The Little Joys in Life; Salem edition

I wanted to share a quick glimpse into my world outside of Portland. There is a world outside of Portland, yes! I experience it everyday on my slog of a commute down to Salem, the arrhythmic heart of OR politics. Largely it is pretty shitty but sometimes there are moments along the I5 corridor that just make you want to smile.
For nearly 6 months I have watched through my carpool window, an abandoned building in a vacant lot turn into what looked like a up and coming start up business in Salem. Day in and day out we saw little progress as the business owner clearly was delayed in his opening by the economic downturn that has really affected us all. Rubbish was cleared from the parking lot, grafitti removed, bullet holes patched, homeless shooed away. And then one day a sign...DayNite Donuts and FroYo Nation. Oh my heavens. A donut store on the carpool route! Then began the long wait to see when this entrepreneurial business leader would finally open their doors to the public with the exclamation, "Come eat my donuts!" Month by month we waited, the leaves changes, the rain started falling and we nearly gave up hope of seeing a perfect frosted fried dough circle. Then one particularly dark and cold morning we began to approach DayNite Donuts and we saw a blinding light issuing forth from the building. Cars we in the parking lot, there were people inside!! We almost ran a pedestrian over flying across three lanes on early morning traffic to pull into the parking lot. Our prayers had been answered, unfortunately we were still in Salem. Its the small things that get you through it. Thank you DayNite Donuts!