Storms - In Nature and Among People

It's 5:20 am, it's thundering and raining outside, and I'm running a time deadline today with a 7:30 am dermatologist appointment, so today's blog might be short and sweet. That's OK, though. I can manage a quick post despite the rain and thunder booming overhead. 

Hurricane Laura landed hard and moved inland with
torrential rain and high winds causing wide swaths
of destruction. 

Of course, the past 24 hours haven't seen a lot of relaxed times. In the south, Hurricane Laura smashed into Louisiana causing swaths of property damage and at least one death. Closer to home, the riots in Wisconsin and supplementary riots elsewhere are still going on - Portland, Kenosha, and other cities expressing their frustration at racism expressed by so many others.  

The riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin continued, and sympathy riots in other places
also seem to be continuing. My own city was placed under curfew again
last night, for the first time since the George Floyd protests earlier in
the summer. The world is on fire. 

I recall reading a book many years ago that postulated the extinction of the "white" race as it subsumed into the various shades of brown shared by most of the world. It's one more step towards homogenization of race, and probably will happen - but not overnight. It's one of those things that anthropologists postulate will happen within a few hundred, maybe even a few thousand years. 

Of course this is world population percentages, but
Caucasian isn't a majority. and probably never was. 

Right now, though, I'm just trying to nail my schedule and hope that I can get in and out of places without getting drenched. It's raining with more thunderstorms on their way, and even though they aren't long storms, while they're moving over, they are producing drenching, pounding rain. I'd rather not see my doctor totally dripping on the floor, but at least it's really easy to dry off with a bald head - LOL. Have a wonderful Friday, enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow. Be safe, stay well, and please Wear A Mask. 

Thanks You's Long Overdue

I remembered to grab some quick cash this morning - something I'd been reminding myself to do for the past two days. I needed it to join with the funds from three other business owners - owners of businesses in my same stretch of four stores in a single old brick building. We're gathering together to buy gift cards for the three men who saved our businesses on the nights of the riot. 

My store is the second one of the four. On the left is
the coffeeshop, on the right is the Veterinarian and next
to her is a t-shirt screen printing shop. We're all women
owned and operated. Although there is a second
story, there are no tenants on that floor. Long ago
there used to be apartments above.  

During the night of Thursday the 28th-29th of May, looters and rioters protesting the death of George Floyd crossed over into St Paul, looting and destroying businesses along University Avenue. They they turned north and hit a variety of businesses - gas stations, convenience stores, and of course my neighborhood pharmacy, as they continued damaging and looting the area. Around my little four-business building, they hit directly South, directly East and directly Northeast, but our block was saved. 

My pharmacy, kitty-corner from the coffeeshop next door to me, was
looted and burned to the ground. The gas station to the right, across
the street from the coffeeshop was looted, but not fired. The gas
station up a block across the street from us was also looted, almost
completely destroyed inside. It's been gutted and I'm not sure if
they'll ever reopen. 

It was saved because of the efforts of three men who patrolled, cajoled, and protected the block. Brian, who lived on the top story of the building just south of me, John, one of the workers for my landlord who owns much of the block, and Mylan whom I don't know, but I think he operates the detailing shop a bit farther down the block. These three guys talked at least two waves of looters/rioters away from our little block, and patrolled regularly throughout the night, keeping all of us safe. 

When we were able to breathe again, I suggested to Kathy, the owner of the coffee shop next door to me, that we (four business owners) gather together and give the three guys a collective "Thank You" gift for their help. I'm absolutely sure none of us would have had a business to return to without their help. So, I pulled $75 from my personal funds to contribute and I'll talk to the T-shirt gal today about contributing. I'll leave the Veterinarian up to Kathy, and then pass all the funds along to her so that she can purchase Target gift cards for each of the guys. She also wants to include small gift cards for her coffeeshop, and that's fine. That's totally on her. 

People gathered a mile north of my business on Monday,
July 6th to honor the memory of Philando Castile who was
shot in his car without provocation by a police office from
the local township. The town disbanded their police and
their policing is now done by the County Sheriff's department
instead. I'm not sure that's an improvement.

I've been reminding myself for a few days now, so I'm very proud that I finally remembered - LOL. So, onwards. Life moves on, people (hopefully) change for the better, etc. One good thing about all of this was my starting to chat with Brian - the Vietnam vet who lives next door. I see him smoking while his Shih Tzu wanders the area. We've had a few good conversations since the riots. He's a interesting man. 

On that note, I'm out of here. Have a wonderful Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Just My Viewpoint - We Need Variety To Be Strong

The store was fine when I drove up on Monday, and we actually had a really busy day with lots of fun, interesting customers, so that was great too. There were more peaceful protests taking place in the Cities - the days seem to be full of peaceful protests, the nights are a bit more fraught with tinder, tempers and confrontations. We're far from an isolated voice in the wilderness. It seems that almost every large metro area is having its own riots and demonstrations - many not peaceful at all. 

I'm putting pictures of flower gardens in my blog today. Why flower
gardens? Because they are beautiful to look at, calming to the eye,
and because it is the diversity of plants that makes for a beautiful
garden. 

I look at the history of demonstrations in this country - so many demonstrating for equality, for human rights, for dignity for people of color, and so many starting out with great promises and ended up running on the same old tired treadmill to nowhere. It's no wonder to me that people are angry. They have every right to be. Yes, opportunities have increased since I was young, but true equality isn't there yet. When Navajo Indians are fighting COVID without running water to more than 30% of their homes, and when multitudes of Lakota Sioux people live in substandard housing without heat in the bitten winters of South Dakota, there is no equality. There are no jobs, there are limited opportunities, and the only ways out are by leaving home, family and heritage behind. 

I love the red and blue flowers in this garden. They're
bright and colorful in the sunshine. 

People of color are looked upon with greater suspicion, watched more closely in a crowd, and dogged when in larger groups. Why? The white person around the corner is just as likely to be a thief, but it's the brown person who is watched. People are tired of feeling like they're not good enough. They are tired of walking with a target on their backs, and tired of having to take low paying grunge jobs because that's all they can get in their neighborhoods. 

Here are some shorter flowers, but again, the mix of colors
and blooms are what's so interesting and beautiful about
the garden. 

I'd like to see some serious changes because I've always believed it is possible if corporate America would just wake up to the reality of a huge pool of talented people that just need a place to be able to use their talents. I want large corporations to start looking at the poorer, more colored sections of town as opportunities to set up a location and hire local talent. I want manufacturing plants, design studios, architects and think tanks to spread out from their comfort zones and see what America can truly offer to them. You want thinking outside the box? Try hiring a poor black kid who's been trying to self-educate. You might be very pleasantly surprised at the viewpoints and skill sets he/she can offer. 

Even in the wild, nature prefers to mix things up. Here we
have a bee garden in the wild, and I'm quite sure the
bees enjoy visiting the blooms. 

Just my thoughts, and I fully admit I'm a privileged white girl who got really lucky. But I think that luck has to spread, thus this little rant as we all try to get our feet back under us once again. Have a wonderful Tuesday and please, stay safe and stay well. 

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. 

I'm Living In "Interesting Times" and I Hate It

Yesterday was a little scary - the riots about the George Floyd killing moved from Minneapolis across the river to St Paul, and into the southern portion of my shop's neighborhood. It was a tense afternoon, and we locked the door, leaving a sign on it to knock for entry. We have bars across our windows and solid doors, and we're a mile north of where the major riots and property destruction was going on, but it was uncomfortable. 

At 5:30 pm, I made the decision to close early. We brought the cloths back up and covered the display cases, just as we had while we were on stay-at-home. We're basically a bead store, but why tempt fate? I was out of the shop by 6:00 pm, normally when I would be locking the doors. My landlord texted me later hoping that we were all away from the shop and to let him know if anything happened (break-in or similar) and he would go over. He lives quite close to the shop, so he could get there faster than I. Fortunately, as of now (6:30 am on Friday) nothing happened. I hope we haven't been spray painted or such, but I think we survived the night. 

For those of you who are overseas and might not have heard about this clusterf__k, here's some bare bones details. A grocer in Minneapolis called the police about a suspected thief. Four police officers arrived and accosted George Floyd, wrestling him to the ground and holding him down, forcibly, one officer by kneeling across the back of his neck. Despite numerous requests to "Let me breathe. I can't breathe", the policeman kept his knee on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes, causing his death. 

The Minneapolis mayor was incensed about this, as were a LOT of people. Since Floyd was a black man and the police were not (they were a variety of non-black people), race and the problem of race relations and black dignity raised its head. We give a lot of lip service to equality in this nation, but a lot of times that's all it is - lip service. 

Riots happened because people were angry. The four policemen were fired, but have not yet been arrested (which they certainly SHOULD be, for murder and accessory to murder), and the people are angry about the lack of action by the authorities. As of this writing, we've had riots for three nights now and also looting and violence during the days. 

UPDATE - Chickie just sent me a Twitter video that shows the pharmacy, kitty corner across the street from me, engulfed in flames early this morning at 1:30 am. (it's a 100-year-old building and I just love the people there). I'm seriously considering doing the bare minimum at the shop today and staying locked until next week. What a mess. 

I think I don't like living in "interesting times". Stay safe and I'll be back tomorrow.