The day-to-day experiences of my life change in many ways every summer when I start this job. There are about 25 hours between when I am writing this and the time that I will open the doors of 42 S Washington St for the third summer of Tropical Sno Hinsdale. I also have 3 to 4 days worth of work to do before opening tomorrow, so to say that we are in good shape is a total lie.
This week has been spent completing all of the countless odd jobs that go into running this business and this year that list included building a counter - a task we spent way too much time trying to decipher. As I spent the week transforming the former spice store into the new home of Tropical Sno, hordes of Hinsdale youth gathered at the front door and looked fully prepared to wait in that spot until opening day. Saturday morning I was thinking of what to recount from the week in a blog post: we had our fair share of downright stupid mistakes, but I had no idea what was in store for me that afternoon.
If you were in the area of the Hinsdale Library or the Fine Arts Fair Saturday around noon, the picture above may look familiar. This is our attempt to move a freezer. Top-heavy, massive, clumsy, loosely attached and poorly balanced. Saturday afternoon I had the unique experience of rolling a freezer several blocks through town, down a hill, through a gas station parking lot, across the tracks and then through Hinsdale's commercial area. We were met with questioning glances from passers-by along the way - and some of us felt it was more important to address said glances than focus on the 10,000 lbs freezer - but it wasn't until a car decided to play chicken against a runaway freezer that I realized the absurdity of the afternoon.
Nevertheless, we did deliver the freezer to Tropical Sno and the rest of the day was spent continuing the many preparations for opening day. And if only wishing made it possible to be set to open... I've just been informed that I have to go fix our banner for the fourth time in a week and I still have to the solve the mystery of how we are going to hang our menu. We still have a few decorations to get up and then we have to move out all the supplies used to set up so that we can begin serving everyone's favorite Hawaiian Shave Ice tomorrow at noon.
You'd think that the past two weeks of filling out forms and buying supplies and arranging the store and running errands and the bands of schoolchildren screaming for opening day would shock me into the mentality that Tropical Sno is back, but no. It wasn't until Saturday evening when I left the store REEKING OF SUGAR as I have many times in summers past that I thought to myself for the first time this year, "Oh my god... we're actually doing this again."
See you Monday.
