Updates

Hello World,
Jean closed the cafe early last Wednesday because she had an appointment. I stuck around until 4:00 waiting for people to pick up pies that they had ordered.
Wifey and I drove to our son's and daughter-in-law's house Wednesday evening. We had a great visit, enjoyed great food, and enjoyed seeing their beautiful new house.
Thursday, the cafe was closed for Thanksgiving and we were still out of town.
Friday, wifey and I drove back home after breakfast. I got to the cafe at about 11:30. By 12:30 it was becoming obvious that no one was going to come in for lunch. We kept the cafe open until shortly after 1:00 before Jean said, "Everybody must be home eating left-overs. We might as well turn off the grill and go home too."
Saturday and Sunday the cafe was closed for the weekend.
It started snowing Sunday morning. I shoveled our driveway and walks every 2'' (or every 2 hours, whichever came first) until the snow stopped falling, 12 inches and 8 hours later. Surprisingly, a snowplow came through out neighborhood around midnight. Of course, that left boulder-size clumps snow on my clean sidewalk and across the entrance to our driveway, but at least the street was passable! I got up early Monday morning and cleaned up after the snowplow. I'm glad I did because, the wind had already started blowing and the temperature soon dropped into the teens. Before long, any snow that hadn't been shoveled became rock hard and frozen solidly to the ground.
When I finished at our house, I went across the street to brush the snow off Jean's van and shovel a path from her garage door to the street.
All morning, the radio stations issued appeals from the County sheriff for people to stay home due to the large number of accidents and blocked roads.
At 9:00, I called Jean to see if she wanted to open the cafe. She said we could go see how it looked, but not before 10:00 or 11:00.
I picked her up at 10:00 and we drove over to the cafe. The parking lot at the shopping center where her cafe is located as a mess. Whoever was supposed to plow the snow must have been drunk, lazy, or clueless. There were random swaths plowed through the snow. In some places, the driver had plowed next to the curb then, for no apparent reason, veered away from the curb and stopped half-way across the parking lot. The stretch of curb-side parking in front of Jean's cafe had not been plowed and none of the sidewalks had been plowed. The wind was blowing snow off the roof and whipping up swirls of snow across the parking lot. There were about a dozen cars in the entire shopping center.
I said to Jean, "We need to open so you can make some money!" She said, "Ain't nobody gonna to be eating out on a day like this and I can't be fallin' down and breakin' no limbs!"
So we went home.
This morning, nothing has changed driving condition-wise or weather-wise. It is still frigidly cold and the wind is still gusting into the 30 mph range.
I plan to drive over to the cafe by myself at about 8:00 and see what the parking lot looks like. If it's still a mess, I don't think Jean will be any more motivated to open today than she was yesterday. Unfortunately, that will mean another day without any income for her. That's serious.
Her latest plan, by the way, is to close the cafe at the end of December. She has to wait around until January 23rd to cater the wedding she already took (and spent) deposits on. Then she's moving back to Atlanta. She said she gave up on the idea of taking her furniture and restaurant supplies with her. She said she's going to take a suitcase with her on the plane and ship a couple of boxes of personal belongings back. I think that's a good plan.
Now she needs to get busy selling the rest of her stuff so she can pay her January rent and buy her ticket to Atlanta!