Double-double

Tim Horton's

   One way or the other, I spend a lot of time in coffee shops. Almost invariably, they are Tim Horton's but I am not adverse to plopping my butt down in the closest coffee shop there is.
   One of the reasons (and the principal reason) why I spend so much time there is that it almost seems like a work requirement. I drive around the city visiting people our agency supports, assisting them with whatever they need a hand with. When that part of it's done, however, and depending on the person, we head to Timmies.
   Now, long ago I figured out that I was spending way too much money at Tim's doing this. These days, I load up my Tim's mug with homebrew in the morning and carry it around with me while at work. I can then sit with someone in a Tim's and not suffer from guilt pangs that I'm not actually drinking their coffee. One way or another, though, I still end up drinking lots of Tim's coffee.

   Depending on the time of day and what Tim's we happen to be in, I can almost tell you who's going to be there. Not that I know who they are or where they're from but I know their faces and I know just a tad of their daily routine. For the most part, when they're in Tim's they seem happy. Pretty well everyone there does, I've found.
   Tim Horton's seems to have ingrained itself into people's psyches. I used to think McDonalds had done the same thing but I'm pretty sure Tim's has them beat, at least here in Canada. There is something just a touch comforting even driving past a Tim's sometimes, I imagine it would be somewhat like a heroin addict who'd just shot up driving down a long street littered with dealers on every corner, not needing one just now but feeling comforted by their presence, nevertheless. As tourists, even, perhaps in a strange province and finding the local Tim's, we are comforted again by the sameness.

Starbucks

   I don't believe it's only our coffee addiction which drives us to coffee shops. You can always make yourself a coffee at home and drink it. A coffee shop gives you the opportunity to be with someone, or maybe even a group of people and congregate, as it were. Before the advent of this proliferation of coffee shops, neighbours gathered in their homes, on an almost daily basis and usually round about the same time, for coffee. It was more a reason to get together than a hot drink with caffeine in it. I don't think these days that things have changed too much, we gather at the usual times, in the usual places, for the usual drink and it's coffee at a coffee shop. I suspect we talk about the same kinds of things--politics, sports, current events, gossip, etc. We are all bound together in this way.
   Obviously, I am a Tim Horton's man. I have friends that swear by Starbucks. I went to a Starbucks once and was taken aback by the cost and the strength of the coffee. Not only that, I had a hard time with the Starbucks vernacular, sizing-wise. Essentially, though, it is the price which keeps me away. What I did appreciate, however, was the subtle difference in ambiance. The seating pattern was different, the seating itself was a touch more luxurious. For the lack of a better word, the ambiance seemed more refined. As close as I usually get to a Starbucks is when I go to Chapters, the book store. The combination of coffee and book smell when you walk in the door is irresistible. Well, almost irresistible. As I said, I'm a Timmies man.
   As much as the coffee, it is the people you see in the coffee shop. Not only the people you're there with but the people who were already there and the people who show up before you leave. In Tim's there's a pretty wide variety of people frequenting the place, from the well-off to the almost-destitute. And they're all shoulder-to-shoulder, engaged by their togetherness, regardless of the places they all came from.
   The other day I was in a Tim's and in a corner there was a series of pictures of Tim Horton himself. I remember watching him play and I remember him starting up the business. Today, were he still involved with his business, he would be rich beyond whatever his dreams might have been in the beginning. His is a cautionary tale, though, given the combination of drinking and driving which claimed him. But he was a Canadian hockey player, one of the best of his generation, and I have no doubt that this is partly at the heart of what brings us, as Canadians, to his establishment on an almost daily basis. Whether we are old enough to remember him or not.
   I may or may not make it to a coffee shop tomorrow. It is my day off so work will not take me there. It is possible I may end up there in my travels if the mood or, more likely, the sign strikes me. Quite probably I will not look at the experience in quite the same way, given having written about it today. In truth I may never view it quite the same again, as strange as this sounds. Blogging tends to re-focus me a touch, regardless of the subject matter. If all else fails, I may just sit there and think about what else to write about because if you can write about coffee shops you can write about hospitals, schools, cars, bikes, bunnies, and the theory of relativity. I guess.