The old order changeth and yieldeth place to new.

I saw a very strange thing when I was driving home through Sh�brooke today, coming down King West just past the cenotaph towards Wellington. On the other side of the street, facing uphill, was a stopped automobile, with several people milling about, and the front, driver�s side wheel was completely at an angle, as though the axel had broken, and the front of the car was lying on its nose. I was trying to imagine driving along when the wheel falls off your car. Creepy.

I had been to Costco (they took back the olives, no problem) and the mall (where I bought lots of fun stuff at Yves R�cher with my half-price coupon) and had just been to the coffee store and was heading to Provigo when I saw this thing. Why am I writing this stuff? Really, in 20 years� time am I going to give a shit about this particular shopping trip? Maybe I should be more selective in what I put in this thing. But then, my life isn�t so exciting that I would actually have anything to write about. I got up this morning, I went to work, I came home, made supper, watched T.V., and went to bed. Are there people out there who really do live those kinds of lives?

Anyway, back to the coffee store. When we first moved to the region, Hubby read in a local magazine that a Lebanese immigrant (there are quite a few of them in Quebec due to the language) had opened a caf� (Bla Bla, for those of you in the know), and had started roasting coffee to serve there. He soon branched out into a wholesale business, which grew yet another arm to serve the retail sector. I remember the original store where I would go with Little Princess when she was just a tiny thing. The large man who roasted the coffee in the enormous coffee roaster (amazingly, it�s the same word for both in French: torr�facteur) liked her a lot and was always happy to see us. (While I was writing this, I heard banging noises and looked out the window in time to see fireworks off in the distance at Parc Jacques-Cartier.) This particular establishment did most of its business with restaurants and retail outlets and the smaller store soon opened just around the corner to serve private customers.

Over the years it has moved around a lot, from Peel Street to King West at the corner of Esplanade, and most recently near Queen Street. The woman who owned this business is a cousin (or something) of the wholesale-business owner and a couple of months ago sold the business back to its originators so she could pursue different things. The employees were assured at first that nothing would change, not the location, the decor, and no one would be laid off. How empty are these promises, for the store closes its doors at its present location next week and reopens them in a chi-chi location right on Wellington North (next to Antiquarius) with all new employees. Every last one of the previous ones was let go. Sad but true.

I will probably continue to buy my coffee there, since it is roasted fresh every few days. But I won�t have the same feeling about the place. It will take time to develop a rapport with the new employees, something I have cultivated over many years with the ones now gone. They watched my kids grow up even. Sigh�

P.S. For the most incredible picture of a baby bird, go to zitagsd�s diary.

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