We once had a dealer for exclusively thermometers in the local warehouse district. He resembled a pale-faced zombie or vampire which hadn't been in sunlight seemingly forever, in a dimly lit but ample sized facility housing hundreds of kinds of thermometers in multiples of quantity. Since that city had both a major University (UCB), and National Lab, and was rapidly becoming the world epicenter of Pharmaceutical and Biotech R&D, there was a steady demand for all kind of high-grade thermometers. But the most accurate and extreme types, like both the Lawrence Livermore and Berkeley Labs potentially used, capable of measuring extremes hotter than the sun, or nearing absolute zero with extreme precision, were obviously not the kind of thing one can purchase off a warehouse shelf. After he passed away, that poorly-maintained warehouse space with all its flaking paint got invaded by a squatters-rights type of art colony, with most of their "art" seemingly transpiring only in their own imaginations after imbibing certain hallucinogens. The city bided their time until official renovation plans were in play. But prior to the need for eviction, that "artiste colony" firetrap predictably burned down on its own, and was subsequently replaced by an obscenely expensive highrise condo development. Now everyone is going pale; the streets themselves now seem more like tunnels, with all the sunlight blocked by highrises on either side. Full circle.
