Dear Feastlings,
I’m all for the serenity prayer- you know, this one?
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
It’s a winner, wherever you stand politically or theologically, and I looked up Reinhold Niebuhr, who’s credited with the prayer- he’s an interesting sort, so I thought I’d share this with you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr
I bring it up because as things get busier, I’m finding myself sorting out what I can change and what I can’t, and what we can handle and what we can’t. Last night, we turned away a dozen and a half guests because we couldn’t seat them and still keep a comfortable distance between tables, and we had to turn down a pre-Thanksgiving catering for 150 people because we simply don’t have the staff to get it made, or at least get it made and have it be something we’re still proud to serve.
We’re still doing our very best to keep the level of quality of what we produce as high as we always have, but it does keep us remarkably near our breaking point. Fuses are short, and the grant we received has been a lifesaver, but you business owners and managerial types know the pain of turning away business, especially when you’re being jabbed with the two prongs of desperately needing that business and knowing that if times were normal, you’d have been able to take it on without a second thought. So I offer up this next link with a caveat: if we get maxed out, we get maxed out. A lot of you discovered our Thanksgiving carryout for the first time last year, and our requests are up, which is fantastic. Sort of. It also all but guarantees that, given our current staffing situation, we’ll be struggling to hold it together as orders come in, and will almost assuredly have to disappoint some of you. So my advice to you is to call sooner- much sooner- than later, and let us explain to someone ELSE who’s angry and frustrated that we’re maxed out and can’t accommodate their Thanksgiving order. I’m already dreading how many times there’ll be a “let me talk to Doug” phone call, as if I have the power to create more turkey and trimmings. more staff to prepare it, and more time for them to do it. Fifteen years ago, I was still willing to come in at two in the morning to pull turkeys out of the ovens and put new ones in; I no longer have that in me. Not that I’d prefer to endure the phone calls I’ll undoubtedly get, but I’ve been burning the candle at both end, and in the middle, for twenty months now.
I love you dearly, and I appreciate you, but you’ll have to have the serenity to accept the things I cannot handle. Not that the phone calls will be coming form anyone who reads this, but maybe I can forward it to them after they hang up on me. So again, I’d suggest you get cracking if you want us to take care of the heavy lifting on Thanksgiving. Here’s the menu:
If you’re a type A personality and it’s already done, good for you. And thanks.
As to using the serenity prayer that figures so heavily into AA to kick off an email asking you to sign up for today’s wine tasting
or grab some of the dozen seats left at the wine dinner with our buddy Kent Callaghan next Wednesday,
I’m aware of the irony and I apologize to those of you who don’t or can’t indulge, but my shortcomings grow more pronounced as I continue to work as much as I have and sleep as little as I have.
I hope to be plenty rested and camera-ready come November 16th, however, when we help Child & Family Resources with a fundraiser/ awarenessraiser that’ll help you figure out your Thanksgiving table, and that one, despite the in-person wine tasting and wine dinner, will be entirely remote, complete with authentic kitchen background noise as I show you how we’re making some of our Thanksgiving sides and sweets.
https://www.childfamilyresources.org/feast
And I’ll wrap it up here so we can get what phone calls we can before we’re knee-deep in the wine tasting today, the one for which you’ve been patiently reading through this email just to get this little snippet of login information, those of you who’ll be joining us remotely:
Doug Levy is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Thanksgiving whites
Time: Nov 6, 2021 02:00 PM Arizona
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87078832878?pwd=cElkais1TkZydUdtclJlcWcrbnR2QT09
Meeting ID: 870 7883 2878
Passcode: 287175
Thanks, everyone.
Doug