The End of the Giant?

the closing of a bar & grill

The Giant Bar & Grill has been shut down for at least a couple of days.

I have had to buy a TV dinner last Thursday rather than my usual cheeseburger, fries and mushrooms carry-out from the Giant, as I usually do on Thursday evenings. Sometimes the Giant is very busy; sometimes it is quiet. But I had thought that the proprietress was pulling through despite the death of the bar's co-owner last year.

I passed by the Giant last Saturday to find the place was open.

I learned there were a complex of reasons for the closing last week, but it comes down to the proprietress being tired of the hassle of running the place. It was okay when there were two people taking turns running the bar. But after the passing of the co-owner last year, it apparently got difficult, especially as the guy's estate was getting all the profit and the proprietress just got the work. Then one of the hirelings served a kid below legal age, and in came the excise cops. So the bar closed for last week.

I got my cheeseburger, fries and mushrooms that Saturday. But it may well be one of the last. The proprietress is selling the Giant, and intends to go on a spring vacation soon. The last time something like that happened, the Giant was closed for months, and I have had to adapt to going without it. It is not a good thing for a bar to close if it intends to reopen: The patrons tend to go elsewhere; and it is very difficult, especially in a place like Fairmount, to get them back.

elpis, just go away

I have been hoping for a lot of things lately: And as someone who does not think much of Elpis, the muse of blind faith, I find that depressing.

The weather has been equally depressing this week. it is cold and wet and windy and mostly sunless.

Everyone is sick as a dog this past week. Madre is sick, and so is my sister the editor. This is why I had been recruited to drive my sister to the local Sears in Marion to pick up a car battery for her Honda, which had died the death because the current battery turned out to be bad. It took awhile because the exact model of car battery no longer exists; fortunately, the store had the equivalent.

This is also why I have been feeding the cats, cleaning out the sandboxes and gathering the mail of my sister the teacher, who was at some science conference in San Francisco. Madre usually does that, but lately she has been in no condition to do anything. Well, spring is coming slowly, ever so slowly, as shown by the bulb plants that have just forced their way out of the ground. Maybe she will feel better.

Ah, crap, there's Elpis again.