NOT A FAN OF SUMMER STORMS

I’ve been in a funk lately. And today is even worse. Ever since I drove to Atlanta and back in one day to take my CSW exam, I have been “burnt to a crisp.” I can’t seem to shake this raging apathy, and it would seem that I am in desperate need of a vacation. But taking a vacation from here means a whole host of other problems in dealing with work, my cats at home, my wife’s health issues, etc., etc. I know what you’re saying. “You’re just making excuses.” And you may be right, but it is still a hassle to just pick up and go somewhere (a vacation is not a vacation when you just close yourself up at your house – which is what I usually do).

Despite the overwhelming need to “take five,” I am pushing forward, unlike our elected officials, who, while the country is still F.U.B.A.R., they are headed for an August recess. Not like they can get anything done anyway, their minds so far out of touch with reality that it would take the invention of the Warp Drive, and perhaps a bit of time travel, to bring them back here where the rest of us reside.

I have a laundry list of things to do around the store each day: stock, order, check signs, post reviews, update Web site, look for special deals, talk to sales reps, talk to customers, talk to staff, re-merchandise shelves, work on presale items, research new press, research old press, make phone calls, come up with sale items for print ads, post to the blog, post wine Tweets, and on and on. It’s a never-ending chain of events that starts the beginning of each day and ends, and starts all over again.

I can bitch and moan, but in reality, I have a great job, and I am surrounded by great people. I do this job because I love it, and I have fun doing it. Burnout comes with the territory. It doesn’t really take much to get my head back in the game. Usually, it takes an ass-chewing by the boss, or a colossal blunder by the staff or myself, or a swift kick to the belly button by the Mrs.

I have been dealing lately with some wholesaler restructuring, which is proving to be difficult as far as keeping some brands in stock. Constellation Brands is transitioning into one wholesaler house, and with it comes a host of out-of-stock items. It is proof to me that these importers and brokers don’t really care about the consumers at all – they are in it for profit alone. I never understand that because if you truly want to be profitable, you need people to WANT to buy your product. And if you piss them off, why will they WANT to buy your product THEN?

I am in that rut where you think about your job too much. I was laying in bed last night, thinking about some Bordeaux wines I needed to clear out to make room for some 2006s that I am ordering today. Some products that have sat too long, and I should have pulled the trigger to clear out weeks or even months ago – wines that are still good, but I chose to sit on inventory instead of clearing it out. When there are a million and one things rolling around in a brain as pickled and bludgeoned as mine, you could wonder how any decisions get made at all.

I don’t know if you call this “malaise,” a “business melancholy” or just “a desperate need for some serious R&R” but just needed to purge a few things on this dark and stormy afternoon.

Tomorrow, we return to our regularly scheduled pandemonium.