Here Comes the Neighborhood

Heading out for Tuesday’s workout at the Pain Cave, I noticed the vacant lot on the corner had been fenced in.

There was construction going on.

I mentioned to Trainer that the lot had been sold only a few months ago, and work has already begun, whereas the lot directly across the street from the complex had been sold well over a year ago and nothing. In fact, the weeds on the lot have been allowed to grow so high that I wouldn’t be surprised if there was not a dead body in there.

Trainer is a young man with an old soul and a great sense of humor. He gets me, no judgments, so his reply was not shock, nor the "don’t say/think/feel things like that" I sometimes get from neighbors and family. Instead, it was “You’d smell it”.

LOL.

“It’s too far across the street for that”, said I. “Besides, we’ve had residents die in their units and no one has mentioned a smell, and sometimes the person has been dead for days”.

I went on to say the fact death sometimes goes unnoticed around here in the complex causes me to sometimes worry about how long it will be, should something happen, before anyone notices and calls for a welfare check.

“Monday, Tuesday, Thursday” said he. “If you don't show up and haven’t called to cancel or reschedule on a Monday, Tuesday or Thursday, I’ll know somethings wrong”.

ROFLMAO!

At least Trainer’s got my back.

So, anyway, there was a knock on the door as I was getting dressed for this morning’s workout.

It was Apache saying, “Guess what’s going in at the corner”.

Before I could guess, he blurted out “Starbucks!”

That’s huge news.

When the marijuana dispensary opened up a few doors down, the residents went crazy out of their minds ...“There goes the neighborhood”. 

None of the awful things residents thought the business would bring into the neighborhood happened, but no one was unhappy when the business was raided and shut down.

With Starbucks going in at the corner, I expect it’s going to be more like "Here comes the neighborhood".

Perhaps it will urge the corner market to up it’s game with fresh produce.

The market was open Memorial Day ... the day I was desperate for veggies. In fact, the place was packed, doing a brisk business ─ mostly at the deli.

I wish I could have done something as simple as deli potato salad and fried chicken. Instead, I browsed the veggies, passed on mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli ─ pretty much the entire row until I came across nice looking carrots, zucchini, a couple sweet potatoes, ambrosia apples. I ended up going with those items and frozen cauliflower rice, frozen broccoli, to get me through until tomorrow, when I’ll be out of the area and can load up on veggies at the same market chain, but in a location where the customers are more highly valued.