Yesterday, while I was out, I drove to my favorite Japanese restaurant. It is a mom & pop place in a quiet little shopping center with a beauty school, an insurance agent, a Peruvian restaurant, an Italian restaurant and a few other service type tenants. I have been trying to phone in an order for several weeks for pick up, but nobody answers, so I was concerned they had folded. The shopping center was empty except two cars in front of the restaurant.
The woman and her son had plastic sheeting laid out across the sheltered sidewalk in front of the restaurant and had all the booth benches pulled out onto the sidewalk. The son (maybe 14?) was carefully painting the wood on the benches while the woman was reupholstering them as the paint dried. They both had masks and so did I, so I stopped to visit. They expect to be closed at least another week and are taking advantage of the opportunity to clean and update the restaurant. They apparently have already gutted, cleaned, repaired and updated the kitchen and restrooms, The husband is sanding and refinishing the tables out back and at night they are painting and rewallpapering the dining room. She was feeling blessed because they had expected to have to pay someone in the fall to come in and do the work for them so that it could be done with them only closed for a few days, so being able to do it themselves is saving them lots of money. Talk about making lemonade when life hands you lemons!