This makes me sad, and upset if I'm being honest. I've said it from the beginning, all I want is consistency and a plan.

News came out today that the TABC had suspended Zombiez Bar & Grill's permits because of violations regarding Covid-19 regulations, for 30 days.

My frustrations aren't with Zombiez, but with the way all of this has been handled from the beginning. It seems that we're just making it all up as we go, instead of coming up with a clear plan. That's what rustles my jimmies, so to speak.

I spoke with the owner of Zombiez, and she told she has been doing everything she can to meet the requirements. She told me all employees wear masks (except for at shift change), she has hired on extra people to help make sure the crowd maintains social distancing, hasn't been serving people unless they're seated, has the large open patio area, and so on, and so on.

She even told me about the hand sanitizer station she installed herself.

Even still, Zombiez Bar & Grill is closed for 30 days. She's considering her next steps.

Bars weren't supposed to be open, then they could be open. Then we shut them back down. Then we decided that if they serve food, somehow that's better, and they can open back up.

Then it was "masks are mandatory" and now it's "we still want you to wear masks but we can't really enforce it." I fail to see, given the reasoning behind masks, how my server wearing a mask is enough to protect both of us if I'm not.

Look, I'm all about doing everything I can to help slow the spread. I'm a team player. I even wear my mask and I pretty much stay home; but I can't see how serving food somehow makes it "safer" for a business to be open.

Then there's what some may call a heavy-handed approach to punishing establishments, like Zombiez. 30 days is a really long time, even if you've been able to be open all year long.

Instead of say, a fine or even better...a warning, they have a 30 day suspension of their permits. That's basically a month. I don't claim to be the world's smartest man, but that sounds like they aren't going to be able to be open...for 30 days.

How do you survive something like that? How about the employees?

What do you do when the rules are constantly in flux, are applied in what appears to be an arbitrary way, and then we have to ask does the punishment really fit the crime?

 

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