Day 4,237—the Starbucks is open!—

 

        I keep trying to frame this whole scenario in a positive light. Sure, there is a Starbucks down the street from my house, but it is still better than a McDonald’s! Or, it might not be a coffee place I like, but I like coffee. Also, it does look a lot better than the vacant lot that used to be there. I don’t know how this is going to impact my life, but I have been bouncing between these two extremes since they started working on it. I took pictures of every stage of the construction, and my kids played in the vacant lot as long as they could.

        Before I had given up on them opening anything there. I felt the same way about the empty White Castle lot, but now they’re almost done with that new building too. It is going to be one of those quick oil change places. This whole area used to only be local shops that appeared to be failing. Here comes all the chain stores. I wonder how long the motels across the street will be there. I don’t hate chain stores, and there is something to be said for how clean they look when they open, but I just hate going to different places and finding the same thing. 

I used to think it was so funny as a premise to have a travel show that went all around the world and exclusively reviewed Starbucks. It would be a boring show, granted, but there is something so sad about people traveling to other countries only to surround themselves with the same things. I feel a little better today, but I still don’t know what I want to do for my birthday. I liked doing that run to Augusta Brewery. I did that one time. I guess I could look into doing something like that again. If I don’t have a ride back to my car, I could run or take a Lyft.