Retirement... Not

hindsight

Last autumn we were short on staff at Bethany’s Table. It was a tough time. We lunged and stumbled for two months trying futilely to hire a cook and a server. What might it had been like if we were trying to staff a new restaurant with 35 fresh employees? Toward the end of our attempt to open The Table I would often find myself talking to customers about it, telling them I felt like I was pushing a large boulder up a hill while my angel was on the uphill side, pushing back. My angel was right. For this and other reasons I am so glad that we came up short… 

simple_gifts

So I continued with my tableside storytelling after the fact. In doing so I made a serious mistake: I should have made sure that Janet was out of earshot. In one story I would report on the lesson learned, which was, “Come down where you are.” We had an imagination for opening a few restaurants in the next four or five years; building a business that we could sell and possibly then move on toward Janet’s fantasy of opening a restaurant in Southern France, perhaps Monaco. More realistically, I was simply hoping to make enough money that I could afford to get old. Once that option was off the table (so to speak) I realized that my concern about funding retirement was ill founded. After all, Janet is eleven years younger than me, extremely talented and works like a dog. Then I’d say – and here is my mistake, as Janet overheard – I’m just going to ride that mule ‘til she drops! That didn’t go over so well, but we survived it. It was when Janet overheard me telling some guests that I was semi-retired that the pressure really mounted.

grumpy old man

As you may recall, we underestimated the budget to open The Table. Then, when we started to work on expanding Bethany’s Table into the yogurt shop next door, which would give us the room necessary to build a full bar and space for group dining and special events, I decided it was best to drill down on the cost estimate while sober. The realistic budget added up to quite a bit more than the number I had been bandying about. Déjà vu. We do have a source of funds but the payback period is only two years. This fact loops back to my declarative statement about retirement. Janet is making me get a job. Is anybody out there looking for a somewhat forgetful, bossy old guy? I’d be willing to make a two-year commitment!