If you're looking for sunshine, it's gonna be in rather short supply today.
Yep, another Carpenter's kinda gig...a RAINY day AND a MONDAY, but they should always get us "down", right?
The rest of our Hooiserland weather will find us with mild temps to start off with (mid 50s this morning), BUT...(uh, oh), temps will drop during the day and see us dipping into the 40s by late this afternoon...then, it's colder after that.
Expect some rain which MAY (or may not) turn to snow later today, as well.
In the meantime, let's get ourselves a nice warm cup of our beverage of choice as we take a look at what ELSE has been going on...
*** First out of the storage shed is our "What the hell happens today, Bob?" feature:
November 24 -
Not a single THING going on of note...that's a rarity.
Got an idea...let's call it National Nothing Is Going On Today Day, and have it done with.
*** We had a shooting on the (where the hell else?) SOUTHEAST SIDE of Fort Wayne over the weekend.
(with the correct location):
http://www.21alive.com/news/local/9-Year-Old-seriously-Hurt-In-Shooting-283608521.html
This took place at the Waterloo Gardens Apartments in the 6000 (that's THOUSAND) block of Bunt Drive (another hot spot for years) around 2149 hrs Saturday.
The apartments are located near the intersection of Hessen Cassel and E. Paulding Rds.
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| "Duck and cover" |
Police said a translator was needed when they arrived on scene (could well be BURMESE), as this area has seen it's share of refugees over the past several years (gotta put 'em someplace).
Reports say that multiple rounds were fired into the apartment, and police say they cannot confirm the girl was 9 years old.
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| Waterloo Gardens - nice ghetto. |
http://wane.com/2014/11/23/shots-fired-at-home-young-girl-injured/
No one ever said that section-8 apartments were exactly "bullet-resistant", did they?
There's an idea...kevlar-impregnated SIDING for homes and apartments...
stops the bullets AND provides better evidence for law-enforcement.
(and the makers of kevlar have to create a ton of new jobs to handle the request for product)
Sounds like a plan to me.
Moving on...
*** Wifey and I went up to Glenvrook Square Mall Saturday, she for her nails and me for shopping.
And I came away wonderfully DISAPPOINTED...!!!
This sure is NOT the mall I remember way back in the late 1990s...not by a long shot.
(and it shows)
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| The bloom is off the rose, people. |
They had a coffee/tea shoppe...gone. A Kay-Bee-Toys...gone. A DISNEY Store...gone. Spencer's is a shadow of it's former self, so it might as well be gone.
They had several smaller book stores...gone.
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| Might as well call it a clothing OUTLET mall. |
Cripes, I even miss Borders.
I used to go there every year to get stuff...never came out empty-handed.
So, there went my REAL reason for going to Glenbrook.
I mean, check the place out (those that live around here)...how MANY clothing stores can you have in ONE place that pretty much sell the same crap? It's either trendy...or expensive...or even trendy AND expensive.
I was really let-down.
I then meandered over to Toys R Us, thinking I could get some things there...got ONE item (didn't much like the price, either, but it was the last one). ONLY game in town, being a monopoly allows for no real bargains for the customers...find...another disappointment, except the staff were all very friendly.
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| It's BORING...and not inexpensive. |
I then went back over to Ollie's for whatever they have(which is usually a LOT)...
Who said Black Friday was THIS week, anyway?
Seemed it had already commenced...traffic was heavier than usual, and parking wasn't as good as in years past.
To me, going up there was basically a WASTE..and I was BEAT....no other way to put it, and that's pretty damn sad.
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| Tired as all get out. |
Guess everyone will move to the DOWNTOWN area and we'll see a retail resurgence there?
( well, for me, it'd be s shorter drive)
Looks like out WEST might become a better place to shop...it's ridiculous.
*** And speaking of ridiculous...yesterday was one of "those" days...
Ever go looking for something, only to find it either fell into a black hole or grew legs and walked off somewhere OTHER than the place you last saw it? You all know exactly what I mean...I can tell.
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| Formerly M.I.A. |
I wanted to get my kit out and see if it was the SAME one (on sale)...and I could NOT for the life of me FIND the damn bugger...
Wifey would tell you...I looked for HOURS, and was getting more PO'ed by the minute, because I knew where it should have been (and was not). I even looked in places it could not possibly be...wasn't there either.
Now, after dinner (homemade macaroni and cheese - one of our staples at the "Fortress"), I decided to go back DOWN to the basement and frustrate myself further...
I spotted a white plastic milk crate with burner covers (I bought last year) in it on the bottom of a shelving unit I put up after the flooding (to prevent further damage), and when I stuck my had down into the crate...guess what?
FOUND the damn gun-cleaning kit...intact and not damaged by those basement floods we had earlier in the year.
It's like I had developed some sort of "radar" to find it...
I feel it's something else, though...
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| The secret is in that "crust"...yummmmm |
Absolutely NO other way to explain it...
Problem solved (and I don't have to get another kit)...ten dollars saved there.
Now, if only I could find that food that makes one live forever and wealthy beyond avarice at the same time...lol
*** Last back to the barn...it's often said that the more things change , the more they stay the same.
If things did change and remain the same, I'd probably be in 7th heaven...but I'm not.
The more things change...the LESS I like it, seems to be MY take on it.
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| A change for the BETTER. |
Another good change was when storage of food by FREEZING was perfected (by Birdseye).
There are a multitude of inventions that HAVE indeed made our lives BETTER.
And though the centuries, making inventions more efficient and less costly didn't hurt us at all (except for the machine gun...very efficient).
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| Not a good way to go. |
Glenbrook Mall has changed over the decades, and (to me)...not for the better...it just more of THE SAME..in abundance...that costs more...and doesn't last as long...this is progress?
I think REAL progress comes when we take "things" out of the equation...let the PEOPLE change for the better...let THEM evolve.
That will lead to better changes in the "things" we chase after, because better MINDS are at work on them.
When we reverse that process, we allow the "inventions" (and technology) to drive the people, rather than the way it should be...the other way around - people driving invention of things and technology.
We've got ourselves an ass-backward situation, and it;s no wonder we get confused easier and more often.
But, hey, it's not about something that important...it's more about who'd doing the halftime show at the Super Bowl...
We need a better sense of priorities, first as individuals, then, as a nation.
Stay SAFE out there, America.
8 comments:
I think that last bits sums it up perfectly. We should drive technology, but instead, technology drives us. Cellphones in particular have turned people into walking zombies, especially when meeting up with friends. Nothing like getting out of the house with a friend for dinner just so they can sit on their phone and Facebook to the world how much fun they're having with me (while not interacting with me at all).
"Cripes, I even miss Borders."
I have a feeling that B&N is going to be following them onto the ash-heap of retail history; I give 'em three years, five tops. These days, I do most of my book shopping through Amazon. They have pretty much everything.
ABFS:
I thought I was an "old fogey" for feeling that way, but I find a LOT of younger people thinking the SAME thing...JUST like you!
I have had a cell for about a YEAR< and I never turn it on, unless I'm out by myself, and even then, not all the time.
I'm not attached "at the hip" to it...NO way.
TO me, it's more like an "emergency" comms device.
I've got a simple rule...don't be on the cell around me unless it's some sort of immediate and critical issue (like injury).
WE need to rule tech and not the other way around.
Thanks much for taking time to stop by and comment.
Stay safe out there.
John D.:
I like Amazon a lot, and have gotten a few books from them (not kindle or e-books...I like to hold a REAL book and see TYPE on a page,...sorry).
Comes from working for a publisher, I guess...LOL.
Really miss those smaller shops...like Paperback Booksmith, B. Dalton, and Encore Books.
They didn't NEED to be so vast, always had lots in stock, and felt a lot more "personal".
I don't need a damn coffee shop in a bookstore.
In defense of B&N, they did have very helpful staff (and cute - I don't miss a trick...lol).
My MAIN source of books is eBay...and they carry NEW books as well at prices that often BEAT Amazon...with FREE shipping.
It's become a crap-shoot...like a LOT of other things, sad to say.
(sighs)
Thanks for dropping by today and commenting.
Much appreciated.
Stay safe out there
(and mind the melting snow)
Your comments on Glenbrook and my thoughts are one in the same- right down to the last time we were there, We did laps trying to figure out where suncoast was. Like, do you people even REALIZE its still on the directory? If they do, they don't care... it was still summer when we went and Suncoast was already gone...
Hope you haven't blown away yet! I'm beginning to wonder about us...
Chris:
Yeah, I used to have to go to various malls in three states to work on Circuit City stores, and I can be at a location ONCE, and know where everything's at (a good sense of direction and observance).
But Saturday had me befuddled!
Glenbrook didn't even mention to ANY media source the store was leaving, and the last cutback by Suncoast was a couple years back with 150 locations closing...we still had the Ft. Wayne store last holiday season.
No chance of being blown away (by wind OR bullets)...LOL.
I keep my pockets filled and carry a sidearm...THAT works wonders.
I have seen birds trying to fly...more like "hovering" briefly.
Hey, thanks for blowing on by today to comment.
Stay safe (and well-anchored) up there, brother.
So we are all disappointed that 1990ish stores are no longer in the Glenbrook Mall. Where to begin?
K.B.Toys went under in 2005 - the first time closing most of their stores including Glenbrook, but some investment outfit tried to revive the brand but gave up the ghost this year. Could it be that some patrons only show up every 9 years?
Disney liked its retail stores so well, the company sold them off in 2004 to the Children's Place. New ownership chopped a bunch of stores including Glenbrook - then sold back to Disney and now Mickey's company is pursuing online business.
Then we have the bookstores, which are giving up the ghost to Amazon. Borders is gone along with its Waldenbooks location from town because they went BK; B. Dalton's is owned by Barnes & Noble so only one would survive in the mall. B & N has far too much floor space for the volume they do and they are going downhill.
Suncoast Motion Picture Co sold what? Videos - which have gone the way of the buggy whip. The Glenbrook franchisee branched out a bit by doing custom work or else he would have been gone when Transworld closed its f.y.e. mall stores many moons ago.
As for Circuit City, the mall never housed the chain.
Malls rent space to retailers - they do not run the stores - so we need to examine why poor retailers do not last. What amazes me is that despite online sales, the occupancy rate at Glenbrook is pretty good. In my opinion, the loss of L.S Ayres was huge for the mall. Macy's volume doesn't come close.
Gadfly:
--I shop for toys (for myself) a LOT more often than every 9 years...LOL.
--I do miss the Disney stores, though...showed movies all the time, and the experience was very amicable compared to other stores.
--Had a feeling that mega-book stores were going the way of the passenger pigeon. Perhaps a lot of people miss smaller venues (along w/ the growing e-book stuff).
--Suncoast had a decent idea, but
while they did have a lot of various videos (loads of anime and boxed sets) they also had related merchandise from movies and a good selection that was hard to find most other places (including the once-good Spencer's).
--A lot of malls on the east coast had Circuit City "express" stores at malls in DE, NJ, and PA. mostly small electronics. Had to service them every month.
--Glenbrook does have most all their space filled, but they also tend to raise rates, and that forces out smaller businesses real fast. Hard to find ANY shop there NOT owned by a larger parent company.
But hey, I'm just a stodgy old consumer., who likes (and misses) certain stores...LOL.
Thanks much for a very good explanation (comment) behind Glenbrook.
DO stay safe out there.
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