Dear Mercury Customers,

This evening around 5pm, Damien and I witnessed a tragic event that I had feared for about a year and a half now. A patron of ours had just left our cafe and was crossing Queen St. at Morse and was struck by a passing car. There had been countless close calls at this particular crosswalk, far more that I'd like to see and I feel that this was inevitable.

My condolences goes out to the family and friends of the man who was struck and with a heavy heart I warn others who are reading this: Don't trust cars to stop at the crosswalks. A couple seconds of waiting or using the intersection at Carlaw would make a world of difference.

Damien sez:

In other news, everything else about today has been beautiful- my latte art is getting better and better, my shots are reaching a new height of consistent greatness, and my service courtesy is at an all time high (I dare you to come into the store and see how nice I am). Generally speaking, I absolutely love working at Mercury. Some high school kids told me they were writing a report about the store for an assignment, and I basically gushed ad nausea about how great every facet of the whole Mercury phenomenon really is. I won't gush too much in this blog entry cause Lord Knows I've already done enough of that, but let me just gush a wee gush:

There's something about this environment that seems to cause people to connect with one another. I've met so many amazing and wonderful people since I started working here, but sometimes I look around to notice that total strangers are striking up conversations spontaneously, as well. Cool people seem to be drawn here like bears to honey, and I'm just fine with it. Why can't all of Toronto be more like Mercury?

In light of the accident we witnessed, such light-hearted musing seems a little bit inappropriate. Perhaps I can contextualize the saccharine sentiment by saying that I feel truly lucky to work where I do, to have the life I have, and to be surrounded by the wonderful people I encounter every day. If you're reading this blog, you're probably one of them! Anyway, let tragedy and harmony both inspire us to treasure whatever it is we've been blessed with and appreciate the moment at hand.