December 14, 2006
The Outer Ring
My comparison of "Angel" Season Five with the 109th Congress didn't generate the positive feedback I was expecting. All the same, it did not elicit howls of outrage either. I am thusly emboldened to make another pop culture reference.
In a comment below, I picked the Starbucks drive-through as a proposed location for the ThreeSources Blogger Bash should we ever all end up in Colorado (Silence, JohnGalt, Latte Sipper and I start here). They have seating as well, but the blogger bash might be best served if we rented a Hummer and sat in it while parked.
I have been thinking about this majestic little island of liberty in reference to Joss Whedon's "Firefly." Boulder would be an Alliance central planet. They "meddle," as young River Tam says in "Serenity." The good people on the Boulder City Council have decided that drive-thru coffee will not be permitted in the city limits. I had scouted a perfect location for such a venue and was surprised when my buddy the roaster said it was illegal.
They have a public to protect. Folks would be slurping Frappacinos in their SUVs and that just would not do in the People's Republic. They have some small huts in Denver that vend coffee inside a parking lot, My work used to take me frequently to Austin, TX (about as Blue a city as Boulder) where I first discovered Drive Through Starbucks. It's like being in heaven without the Birkenstocks.
I'm not quite far enough from Boulder to be free. My exurb is seeking to have the city take over recycling because the poor in our town cannot afford $2 a month for curbside. Likewise, the good city mothers and fathers of Lafayette would not allow the convenience of drive through coffee.
But about seven miles East, toward the lawless frontier of the outer planets where JohnGalt lives, the emerald jewel sits in a new Giganto-Mall. I'm sure the council would cite energy use as a factor in disallowing them, but (disabled) jk drives 14 miles round -trip to get hooked up. That's conservation for you.
Of course, the browncoats have lost here as well, and I fear that civilization is spreading out and freedom is in retreat. I'm getting thirsty, where are my car keys?
Wow, you discovered that Starbucks FAST brother. Hasn't it only been open a month or so? It's at exit 229 on I-25. There's another one at exit 240 that I drive past twice daily. It's been there about 6 months or so. It has a serpentine drive to accomodate about two dozen cars. (And it has curbs on both sides so you can't change your mind.) I love drive thrus, but waiting in line to get a coffee seems even more inane than doing so for a bag of Krispy Kremes. A drive-in layout might be better, like a Sonic.
Don't get me started on drive thrus in Boulder. Even while I still lived there they outlawed any new ones being built. Existing ones were grandfathered. Although I never quite figured out how Noodles & Company got one since the building they occupied was previously a 7-Eleven. (Some franchises are more equal than others it would seem.)
Yes, things are different out here, east of the Boulder county line. Developers are free to build what they reckon the free market will embrace, without city council members having a seat at the drawing board. I can't tell you the last time I saw a speed bump. Farther east, on the farm roads, bicycles actually have to share the road with autos (and tractors). We can burn actual wood in an actual fireplace, on odd AND even numbered days, no matter what color the little man on TV says has been chosen for the day. Most egregious of all, however... we can license our cars without first having a tailpipe emissions rectal exam.
How we all don't choke to death in our own pollution I'll never know.
Posted by: johngalt at December 15, 2006 1:56 AMWe were camped out waiting for it to open weeks before.
Explain this thing to me: changing your mind about coffee while in line? I do not understand. I'm sure if you order a Grande at the speaker, they can make that a Venti at the window.
Posted by: jk at December 15, 2006 10:43 AMI meant "change your mind" about staying in line instead of bailing out because the wait is so long. I've never been in a coffee shop drive thru, but I can imagine the precious seconds ticking by as each driver recites his personal list of individual ingredients, with precise measurements.
Posted by: johngalt at December 18, 2006 2:47 PM | What do you think? [3]