Today Makes For 700 Posts!

Nobody must have known that this would be the 700th post on The Price Of Silver at Starbucks a few days ago. I guess the college students were either off Christmas shopping or else had returned home for Christmas break. What is usually a patio full of animated conversations, and girls showing off a combination of their latest fashions with the most bare leg possible, featured mostly empty tables devoid of any sound. Even the speakers on the wall were silent that day.

I suppose the wind, the ashen sky, and the threat of showers didn't exactly encourage anyone to stop and sit and chat either. Yet over a two hour period the forecast "scattered light showers" resulted in only about a minute's worth of misting moisture, gone before you could even gather your belongings, and nobody "made a run for it" to escape the percipitation.

I thought about the lonely ashtray. About once a month there's a fresh supply of them. Most people ignore them altogether, and there are plenty of butts to be swept up when one of the baristas makes the hourly rounds to straighten up the patio and wipe down the tables. Even though it seems like about nobody uses the things, within days most of them have grown legs and walked off the job. Every dorm room in the area must have ashtrays supplied by Starbucks. Somehow this one was still there, the very last one. It was too much effort to walk over and use it. I stomped out my cigarette butt on the ground.