Sunday, June 24, 2012

Weekend on Planet WTF.

I think my last personal post was on Thursday,  before Hell let'er rip - by the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea - on Friday.

Arrived early to work on Friday allowing access to refrigeration & plumbing technicians - a repeat of the previous day. But, earlier.

The humidity was oppressive, with the temps hovering around 102' F, a menacing dark sky offered a glimpse of what was to come.

Heat increased as the sky grew darker; people were urged to leave the beach, so huge parties began to descend upon us as giant thunderstorms rolled in; some accompanied by strong winds and hale. Then the power outages began around 1 pm;  first hit was Baltimore Avenue knocking out everything from the Atlantic Sands Hotel on the ocean, westward, which included all restaurants on that strip. RB is an old town and the grid was put together as the town grew, today looking like a patchwork quilt. 

Next hit was Wilmington Avenue on the south side of the avenue and all restaurants, shops, hotels, went dark - at around 4 pm.  Still, Dos Locos had power as I logged out and made my way home between storms, though the thunder rumbled around me.

That evening I lost power a few times momentarily, just long enough to set all clocks blinking.  I turned off all appliances and electronics and decided to deal with it in the morning.

Received a phone call at 7:30 pm that DL had lost power; and a warning for Saturday morning.  Maybe no 9 am brunch. Maybe a delayed opening.  I prepared for the worst.

Turns out diners already in place on Friday evening were eating their meals by flashlights and candles provided by servers and bussers. Even though it was hotter than Hell in the place (even with all doors open) everyone thought it was a romantic event, handled professionally by the staff; considered it one of those memories one passes on to the next generation.  Yes, that too.

Scheduled for early arrival on Saturday, I was charged with cleaning up the front of the house, while Nicole was to care for the kitchen.  But at first glance, most of the work centered on the kitchen.

The locosguys were already on site when I arrived and the rest of the crew trickled in within minutes.

The place was ready for diners at 10 am - only an hour later than the usual weekend opening time - and all was as if nothing happened 15 hours before.  Amazing.

Today went smoothly and I was grateful to be cut loose at the assigned time.

I am truly spent from the past four  8 or 9-hour days and looking forward to a shorter day tomorrow and the day off on Tuesday.

Ah, but here's a catch.  I have just been asked to be on site tomorrow at 8:30 am to receive a designer who is preparing a new hood design for the kitchen. Oh what the hell, it's still an hour later than the past 4 days.  I think I can cope with that.

The cell phone is being turned off - - - now.

And so it goes.
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3 comments:

  1. I have no tolerance for humidity anymore; ugh.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are funny. I miss our occasional get togethers to trade war stories about the service industry.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Ron: Really! Refresh your memory by reading a few of your older posts about me. That may jog your memory.

    Your comments are welcome anytime, as long as they are appropriate.

    Thanks for the visit.

    ReplyDelete

Your comments are welcome if they are positive and/or helpful.
If they are simply a tirade or opinionated bullshit, they will be removed, so don't waste your time, or mine.

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