I finally made it to the new bike shop in town. I swung by on Friday, but they were closed. I walked in today, but it seemed a little dark. I went back to the open door and looked to make sure it said "Open." It did. I figured they were trying to save on energy. I went in and was pointedly ignored until I asked a question. I asked if they sold used bikes. They guy simply said, "No," and that was it. Having worked in a bike shop and knowing other people who have and run bikes shops, I know that the key to a successful shop is service and community. I continued walking around the store to see what they had and never once did the guy try to engage me in any way. Now this is a new branch of a local shop that opened up in anticipation of a rail-to-trail opening within a half block. There is already one shop in town and it's not a large town, so you would think that this shop would be doing everything it could to get customers. As I finished my circuit of the store, the guy was at the formerly open doors and was closing them and turning the open sign around. No longer hidden was the sign showing the hours. I said, "Oh, you guys aren't open yet?" and he barely acknowledged my comment and utterly failed to win me over as a customer...ever. That made me very sad.
Our downtown area puzzles me. There is a good variety of shops, but at very few of them do I actually feel welcome when I walk inside. I don't know how some of them maintain business. As I was walking from the mechanic to the bike shop, I was struck by how pedestrian (and bike) unfriendly our community is. There is now safe/comfortable path to take along the major route through town (separate from the downtown stretch). Sidewalks are in bad disrepair and the pedestrian crossing system is so car-centric that it takes a very long time to get a cross signal and they are some of the shortest signals I've seen. Our community is currently deciding the fate of the high school. Our population is growing and our current schools are going to run out of room. We have the pleasure of a school right in the middle of the community and as I walked past it today I actually realized the benefit of having a school in the heart, rather than on outskirts, of the community. We need to focus on lessening the sprawl and making the community more of a cohesive integrated one. I'm not sure how that will happen, though.
It's been a great spring break so far and we had great weather for a little birthday party on Saturday. Yesterday I took my daughter to see How To Train Your Dragon in 3D. She was almost too small for the glasses. I kept pushing them up her face periodically throughout the movie. It was really good. I mean, given dragons and vikings, it's easy to do well, but this was a very entertaining movie. I have only one minor complaint. Why do the vikings have vaguely Scottish accents? Is it that difficult to do a Scandinavian accent? Vikings get so little screen time as it is that they deserve a more accurate portrayal while they are fighting dragons.
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