On the eve of opening the winery for the release of our 2008 white wines.
This morning, I needed to get a wine delivery to one of our grocery store customers before 10 a.m. Well, needless to say, I got stuck behind THREE separate farm vehicles creeping along the highway next to a double yellow line at about 3 mph. Got there exactly at 10, and was paid with a Western Union money order... which I promptly managed to lose somewhere in the store. Went to the front desk, and put the manager through phone hell as she tried to connect to a person to void the money order and reissue another one. I went through the store one more time, and found the original slapped up against a tray of sirloin steaks in the meat department. Joyfully brought it back to the counter, and was too late, she'd already cancelled it.
Meanwhile back at the winery, Mr. Last Minute, Ron Barrett, had concrete poured this week. The job was not up to par. There are still piles of dirt and branches around the winery, which were supposed to be taken care of yesterday, no sign of the contractor. He had concrete poured so he could get a ductless air conditioning system installed. It's 12.30, it's still not working, the installer had to drive home for 2 hours to get a missing part. And we can't put the window air conditioner in, in case of emergency, because where we would put the ladder now has part of the ductless unit installed. And on top of this, the garage door broke. When I left a few minutes ago, Ron was hammering holes into the door to get in there to open it up... which I need, because much of my tasting room collateral is in that building.
SO YOU ALL THINK IT'S GLAMOROUS TO HAVE A VINEYARD AND A WINERY! THINK AGAIN! I'll probably be up until midnight getting things set up. Aarrgghh!
Nancy
Your stressed wine blogger
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