All Gone

I went to the Alameda Library to write, but couldn't get my laptop to connect to the Internet so I left the building, intending to return after lunch and try again. I drove through a rainstorm to the shopping center to scout for a bite to eat, but by the time I arrived, the downpour was so heavy that I gave up. As I wound my way through the parking lot, I saw gigantic signs plastered in the windows of Borders: "Store Closing Soon! Everything Slashed!" which depressed the hell out of me. That bookstore only opened a year or so ago and it's been filled to the brim with customers ever since. Today it was as crowded as usual with people packed in the cafe on the second floor. Maybe none of them actually buys books. Maybe, like me, they mostly browse. It's a warm cozy place to hang out. Without it, the shopping center will seem bleak.

I must admit, I felt bleak as I drove home. We've recently lost our classical station so there's not much decent music to listen to on the car radio. I used to enjoy KPFA's World Music program, which was aired on weekday mornings from 10 to 12, but then KPFA got even more obnoxiously political than it used to be. In a reckless Nazi-like purge, they cut their world music to only one hour a day, replacing it with boring left-wing diatribes. (Since I'm a dyed-in-the-wool lefty, if the programs are too left-wing for me, you know they're bad. Politically correct, self-righteous and martyred, that's their usual tone.)

I had to quit listening out of principle. So no more KPFA, no more classical station, and now, no more Borders -- at least in Alameda.