Watching the crumbling

Went in to get stabbed today. That's what I call a blood draw. Have to do that more than I'd like but that's another story. Running a few errands I took note of the every expanding empty stores springing up. Circuit City gone. Joe's (We knew it as GI Joes a sporting goods store) gone. A Futon furniture store, an Arco gas station, a Thi restaurant and several others with no signs and not knowing what they were gone. Maybe I could get a job making for sale or for lease signs I'd make a killing. Oh and I forgot to mention the neighbors on both side of me are in foreclosure. The one neighbors always were deadbeats and didn't pay their bills. The other guy works for the government and is about ready to retire. The restaurant nearby is loosing business. Their parking lot used to be packed. Now it's about half full most days. There was a Dairy Queen up the street that hadsn't been there for a couple of years. The building was made into one of those overpriced retro burger joints. You know the 50s theme Happy Days type. It lasted about a year and then has sat empty ever since. Then there was the excersize place for old women. I don't think that lasted a year. I guess older women aren't into working out.
There's the cofee stands. You think the jokes about Starbucks are just kidding? We have five of them on the main road here. I don't think you can drive more than 200 yards without hitting one. And if you don't like Starbucks there is five others on the same road. You think we pee coffee around here? You'd be right. Wonder how many of them will go out in the next few months.
It reminds me of being a kid and walking past a vacant house. First the yard gets overgrown. As the months pass the windows get broken. Slowly the elements wear down the structure and the walls start to collapse. I've worked on such houses in my later years. They're not fun. Roofs so waterlogged that your weight punches your leg up to the hip. There's usually some left behind stuffed toys moldy now from the rain.
So here I sit and watch the collapse and wonder when it will turn around. I have a few ideas about that. It will come back when business gets money from the recover act which isn't scheduled to start to kick in until July. That's just the first part of it. The rest won't come until next year. Why they waited so long is beyond me. We could be getting back to work right now. That would be putting money back in the banks and coming back to fill the tax coffers. We have roads to repair, bridges to replace and an electrical grid that's 60 years old. Yes here I sit watching the crumbling