Round Robin: Before and After: A Change for the Worse

This is my second entry for this week's Round Robin Challenge: Before And After. The "Before" image in the other one is a bit disturbing, but this entry is safe to look at, I promise!

Once upon a time, there was a venerable old shopping center at Broadway and Wilmot in Tucson called The Mercado. It featured pink adobe buildings with tile roofs. Once years ago I wrote about one of the shops there, called Choc-alot, which had an astounding variety of gourmet chocolates in different shapes and recipes. Years before that, the United Whovians of Tucson honored Doctor Who actor John Levene at a restaurant there called The Good Earth. That restaurant is long gone, but just a month ago I had lunch at a different restaurant there called El Charro.

But one weekend recently there were suddenly dozens of flags and banners flying outside the old pink buildings. Some of them were Tea Party-inspired, some were about cars and even tattoos. Odd. A few days after that, this happened:

First a bunch of tiles were knocked off the roof of El Charro. Was it malicious, or were they renovating the building? Either way, the restaurant had been closed. But that was just the beginning.

Soon the building was just a shell.

Then it was a pile of rubble. And the building behind it was starting to go the same way.

For a while the building that once housed Choc-alot survived.

But no more.

So what's the point of all this destruction, of these neat old buildings holding decades of memories?

It's going to be the site of a CVS Pharmacy, in a town that always had several CVS pharmacies, some Osco locations and a Walgreen's at practically every major intersection. What else? Phooey.

That's it for this one. Check out my other entry if you can handle blood and guts type stuff. And definitely please also go see the other Robins' entries:

Linking List
as of Saturday, May 18th, 12 AM MST

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Karen - Posted! (two entries)
 Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin
@mavarin

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Thanks!

Karen

Round Robin: Before and After: A Change for the Better

I have two entries for this week's Round Robin Challenge: Before And After. The "Before" image in this one is a bit disturbing, so I'm going to put a jump break so you can skip the pictures if you dislike gory body parts. The other entry is safe, I promise!

Round Robin: What Comes After

It's Round Robin time, and this one was suggested Vicki of Maraca.The topic is "Before and After," and I've chosen three things in their before and after states.

First, and probably least original to this time of year: the turkey:



What's wrong with this picture? I don't mean photographically; just look at the turkey. It's upside down! John said this was my most successful turkey ever, "in terms of the cooking. But it leaves something to be desired in the presentation!" You see, this is my before picture: not before cooking, but before John struggled to get the upside down turkey out of a roasting pan that was barely larger than the bird. Actually, the bird was taller than the pan and lid!



Afterward: Frankenbird! We didn't get it turned right side up for days, until it was half-eaten and in pieces.

Second: my disappearing TARDIS mug. I've had it for 20 years, and hardly ever used it for tea or cocoa. (I hate coffee.) But a friend asked me recently whether I needed one, so I decided to see whether my TARDIS mug was indeed, as I half-remembered, a disappearing TARDIS mug from the KUAT gift closet, and whether it still works after all these years.



After the water boils in the cup and before the resulting tea cools, the TARDIS does disappear, sort of, if you don't look too closely. On a revolving microwave turntable, I can't really see it, but when it's set down on a carton of diet cranberry soda, the mug's pale yellow pattern is evident.



After I've drunk some of the tea but before it cools completely, the top of the mug cools enough for the blue of the TARDIS to begin to materialize again.



After the mug cools to room temperature, it is in its original before-tea state, except that it needs cleaning! The TARDIS has fully rematerialized. It never gets the darker blue of the police box prop, any more than it disappears completely. But it will do!

Third and finally: the Christmas house on Calle Herculo, not far from Calle Mumble.



Before dark: the many decorations are there, but a little dreary in the December sun. The inflatable ones slump on the hard ground.



After dark, it's all quite different. The plastic, air-filled creatures extend their cheerful greetings behind a fence of brightly colored lights...



...and my neighbor's house becomes a fairyland of color, music and Christmas joy.

Now let's check out everyone else's before and afters!

Linking List
as of 12/6/10, 5:26 PM

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Monica - Posted!
Shutterly Happy
http://monica-frameofmind.blogspot.com/

Kat - Posted! (Monday 12/6)
In My Dreams I Can Fly...
http://inmydreamssfk.blogspot.com/

Margaret - Posted!
Margaret's Musings
http://amusingmargaret.com

Linda - Posted!
Mommy's Treasures
http://mommystreasures.blogspot.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Ruth - Posted!
The ScrabbleQueen Knits, Too
http://scrabblequeen.wordpress.com

Erin
A Hardcore Life
http://erin-hardcorehensel.blogspot.com

Sandy - Posted!
From the Heart of Texas
http://sandyfromtheheartoftexas.com

ellen b - Posted!
The Happy Wonderer
http://happywonderer.wordpress.com

Manang Kim, USA - Posted!
My Life's Journey in Focus
http://kissess4u.blogspot.com/

Krista - Posted!
Through the Eye of my Camera
http://ourhomeschoolinthewoods.blogspot.com

Karen