Is it my imagination

Or do the weeks keep getting longer? On the advice of a friend, I wanted to be a little more personal with my blog, so every once in a while, I'll just talk about me.

Today is Wednesday, but for all the world it feels like I'm on day 6 of the week. The heat here in the Midwest was relieved for a couple of days in the past month, but it's been over 100 degrees for the rest of the summer. On top of that, it's been a madhouse at work, getting ready for our up-coming show, working private and special events and doing our darnedest to keep up customer morale.

I suppose I should explain the last part of that statement. The restaurant I work at, as I've mentioned before, caters to our city and state employees. As I've said before, too, we see them every day--sometimes multiple times each day. I see it as part of our goal at the store to improve their moods. If one of them is having a crappy day when he or she walks in, I can almost always guarantee they will have a smile when they leave. Right now, it is super tough. The drought we are in has not only affected the obvious things like cattle and crops, but the employees that work for the Department of Agriculture. Not a day goes by that someone isn't beat to he** because he had the task of spending the day on the phone with a cattle farmer or a corn farmer, imploring that employee to perform some super secret DoA rain dance to produce the moisture needed for both to survive. I can only imagine how thoroughly depressing it must be to have to tell those people whose lives depend on the prosperity of their respective crops, that the end is not in sight, that they will have no choice but to take a loss this year and start from scratch next year.

In a way, though, I'm lucky. I have the opportunity to hear this information and plan in advance for my restaurant. What the drought means for me is beef prices will be down for a short time as ranchers slaughter their cows and sell while they can. What it also means is that come spring, beef will be off the menu. It means I can start planning now on how to bring in the extra business necessary to make up the coming shortfall caused by inflated prices that cannot be passed on directly to my customers.

For all I learned in school about cooking, there was never a class called, "How to Succeed on Almost Nothing", nor was there a course titled, "What to do when the Economy Tanks and People can't Afford to Eat at your Restaurant". So far, *knock wood*, we've been extremely lucky. Our low employee turnover rate means each of us develops a strong, personal relationship with the customers that keeps them coming back and trusting us, day after day, year after year.

I guess, in the end, this post wasn't really all about me, but there's a lot of me in it, so that counts. :)