Jan 28 - Feb 3

Hell, the definition of which is, “a place regarded in various religions as a  spiritual realm of evil and suffering where the wicked are punished by fire”, and apparently I must be evil.  

I have a son in the autistic spectrum. This means when he needs something done or wants something done he will request or demand it until it is done. In this case he wanted to pair (connect) his GoPro with his iPhone, I don’t even know what a GoPro is. Now things will start reasonably but when it becomes apparent that I have no idea what I am doing then things go to the next level. As I have said in the past, emotions continue to escalate until the problem is solved, but I have no idea why this thing is not pairing, so things are getting desperate. During situations like this I usually come up with a distraction like “OMG a meteor just hit the chicken coop”, but today I had nothing. In a moment of panic, I threw myself on the floor and started throwing a tantrum. My son was bewildered long enough for me to change the subject.

If fire is all God’s got, then I am not worried.

Jan 21 - 27

I cannot seem to understand how all my employees stayed with me through all our ordeal of rebuilding after the fire, and yet my animals seem to leave me in droves. It seems natural that the dogs want to run, but today I got a text from a neighbor that my chickens took off. I mean, who loses chickens? The worst part is I got my neighbors mixed up. I have a code word for all my neighbors and it seems I got the "Drone Guy" mixed up with the "Goat guy".  So to corral my chickens I brought reinforcements (my daughter Taylor and her friend) and drove five minutes only to have the "Drone guy" look at me like I was a mad man. I eventually realized that it was the "Goat guy" and he was only fifty feet away, which makes sense. It appears the stress of the rebuild has clouded my judgment and I can no longer tell the difference between a drone and a goat. Please don’t let my employees in on all of this. They seem to act like I am still on top of things.

I want to thank all the people who have brought flowers and gifts and booze (especially booze) to all of us for the opening. I just found a card that was sitting on a ledge from a very nice couple that wrote a very touching note, that made my day. I am just lucky to be surrounded by all these wonderful people. Thanks to all of you again.

Jan 14 - 20

Right now I am kind of in the dog house at home, literally. My dogs keep running away when I am at work. The neighbors all text me and then I plead with my wife to go get them. My dogs have very long white hair and by the time they are found they have gone through at least one muddy pond and as my wife says they have this very special aroma about them. My wife usually drives to the house that contacts me and then she puts them in her car and takes them home. She complains about the smell and the mud and all the other things that go with dirty dogs. If I could somehow find about twenty boxes of Girl Scout cookies right now, I think she might let me back in the house.

Now after all these months of complaining about the restaurant not being open, now I am going to complain about all the work that goes with the restaurant being open, but I will take this anytime over the other. Last week KCRA channel 3 came to report on our re-opening. If you missed it, here is a link to see it online: 

https://www.kcra.com/article/sacramento-county-diner-reopens-after-fire/25770643

Jan 7 - 13

I once wrote about the word “perseverate” and I am bringing it up again, because my son got some money for Christmas and he wants to spend it on a skateboard. Trying to reason with him is pointless. He will bring it up over and over and over until you have exhausted any possible supply of alcohol you could have stashed away. So, I try to at least reason with him. I try to explain to him that a 22-inch skateboard will not work for anyone who is 6ft 5 inches tall. He proceeds to show me the picture of the skateboard and how large the picture is and I try to explain that his two feet are at least 26 inches long and so they won’t fit on a 22-inch skateboard. I will probably let it go and just increase our medical coverage.

OK, so after what seems like an entire decade we have finally reopened Flapjacks. Thank you so much to everyone for your support. We had a good few days and maybe in a month or so I will finally find where they keep the cranberry juice, so if you see me please just ask for the basics. Water, coffee and a menu, those are things I can handle.  It is just so WONDERFUL and thank you all again.