Hanging at the Hardware Store

During my outing with the photo walks group a while back through Little Italy, I came across this guy hanging outside of a hardware store. You know, like one of those old neighbourhood hardware stores our dads would go to when we were kids, before the big box stores like Home Depot wiped most of them out. I can’t help but wonder when the day will come that we will regret not making more of an effort to protect our neighbourhoods and communities. By then, of course, it will be too late, if it’s not already. What I find really perplexing up here in Canada is the advent of the big box store mega plazas. You know where instead of a nice cozy mall to stroll through we now have to drive from one big box store across the parking lot to the next store. It’s a bitch in the winter and hell in the hot summer. And for the old folks it must be brutal. Then there’s the added gas required to move your car around this square mile lot of stores. Plus, each store has a heat loss and heat gain through four exterior walls and a roof, where inside a large enclosed mall many stores have no heat loss or gain through any walls, since none of their walls are exterior. Lots of extra energy lost there. For some reason our local governments have embraced this ridiculous model as the way of the future. Me, I don’t see it. What do you think?

So I am feeling really good today. I had a great day at work — lots of fun and positive energy floating about. When I got home I went straight to work vacuuming and dusting the whole house, doing laundry, ironing four shirts for work (I HATE ironing, yet I LOVE irony — go figure) and now I’m about to tackle the bathroom and kitchen. If I get these things done tonight I will be free of the mental burden caused by procrastination. I drive myself nuts when I put things off. And the last thing I want is a weekend worrying about stuff I should be doing instead of having fun. So tonight’s my night to get ‘er done! Tomorrow, maybe some photography. There’s also an annual rib festival that should be fun and a great opportunity for photographs. The best part is no work until next Tuesday. I might even reward myself with a glass of wine later if I get all my chores done in time this evening. I wish I felt this good every day. Fingers crossed my mood carries through the weekend.