Coming to Eldersburg - Red, Hot, and Blue?

I heard a rumor that the nice building next to the Wal-Mart in Eldersburg will soon be occupied by the chain restaurant Red, Hot, and Blue.

The building was constructed what seems like several years ago and has sat vacant ever since. I heard a previous rumor that the debt-struggling Mikhaeljohn's (sp?) was going to move in after they moved out of the plaza over by Arby's. That turned out to not be true - or the rumor was true, but unfulfilled.

Anyway, after that rumor had quieted, I later heard that Goodwill would be moving into the building, which seemed absolutely preposterous on many points. Why does Eldersburg need a Goodwill? Why would someone rent out perfectly good office\restaurant space to Goodwill?

Fortunately, the rumor proved to be partially untrue. Goodwill is moving to Eldersbug (totally ridiculous), but is going into a soon-to-be-built building next to Wal-Mart and behind the rumored building.

So while it's nice to know that we're getting a good BBQ place (or should I say another - Hi, Smokey's!), I am still shaking my head as to the new Goodwill store. Aren't there hundreds of acres of abandoned properties in Randallstown? Does the average family in Eldersburg that makes over $100,000 need a Goodwill? Is Goodwill truly serving the needs of their clients by opening a store in Eldersburg? This just seems to be a terribly misguided decision.

Goodwill Irreverence

This weekend I spent many hours cleaning out my daughter's room. She's the type of person that doesn't mind a good mess. However, she's not paying the mortgage and I DO mind the mess. So on Sunday while she was at a friend's house I plowed everything out of the room and into the hallway. I was surprised to learn that her room has wall-to-wall carpeting. Who knew?

After an hour or so of cleaning and several hours more of going through the stuff and readmitting it to the room we had a pile that was eligible to be hauled to Goodwill. There's nothing like getting rid of stuff you don't need and getting a tax-break from the IRS. Now if we could only find a way to get rid of my neighbors and get a tax break for that, too, but I digress.

Yesterday was the haul-it-to-Goodwill day. I had 15 bags of stuff, plus 2 boxes of assorted books, toys, and stuff that wouldn't fit in my trashcan. I pulled up as I usually do, backed up to the unloading zone and popped the hatch. If you've never been to Goodwill, the facility employees disadvantaged men. Some are mentally ill, some are border-line mentally retarded, some have criminal histories. You get the idea. The intention is to employ them, get them on their feet, give them some purpose in life, structure their lives, etc… And I admire this.

As I'm unloading one of the men comes and helps me pull bags out of my truck. We're almost done when a bee-atch pulls up in her Acura with the hug a tree, celebrate diversity, and O'Malley for Governor bumper stickers, pops her trunk, and sarcastically hollers with a total air of superiority and disrespect, "Hello!!!! Would you MIND helping ME???!!!"

I'm not sure if anything came out of my mouth, but I know thoughts were racing through my mind. I wanted to smack the fecal matter out of her. Why do people have to act that way? Where's the respect? It's as if she's saying, "I'm in favor of helping people except when it inconveniences me."