I got up today and told myself I was going to stop being a slacker and get into work today. Paul told me there have been reports of semi trucks being blown over on the freeway due to high winds up north and to drive safe. I looked out the window and it was calm. Not sure what he was talking about so off I went.
On the freeway, all was well until I was downtown and the winds started picking up. Maybe the news wasn’t exaggerating. I thought about turning around, but I was going to be good and go to work today! After wood chunks flew across the freeway in front of me, I called Paul and said I was a pansy and decided risking car damage wasn’t worth it. What is another day of not going into work 🙂
I exited the freeway and got off downtown. Every street I turned down looked like this.
Trees were down everywhere.
There is a car under this tree. You can see the tail light 🙂
An hour later I mad it home. As I pulled into my driveway, my employee called and said the power just went out. No worries, I said, and gave her instructions on how to handle a power outage. 10 minutes later she called and told me the high winds pushed a barrel across the parking lot and into our glass door.
Great. I turned around, drove to my parents to pick them up so we could repair the door. I can’t leave the store unsecure.
Out of the 10 years of owning stores, this is the second door repair we had to do.
The first door repair was a breakin at 2:00am. That was a fun repair. Do you know how many lumber stores are open at that hour? None. Reminiscing that night, good times.
Here is the barrel that caused the problem.
Cutting our new door. Yes, that is a power saw. Paul had an excellent idea to bring the generator. 🙂
See. We have done this before.
After the door was secured, we took temps of the fridge and freezer. They were still holding strong and haven’t changed temps for the last 3 hours so we took off and headed home.
Just before we left, we heard a large crash and the KFC sign next door was coming apart in the high winds. I prayed for the sign to fly past our store and not hit the windows in the front of our store. I don’t want to repair, or pay for, another window today. We were extremely lucky. I watched the sign fly across the street and it the McDonalds pole.
Later that night the power was still out. Not knowing when the power would turn on we couldn’t risk losing the freezer or the fridge. $2000 in food was at risk. We drove back up to unload.
Eli helped!
Loading up!
A truck and car full!
The Subway down the street was absolutely wonderful! They made room in their fridge and freezer for us. They totally saved us! I offered them a free footlong like I always offer for payment, but they said they had that covered . Ha!
It’s true. I pay my window washer in sandwiches. 🙂
The next morning our power was on. We rushed up to transfer our food back to our store. We were running pretty fast because we had several trips of loading up and dropping off food ahead of us. I was also racing against time. I had a lunch rush to prepare for and fulfill a giant catering order that I look about an hour ago. I need to make up for lost sales from yesterday!
I don’t know how much a case of bread weighs, but they are not light. Especially after throwing 15 cases I was getting tired. I was throwing them as fast as I could and I hit my head on the lock of the freezer. Brought tears to my eyes. No time to look at the wound. Had to keep going! 🙂
I couldn’t have done today without my parents! I had them prepping and baking, running to the bank, and doing a will call. As soon as my mother had bread in the proofer, I was putting premature bread in the oven. We had a line out the door for 3 hours. I couldn’t keep up with the bread. With other businesses around us being out of power we had a fantastic day! We double our sales, which made up for yesterday. So blessed.
My mother had to leave early so my dad stayed and helped me finish out the lunch rush and into the evening. Without a car we had to take the train home. It was kind of fun. This was the first time I have been on the front runner.
On the train home. I can’t thank my parents enough for all they do for me!