The Gentrification of Coeur d'Alene?
"If you're blue and you don't know where to go to,
Why don't you go where fashion sits...PUTTIN' ON THE GLITZ"!
--written (sorta) by Cole Porter while he sat at an outdoor restaurant, obviously...

I don't usually buy Sunday Newspapers; I don't think they're a very good value. You basically are paying over twice as much for twice as many ads...from what I've seen, the "news" portions of a Sunday paper aren't all that much bigger than you get Monday thru Saturday. But, the screaming headline on the front page of ye olde Sunday paper really caught my eye. "Puttin' On The Glitz", which referred to Coeur d'Alene's going-out scene becoming all upscale and yuppie. The article referred to the newest outdoor restaurant, the "Beacon", which charges $17.50 for a Pastrami Sandwich. WHAT???? I suppose you can wash it down with an overpriced Coke, or some expensive fruity pseudo-cocktail...

Yeah, the scene is changing downtown. On weekends, music booms out of an open-front nightclub a little further up Sherman Avenue, which must mean that if you have a business that brings outside dollars to the area, you can violate Coeur d'Alene's vaunted noise ordinance all you want. Allegedly, all of these spiffed-up folks who litter the sidewalks with their presence like to sit around, drink expensive drinks, and watch all the other folks who are also drinking expensive drinks. I don't know...I think I am at the place in life where society is leaving me behind. I don't feel the need to go out and display myself (not that there's much to see), and as I drive up Sherman Avenue and see the human masses seated outside, I think to myself, "gosh, I'm glad I'm going HOME." Harrumph!

Now, I suppose I'm a hypocrite. Yeah, I can't deny that I go downtown to spend money on unnecessary things. After all, I go to the Java Place and drink $2.00 cups of coffee. Ah, but there's a difference. While the masses flock to outdoor bars at night to indulge in varying degrees of social shallowness, my treks to Java are a matter of survival. I go there because if I don't get a cup of coffee somewhere after I get up, I feel like I'm gonna DIE! Either I go to Java downtown, or I risk life and limb going into the northern part of town, to go to Starbuck's where the 'quotes' printed on their coffee cups tell me how to live my life. Ack. And at Java, yeah, I do "people-watch" to a point. So maybe I'm shallow. But at least I'm SOBER. And I'm not eating any seventeen-buck-ham sandwiches either!

Speaking of being downtown, I hardly ever see a Police Car downtown at night when Sherman Avenue is inundated with people, all over the place, outside, in various states of intoxication. You would think downtown Sherman Avenue would be a feeding ground for the "Blue Meanies", after all. Many times I've driven up Sherman and have encountered folks ambling across the street to get to their cars, so they can amble all the way home as they try to drive. Yet I can get pulled over on a Sunday morning, when absolutely no one else is on the road, for not SIGNALING before I turn. In spite of the fact there was no one to signal for. Except for, perhaps, the cop. That actually happened to me a few years ago.

I am also sick and tired of getting my ears blasted to smithereens every time a motorcycle (or two or three or twelve) roar up Sherman Avenue; I guess Coeur d'Alene's outside bars are now catering to the Harley-Davidson crowd. I know that "Harley's" are one of the definitions of Americana (whatever that is), but I absolutely HATE the way Harley engines sound. I can hear 'em over half a mile away sometimes. And as they roar past me, I literally WINCE from the noise they make. Even when I'm INSIDE the java place, I can barely tolerate the damn NOISE when they ROARRRRR past. Hey, "powers that be", how about an ENGINE noise ordinance, too?

Rather than waste my time a bar attempting to be social, which never did me any good, I prefer to watch the sun set and experience the lake breezes. At night, in the park, the skateboarders are gone, there's no screaming kids and barking dogs, no obnoxious busybodies yakking away on cellphones, and the seagulls have gone to sleep wherever they go to sleep. (Where DO they go at night?) Anyway, you've seen those "Arby's" commercials where some hungry guy has Arby's little "Cowboy Hat emblem" hovering over his head...well, one night while playing guitar, all of a sudden I got awfully doggone hungry for a HAMBURGER...



This would be me, with my mind on food, playing a rousing rendition of "Scramblin' Man" by the Omelet Brothers. Yee-hawwwwww!
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Hey, folks, if it's okay with you, I'm slowing down my blogging. The summer heat and corresponding mentality is kinda gettin' me a little bit. I think this is my first post since Friday. Has it been that long?