Closed?

Thank you for all the birthday wishes. For a weekday celebration it wasn’t bad. Much of the day went according to plan.

I picked up the sparkling wine; bought myself a new pair of gloves with those handy dandy touch screen finger sensors so I can use my phone without suffering from bloodier knuckles; made another purchase according to the Penzey’s Plan; checked out the going-out-of-business sale at FLOW in Crossgates while I was there; took Young Master Fussy out for a haircut; grabbed my birthday cake from Crisan; and used my Hannaford gift cards for four beautiful hard-shell lobsters.

One place the plan fell apart was at the birthday dinner itself. It turns out that neither of the children like lobster with drawn butter and lemon. Neither the claw meat nor the tail meat. And while I was a little bummed that they weren’t sharing in this joy, it meant double lobster for me.

The other lapse in the program was at the beginning of the day at breakfast.

Part of me thought it would be fun to have a daddy daughter breakfast date on my birthday with Little Miss Fussy. She and I talked about it and headed out to my favorite little diner, Dewey’s.

You don’t need to see a menu at Dewey’s to know what they have for breakfast, because they make simple breakfast food: eggs, meat, toast, potatoes. There are omelets, pancakes and oatmeal too.

We had already figured out what we would have. She was going to order two scrambled eggs and potatoes (on the crispy side). But the potatoes she had planned to share with me. And all of her food was going to be eaten dipped in ketchup. Cut her some slack, she’s still just a kid.

I was going to have the classic old man breakfast of oatmeal, given that yesterday marked the end of my youth. But I was going to balance all of those whole grains with a bit of the fat drenched crispy potatoes.

However, we were thwarted. Because pulling up during normal business hours, there was a sign that read closed up on the door.

Now I don’t begrudge the family who runs Dewey’s their time off. It’s a family operation, and if one of them is laid up, the place won’t open. And it’s frustrating. What’s even more frustrating though is that random unannounced closings and sporadic business hours seem to be pretty standard operating procedure around the region.

Forget the fact that so many amazing places aren’t open past 2pm and several are closed entirely on the weekends. There are others spots that I just can’t figure out.

Like last week when I went to Ben & Jerry’s. It was a weekday, around 1:30 in the afternoon. Yes, it was late fall and hardly a time of year when people are craving ice cream. But this is a standalone store on the corner of a busy retail corridor, and it was chained shut with a sign that seemed to indicate they would be open by 6pm that same day (although I’m unsure that sign was a trustworthy narrator). And I couldn’t tell if this was a one time thing or if I just happened to show up on a day they open late, because there were no posted hours anywhere in sight.

I know these aren’t the only two examples of showing up at a place that I expected to be open only to find it unexpectedly closed, however my sleep-deprived and aging mind is finding it hard to call upon other examples. Surely if you live in the region, you can share some others in the comments below.

What gives Albany? Why does this kind of behavior happen here but not elsewhere? It’s not okay.