Friday morning started out with a text and accompanying video from Chickie. Lloyd's Pharmacy, a 100-year-old building on my corner was engulfed in flames. I was very unsure what I would run into when I went to the shop later. I could find graffiti, hate slogans, who knew? I knew I hadn't had a break in, I would have been contacted by my alarm company. But almost anything else was a possibility.
DH decided we would drive in together. He wanted to take some things away from the shop and also check on some payments we were making for end of the month. So we drove out and actually couldn't get to the store on Snelling because of the firetrucks still pouring water down onto the remaining structure of the pharmacy. I pulled off the street onto a side street and we went to the store via the back way.
These two pictures were taken right from the front door of my shop, so you can see how very close this was to all of us. The building was a total loss. |
The shop looked fine, the alarm was still set, the front of the store was untouched, I was extremely grateful. My landlord texted me later in the day telling me that two guys (one owns property on the block, the other works for my landlord) managed to turn away at least two separate waves of looters and keep them away from our small group of stores. The pharmacy, however, was a total loss.
We stayed for an hour or so, DH finished the things he needed to do, and we decided to stay closed for Friday and re-open on Saturday. I put signs in the window, texted Chickie telling her not to bother coming in, and we headed home. Each of us actually ended up coming back once more through the day to pick up documents left behind (DH) and to double-check to make sure all of the doors were properly locked (me).
The cities of Minneapolis and St Paul slapped curfews on the cities yesterday, running through the weekend. Nobody allowed on the streets from 8:00 pm until 6:00 am. It didn't seem to make any difference in Minneapolis. DH was watching news reports until after 1:00 am last night, so I suspect there were more riots and more property damage. St Paul, however, was quiet. I'm quite relieved.
So, as I wrap this up and prepare to go to the shop for a "normal" day of business today, I'm hoping that things start to calm down. I have no idea if they will, though. Sometimes it only takes a single spark to start a conflagration, and that's what the murder of George Floyd was - a single spark. Please, stay safe and be well and spread love and kindness. Hatred doesn't deserve a part in our lives.
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