It always gets stormy just in time for the boat show, doesn't it?? Maybe it's so we'll assess our needs and consider buying new foul weather gear (boats are too expensive) ...
Seriously, I was walking down the hill toward Bowen's Wharf at some point during the past week when the wind picked up and the clouds grew alarming. Combined with the disorienting effect of that enormous flagpole, which looks more like (and probably is) a mast, I was feeling rather ... well ... disoriented. Add to that the sudden unmistakable urge/need for a cup of coffee, for the simple reason that I needed to wake up (!!) despite its being mid-afternoon, and you'll begin to grasp my predicament.
Fortunately, just at that moment, I remembered hearing that a new coffee shop had opened at the bank — People's Credit Union, specifically. Or what was People's Credit Union, though all that remains of People's in that location, along the cobblestones on Thames, is an ATM in the parking lot. The "real" bank (oops, credit union, and could someone please explain the difference??) moved up the hill, up Memorial ...
Anyway, I ventured inside the open doors that had/have been locked for so long, thus walking beneath two great gilt words I must have passed a thousand times before without noticing — ORGANIZE and COOPERATE — and there I found what I needed. Not just words, not just coffee, but two friends I hadn't seen in some time. We had a nice chat all the while glancing around to absorb the new/old scene: inward toward the massive preserved bank vault and outward through those giant freshly-cleaned windows onto the world walking by.
And I felt better. So much so that when I emerged and continued on my way to the end of the wharf, for no reason whatsoever other than to see what I might see, the clouds were clearing, and it was a whole new port ...
Aside (though, in truth, it's below): The name of the bank-turned-coffee-shop is People's, logically enough, but it has yet to add a sign, i.e., one might think it was the Organize Cooperate Coffee Shop. And, like that old building — if I may step outside my usual role/voice/charade for a moment — I'm adapting to a new purpose. By that I mean I have a new job (gasp!). That doesn't mean I won't be here (and here and here), though it does mean I'm figuring out a revised schedule that no doubt will require renewed organization on my part and cooperation on Mr. Betty's part, especially if everything I hope to get done everyday is to get done everyday. Including this. Good thing Mr. Betty's on board (and such a cooperative fellow in general). And, yes, I'm sure we will head to the boat show at some point over the weekend, just to see what (or whom) we might see ...
