A few more moments stolen from the always full-to-brimming schedule. At some point, you just can’t care about that anymore. You have to say "enough." Make relaxation a priority, rather than letting it be the thing you do when everything else is done. Because everything else will never be done.

Right now, I’m sitting in my "al fresco" seating at the café. It’s quarter to seven, and it’s obvious that there won’t be more than about twenty minutes of workable light left in this day..and we don’t have lighting for our sidewalk seating. Mostly because once it’s too dark to sit outside, it’s also generally too wet. But, after a week of near-winter conditions, we’ve broken out in Indian Summer around here, and it must be almost eighty degrees at the moment. Lovely evening to sit on the sidewalk, watch the late-evening commuters chug past, and clickety-clack away. I should rush home, feed the herd, and take the dog for a walk and a frisbee throw while there’s still light enough for it. But fukkit. She’ll have to wait until tomorrow. Or chase frisbee in the dark. Which she is perfectly capable of doing, by the way.

Once again, business has been scary slow…but I’m told by both my wine rep and my provisions salesman that this is normal for this time of year. That everyone has pretty much shot their wad getting the kids back into school, so all restaurants are feeling the pinch. I’m content to take their word for it. But we need to get butts in the seats around here pretty soon, or I’m going to be using up that "safety net" of funds I left sitting in the bank way sooner than I planned.

I have, in fact, spent most of the day staring at the computer screen. At this point, it beats the hell out of spending the entire day in front of the stove and grill. Almost seemed like a vacation. I formatted a fresh version of our menu, with which I am inordinately pleased. Didn’t get rid of anywhere near the amount of dead weight that I wanted to, but these things have to be done delicately. Every single thing on the menu has one or two regulars that come in just for that… And, honestly, right now I can’t afford to chase off anyone. So I’ll bide my time and make mental notes of what needs to go, and drop them off slowly, one by one. It is to be hoped that by this time next year, we will have a menu that is lean, mean, and speaks more of me than of the former ownership.

*****Big sigh****** I’ve changed my mind about turning in my "entrepreneur" credentials. Two and a half glasses of wine, a lovely evening, and a day spent working on things the owner of a business should be working on have served to improve my outlook about 1000%. Don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but at this particular moment…life is decent.