Even with the presidential election months away the political landscape is starting to stink of fecal matter and there is not a janitor currently on staff. In thinking, we…you and I...are the caretakers of the toilet brush this go around. Please understand I have no intention to use this web site as a voice for any candidate or to express my personal options. I am going to use this web site to announce that we all need to make every effort to register to vote and/or get out and vote when the time comes. This coming election is going to be one of the most important presidential elections in my life time. There is and will be much on the national and international agenda for whoever wins the White House to juggle and deal with over the term of their presidency. With the news focus being squarely on this race, please take the time to know and understand what other voting items will be on your ballet in November. The information you take in now will serve you and your local community for generations to come. Know and understand what local or state bonds are going to be on the ballet. Know and understand what judges, local or state officials are asking for your vote. It is so easy to be spoon fed by TV, newspapers or other electronic media outlets but by all means don’t settle being a political lemming. Do a little homework, ask questions and challenge everything until you are satisfied that your vote is based on knowledge and not an ad agency or editorial comments. The political landscape will be changing in November ’08 and your vote can and will make a difference. Don’t believe me? Well for all who were voting back in the early 1980’s…IT’S BACK!
The other day I was on a Skybus early morning flight (5:45AM). Since I worked late the evening before, sleep was not going to be an option so I worked up to the time I had to leave for the airport. Leading up to my departure my email was being over taken by messages from Skybus. They were requiring you get to the airport at least two hours in advance of your flight because of the anticipated traffic due to spring break. Now, once I got to the airport and to my flight’s gate it was apparent that PTI did not get this memo. At the wee hours in the morning and a terminal filled with 40 plus year old ‘spring breakers’, not one of the one and only coffee shop in the gate area was opened. It was scheduled to open at 6:30AM, forty five minutes into this and several other early morning flights. With TSA restrictions being what they are, bringing coffee from the nearby gas station was neither an option nor a consideration. I half expected to be able to get my morning joe inside the gate area but this was not going to be the case. So with this blog posting, let it serve as the official ‘lost memo to PTI’. There are actual customers milling around your airport early in the morning and dare I say, late in the evening. I know this might come to you as an odd revelation but it is actually happening…there are actual ‘real’ customers roaming your once empty halls using Greensboro as a gateway (thanks in large part to Skybus) to the outside world. After conducting a prolonged study involving deep research and a little undercover investigation work, I came to the startling conclusion that these folks were breathing humans requiring a few creature comforts like, COFFEE!
Wake up PTI and smell the potential revenue. Your new airport traveler’s just mite enjoy a little sip of what you are spooning out in your promotional flyers. Oh, while you are on this fact finding mission of the missing bean, a small slice of ‘free’ WiFi would be so nice. Now go back to bed and continue dreaming that someday maybe, just maybe, more people will be using your airport instead of suing it.
Editors Note:
Just as Skybus was making my flights boarding announcement, a voice cheered throughout the gateway, “Mable, the coffee shop is opening, they got donuts!" (Mmmm…Donuts) I guess someone did get the memo after all.
fter years and years of only talking about our one special vacation trip, it is finally going to happen in August. We’re off to the country of Iceland for seven days under the direct supervision and guidance of the Smithsonian Institution. Since this tour has a booking rate of 100% months in advance, getting seats during Iceland’s ‘Late Summer Months’ was very surprising. Our original plans were to make this trip in July but between my summer camp schedule and talking about the pro & cons of such a trip, all of the July tours sold-out. So it was Iceland in August or Yellowstone National Park. You do the math!
A long time ago I always thought my dream vacation was Australia. Over the course of time and place my views and desire to see the land down under have changed. Yet surprisingly I’ve always had a hidden yearn for Iceland, it’s location, name and kindred spirit to do things a very unique and special way. The attraction is basic; I grew up in such a place and time so in essence I’m returning home…only a few hundreds of miles from separation to reality. There are a few key elements that can be assured if not guaranteed. There will be no swimming with the Rays or drinks with red die #2 umbrellas. The research is underway and time is a wasting writing this article!
In today's News & Record staff writer, Lanita Withers wrote about Dunkin' Donuts plan to return to the Greensboro area. As a transplanted Yankee this news is a kin to discovering the fountain of youth in your back yard. It is not that Greensboro is devoid of coffee or donut shops. We have Krispy Kreme and Starbucks populating our landscape as well as the Bean Street Coffee Company being served at many local gas stations. So what is the big deal...it's DUNKIN' DONUTS! The Holy Grail of all coffee and donut shops. For me it will become a small slice and smell of my home turf, New England. The current plan is to have over 32 stores throughout the triad in the next five years with the first one not being built fast enough. To best describe my passion for DD, for Valentine Day my lovely Ruthie brought home two large sacks of their coffee from her recent trip to upstate New York. So move over all you other Greensboro coffee shops, soon there will be a new bean in town.
