Shopping and coffee too
Yogi (Berra, not Bear) said it best: It ain’t over ’til it’s over. The man did love apostrophes. But the truth is, this Christmas shopping depends on the calendar; until the 26th, we won’t be done. We returned to the mall, and it was still full, and I did purchase some IR LEDs and some LED lights and my “make a whiteboard for the fun of it” is one step closer. Now to find a soldering iron and some burnproofing for the fingertips.
Actually, even though we’re not really Sunday shoppers at heart, the requirement of going to an office each day during the regular part of the week means that some things just get shunted to the days before Monday. Nothing too deep and deliberate about it. All those employees need someone to help, and they were particularly helpful today. After a siege mentality where I will lock myself in a room with dangerous amounts of paper and tape, the gift preparations will slow down.
The other observation for today is that we actually have a Starbucks in the neighbourhood. One of only three, so far, in a metropolitan area of over a half-million. So much for the “universality”. Timbits still rule the day around here. Anyhow, while I was stocking up on potatoes and a turnip, the better half headed across the parking lot with a loose tenspot to test the muddy waters. I joined her there, but all I did was inhale; aromatic, rich (I received no change from the tenspot, so this is a scientifically based economic assumption).
The conclusion is that the famous chain looks like a BurgerThing with a fireplace. No proper mens’ washroom; we share space with the diaper changers. The cream was available in the condiments section. Flavour did not meet the standards of our home coffeebar. Presentation, in a cardboard cup – zero for zero. Given the difficulty of navigating three traffic lights to even get into the parking lot, and no signs of wireless, this will not be high on our list of destinations.
