tobyt, "I was surprised about TH's in your town Tricia." Yeah, me too. Not often do we encounter such blantant bad behavior from a large corporation. But, it wasn't just my village. I could understand closing an underperforming location, or two. That's not what Tim Horton's did though. They closed every shop in the state simultaneously WITHOUT notifying employees or franchise owners. They ran out of the state under cover of darkness like a thief in the night. Some people had owned their franchises less than two years. I remember one couple who had recently received their franchise as a wedding present from the bride's parents. The parents ended up losing their personal residence & car when Tim Horton's fled. The couple had to sue to get the franchise refund due under the terms of their contract with TH's. TH's wouldn't even meet with the employees until local media forced the situation. Then, they agreed to employment counseling & offered franchise owners other "opportunities" in the mid-west. Nobody took them up on the "offer". Tim Horton is a poster child for poor corporate citizenship in Connecticut and it's a well earned reputation. Coffee was the problem that caused TH's financial losses in Connecticut. Their donuts, sandwiches, etc. were good. Sure, there were some that liked the coffee but too few to meet Wall Street's expectations. Repeatedly, TH's Connecticut customers asked the company for a lighter coffee blend. Repeatedly, TH's response was, "You'll get used to it!" (That's a quote from TH's, BTW...this TH versus the people of CT was a BIG hoopla for a long time.) New Englanders, as a group, are known for being shall we say, "individual thinkers". Connecticut customers were not going to be told how they will drink their coffee. So, they just went elsewhere for that morning cuppa Joe & a donut. TH's also refused to advertise locally. They also refused to help sponsor youth athletic programs, community fun runs, festivals, concerts, etc. like their competition so graciously does without complaint. And now TH has made a corporation decision to allow their empty buildings to sit without any maintenance. We have one here in Mystic. It's in a PRIME location downtown. A blight on our most prominant part of town reminding us every day of how those employees/franchise owners were treated. Good riddance to Tim Horton's. BTW, it was't just Connecticut. They also fled our little neighbor to the east, Rhode Island, for the same reasons and coordinated their stealth flight for the same night. Oh, and while I'm on a toot...they couldn't even get their geopgraphy correct. After all the local hoopla TH made an official corporate announcement of their closings in the local newspapers. They said, "We are closing our stores in Providence, Connecticut, and Rhode Island..." Geesh. /tricia

A very late comment here but... I'm back at my yard/garden and I have more weeds than I can possibly appreciate. Anyone feel a need for some? I'll surely share. The only one on the list that I can't find so far is purselane. I'm sure there is some here. I just have not started working in the right area yet.

Last week, with the news of an un-billionaire having a financial crunch deadline ”Come Monday,” that Jimmy Buffet song (chloebud’s pick above) popped into my head and hasn’t left. Great song and no relation to debt or the topical news.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7XK7I_38IQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbckIuT_YDc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYG3BPvFOgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypUWKAyp13s