Stormy Weather Ruins an Evening.

Yesterday began with overcast skies
and a 60% chance of Thunder Bumpers by mid-day.  This news didn't deter the boss from opening the huge front doors to give the impression of outdoor dining.  I warned them, but that fell on deaf ears.

Overcast means fewer people venture to the beach in the morning and wait to see how the day unfolds.  It was to get worse; far worse.

We had a half hour wait-list by noontime and there was no rain.  The place was packed and suddenly at around 2 pm, thunder rolled, lightning flashed and torrents of rain sent the locosguys scrambling to close those damned front doors - crawling over customers nearby to get them closed before total chaos - the screaming had already begun.  I mean, people, you are at the beach, you're going to get wet anyway.

I've never seen those two move so fast and all was closed and dry within a few minutes. By the time the rain hit I had already served 150 customers and now more were spilling through the doors for shelter, food and drink.

Near the end of my shift there was a let-up of the wind and rain, so  I made a dash for home. I wouldn't have been very wet upon arrival if some Pennsylvania Prick hadn't gone out of his way to hit a deep puddle head on and drench me up to my shirt collar.

As I got closer to home the rain and wind kicked up again with more thunder and lightning; by this time I didn't care anymore.

After shedding my drenched work drag and taking a shower, I prepared a festive cocktail and set about prepping supper.  At about 5 PM I heard a loud POP and my lights flickered.  I didn't lose power.  I didn't know it at the time, but the restaurant went dark at that moment. The place was booked:  a sold out evening, but it wasn't to be. Calls and emails were sent to reservation holders telling them that without power there would be no restaurant, though they held on til 7:30, then decided it was best to shutdown.

Supper prep was done here, the food was cooking when, at 6:45  pm, my world was plunged into darkness.  Turned off, or unplugged the big appliances, grabbed the Kindle and went to bed.  No WiFi, but that didn't matter, the book I'm reading is saved on the Kindle, not the Cloud.

There seemed to be no let up in the many storms passing through.  It was after 9 when I chose to turn off the weather radio and turn in for the night.  No AC, so I opened the windows before turning in. Of course, no fans to circulate the air.  My evening meal was a tossed salad made prior to the lights going out.  Hey!  Better than nothing.

The power was restored around 10:30 pm, but I hardly noticed until the air became a bit cooler and woke me up. Closed the windows and went back to sleep.

Mind you, I had no idea of the dramatic happenings at the restaurant, so I walked to work as usual this morning to find hand-written signs "We are closed for the evening - there is no electrical power  -  we are sorry for the inconvenience." I set about my usual tasks but found more than a dozen circuit breakers that had been tripped.

There was a knock at the door and when I opened it 8 kitchen staff filed in.  They were told to get in early to fix any mess, get all the dishes washed, replenish supplies and prepare for a very long day.  They were fine.  I made coffee for everyone, which was deeply appreciated and went about my business taking care of my usual tasks before the waitstaff arrived.

When the locosguys made the scene they were upset that they lost about $15K yesterday, (we were totally booked for the night.)  but pleased that the outage and restoration had done no damage to the walk-ins and freezer.  That would have been a far worse nightmare and could have shut us down for days.

We related our individual stories and timeline of events and that was that.  We were off and running for this new day - which while being quite humid - we were all ready to tackle and make up for last night's disaster.

We did OK, it turned out to be a fine beach day, so we didn't begin to get busy until about 2 pm when folks came in from the beach and joined us for cocktails and late lunch.  Reservations cancelled last night were re-booked for tonight.  Aside from greeting and seating diners, the phone rang constantly with idiots asking if we would be open tonight.  Yes, I know.  The stoopid burns.

Thirty One Days til Labor Day...

And so it goes.