Weldon Rinn

I got a knock at my door a few weeks back. It was my next-door neighbour, Sandy. We live in a three-storey apartment block in the heart of St. Vital and he had a package for me.

He said that some packages had been delivered to him and others while they were outside enjoying the warmer weather at the time. Sandy explained that he’d thought I might like one and he set a black grocery bag on the floor.

The inscription in orange lettering on the black grocery bag read Dakota Community Centre.

I felt the rumblings of ramblings stirring so decided that this generosity warranted further investigation and what motivated the kind folks at Dakota to provide us with such, well, generous gifts…

It has been a while since my last column. I missed a few deadlines and I apologize. I’m guilty, but I have an explanation.

On Jan. 14 to 15, I suffered a heart attack and, they tell me, a stroke as well. As if one wasn’t bad enough by itself…

I have no memories of any kind of the days leading up to these episodes nor the weeks following. I spent until April 15 in hospitals — first St. Boniface, followed by Riverview Health Centre.

My mobility, vision and speech are all restricted with no deadline in sight (pun intended) for recovery of any or all faculties. I count any and all progressions as successes, regardless of magnitude, and celebrate them as successes.

A new Chicken Chef is coming to the corner of Bishop Grandin and Island Shore boulevards.

Personally, I have never met a chicken piece, slice or wing that I haven’t liked. I was living in Virden when I first noshed on Chicken Chef with the original owners, Greg and Janice Jackson, who opened that location in 1981.  

The first Chicken Chef opened in Carman in 1978 and over the years the number of franchised locations has grown to 37, with the 38th location slated for opening this month.

Chicken Chef Canada Ltd. (the franchisor) is currently owned and operated by Jeff Epp, Ryan Thorgilsson and Ivan Bogovic.

All right, folks, I have officially had it with one particular rude habit of people (mostly men) that I have seen at concerts, sports events, and other social functions.

I’m talking about the wearing of hats during the nation anthem — any country’s national anthem for that matter. This is a phenomenon that should stop.  

I know there are exceptions to this customary show of respect — for members of the military, for example, which I get — and women’s headwear in most instances is also accepted during anthems. This last one dates back many decades ago, when women would put decorations, hat-pins, flowers,  in their hats and would interweave their hair with their headwear. (Miss Manners even acknowledges it.)

However, even women, if wearing baseball caps or other easily removable hats, should also remove their caps during a national anthem, unless of course they have the ponytail thing happening out the back expansion hole or their hair is somehow woven through the hat.