn't. We still had our strong advocates, that being a real Jewish male meant Torah study and very proficient Jewish knowledge. And, regarding our biological needs, only behaving in a way that was satisfactory to the Eternal One. When one considered what one hoped for, from a woman, it was more like, keeping a clean and kosher home, raising your kids, and staying within what our culture considered the realm of women. A few extra female pounds, or even seventy-five, had no serious impact on what we hoped for from for our ladies. In the more traditional synagogues of my youth the approach to women was to stuff them in an upstairs gallery, or put up a screen, called, in Hebrew, a Mechitzah. They sat on their side, and we did not have to be distracted by them when we were praying. And, women were not at all welcome to speak up. Obviously, in that context, her voice was inappropriately spoken, and might also fill up us Jewish guys with lust.American Jewish women were certainly prominent in the feminist movement, but it isn't always understood just what they were rebelling about. I have heard them condemn our Winnipeg-original Jewish men's-type culture as toxic, but it was our own toxicity. It wasn't about muscle flexing, bar fights, Type A competition, or driving too fast in muscle cars.And, the same in other cultures and subcultures, and in other places. Japan is different. So is Italy, so is Sweden, and Greece, so is Zambia, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Paraguay, Laos and Malta.Going To Work And Making A Living Is Not ToxicEven in North America, not all behaviour is gendered, even if it used to be. Going to work is not necessarily toxic. Driving there, one to a car, may be toxic, but that is not about men. Watch the rush hour vehicles trying to exit downtown Ottawa. One sees women, alone in their cars, just as much clutching the steering wheel in frustration, as any male could do. Do it yourself home repairs is not especially toxic. Neither are things like buying car insurance online, or buying stuff at Costco or Walmart. Even a male doing parenting is not necessarily toxic, although it can be. Even getting drunk is not a males only form of toxicity. Ottawa has lots of women who like to do it too. In general, there are many activities in life that are not available for gender-based toxicity.Social-Psychological Toxicity Can Come From A Lot Of Places Other Than Your GenitalsLot of cultures have toxicity, but there is no assumption that it primarily comes from the misdeeds of males. And, just like my Winnipeg of so long ago, anything beyond a very basic, hunter-gatherer society, does not have total solidarity among males.I assert that the assumption of males, in general, being powerful, privileged and free to act out their nastiest inclinations, is quite untrue. More generally, countries, and the societies in them, operate under the command of a small elite, which, yes, tend to be mostly males, for example the 1%, or the elites of London's City, a Central Politburo, a Dictator and his cronies, or an evil President, and the very wealthy other males who influence them.Many average males, just like females, are responding to toxicities created by others. They are not responsible for the abuses perpetrated by ruthless and corrupt elites and environmental destroyers. (How many average men own a factory with no chimney scrubbers?) Most men are not dealing in illicit drugs, creating abusive Canadian-type mortgages, doing high-end political lying, ignoring the need for mass transit, doing very poor urban planning, or engaging in large-scale property speculation. Male toxicity is not a substitute explanation for economic toxicity, consumerism and rough commuting. Most men have never been charged with rape nor have a criminal record. The average male does not dictate how a workplace gets organized or how work changes, or how new technology can eliminate jobs. They are just along for the ride.Don't Judge What You Have No Business JudgingMen have to answer for their behaviour to women and their kids. If you get in a bar fight, then your are likely to be answering to the police. And, we live in a popular culture that praises aggression. Popular cultures don't get created by the average male. They get created by advertising agencies, the entertainment media, and influencers of various sorts.If a society is not demanding that all the women in it all be erudite, thoughtful, open to dialogue, empathetic and culturally sensitive, then it is not a special type of male toxicity if men do not do it either. An adult male has a right to a private life, private emotions and private ideas. They do not have to “share” or “listen”, if they are not breaking any rules. Some of us think that many men in North America and elsewhere have shallow, unconsidered lives, but, insisting that this is male toxicity, is an exercise in social class, education and urbanity privilege. I don't know what it is like to walk in an average guy's shoes, and I would violate the rules taught to men in my own culture, if I start rendering up judgements.Masculine Cultures Can Ebb and FlowWell, they all do. The largest country in the supposed Western World currently has a President who advocates for pussy-grabbing and describes particular women as being, pigs, dogs and having a fat ass.But what happens when Donald Trump goes and we have President Mike Pence? Quite possibly, given his religious piety, he will search for a constitutional amendment that will make it a crime to describe any part of a woman's anatomy.Some of the toxic male traits that cause women, in particular, to be aggravated, over time, can pass. Maybe I can dream of Artificial Intelligence allowing the recreation of a sentient Rogers and Hammerstein, again writing songs of praise about musical females. The new Twilight Zone series comes pretty close, a CGI recreation of Rod Serling. Wouldn't us lefty-lib old guys just love it, if they reanimated him altogether, and had him helping Americans to sort out the most suitable Democratic presidential candidate, and admonishing men for nasty behaviour?Men change, whether they want to or not. Much of the modern complaints about men seem to flow from educated women, who want to decry the behaviour of some current males, who may not have much going for them in education, intellect or social class. Those criticisms are valid, but they should not be a tool to ignore biology, genderize all behaviours, or ignore the toxicity spread through a society by abusive economies, social class dominance, or popular entertainment that has little or no praise for any woman, beyond what a booty can achieve.Martin Levine