Saturday, May 30, 2020

We Dodged a Bullet and I'm Grateful

The protests in Minneapolis turned into riots which spilled over into St Paul. In Minneapolis, the main area for uprisings and protests is Lake Street, in St Paul, it's University Avenue, located a mile south of my store. The main North-South street that intersects University is Snelling Avenue, the street where my little shop is located. 

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. 



When I arrived at the shop, the fire trucks were still pouring water
onto Lloyd's Pharmacy. They had been boarded up, but were looted
and then torched. I hope the owners had everything insured, but I know
insurance often won't cover events happening in riots. 




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. 



As I left for the first time, equipment had been brought in
and they were starting to knock down the walls. When
I returned later in the afternoon, it was just a pile of rubble.
This pic was taken through the window of my shop,
looking at the intersection. 




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). 



It's going to seem very odd when I look out of my
front windows today and I don't see Lloyd's across
the street. I hope they are able to stay in business,
they were thriving and always busy. I enjoy supporting
a small business, so they were my pharmacy as
well as DH's and Chickie's. 



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. 



A final look as I was waiting in the intersection to turn and head
back home. One hundred years of history gone in just a few
hours, leaving heartsick people behind and lots of people hoping
they still have jobs in the wings. 



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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