Out and about

I've grown quite fond of my morning walks. I generally leave the house shortly after dawn, which is nowhere near as early as it would have been even a month ago. Stupid hemisphere, stupid wobbly planet.

Every restaurant which is open early in the morning seems to have a small cadre of morning regulars, generally older men. I watch them greet each other and the workers behind the counters. The workers sometimes have their regular orders already prepared for them. If one of the men has been absent the previous day, the others give him grief about it. Since they all look to be somewhere around retirement age, I suppose this is their way of having somewhere to go, a routine to start the day, and a sense of community. While I doubt I could be satisfied with a Croissan'wich from Burger King every morning, I am nevertheless a little jealous of their little morning community.

*****

By 7 am, a crew of about six workers were toiling on the former grounds of the Lighthouse Diner, separating bricks into piles. Periodically, they would strike a brick with a hammer, perhaps to knock off the cement which used to hold it to another brick. I watched them work for a couple of minutes. They worked very fast.

I wonder where those bricks are going to end up. Another building, one assumes. For the rest of my walk, I am looking at all of the bricks in the buildings I pass, wondering what structures they have previously been a part of.

*****

I stopped in at Tommy's Cafe, one of the more interesting hybrid establishments in the neighborhood. They are a full, working eatery, but also have a surprisingly large selection of new and used musical instruments. Mostly guitars, but I did spy a few other types of noisemakers in there. I was tempted for a moment by a clarinet, before recalling that I don't really have any money anymore. Not to mention that I do not play the clarinet.

I mentioned that I had not been in since they changed locations a couple of years ago and said something vaguely complimentary about the new setup, which makes the place seem much nicer than it did when it was a couple of blocks east of its current location. Now it has levels, and a much larger selection of guitars.

In exchange for my flattery, I was given one of the worst cafe mochas I have ever tasted, although in fairness it was also by far the cheapest.

And apparently they make Star Wars-themed guitars now. I spotted Darth Vader, a Stormtrooper and Boba Fett. Wonder why they only had villains. Wonder why they make Star Wars guitars. Before I left, I also started to wonder why a music store had talk radio on instead of something musical piping through the speakers.