TheBanyanTree: Saturday Stroll

[Rob McMonigal]

Erica and I took a stroll down Broadway this afternoon, enjoying some
great walking weather and getting about in the neighborhood a bit.

First stop was the library, to drop off some things and pick up
others.  I had a rather odd experience--I wanted a magazine that did
not have a security tag.  "Can I check it out?" I asked.

"Oh yes, we just use this."  With that, the kindly librarian who I
always have to warn that I'm going to be at exactly 50 items so they
don't faint (Downtown, this is de rigor for me, so they no longer even
bat an eye) pulled out an oversized envelope with a security tag on it
marked "magazine 2"

I had no idea that existed.  According to her, they used to use it a
lot before everything got security tagged.  Who knew?

>From there, we wandered past a few haircut places, crossed the
ever-busy Wentzel Ave, and on to Dormont, to get rid of some things at
The Exchange and to buy new things.  The Methodist Church was having a
Strawberry Festival, but I wasn't really into having dessert at that
point.  We browsed quite a bit at the Exchange and little old me came
up with a boatload of Classical CDs for $1.00 each, most of which was
Mozart.  It seems that I will never in my live come even close to
getting all the Mozart there is to have.  My God, was that man
prolific!  I also grabbed a Bill Cosby Comedy CD I've never seen
before, so can't wait to listen to that.  They also had some EA Sports
games to dirt cheap, so I opted for a few of those, too.

All of the people who work for The Exchange seem to have tattoos or
piercings.  Erica thinks it's a question on the application.  They
also seem to have a thing for Death Rap at the Dormont Exchange, which
makes browsing there rather annoying.  Still, it was a nice haul.

Spending only just a bit more than my credit, we headed up Potomac to
grab lunch at a Gyro shop, which was nicely priced, not crowded at
all--I wonder if we were the first customer of the day?--and manned by
a team of teenage girls who I almost felt bad for interrupting by
ordering.  The gyro meat was plentiful and just a bit crispy, making
for a nice lunch, though they should keep some Diet Pepsi on hand.
While we ate, the main girl popped a five-spot in the counter video
game machine, the kind they have at bars.  I wondered, though did not
vocalize, if she used money from the till for that, or if she had just
invested one hour's worth of pay in Barrel of Monkeys.

There was a bit of a yard sale going on, so we eyeballed it a bit,
though nothing caught our eye enough to buy it.  They had some cartoon
flip books, which looked a bit cool, but I just wasn't too strong on
them.  Same with the Jimmy Carter button, which I was told was "half
price" because it was Carter!

Soon enough, I could not resist the lure of the second-hand book store
and had to go in.  I used to shop there occasionally when it was run
by a woman who was later shot at the store, so going in was a bit
creepy for me.  The new owners have things very organized--instead of
books on the shelves, there are books in small boxes, each labeled by
author or authors.  For instance, Piers Anthony gets three boxes,
Arthur C. Clarke one, and Peter David has to share with a lot of other
authors with D names.  While it's a good way to get more for the
customers to look at, it gives the shop itself a very busy feel,
almost claustrophobic, like an old library before focus groups told
them to space the shelves to allow people to breathe between the
stacks.  Unlike the old owner, the new purveyors of previously viewed
pages do more than mass-markets, so I was able to grab a hardcover
Peter David Star Trek Novel for only two bucks, as well as a nice
Year's Best Sci Fi anthology, also in hardcover and for only $1.5.
They had affordable Steven King hardcover, too, but I didn't have my
list with me to know which to grab.  However, I will know for next
time.

The man ringing the books up talked about how their exchange policy
works, but they don't give a lot (only up to one quarter of face
value) and it can only be used for trade-in, and even then, only for
one half the cost of the book--thereby guaranteeing you're always
paying some in cash.  I don't know that I'd find enough there to make
it worthwhile for me, though I'd be happy to shop there again and see
what I can grab.  Those of you very much into paperback sci
fi/fantasy/mystery would like it quite a bit, I think.  They also had
a stash of cheap Ellery Queen, but I haven't been reading as much
mystery as I used to, so I gave it a pass.  Erica was proud of me for
not trying to collect yet another thing. :)

With a full backpack by now--and very glad for having brought it!--we
started on the walk back, enjoying a classic Caddy in light green (I
waved at the car in approval, but the owners didn't seem to notice)
and Erica rather amusingly wishing cars still looked like that,
complaining about the plain parked car in front of us that was also a
Caddy.  I took note of people's flowers for future reference, though I
think I'm too late for this year, and we made one last stop for very
good ice cream at a local store.  (The Strawberry Festival was, sadly,
closed by the time I might have wanted anything.)

Let me tell you, nothing ends a good Saturday stroll like a cotton
candy milkshake--or any milkshake, for that matter.  All good things
should end with milkshakes.

We both had a great time, and I think we'll start making this a
semi-regular weekend feature.

-Rob
www.goodreads.com (do a search for user trebro)
http://trebro.livejournal.com/