( Warning: the following is a long, only
tenuously
style-tethered story, so feel free to skip down to the
photos.)
If I were less aware of just how tiny
my minuscule place is in the Grand Scheme of Things, I'd be tempted
to think the universe was out to mess with me this last week. Of
course we have to take responsibility for what happens to us in life
on some level, always, but it is also true that stuff sometimes just
happens.
We had been been preparing for what is
always our very largest business weekend of the year, and
organization is critical. It seems, though, that the Fates needed a
good laugh and chose us to be the butt of their joke.
Last Wednesday, when I foolishly looked
ahead and imagined smooth sailing after some previous weeks of choppy
cosmic weather, the actual weather blew up an unusually violent
summer storm that flooded our restaurant. We were in the Big City at
the time, trying to make our grocery run, so there was no one there
to manage the damage until that evening when Dan arrived to open for
dinner. It wasn't very deep water, but it doesn't take much to be a
huge pain in the tuchas and do some damage.
As they say on the evening news, "in
separate but related incidents" the storm knocked out our WiFi
router, which took our credit card machine with it. So on Thursday,
I spent some long hours on the phone with a very patient tech-rep, me
clambering up and down step ladders to get to the router and carry
out her diagnostics. In spite of our heroic efforts, she finally
determined that we needed a new router.
That meant an 80 mile round-trip to
another Big City for me, and another session of ladder clambering on
my return. Once the router fix was accomplished, the credit card
machine refused to like the new router enough to hook up with it, so
another evening's dinner hours came and went without the ability to
accept credit cards. (Imagine a big scowling emoji here. )
And in a "separate but unrelated"
incident" that took place while the above diagnostic efforts
were going on, Dan's business PC decided to roll over and die a very
permanent death. I know at this point you are wondering if I am not
just making this all up, but no. I assure you I am not. I spent a
lot of that evening setting up my ancient backup laptop to be ready
for Dan's use, with hours spent updating essential programs needed to
get it up to speed.
After Friday morning and last minute
joint efforts with the tech-rep from the credit card machine
manufacturer, the machine was successfully rebooted just
in time for the onslaught of the lunch crowd on the first day of
festival. (Imagine happy emoji face here.)
The local wine festival is
lucrative but challenging for our little restaurant. It happens in a
block-long park right out our front door, and is held on what are
invariably the hottest days of summer. And the local wineries (bless
them and keep them, really) serve free wine to all the
freebie-seekers that converge on our little town that day. So,
imagine hundreds of hot and sweaty people, many of whom are already
three sheets to the wind from the free wine and are in a
something-for-nothing frame of mind, converging on our little
restaurant that has eleven tables, and is not set up to do fast food.
Always a challenging effort, always a mixed blessing, but this year
a surprising success because of our tiny but really good staff.
Seems like the Fates decided to back
off and cut us a little slack. Yeayyyy.
However, I'm still behind on my bloggy
stuff, so I thought you deserved to know why. I'm trying so hard
to come see you all and reply to all your so much appreciated
comments for the last couple of weeks here. I probably should just
lay down and beg off, but I'm stubbornly persevering, because
chatting with you all is my great joy and pleasure, and am really
grateful for your patience and support.
Sunday brought a little rest and our
customary afternoon run into town for groceries and a bite to eat.
This is What I Wore.
Just before we headed home, I stopped
by TJ Maxx for a quick look-see. And almost as if the Fates were
trying to make up for being nasty, I found this pair of BCBGeneration
black, navy and cobalt suede d'Orsay pumps for next to nothing and in
my size. As you see, they'll be perfect with this same dress the
next time I wear it, and I see this shoe carrying me on into winter
with other things. Excellent. I'm quite sure I deserve these shoes.
Almost like a sweet little cosmic
apology for all the craziness, wasn't it?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I'm lucky to be able to link up with
the ever-glamorous Plaid Mad Patti at Visible Monday
Come see what all the fuss is about!
