Indianapolis is My Home

02
Aug

Indianapolis Teen on USA Olympic Gymnastics Team

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Carmel, Charities, Local Residents, Sports, Students

Did you know we have an Olympic Gymnast in our town? Bridget Sloan is from Carmel and she will be representing the United States in Beijing, China along with the other members of the USA Gymnastics Team.

Now the question is how would you feel if it were your daughter that was representing the United States in the Olympics, in China, and you couldn’t afford to take yourself over there? That’s the challenge that faces Bridget’s parents and you can help. You can visit Bridget’s home gym website and donate money to their efforts to send her parents to China.

You can get more information about how you can support their efforts as a family or if you’re a business and would like to help you can get that information as well.

Visit their website at www.sharpsboosters.org

21
Jul

Starbucks Closing 12 Indianapolis Area Stores

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Business, Carmel, Coffee Shops, Downtown, Greenwood, Indianapolis Area, Keystone, News, Northwest Side, Real Estate, Speedway, West Side

When I first heard about the news that Starbucks has finally appeared to out-grow their britches, I thought I’d read that there weren’t any Indianapolis stores closing. As the image above humorously depicts skewing the original imagery by M.C. Escher, Starbucks always seemed to be everywhere. Between their actual stores and their little satellite stores located in other stores, they’re everywhere!

At one point in our lives, my brothers and I have all worked at a Starbucks store. My middle brother went the furthest with it as he actually opened a new store, which I think is one of the ones being closed now, which doesn’t make any sense to me.

Here are some of the soon to be closed locations:

• College Avenue & Fall Creek Parkway
• 38th and Meridian St
• 3855 E. 96th Street
• 9642 Allisonville Rd.
• 5060 W. 38th St.
• 5945 Crawfordsville Rd
• 3021 W 16th St
• 3801 S. Keystone Ave
• Merchant Square in Carmel
• US 31 & Fry Road in Greenwood
• Albany & 17th St in Beech Grove
• Metropolis Mall 2499 Futura Parkway in Plainfield

I had a Starbucks coffee for the first time in quite awhile on Thursday night. I’ve been cutting back on my coffee purchases in general, but when I do have a drink it’s been purchased from local coffee shop the vast majority of the time.

All-in-all I think closing a number of stores is a great move for Starbucks. I’m sure it will be a great opportunity for local shops and even Dunkin Donuts to make more of run for market share as well.

From my time working at the SBUX though, I think they’re a great company to work for that seems to care about their employees and work with them to keep balance in their lives.

Story Source: Grinding to a halt: 12 local Starbucks
Image Source: MIT Laboratory for Branding Cultures

07
Jul

A Good Indianapolis Area Weekend

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Carmel, Surrounding Indianapolis

The 4th of July weekend is over and it’s back to work for me and just about everything else.

I felt like I was all over the area this past weekend but had a great time visiting with family, extended family and an old college acquaintance. Perhaps the biggest adjustment for this weekend was that our kids weren’t with us. They left on Wednesday to visit their aunt for a couple of days down in Portsmouth, OH.

Friday I slept in for quite awhile for the first time in a LONG time. It felt wonderful. There have been a lot of late nights lately and they’ve come with regularity for the past number of months.

When we did get up we got ready and headed to my parent’s house out in Stringtown, IN, which is just east of Greenfield. Met my brother and his family there for a good meal of my mom’s wonderful cooking and a number of hours just visiting and hanging out with each other. Again, weird because my two nieces were missing our kids not being there. Since it was the 4th, we went into Greenfield and watched the fireworks display at the high school. Surprisingly they were a good display for a small town. It’s also probably the closest I’ve been to and under the fireworks as they were going off.

Saturday morning we slept in again (two days in a row!!!) before we headed down to Brown County to visit with my cousin and his family. They rented a cabin and will be staying through the week. We had another great meal, played Hillbilly Golf and had some good conversation. Went into downtown Nashville for some ice-cream and to walk around a bit.

Sunday after going to church and running lights for our worship services, I drove up to Carmel and met with a friend from college. Friend probably gives too much credit for our relationship in the college days. He was a freshman and I was a junior or senior. We were both involved in student government and knew each other, but didn’t really hang out. There are a variety of reasons we scheduled to meet yesterday, but what was intended to be an hour or so conversation turned into 10 hours of talk, business discussion and a little bit of Halo on the original Xbox.

As I stated before though. Back to work.

The point of this story though is that there’s loads to do in and around Indiana, the key is having friends and family and a willingness not to worry about it so much and just go out and have fun.

20
May

Get Gas for Under $3 Per Gallon

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Carmel, News, WRTV - TV Channel 6

If you’re in Carmel this afternoon around Rangeline Road you might want to take advantage of a promotion the Crystal Flash gas station is doing in partnership with Indiana Corn Growers Association.

The Crystal Flash station in the 500 block of Rangeline Road in Carmel plans to run the promotion from 4 p.m until 5:30 p.m., 6News’ Rick Hightower reported.

Gas for under $3/gallon would be nice, but to get it only between 4pm and 5:30pm means you probably need to get in line at lunch to get the gas.

The gas is a new mix of gasoline and ethanol, but isn’t the same E85 that’s already being sold.

Source: TheIndyChannel.com