So it’s been a rough week. At the beginning we got the news that Target Canada was closing. Not just the one here either, all of them, the whole bloody chain. After a bit under two years they are giving up. Packing it in. Bailing out on the second largest country on Earth (well, in area at least, we actually don’t have that many people). 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/target-s-launch-into-canada-a-multifaceted-failure-1.2901789

We were crushed. I mean it was like hearing that an old friend was leaving town. We were surprised, shocked, saddened, but after some consideration it does make sense. The launch was botched. They tried to open too many stores, too fast before their supply lines were established. They took over Zeller’s locations without finding out if those store locations were doing well or not. (Clue: Hudson’s Bay Company was very happy to eliminate those locations.) Lots of things. The upshot of all of this was that they never were profitable and the head office saw no likelihood that they would become profitable. It’s hard to overcome a bad first impression. 

Actually the Target here was a huge improvement over the Zeller’s it replaced. The old Zeller’s was run down and ratty with shaky poorly stocked shelves, peeling tile and few customers. The space desperately needed a full remodelling, which Target did. Actually Target always seemed busier than the old Zeller’s ever was, but I guess it wasn’t enough. I’m hoping that maybe Hudson’s Bay Company, which still owns Zeller’s will take advantage of all these now open leases on freshly remodelled spaces and relaunch the brand. 

But I’m not holding my breath.

We really want something to go into the space. It’s in Rutherford Mall (OK technically it’s Northtown Centre but most people still think of it by the name it had for decades), which is one of our favourite places to shop. My barber is there. Fairway Market is there. London Drugs is there. Target is…oh wait. But the place is hurting. In addition to the soon to be empty Target space, there’s another space just as big that used to be a Best Buy who closed up shop in Canada about three years ago.

Maybe Minnesota companies just don’t do well on this side of the border.

Then late in the week I came down with a cold. Thursday morning I felt OK. By noon I had a scratchy throat. By the time I went home my sinuses were screaming and I felt really crummy. I had ice cream for dinner to sooth my sore throat. (Note to kids; yes you can do that when you’re a grown up.) I was still hoping that a good nights sleep would get me over the hump but no such luck. Friday morning I staggered out of bed feeling even worse. At this point I had two options. I could have tried to gut it out, drag myself into work, fight through it because “I have a job to do”. That would be a bad idea because I’d just give it to everyone else. Tactically this would have been very bad because I was the one that was all paranoid before Christmas about catching a cold. I was the one griping about everyone else coming into work sick. It wouldn’t look very good for me to do the same thing. Also it would mean that I’d still be fighting this into next week, I’d be dragging myself into the office every day and doing a crummy job  because I felt so lousy. No, the only thing to do was to just deal with it. Stay home, keep warm, sleep, and eat all I could Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then by Monday I’ll back to nearly full strength. 

My dad always said “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good” and this is the case with the cold. Clearing my schedule has given me a chance to do something I’ve wanted to do for a while. I’ve binge-watched Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Man, I haven’t watched Ghost in the Shell in about five years and had forgotten how well done it is. The writing, artwork and music are wonderful. It’s deep, gritty, and thought provoking, I just love it.

A while back SpaceX conducted an experiment. After launching a resupply mission to the Space Station, they tried to fly the first stage booster back and land it on a barge to be refurbished and reused. They brought it back and almost had a successful landing. They were really close.  It came down on target but ran out of hydraulic fluid just before touchdown and they lost control. As a result it slammed into the deck at a 45 degree angle and suffered what Elon Musk called a “RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly)”. Actually it isn’t as bad as it looks. If they had been able to maintain control, they very well might have landed successfully. 
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/01/16/elon-musk-shares-images-of-falcon-9s-crash-landing/

Over the last couple of weeks we celebrated our birthdays. The third was my birthday, and Marsha took me out for lunch at Milanos, a really nice place. It was very good. Marsha mentioned to them that it was my birthday and so they brought out their Birthday Sundae. When it arrived it looked like a regular sundae. Almost at least. I mean it had ice cream and chocolate and whipped cream and sparklers… Sparklers? Yes sparklers. Two of the biggest sparklers I’ve seen were in the sundae and they threw glowing carbon and metal chips all over the table. Pretty but I’m not sure it was all that well thought out.

Then Friday was Marsha’s birthday, but unfortunately we both had to work. So on Saturday I told her I’d take her out for breakfast “wherever you want to go”. Now there’s White Spot, and Frank’s Diner, or even Tim Horton’s. Nanaimo has some of the nicest places to eat in BC. Where did she choose? 

Fairway Market. 

I mean seriously? Nanaimo has some of the best food in all of BC and Marsha chose the deli section at a grocery store? She said she wanted to try their $3.99 breakfast special, which seemed like an odd way to spend her birthday meal. Like using your Get out of Jail Free card for a littering charge. Oh well, it was her call so on Saturday morning we drove over and gave it a shot. As it turned out it wasn’t too bad, though the ambiance could have used a bit of help. Breakfast was two eggs, two strips of bacon, and toast. Add drinks and the whole meal for two was $12. Actually as soon as we got there we knew it was going to be OK. At the next table a Mountie was having breakfast. Cops always know where the best food is. Anyway, after we had breakfast we did some shopping. First we stopped by Target. Then we went over to Marks Work Wearhouse where we got Marsha a flannel shirt. After that we went home, Marsha listened to the Gopher game and then she napped for several hours while I roasted some chicken. 

Woo Hoo do we know how to party or what.

Anyway, that was Marsha's big birthday celebration. It may not have been bungee jumping out of a helicopter but we liked it. 

PIX: Momiji and Imoto are getting along better