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Tomorrow sees us off on a twelve-day catering junket in the Sierra. Things are almost together. I hate to say "almost" because that generally means "not nearly as well as you think". Nevertheless, all the food is accounted for and out in sight, the equipment list is put together, and the tie-down rails are getting bolted into the van right now. All I have to do is throw everything in the van.
The reason I have a nervous breakdown over organization is that when you really put the list together, it's very large. Combining the number of ingredients in all preparations, the tasks to perform, and the equipment to bring, the whole list is well over a thousand items. And that's for the Guards run alone, Badger will take another list, and we'll be re-stocking en route. On the plus side, when you have a really good checklist, and you know how long it will take, the work is utterly relaxing - just march down the list. That's the easy part. I think we're listed-up enough for a low-anxiety week now, or at least I hope so. I want to spend a LOT of time partying.
A major focus this year is "making good use of volunteers". I tend to get caught up in things and get all anxious about taking the 2-3 minutes of thought it takes to get a volunteer going. This is plain stupidity. I have a native reluctance to tell people what to do, but being an actual chef means ordering people around. I think I have an idea of how to do this now.
One item was forgotten: garlic. Classic error: I was in the produce section, picked up some garlic, crossed it off, and realized: no, I must get peeled garlic. So I put the garlic back and put a circle next to the crossed-off item. This was then overlooked. Only one thing out of a thousand, but can you imagine being without it? It would be like the sun forgetting to rise in the morning. It turns out that a lot of things are like this.
Do not yield a single drop in the ocean of merit; even a mountain of good karma can be augmented by a single particle of dust.
The reason I have a nervous breakdown over organization is that when you really put the list together, it's very large. Combining the number of ingredients in all preparations, the tasks to perform, and the equipment to bring, the whole list is well over a thousand items. And that's for the Guards run alone, Badger will take another list, and we'll be re-stocking en route. On the plus side, when you have a really good checklist, and you know how long it will take, the work is utterly relaxing - just march down the list. That's the easy part. I think we're listed-up enough for a low-anxiety week now, or at least I hope so. I want to spend a LOT of time partying.
A major focus this year is "making good use of volunteers". I tend to get caught up in things and get all anxious about taking the 2-3 minutes of thought it takes to get a volunteer going. This is plain stupidity. I have a native reluctance to tell people what to do, but being an actual chef means ordering people around. I think I have an idea of how to do this now.
One item was forgotten: garlic. Classic error: I was in the produce section, picked up some garlic, crossed it off, and realized: no, I must get peeled garlic. So I put the garlic back and put a circle next to the crossed-off item. This was then overlooked. Only one thing out of a thousand, but can you imagine being without it? It would be like the sun forgetting to rise in the morning. It turns out that a lot of things are like this.
Do not yield a single drop in the ocean of merit; even a mountain of good karma can be augmented by a single particle of dust.
