Accounting for Lost Days

Posts have been limited these past two weeks. Server changes have caused inactivity for many of those days. Long and busy work days, spending time with friends, and a head and chest cold reinforce the remaining hiatus. All is well now and if you’ve bookmarked this site, that won’t work any longer. You have to actually type in the url (www.gypsylarry.com). Once you get to the site, you can then again bookmark the new one. This is due to the server being moved. More techy stuff to involved to explained. A three day vacation from work is a much needed rest as the days have been long. The work is not necessarily difficult. Let me explain. We leave at 8 a.m. as the traffic on the Phoenix beltway is jam-packed. My day begins at the stadium at 9.  A meeting with the regional manager and my three compadres prepares us for the days attendance, expectations, what product is short, inventory controls, and any other necessary information.  Following that, I turn on all equipment in each kitchen that I’m responsible for. My area includes the main gates behind home plate to the end of the right field concourse. That includes two portable beer stands, two large concession stands, two large tents aptly named the Corona Cantina and the “Big A”, ending with another portable of Angelo’s Italian Ice and Gelato. By the time all equipment is up and running, the stand managers are reporting and I’m reviewing their morning inventory with them. Each cup of six different varieties, paper boats, individual candies, hot dogs, brats, polish sausages, nacho trays, yadda, yadda, yadda, must be counted and recorded. This then must be verified against ending counts as there are no cash registers to “Z out”. All sales are counted by the number of inventory remaining and the end of the afternoon. This count is done all over again at the end of each game. By this time it’s near 11:15 and I make sure all thirty-five of my employees eat their lunch. This has to be done prior to 11:30 when the gates open and the public enters. The throng of eaters comes in an hour and a half before the National Anthem. By the first pitch the concourse is so packed with people that a walk from right field to left takes a considerable amount of time. Games lately have been standing room only with the left field lawn being so packed with sun bathers that the grass is blocked by a myriad of blanket patches. As the game progresses I check my areas every fifteen minutes to see if they are in need of any product. If so, I radio a “runner” who quickly gets to the warehouse for kegs, CO2 cylinders, hamburgs, cases of M&M’s or…. well, you get the message. I then write receipts and weave my way to the office to have them printed and verified at game’s end. However, I want to make note that during all of this talking and walking, I do get to view the game. It’s quite an enjoyable position, just time consuming. The games usually end by 4:30 and then the inventory counting starts all over again. If they don’t jive with the office’s account, I then have to accompany each stand lead back to their area to begin again counting every item. Therein lies the consummation of time. Invariably, each of my “leads” has an accounting problem and I have to review the process with each one of them. It’s always just a small inaccuracy in their counting. This process usually culminates by 6 p.m. and we’re on our way back home by 7 and my day is done. However, Robin is a bit more tired than I as she is a stand lead. This means she actually has to work, wait on people, order product, account for inventory, listen to the complaints of 11 workers and numerous customers and then count several thousand dollars at the end of each game. Somehow I lucked out again, getting the long end of the stick. But the interaction with new and interesting people more than make up for any negatives. Only seven more games to season’s end and we’ll be complaining how “neat” this job was when we start the trek back East.