June 16 - June 22, 2013 
June 16 - June 22, 2013  |
Wednesday June 19, 2013 We just got back from New Orleans. New Orleans is an endurance test.......How much fried food can one eat? I had soft shell crab 4 nights in a row. I thought my feet were ready for the French Quarter, but I forgot about the humidity. My bare feet kept sticking to the bottom of my sandals and thus rubbed to create a friction that caused irritation close to a blister. Of course the fast pace my two daughters kept did not help. According to my Fit Bit, I walked over 7 miles one day, throughout the French Quarter. I dislike air............I dislike water.............both occasionally, I have to live with................so I do tolerate them because I have to. Air brings many sounds, including birds and air planes. Boats i do not like, but i do tolerate. My problem is I have to be in control......... Now,........ Earth is my friend. When on solid ground I am steady most of the time and I am in control. More later 10:00 Pm: I hate planes because there are delays most of the time. I don't know much since this was my 3rd time since 1999 to fly on a plane. I hate planes because I have to stop drinking water. I do not want to pee. I refuse to get up and walk down a wobbling NOT Earth thing...... dart, heading off at 550 miles an hour at several miles high. My balance is not as good as it was in the past so I stop drinking water at 11pm the night before so I do not have to take the walk.....I do not drink anything until I get on the plane. I am fine in flight so I can have a coke. I hate planes because of a patdown. I have a knee replacement so I assume that is their reason. I tolerated a swamp tour in New Orleans but I do not like water vessels either, but at least they are on time. I hate Frontier Airlines........................................I dislike all airlines...........All of our Frontier Airlines flights were delayed except one. We flew off in San Francisco to Denver and then to New Orleans on the way back when we flew into Denver again, this time from New Orleans. It was announced we were ready to board in 10 minutes at 1:35 Pm on June 17. AND then at 1:45 we were told the plane we were scheduled to be on was just coming in for landing. There would be a delay. We had only a 40 minute lay over to catch our flight to San Francisco from Denver. I was not concerned because all our flights had been full so i assumed they wanted to get the next flight full AND all three of our flights before this had been delayed so this next flight would be late again. Boy was I wrong!!!!!!..........We got off the plane just on time, about a few minutes before the scheduled next flight to leave. But I was told the flight to San Francisco had taken off on time..........their statement:....... "We could not hold up the flight if it was ready to leave. (Our customers want our planes to take off on time)".....The flight was not full then because it had at least 30 of us stranded in Denver. It was the only flight that did not have all seats taken. We were to be into San Francisco at 6:00pm and now we had to fly off to Phoenix and then off to San Francisco to be home by 2:00Am. We were to take off at 10:35 from Phoenix but left at 11:37Pm. We were delayed again because of fog in San Francisco, but finally we got to bed at 3:15Am June 18. This was a delay of over 7 hours. I am still recovering. Frontier did not offer food or drink during the delay. I will not be flying Frontier again and if I do FLY again, I will always book a direct flight. Thursday June 20, 2013 9:30 Pm: These few days are the longest days of the year in this Northern hemisphere north of the equator. At 9:30 I can still see light and in Seattle it is still light. After today the days in Seattle will start getting shorter and we will catch up on September 21..........All of us will be 12 hours light and 12 hours dark, just like the equator all year long..... I like the seasons, cold and hot........... Friday June 21, 2013 9:30 Pm: Most of you do not know what an effort it is to comply with all states requirements until we can ship wine to you, our customers. Every state has different laws and requirements . Many states require my small winery to post a bond of $1000 before we have the right to ship. That is what some states require including paying sales tax, even though the wine was paid for here, right in our winery........long story........ Now to the governor of Illinois...... >>>>>> Governor...... Here is an e-mail I sent to several of your state employees. I am a winery owner in California who has shipped directly to many of your residents since 1994 and my permit is in question. Tomorrow is another day......... Saturday June 22, 2013 I want to explain a little more about what is required to ship to our customers in Illinois with a direct Shipper permit. We have to use Ship Compliant to calculate the excise fees and sales tax to the many counties. The fee for the permit to Illinois is $150 per year. There are sales taxes and excise taxes we pay amounting to about 10% on all wines sales. We could charge the customer, but since some states do not require sales taxes, we feel it is unfair to charge customers from the states who do require the taxes. A few years ago we raised our prices slightly to take care of these fees. Then some states require us to post a $1000 bond to assure we pay our measly $100 or so a year in excise taxes. As I stated above, we also have the problem communicating with the employees of most of these states. Many of these employees are rude and also incompetent. I could go on, but I think you have the idea....... Next week we will start setting up to bottle about 3300 cases of our 2012 wines aged 10 months. The first day of bottling will be July 8. Preparation will require us to move many things around to clear room for the empty bottles to be delivered next Thursday and then the stacks of cases filled with the new great wine. Organization is the name of the game. Most of the Wine Guerrilla custom crush barrels have been transferred to another facility so that gives us room to store our new bottled wine and also will provide more room for the harvest starting in August. It will be fun....... |
| For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to
e-mail.....david@coffaro.com Dave |
|
| Home | Read | Diary | Tell Us What You Think of Our Diary | Last Week | Next Week |