No rain nor snow....????

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Paul N

Paul N

SPFG, Supreme Picture Framing God
Joined
Jun 10, 2005
Posts
17,354
Loc
CT, not far from the LI Sound
We're expecting 8-12 inches of snow and blizzard-like conditions during the rush hour on Friday.

Is it worth it to brave the elements and open on time (that means leaving 3 hours early to make the regular 1 hour drive)?

I know nobody would be there banging on my shop door, but I feel really guilty opening late on any day.

And I need to get the UPS delivery for a frame that's should be ready on Saturday. Would UPS show up too, I wonder...

Am I being too loyal to my customers (who most likely wouldn't leave their comfy houses and rush to my store to frame aunt Martha's old painting) or am I just a plain too dedicated & suicidal maniac??

If I don't make it and land in a snow drift, please call me on my cell phone and tell me I was crazy to leave in the first place....that would make me really feel much better!
 
If you leave your house at 5am, and reach the shop at 6:15am... think of all the work you can get done, and still open up on time. :D

OK, so maybe you're not as compusive obsesive as I am.....

On the other hand, you could have left a note:

"May be late or closed Friday due to weather."

thumbsup.gif
 
You could be stuck there all by yourself without power, phone service (cell included), no heat, hungry and no customers.
 
I drove in a team operation a number of years ago for Heilig-Meyers. We ran out of North Carolina and serviced several stores across Pennsylvannia.

After fighting our way for 12 hours one nasty winter night, we backed up to the store loading dock on time. Only problem was the local store employees couldn't make it out of their driveways!

The snow blade truck shoved 3-4' of ice in front of everyone's houses as it made it's way down the streets.

I now know what -40 degrees wind chill feels like. Ya'll can have that mess.
;)

Safety first Paul...if it ain't safe, folks will understand why the store is closed. Be careful.
 
Because our store is on a main drag, it amazes me how customers will manage to get to us during bad weather. Of course we sell art supplies, too, so mostl y that is what they come in for. A few years ago we had a big snowstorm... like 3 or 4 feet. Roger and I dug out the van and drove to the store. It was so deep that the plow guys hadn't yet cleared our parking lot. So Roger dug out a place so we could get the van off the road (which, being US Route 40, was plowed) He weded to the door and unlocked it. (We opened aboutan hour late that day) Son of a gun, we hadn't been in the store 10 minutes and here comes a customer! Now we are lucky. We live on a main drag and the store is on another main drag, so it is relatively easy to get to work. Also, we grew up in Illinois, so driving in snow is one of the things for which a person acquires a skill. So we'll be there this morning. I frankly am looking forward to having a morning where I can catch up a little...
 
Well, the storm blew thru last night. We only got about 3" of snow. This is about half of what was predicted.

Hope the rest of you don't get to buried.
 
I’m in the shop and they are predicting 10 – 12” by this evening.

It seem like the worse the weather, the more anxious people are to prove that they are undaunted by it. I’m expecting a pretty good day.
 
I hate winter. I hate winter. I hate winter. We got 7 inches of snow last night, drifting over 3 ft in places, blowing around still. Just got in from using the snowblower on the shop drive, which is 75 ft x 50 ft. The house driveway wasn't so bad, snow just blew over it and out of the way for the most part, so I got out ok this morning after only a little work. I hate snow. I hate snow. I hate snow.

Rock
 
Thanks all for your concerns.

Well, I left at 8 am and was at the store by 10 am (it took 2 instead of the usual 1 hour), not bad considering:

7-10 inches of snow, couldn't tell the roads from the fields....(roads were not plowed anywhere), people in small cars doing minus 10 miles an hour, and some areas were beyond slippery. And thank God, there were no accidents and very few cars on the road.

I really had to be here for the UPS delivery for a job that has to be ready tomorrow. Now, maybe the UPS guy won't show up in this weather....

Otherwise, I would have stayed home on a day like this. Although they say tomorrow's driving will be **** as well, as it will be very cold plus the snow from today.

PS: On days like this, believe it or not, I got a decent amount of customers! Must be those who took the day off, stayed home and couldn't tolerate that old frame on the wall anymore....
 
Our downtown yesterday was loaded with folks stocking up on bread and milk ....never understood that ...if I were snowbound, I'd want to have cached away lots of vodka and lobster....
 
Woke up to 9" of snow here. I don't understand the bread and milk thing either. At least if they got eggs, then they could make french toast, but what could you do with just bread and milk?

By the way, I'm booked up for Christmas. Some non-Christmas stuff, but alot for Christmas. It's iffy if I could fit any more in. (of course if I wasn't reading the grumble, I'd get more done...)
 
Originally posted by Paul N:
Thanks all for your concerns.

Well, I left at 8 am and was at the store by 10 am (it took 2 instead of the usual 1 hour), not bad considering:

7-10 inches of snow, couldn't tell the roads from the fields....(roads were not plowed anywhere), people in small cars doing minus 10 miles an hour, and some areas were beyond slippery. And thank God, there were no accidents and very few cars on the road.

I really had to be here for the UPS delivery for a job that has to be ready tomorrow. Now, maybe the UPS guy won't show up in this weather....

Otherwise, I would have stayed home on a day like this. Although they say tomorrow's driving will be **** as well, as it will be very cold plus the snow from today.

PS: On days like this, believe it or not, I got a decent amount of customers! Must be those who took the day off, stayed home and couldn't tolerate that old frame on the wall anymore....
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Good job! Glad you made the trek in. Good moral fiber.
Ya must have had a paper route as a kid too. ;)
 
Originally posted by FramingFool:
Our downtown yesterday was loaded with folks stocking up on bread and milk ....never understood that ...if I were snowbound, I'd want to have cached away lots of vodka and lobster....
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Yeah, what's with that stuff? And, aren't 70% of the population Lactose intolerant too? Unless it is really for French Toast....


Doesn't make sense at all!

I too run to stock up on Brandy, wines, cheese, olives, fillet Mignon, but bread and milk? Nah.
 
Forgot to mention:

I got 3 customers today, not bad for a very snowy day.

The first one a lady who brought a picture of her son. A proud, good looking marine who she said will be going to serve in Iraq in January (he volunteered).

She was really sad and worried about him.

I was very tempted not to charge her anything, but my bank-loans told me otherwise, so I gave her a 30% discount. She felt a bit better, I hope he'll be OK.
 
7-10 inches of snow, couldn't tell the roads from the fields....
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And we were thinking it was unseasonably cool here today! They say it's only going to reach a high of 72° today.

Glad we left all that cold weather behind some years ago! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I really feel for you.
 
I am familiar with the phenomenon- bad weather = customers.

And, the ones you get are really serious about getting something.

I remember one really snowy day, all the employees who lived on the other side of the canyon had gone home already, to get there before the canyon road was closed by ice. The rest of us were staring at the thickening snow, watching it stick to the empty parking lot, and wondering if there was any reason to stay. This 4x4 pulls up, and a couple get out with a large painting, and some smaller prints, and places a huge order.

Yup. They fought their way through the raging blizzard to get framing done!
 
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