Next On The Hit List

It's always tough waiting for the other shoe to drop. As in most things, what is the most affecting is not the act or the aftermath. The former is a relief and the latter is seldom as bad as one may expect. No matter how sure you are that something will happen, some well-intentioned part of you insists that it may not, and so you wonder. The anticipation and the wondering are what ages a person. Better to have a horrible thing spring at you from nowhere than to be forewarned by any amount of time. Better to resign oneself to the worst.

That would be my recommendation to the two stores left in a strip mall near my home which is slowly but surely being renovated. Not so long ago, the four stores there were all in shabby condition. None could be faulted for this so long as all were in the same shape. Unfortunate it is then that a burger place and a drugstore have chosen to come in and tune up their digs in advance of opening. The dry cleaner and laundromat were never going to do anything about their deteriorating edifice otherwise.

I wonder about the compulsion that may be there for those two outstanding to shape up. Surely it is a drag on the newcomers if they do not do so, and so I must imagine that they would pressure the old-timers to do something. Perhaps there is some obligation for them to, of a contractual nature. I don't know a great deal about such things. I only know that I see the matter as something like a series of foxholes on the front lines of a war, with bombs dropping all around.

It seems inevitable that all must be hit- the only question is which one next? In truth the two stores may be owned by a single entity, and so would decide to renovate at the same time. Probably the renovations would then be staggered, so that one continues to bring in revenue while the other lays fallow. Assuming though that they are owned separately, allow me to state on the record that I pick the dry cleaner, as it is adjacent to the new gourmet burger place. Who would ever feel like they had to up their game on account of a drugstore?