Thursday 7/28/2011
I can say with certainty the crowd theory holds true, when one comes they all come! Unfortunately, I had to wake Joe up to help me, but he had a solid 1.5 hour nap on the lovely plywood bench we have in the back of the trailer in our "living room" space. It's all the same though as he would have had to get up soon anyway because he will need to get Anthony off his bus from Camp at 3:15pm.
I am going to go read now, it's slow during this middle of the day time, too late for lunch, too early for dinner time. Once Anthony gets here I'll be occupied talking, coloring and reading with him until the dinner rush begins, usually around 4:30 but I'll update later as to if all went as planned.
Well, 3:56pm and I'm sitting here going back and forth between multiple tasks. I should have written in the previous paragraph, "...Anthony get here I assume I'll be..." As soon as they got back from the bus Anthony was already in mid-meltdown and moreover said he was not feeling well (not one of his common lines) so Joe took him home for some relax and unwind time. I now find myself writing this entry, while also adding to a business proposal for RaeRae's, as well as a marketing report for a customer (not a RaeRae's customer, I also freelance as a mktg & business development consultant in the print & Publishing industry) and checking all my web pages and email of course!
Anyway, I had not counted on this downtime so I am oddly at a loss of what I want to do. Normally, I try to maximize my downtime by plotting what would be the most efficient use of said time, when there is any (sometimes there is a lot and sometimes I don't get five minutes.) Today, I had not planned for Joe to go home at any point, it's not typical for a Thursdays or Friday, but today I clicked my heels 3 times and made them magically disappear. They'll be back at 5:15pm because we have a scheduled delivery which will give Joe just enough time to get there and back to pick up Angelo from daycare at 6:00pm.
4:30pm On-the-Dot and we had one customer after the next with no breaks...which is great, HOT!!! 91 degrees with the fryers running on max temp the whole time, and hard on the feet, but good business none the less. Had a lot of regulars to catch up with, which we love and makes this whole thing ...nice, for lack of a better term. At 6:30pm after the last customer in line was leaving and no one was waiting, the sky turned angry and we called it a night.
So you think it's easy to just pack up and go? NO! It's not...at all. First, we have to manage our two young (soon to be 6 and 4 year old) boys who, by this time in the evening, are done, tired, and fuzzy to say the least...well, to be honest, Joe and I are all those things too. We have to un-steak and pack up the canopy, fold and load all the tables and chairs, unlock and release all of the out-riggers (stabilizers) on the trailer, secure anything movable in the trailer which is just about everything, clean and sanitize all the working surfaces one last time, separate all the dirty dished to be cleaned, and cool the frying oil and transfer the oil one at a time in two specially labeled, sealable jars; we don't want hot oil splashing around the trailer when we move!
That's the location pack-up but the jobs not done. Once we get back to our home we have homesite tasks: re-route all of the electrical, empty the gray water, replenish our water supply, clean all of the equipment, dishes, floor etc., and re-stock all of our inventory. We also have to make sure that all the food is properly cooled to and from the right temps. in the proper timeframe and keep watch over that process while we do everything else.
Joe and I usually take turns managing these tasks while the other manages the kids. On location I will typically do most of the pack-up tasks inside the trailer while the kids eat their dinner and while Joe packs up the outside. Once the kids are done I take them home and let them have some play time before getting ready for bed, story time, etc. While I am with the kids, Joe will finish the location tasks and then will come home and start the homesite tasks. Once I get the kids settled in bed I will then go outside and pick up where he left off with the homesite tasks while he jumps in the shower to...get ready for it...go to work! That's right, Joe works a regular, full-time, job as an Engineer for General Electric in Westchester. He leaves around 9pm each night and leaves there at 6am each morning...though some mornings he has to go to the restaurant supply house before coming home; he typically he gets in anywhere from 7am-8:30am.
Oh, but don't you sit there thinking he's the one pulling all the weight (though he loves to think that.) No, no, no...after the kids are sleeping (really sleeping) the monitors go on and out to the trailer I go to prepare more produce for the next day and re-stock any of the food and condiments we might need, fry bacon, grill chicken, bake brownies, whatever needs to be done.
Thursday night there was a lot of replenishing that needed to be done. Although sometimes I can break up the tasks into two parts, maybe baking at night and grilling in the morning, last night that was not an option because we had a business meeting for RaeRae's scheduled first thing Friday morning...well, not first thing, but after brining Angelo to Pre-School and Anthony to the bus for camp, but before opening RaeRae's for the day. Before I could even start that I had to finish the report I was working on for my mktg. consulting client. Shortly after that, the cookies started to crumble, literally!
I checked my voicemail from earlier and realized Anthony missed his eye doctor appointment (now we have to wait 3 more weeks to get in to this specialist,) then received an email saying our meeting on Friday was postponed, I checked the weather and saw the potential for issues on Friday, and I realized that my order from the bakery was not as it should be...ugh! All things which I can't change nor control; not happy!
Not happy = tired. Tired + Couch + Quiet = waking up at 3am going wtf? What happened? Oh sh** I fell asleep!!! So far behind schedule now! At least I got a few hours sleep...but at what price? Over-sleeping, or sleeping when I should not be, leaves me in a ripe mood, but in this case with a migraine!
Okay, maybe this is getting a bit too detailed...I feel like I am writing a book, but I guess if I am going to be doing this for a couple weeks, then your going to need some background info to follow along, I guess that's what this is...a kind of prologue entry, a starter kit, lol! I haven't event started on today yet!
Friday 7/29/2011
I am getting a bit blurry eyed writing all this, so I will try to give just the highlights. After getting the kids out of the house this am the first order of business is to check the weather, determine the day's schedule and send out the specials menus/faxed/messaging posts. After all of that is done I have to process whatever special order or catering has come in and then continue getting the truck re-stocked and all the equipment ready, water boiling, steamers steaming, etc.
Today the weather was calling for steadily increasing thunderstorms starting at 3:-4:00pm. That kills 4-5 hours of our Friday business. I'll tell you this, since it was also a highly asked question (why don't you open for a half a day if it's not raining until later?) The cost of running RaeRae's is very high especially considering the gas prices. We have to be careful when determining if we will open up for a limited time, knowing weather will cause us to close early vs. doing a delivery only where we have a earlier delivery starting time and later delivery end time. If we open on location and then have to close due to weather, we cannot go back and still do delivery. We have to complete the shutdown tasks, both on location and at homesite, in a timed and specific manner which cannot be deviated from for the sake of both the food & the equipment. However, if we do delivery only, we save the cost generator fuel, which somewhat makes up for the loss of drive by business, but we are able to keep our regular customers happy by still providing them with the regular menu and specials, made to order and delivered right to their door. A lot of the customers especially like to take advantage of the earlier lunch and later dinner delivery times. Needless to say, we decided today would be delivery only.
We also had a small catering order today. It would have been pretty mellow save for that around 10:30 am I got a call from Anthony's camp...the saga continues. My son Anthony has ADHD, and it's a constant battle. So, RaeRae the Warrior Mom with the Migraine, went to battle for young Anthony in the midst of deliveries, went out to the camp, kept the peace, put out the fires, and almost had to walk to the gas station because she neglected to see that her husband left the car on empty when he came home from work. He never mentioned it, he was too busy falling into an instant sleep when he zombie walked himself in the door this morning. Need I tell you he did not argue, though not even sure he was lucid enough to understand English, when I told him we were on delivery only this morning. Back to my story, I barely made it to the gas station to realize...guess what? Who doesn't have her wallet? It's not in her purse? It's not anywhere in the car? When was the last time she saw it; damn, can't recall. Did she loose it, I don't know... Yes, that would be me, RaeRae, the one with no gas. Ah but the zombie husband saved the day, unwittingly, because he left all his...stuff in the car when he, as I said, zombie walked his a** into the house and went straight to bed. His stuff included enough money to put gas in the car and drive home...and wouldn't you know, as I pull in the driveway the phone rings and it's another delivery. And so it goes.
Well, I am signing off for tonight. I have to be up early tomorrow...why, because I have a soon to be 6 and 4 year old...goes with the territory. Also, I go to the Farm every Saturday morning to get my fresh organic veggies, can't miss that! Also tomorrow, another small catering order in the evening. Other than that it should be fairly uneventful...we hope; we'll see!
