Spacetrawler, audio version For the blind or visually impaired, March 19, 2020.
Oy. Yesterday morning we suddenly found our upcoming house-sit was delayed (I think there’s a good chance it might be cancelled), and the person we’re subletting from coming home from a journey early. So it was a day of scramble, but we have a situation! Whoot! Can I sleep yet?
My one daughter’s boyfriend has his own three food trucks. He’s beside himself as the events for which he was contracted, and bought food for, have been cancelled by the governor. Unlike bars and booze, he cannot return perishable food so he’s not only looking at no income, he is going into debt for non-returnable food.
While the state has set up a claim number for unemployment for all who are laid off due to the governor’s orders, the self-employed are finding it harder to claim and that has not been straightened out yet.
Weddings have been cancelled and no events where more than 10 people gather are allowed. Barbershops and beauty parlors all closed. People who paid for vacations are trying to get their money back. Messed up all around.
However, on the bright side I bet they are howling in two part harmony. Like the Everly Brothers.
He might not be able to sell those kinds of amounts, but I’m guessing he has looked into delivering food? Considering the current situation, I would think there’s a larger demand for food deliveries.
Where I am, restaurants and bars are closed, but can deliver food. My local pub will deliver pub fare. I will take advantage of it.
His business is cooking on contract on the spot for events. He does not have a permit for cooking and serving “on the street” as it were. He is not a grocer and cannot legally resell uncooked food ingredients. He has nowhere to set up his trucks, either, as he requires a permit and city hall is not granting permits for any kind of events or gatherings. He can’t just set one up on the street and besides, nobody’s on the streets. No outdoor events, no indoor events. He can set up his trucks and cook outdoors and serve indoors but there are no events allowed right now. Even churches cannot have “after funeral” receptions with food, whether cooked by him or by the family as potluck. Weddings are limited to ten people or less. He cannot cook on the street and hope to sell to passersby as there are none and if they line up, the police will break it up. Since he is not a known street food truck service, nobody knows how to order from him. If he was “Larry’s Fish Tacos” who was known for serving food at fairs and such retail, he may be able to use Door Dash or something to deliver. Right now it’s like a catering service, which is what he really is, who has no events to cater.
He’s thinking about cooking the food up and donating it to shelters and trying to claim it on taxes, but we’ll see.
Consider setting up a pop up restaurant and advertize it online on local forums. eg: the city Craigslist, the city sub-reddit. He can also call the local hospital and see if the staff working the long hours want to put in a group order.
DoorDash/GrubHub is totally doable. Just list the address of the location where the trucks are parked. If the trucks are in a wierd location, he can park them at his residence and list that as his restaurant address.
A restaurant near me ended up selling off their ingredients. Something like that might work for him?
I wonder if he can offer an online cooking class and include the food as class supplies.
here in Jackson mississippi impromptu ‘farmers’ markets have been opened by restaurants and fresh produce restaurant suppliers. the announce it on facebook for a certain time to sell the veg to the public. one restaurant even used 60% of the proceeds for its staff, after the staff shopped the produce first.
I hope the medical bay is soundproof.
Wonderfully goofy coyote art! Yipyipyippity yip!
Reminds me of something that struck me about the movie “2001” when my brain had finally grown up enough to appreciate it — the repeated depictions of humans being as banal as possible amid what I would think of as scenes of wonder: Passengers on the moon shuttle watching a televised sports event on a screen set between two outward-facing viewports, passengers on the moon bus rummaging through a lunchbox while the lunar scenery unfolds outside the window (“Chicken, chicken … got any ham?” “Ham ham ham”) and, well, the Discovery astronauts outbound. Seemed to me to be saying the human capacity to fall into routine no matter what the setting is, as the movie said in another context, “beyond the infinite.”
After Apollo 11 not many cared about the Moon rockets, until Apollo 13. After that it was back to “Meh. What else you got?”.
Very funny.
I’ve felt like that all week — wish I had a coyote to howl with!
War Pig, your daughter’s boyfriend’s only option here may be to donate the unused food to a food bank (the Capuchin monks run a kitchen in my area) and write it off as a tax loss for next year. I hope he has his receipts; this is something that’s going to get IRS attention. And may make them howl like coyotes, too, but them’s the breaks.
We like all life designed by Nature to adapt. That is the part of adapting. Seen it often? No need to treat it like it was new to you.
Driving was a fantastic innovation at one time. Now every day. Same with lighter-than-air and later with heavier-than-air flight etc.
PTSD is so bad because the mind refuses to get over it so the trauma which happens again and again in mental replay and the experience is treated by the body as brand new each time. Even though the real experience is long passed.
Certainly a funny picture of a girl and a coyote howling while wired on coffee while in a space ship with no moon out.