Living Breathing Coffee

I closed up the shop myself two nights ago and opened today all by my lonesome... which I totally enjoyed. Coming in on a quiet, warm, overcast morning and having the place to myself before the open flag goes out... getting the three brews brewing, putting on some Nina Simone to keep me company, the place has a soft, fresh light to it...

Right now, though, in the bigger scheme of things, this place is a fucking wreck. The owner has totally checked out and I understand where she's coming from. I was the same way at the inn before I left but the yard is overgrown, the stone wall that wraps around the front of the building is thick with weeds, the two plastic tables on the big porch are just permanently filthy from never being wiped down. The other three have been stolen. Inside the shop, there is a thick layer of funk on nearly everything. The toaster oven (which has a bent fork wrapped through where the handle used to be and was purchased at a yard sale for $20) ... it caught on fire this morning and I had to unplug the thing, run it outside and pour water into it. The spray bottles don't spray, the fridge doesn't really close and the faucet is kept from a permanent drip with a Phillips screwdriver.

The landlord (who said, and I quote ~ "that faucet doesn't belong to me") has hired a mowing/landscaping company to come and start taking care of the grounds. Rent has been jacked up $100 a month to cover the cost of that service, as well as her growing property taxes and insurance (and her million dollar divorce). The mowing service came today with chainsaws to cut down some of the leggy trees along the side of the building and I ran out in a panic at one point when he started to buzz through the pretty one right outside my sink window. I insisted he stop till I talk to the landlord (who I still haven't met ~ only talked to on the phone) so he walked next door to one of the other many buildings she owns and brought her back. The tall green tree, which looks so beautiful when it collects rain, is cracking the foundation of the building. I'd have loved to get all EarthFirst attitude and insist that the building is just getting in the way of the tree but... I let it go. The tree is gone. And twenty minutes later I was already appreciating just how much light the windows now let in.

I should be sitting down right now and finishing my business plan. I should be plugging in those last numbers, writing up a resume and appendix to attach to the back of it and creating the "executive summary".... a cover letter, of sorts. I should be doing this so I could get the money in my hands to clean this place up, buy some hanging flower pots, new deck furniture, spray bottles.... hire me a plumber.