Will the doors ever open?

What's the coolest thing about opening a cigar shop? Certainly isn't dealing with contractors, city inspectors, fire marshalls or Satan incarnate (Comcast). Those entities do their very best to suck every ounce of joy out of creating a dream. No, at the end of the day, one thing brings a smile and reminds me of why I'm pushing my proverbial chips all-in to open WiseAsh. It's the cigars. Just when I reach a boiling point after another round of excuses about being overdue from the contractor, why I can't get a building permit without jumping through petty hoops, why I won't pass inspection when the fire marshall flexes his sticklerish letter-of-the-law muscles or why my cable, Internet or phone won't work from the Comcast installer (I won't even go into getting that all set up on the phone with Comcast customer service), the cigars bring sanity back.

Receiving my opening orders from all the different vendors is like sneaking into the living room on Christmas day to see what Santa brought. One day it's a box of Don Pepin beauties. Another day it's a heap of Perdomo pride or nifty extras thrown in an order from Drew Estate. Opening those boxes with anticipation is pure joy. I perk up just hearing the UPS or FedEx truck pulling up in front of the store. Now, handing over those hefty COD checks is sobering but you gotta spend it to make it and I'm confident WiseAsh will make it just fine once people give us a chance.

The store is almost finished and looks great, the aforementioned obstacles notwithstanding. Unless they continue to conspire against me, we'll open next week.