Rained Out

My flu is gone. I triumphantly returned to work at the cart yesterday, only to have rain cut my shift drastically short. Our Dogmatic cart has a metal shelf right over our prep area, a “tin roof” that creates shade on sunny days and protection from raindrops on crummy days. So we were fairly dry in the rain, but business was abysmal. We figured it was a lost cause, and we shut down around four.

Shutting down the cart is a pain in any case—it’s not hard, but it is dirty work that involves a lot of wiping down rough-edged metal surfaces and exposing the delicate skin of one’s face to flying droplets of grease and crud. Yesterday it was wet work, too. We shut the cart down in record time.

So, because of my flu and the rain, I have worked a grand total of 4 hours this week. Fortunately darling husband has a real job, and can be counted on to bring the bacon home. Apparently I can’t even be counted on to bring the sausage home.

Most street vendors are not so lucky. Your cart is your life. A week with several cold, wet, slow days can make the difference between paying bills timely or late. And if you have the flu, well—either the cart is open or it’s closed, huh? I slept my flu off, but I know at least a percentage of mobile food vendors would have spent it boxed in a roach coach, where they’d perhaps puke discreetly into a small trash bin in their cart. There are no sick days in the world of mobile food vending.

The Sausage Index: Zero. I have had no Dogmatic sausage in over…um…four days! Yesterday, during my pathetically dead shift, I did consume a small bit of baguette for training purposes. We have a new sauce, brie with white truffle oil, and I wanted to try it. Let's just say that sun-dried tomato feta is in no danger of being toppled from #1.