Harbour Bridge Holdup

I guess I've been spoiled because I rarely have to deal with traffic congestion during my daily commute between Grand Bay-Westfield and Saint John. My travel times are usually before or after rush hour. The other day I left for home around 4:30. What a mistake.

Harbour Bridge is down to a single lane in both directions. It took me about 25 minutes just to get over to the west side. My impatience was part of the problem. Once I discovered the Chesley Street ramp to the bridge was closed, I decided to try the Reversing Falls Bridge. Another mistake. It was bumper to bumper. It took almost ten minutes just to get to Green Lee Shoes where in an impulsive act of frustration I turned off, drove up to Douglas Ave. and back to the closest open ramp to the Harbour Bridge. What followed was more bumper to bumper waiting. Like I said, it took a good 20 or 25 minutes to get out of Saint John. I don't think I ever experienced that before and I wasn't prepared for it. For me it's usually a non-stop commute both ways.

Work on the Harbour Bridge is continuing all summer. I guess I'll have to learn to be more patient and not to leave work early.

New Favourite Place

I’ve heard someone call it ‘her new favourite place to shop’. It’s been a favourite of many from the west side and the river valley for years. It’s Olson’s Meats and Produce on Lancaster Ave. I was in there today, a Saturday and I couldn’t believe the people. They were lining up in the parking lot to find a space to park and they were shoulder to shoulder inside the tiny store. I’ve only been in the place a handful of times but every time I’m there it’s crowded like that. There’s probably a good reason for it.

One can find things in there you can’t get anywhere else. I looked at a package of something today and didn’t have a clue what it was. I think some kind of battered or salted fish, but I’m not sure. Whatever it was it looked good. The cheese selection is great, the meat is fresh and the prices are pretty good. Anytime we’ve been there we’ve found some real deals. This time it was precooked, packaged turkey that you’d pay triple for elsewhere.

I’m not a shopper but I like going in there just to look around. It reminds me of an old-fashioned neighbourhood store, the way shopping used to be before the era of malls. You can actually smell the food in there. And you can get just about anything you want. Easy to see why it can become someone’s new favourite place to shop. Now if it just wasn’t so crowed all the time.