Life in the kinda larger city

I read some Kansas City news today that is both exciting and depressing for me. See, a couple blocks from me is this neat little Flea Market Bar and Grill. It is this hole in the wall type of place, with flea market stalls that you tiptoe through your way through in fear of touching anything that might be exposed. Just that sense of the unknown as you seriously do not know where any of these items has ever come from. And given that a previous flea market patron was a serial killer I find that point of view to be very sensible. However, they have a bar and grill that serves the best hamburgers in town along with really cheap beer. On hot nights like tonight when I have no desire to cook it is one of the best places on the planet to walk to and just sit back, have a beer and a burger, and watch the ball game.

Well, the news today is that the owner is contemplating selling the place. It would be torn down and in its place they would put up, wait for it, a Hooters. Obviously, this leaves me in a sense of conflict. On one hand, living two blocks from a Hooters would have its advantages. I’m not sure what they are offhand but I sure that some must exist. (Though it is a frightening thought that I could gain my “one of the regulars” status like I have at other bars in town). But, I did move to this part of town for the exact reason that those chain places didn’t exist down here. We have privately owned video stores and one of a kind restaurants, and a Chilli’s that no one ever steps foot in. I don’t want Westport to become corporate, to have it become just an extension of the suburbs. The reason people live in a city is because it is just that, a city. With a lot of odds and ends and a bizarre flea market that has bands on Sunday nights and really good bar food. If I wanted to go to Hooters I would stop in at the one in the French Quarter. They could probably use the business.

A couple of other observations from around town this week. At the office park/campus that I work at we’ve started putting up a chain fence around the sidewalks. Actually, only part of the sidewalk. Like about twenty feet of chain every three hundred yards or so. I’m not kidding, I walk around and see these little chains like handrails or guards to prevent you from stepping on the grass. But they are only twenty feet long and they don’t protect anything so you can just walk around them. I don’t even want to know what they are for. Also, I’d like to thank the genius who decided to shut down one of the main roads into a campus that twelve thousand people work in. There are only four ways in, close one of them and you have three thousands people trying to figure out at eight in the morning with no coffee in their system how to get to their office. My commute increased by ten minutes because it was now nearly impossible to reach my parking garage. I should put in for mileage reimbursement.

That’s it for the night. Haven’t read about any more of my youth being remade in movie form. Though I am working on the pitch for a Great Space Coaster movie. I’ve got the tag line already, “It’s time to get aboard.”