{"id":2111,"date":"2011-12-07T00:22:18","date_gmt":"2011-12-07T00:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/?p=2111"},"modified":"2011-12-07T00:22:18","modified_gmt":"2011-12-07T00:22:18","slug":"small-business-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/small-business-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Tracey O\u2019Grady in a blurry picture. Photo Socotra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNice Christmas card,\u201d I said, as I walked into Willow and saw Old Jim as his customary position at the apex of the Amen Corner. I was surprised to see his lovely wife Mary with him. She normally joins the barflies as a work in progress in her downtown grown-up suit. This evening she was in jeans and a festive crimson top.<\/p>\n

I looked in vain for a place to sit down. A big crowd of Fish and Wildlife Service folks were Occupying the small tables across the aisle from the bar. They had built no impromptu structures in Willow\u2019s lounge. They are nice folks, but in order to accommodate their number, they had appropriated all the stools from the bar.<\/p>\n

My phone went off, and I took a late business call from an eager beaver looking for SCIF space to pitch in a government proposal, and I tried to remember what the status of the rented secure space out in Fairfax. As the government contracting business teeters in the balance with the budget uncertainty, we are all looking for opportunities wherever we can find them.<\/p>\n

I heard in the course of the day that Boeing, Lockheed and Northrop-Grumman had started laying people off, and it was a chill wind on the back of the neck that had nothing whatsoever to do with the coming winter.<\/p>\n

When I got back inside a stool had miraculously appeared in my customary place at the bar, and Katya, her dark Byelorussian eyes smoldering, was pouring me a glass of happy hour white. I smiled and tried to put the business day behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat freaking card,\u201d I said, and Mary beamed. \u201cBut don\u2019t take it personally, I don\u2019t think I am going to do cards this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, don\u2019t worry about that,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is the first time we have done Christmas Cards in thirty years. We just couldn\u2019t resist that picture of Jim my sister took in Canada last summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is priceless,\u201d I said. \u201cThe bulldog head on Jim\u2019s cane is a dead ringer for him. Fabulous picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBah, Humbug,\u201d said Jim with a scowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that was the perfect caption for the picture. Bah!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHumbug!\u201d he responded, and took a sip of his Budweiser long-neck. \u201cHe gestured at some Millennials seated in the conversation nook. Those assholes have been sitting over there drinking tea for two hours. That is why the Fishheads are camped out over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know you would give them the boot, if this was your bar. But Willow is nice to their customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToo nice,\u201d he growled.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo what do we owe the honor of your presence Mary? You normally don\u2019t get here until later.\u201d<\/p>\n

She laughed. \u201cI had to take the dog in for shots, and I was planning on going into the office at noon. Then I decided that I would just play hooky today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBless you. \u2018Tis the season,\u201d I said. \u201cI confess I am down a quart on Christmas Cheer this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy pal Judy is coming by later, so we are just going to have a day off- sort of an extra three-day holiday on the eve of the holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNice,\u201d I said. \u201cI feel like I have been ridden hard and put away wet. That trip to Michigan about finished me off, and I don\u2019t know when I have to go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNice card,\u201d said Tracy O\u2019Grady, Willow\u2019s proprietor extraordinaire. She appeared across he bar, and like Robert the chef, she likes to make a pass through the bar before things really get rolling in the kitchen. Her luxuriant ginger hair was pulled back in a pony-tail and she wore a turtleneck Irish fisherman\u2019s sweater that set off her peaches-and-cream complexion nicely. \u201cIt really was perfect. I posted it back in the kitchen so all the staff could see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tracy did not seem to be in much of a hurry to get to work, and I noticed her eyes looked fatigued. \u201cYou look tired, Tracy,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

She shrugged. \u201cIt is going to be busy until after New Year\u2019s, and Restaurant Week comes early this year. That will be on the 9th, and then it is Valentine\u2019s Day and then Saint Patrick\u2019s Day. We don\u2019t get a break, and frankly it is pretty brutal this time of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard you served 250 Thanksgiving dinners,\u201d said Jim.<\/p>\n

\u201cYep. And then right into the Christmas season. Two days off a week doesn\u2019t make it, plus there is all the book work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho does that?\u201d I asked. \u201cDo you have a business manager?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tracy shook her head. \u201cI do it all. I have a book-keeper, of course, but I have to keep everything straight and do all the reporting to the County and pay the taxes and all that. It is a real snarl.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many people does Willow employ?\u201d I asked. \u201cYou are exactly the engine of employment that everyone keeps blathering about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have fifty on the books,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd what a nightmare. When one of the waiters gets parking tickets the County comes to me. I think they ought to do their own jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd child support and all that, I imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim snorted. \u201cEveryone is a little short these days. The restaurant business is a tough one. I saw a column by George Will about how hard it is to stay in business. He wrote about Carl\u2019s Junior, the hamburger chain out west. It started with a guy who bought a hot-dog cart and put it across the street from the Goodyear Plant when he saw the number of war workers. He got hassled almost immediately when the city insisted he had to have restrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA hot dog cart with restrooms? That would put all those people out of business downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCarl cut a deal with a gas station. That was bad enough, but Will claims that there are 57 categories of regulations that apply to the restaurant business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat seems about right, said Tracy. \u201cIt is bewildering. All I wanted to do was cook great food and run a fun little place. I learned the business the way it used to be, and I barely figured that our before everything changed. I have no idea how it all works now and I have been doing this all my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do that very well,\u201d I said, taking a sip of happy hour white.<\/p>\n

Jim said: \u201cThe upshot was that Carl\u2019s is no longer building outlets in California, but are going to open a hundred in Texas next year. They employ like 70,000 employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, but who wants to be in Texas?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot me,\u201d said Tracy, and turned to walk back to the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Judy walked into the bar and sat down next to Mary around the corner. \u201cDid I miss anything?\u201d she asked brightly. \u201cNice card, by the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou haven\u2019t missed anything yet,\u201d said Jim. \u201cBut I haven\u2019t thrown those jerks out of the conversation nook.\u201d He finished his current beer and signaled Katya for another. \u201cNot yet, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t make any more trouble for Tracy,\u201d I said. \u201cSounds like this is hard enough as it is. She has got fifty people to take care of. Small business takes big energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you hear about the latest from those loons at the conference at Durban?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, now what?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Revolutionary Government of Libya has a scheme to solve all the world\u2019s problems. They sent six delegates to the climate conference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, along with South Sudan, that makes 200 nations with interests in the climate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, they have an interest, all right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are oil exporters. Why would they want to go green? What are they up to?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are suggesting a monster geo-engineering project that would not just cool the Earth by 6 degrees centigrade, but it would cut carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2021. It would reverse global warming, provide power for two billion people, lower sea levels and restore the climate of 1750.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSounds like the dinner that cooks itself while you drive home from the office. Or the Popeil Pocket Fisherman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNah,\u201d said Jim. \u201cThey say they want to build a few dozen eight-mile wide venting towers to create constant winds in the desert to drive massive windfarms which in turn would electrify the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAwesome,\u201d I said. \u201cWhat a great idea. Any idea what this would cost?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim took a deep draught of beer and brought the bottle down on the Willow napkin with a thud. \u201cThey figure they can squeak by with $45 Trillion. That is the \u201cT\u201d number.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHoly smokes,\u201d I said.
\n\u201cThey figure that by 2080 the climate will be back to the way it was in 1750.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is amazing,\u201d I said. \u201cBut what was the weather like that year?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucked in England, and that is the only place they know about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just can\u2019t get value for a few trillion dollars anymore, You know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBah, Humbug, said Jim, and finished his Bud with a grin.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n<\/a>Copyright 2011 Vic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: I checked when I got home. The British climate of 1750 was described by Horace Walpole, Member of Parliament, who wrote: “[The year] opened with most unseasonable weather, the heat being beyond what was ever known in any other country”. Severe earthquakes and widespread flooding followed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \u201cNice Christmas card,\u201d I said, as I walked into Willow and saw Old Jim as his customary position at the apex of the Amen Corner. I was surprised to see his lovely wife Mary with him. She normally joins the barflies as a work in progress in her downtown grown-up suit. This evening she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2111"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2115,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2111\/revisions\/2115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}