Borders and Blockbuster Closings (a sad but harsh reality)

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I browsed around two closing Borders store in Carmel, Indiana (for reference, this is a suburb comparable to Richmond Hill/North York/Markham in Toronto) and in Indy near the Fashion Mall. For Canadians reading this, Borders is the U.S. equivalent of Chapters Indigo. Admittedly, I had not even heard of Borders until my husband and I were trying to find a coffee shop open on New Years day 2010 in Carmel, Indiana (this was one of the stores that was closing). It was sad to see that these types of stores are going out of business. Of course, as we live in the Internet era, it is no surprise that these closures are imminent.

The same story goes for Blockbusters. The one that was closing down was right across the street from the Borders closing in Carmel on 116th Street. With the recession, people just want cheaper rentals (Red Box) or have the convenience of just renting on the Internet (Net Flix). For example, with Red Box, you can rent for $1.00 + tax/day. If you are planning to watch the movie that evening, why pay $4-5 for the movie when you can just pay the $1.07 and return it the next day by 9PM? The rental machines are located outside major supermarket stores - Wal-Mart, Marsh, Kroegers, Gas Stations, etc.

Again, it is sad to see these stores go, but it is a harsh world that we live in. The good news is that my husband and I did get some pretty good deals at Borders, including some  Josh Groban CD's and an Anti-Monopoly game (haven't played this one yet, but the title was definitely intriguing!).

School bus stop laws

This morning when I was driving out of our neighborhood to go to work, I encountered a school bus coming into our neighborhood. I was going in the opposite direction and I was going about 30 miles/hour (speed limit in our neighborhood). The bus did not have the flashing stop signs and I did not see any children waiting outside, so I did not figure to stop. All of a sudden, the driver puts out the flashing stop signs and so I stop right in the middle. The driver glared at me as if I had committed the most horrible crime. Anyway, minutes later, I saw one of our neighborhood boys run across the road and get on the bus. I wasn't totally at fault, was I? I mean, if the driver had any intent of stopping to pick up this boy, he would have slowed down, put out the stop sign earlier and I would have gladly stopped right in front of the first flashing stop sign! And there won't be a glaring match!

Don't get me wrong - I am a law-abiding person. I will likely be a major advocate of school bus laws once we have school age kids and expect everyone to respect them. I just don't like being accused of doing something wrong when I was not wrong.

Anyway, that's enough of a rant for today!

Introduction!

Hi everyone!

This is the first time I have ever written a blog, so here goes!

I am originally from Toronto, Canada, and moved to Indianapolis over a year ago. Since moving here, I have had somewhat of a shock - almost everything is new to me (culture, environment, and such), I figure that it is probably time that I write about my experience/adventures here, so that Canadians who move here in the future get a sense of what Indy is all about (it is not just about corn fields and Indy car racing, which sadly is what crossed my mind before moving here).

For starters, let's talk about the weather here in Indy. It has been raining almost non-stop these past couple of days. And it is not your average thunderstorms - it is thunderstorms coupled with tornado warnings!  Two weeks ago, my husband and I heard tornado warning sirens outside and were trying to decide if we should be hiding in the pantry (we do not have a basement). Of course, nothing happened, and we were on our merry way after that. The point is, the biggest news stories this year happened to relate to weather! Oh, and who could forget that crazy ice storm back in early March that practically kept many people indoors for most of the time? That truly reminded me of that snow storm we had in Toronto sometime in 2001/2002 when the government hired the military to dig us out of one of the biggest blizzards of all time. Yes, campuses that usually never close was shut down for about 3-4 days!

Anyway, I really don't want to rant, but that was beginning to sound like one. So I will stop and hopefully, you will tune in to my next blog.

Until then...................