109 and 4

Got into the Ninja in the late morning to make a trip from work to the Saline Rd. Meijer. Vee-hickle temperature sensor’s take on the ambient temp? 102. Now, it was really not *that* hot. I think that temp was the result of sitting around in the sun on a paved parking lot. It slowly wound itself down to 89. Back at work, I lowered the windows a few inches. Not far enough down for the red winged blackbirds to poop all over the interior of the vee-hickle but enough to at least make me think I was letting some air in. A couple hours later our building “mom” sent out an email that said, in essence, “red blobs inbound toward the Planet”. I slodged out to the parking lot through the heat and humidity and turned the key. 109! Oh, and *4* (count ’em) weather alerts on Weatherbug on my phone: 1) heat advisory (yeah, we know that), 2) some kind of air quality alert (thank you god for giving me good lungs), 3) severe thunderstorms, and 4) an extra special alert from Weatherbug about detecting lots of lightning in the area. We never got severe storms but we did get some decent rain (and we NEEDED it) and it is now about 81. Tolerable.

Man, that was boring. Weather in the Great Lake State. If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes… How about Borders? Yes, it is closing. I could write a maudlin post about how wonderful the original store on State Street was. (Actually, I think there was at least one Borders store before that.) About how they actually had MATH BOOKS there. About how the GG used to take his newborn baby there and everybody would ooh and aah about how cute she was and pretty girls would strike up conversations with him. About how that same baby learned how to climb stairs at Borders. And how, after months of saving up money to buy an American Girl doll, she decided she would rather have a hard copy of The Wind in the Willows and guess where we went to buy that? And about a billion other memories of Borders.

I am sorry that Borders is closing. It means that people I know and love will lose their jobs. It means that a large store in downtown A2 will be empty. I sure hope that Thongs and Bongs doesn’t move in! Oh right, they already have a space right next to a high-end chocolate store and a youth writing center. Anyway, in my not-so-humble-opinion, Borders made a couple of mistakes over the years. One was expanding waaaayy too fast and forgetting its roots along the way. The other is not keeping up with new technology. In the first place, not catching on to Amazon.com’s online model. In the second place, not looking ahead to the inevitable future of electronic books. But, in a way, who knew?

Finally, that is our old KMart kiddie pool, or maybe the first one. They don’t last a really long time. We never did get anything approaching a severe thunderstorm today but we are being threatened with another one now. Not sure it’s gonna turn into anything.

Oh, P. S. There’s Rubber Ducky in that pool!

3 Responses to “109 and 4”

  1. Margaret Says:

    That’s too hot for me, although I’ve been complaining about our 50s and 60s “summer” weather!! I’m sad Borders is closing too; I was so excited when the first one opened up around here. It was a cool place to go, have coffee and browse. I have to admit though that I get most of my books from the library or from amazon these days. Cheaper and easier.

  2. Becky Courtois Says:

    I purchased a blow up kiddie pool for Hayley today, she has been asking for one for weeks. It has a built in sprinkler and is pretty darn fancy for $15. You are never too old for a “kiddie pool”.

  3. Karen F Says:

    I remember one of the early times The Engineer steered us to your place, then we visited downtown… heck The Planet had one of the “early” Starbucks, so it was So Cool (to me) to stop in and get A CAPPUCCINO (compared to now, when I drive thru every morning: “Grande Bold with Cream, in my cup!”), and the Mandatory Explore Of Borders (and being AMAZED that a bookstore could literally cover 2 floors AND that big a footprint!!! WOOOOO!!!!). Then, Miller Rd (Flint Twp., NOT The Planet) got a Borders, and it suddenly lost that OOOH-AHHH effect for me. Yeah, I got in there occasionally, but it just didn’t have that “specialness” any longer, since it was that close… especially being on that GawdAwful Miller Road (Flint Twp., NOT The Planet), which canNOT support the traffic and just feels trashy.

    And, yes, I also am heartbroken that the lack of fore-/insight regarding their market has left Their Employees IN THE LURCH. Especially when one of them has always been The Engineer’s Favorite Cuzzin!