Observations in the "BIG" city ...

This past week I've spent three days in Winnipeg between appointments and the course on anger I was taking. Along the way I began to notice a few things.

One of the first was how little people actually walk in the city. For my course I park about three blocks from the facility and walk to and fro each morning and afternoon. I commented on the FREE parking back on this street. A couple of the other participants asked "How Far?" and I said "Oh, two to three blocks," Their reply was - "Oh, I'll pay the 3.50 to park across the street ..."

I also noticed when I am in places where there are elevators and escalators as well as STAIRS how few people actually use the stairs ... They step on the escalator, or hop in the elevator, even for a single floor, rather than get the bit of exercise you can get walking up a flight of stairs ... I couldn't help but wonder how many of the people taking the escalators then pay big bucks to go to their health clubs and spend time on the STAIRmaster for exercise !?!?!

But the big I noticed at one point driving through rush hour in Winnipeg (a rush hour I might add that is NOTHING compared to the rush hours I've encountered in the Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal areas over the years), was the HUGE line ups at the various Tim's outlets.

Now I'm not talking about a half a dozen cars idling in a line up at the drive thru. I mean long lines of a couple of dozen cars that snake around the building, through the parking lot and out on to the street - in one case for almost an entire BLOCK!!!

The absurdity of this line up became apparent when I pulled up on the street in front of this outlet and there were only TWO customers actually INSIDE the store!! People were sitting inside their cars, idling, creeping along a major thoroughfare for 15 to 20 minutes or more, when they could have simply pulled into the parking lot - WALKED the half dozen metres from the car to the door and back, and been back on their way in a FRACTION of the time !!!

It was and is simply and utterly mind-boggling!!

I was speechless ...

I mentioned it today to a friend over my decaf coffee at Chipperfields (yes, I've returned to the fold, though I'm NOT drinking coffee any more - switched to non-caffeinated alternatives), and he said - "I think Tim Horton's is a Cult"

He observed he can't drive by one without being drawn in to buy a coffee ... no comment on the quality of the coffee was offered ... and he also said "there's always a BIG line up wherever you go ..."

Kinda makes you wonder ...

But then, again now that I've lessened my intake of caffeine, maybe I just notice the absurdity of life a bit more ...