MORE CHANGES... and problems (Part 132h)

MORE CHANGES... and problems (Part 132h)

The rest of the afternoon was swallowed up with chores. It was nice doing the lawn without having to duck the sheets and other things on the wash line. Luckily I remembered that the landfill (dump) closed at 5pm on Saturdays so was able to collect all the garbage, get it into the trunk of my car and make it through the gate in time. One thing about being there at the end of the day was you could just back into the dumping area, unload and be on your way. In the morning there was always a line. Another thing was that with few people there I could walk up and down the pile of trash and look to find a “treasure”or two. On this day, even though I knew the attendant was waiting by the gate, I made a pass down the line. I saw a small pile of baby food jars and went over to it. I picked one up and saw it held small screws. Another had brass tacks and another had small nails (brads). That really got my attention. I started picking more up and found things in all of them. I carried as many as I could back to the car and was on my way for a second trip when I saw the attendant headed my way. I put my head down and kept going. I got another seven or eight picked up before he pulled his truck up and began yelling at me. I couldn’t blame him so took what I had and retreated to my car. As I pulled out he pulled his truck right up to my back bumper and he stayed right there until I got to the gate. He got out, opened it and as I pulled though the opening he gave me the “finger”. It didn’t bother me as I looked over to the passenger seat and saw a lot of useful items... all for free.

Elle was back by the time I got there. She’d actually been back to the house to get clothes for the kids and decided to stay with them at my parents beach. It was the first time at their beach this year, clearly the girls favorite because they had some different toys to play with, so it was a real treat. What was a treat for me was in seeing Elle’s butt. She’d tried to hide it from me at first but I think it was Kaye who, very excitedly, announced that “Mommy went tinkle in her shorts”.  She was too young to fathom Elle's 'problem' and couldn't understand why she got scolded when she did the same thing. I knew better than to ask Elle about it right then but I had a nice soft bulge for a while.

Because the previous night had been a little unusual as well as the day I wasn’t surprised when Elle declined to participate in some “wet fun” after putting the kids to bed. I decided to get my “kicks” by finding out why and how she'd wet herself at my parents beach. It wasn’t surprising that she tried to make it seem like nothing at all but I wore her down. The people who owned the house to the West of my parents lived in Michigan but would always come East for a week in June to open the house up for their renters. In the past they’d left their three boys with the grandparents while they worked on the house. This year they had brought the boys with them and found it had been a mistake. When Elle showed up with our girls they turned out to be somewhat of a diversion for them and Elle, somewhat reluctantly, ended up watching all six of them. My parents, not expecting Elle and the kids, were off visiting with some other neighbors and the other couple took off to buy some plants leaving Elle as the only adult on the beach with them. When the first dribble came Elle said that if there had been someone there she might’ve made it in to the bathroom. But, there was no one... so she just sat there in the sand and “let it flow”. She told me that when it came time to leave she didn’t think my parents or the neighbors knew. She added that if it weren’t for trying to do the right thing and putting a towel on the car seat our kids might not have known either.

I won’t swear to it but I think this is the time she told me that when she relaxed and when she felt her warm urine pooling up around her pubic area she felt some kind of “tingle”. You know that in hearing that I had an immediate reaction. However, in spite of my reaction I wasn’t able to generate one from her.

We woke up Sunday to stormy weather. The wind was blowing from the East which was always a bad sign. The leaves on the maple tree right outside the den area were being turned inside out by the wind. None of us had any desire to venture out in it so it was a lazy day at home.

Monday was more of the same weather. On the way in to work my car started misfiring badly and I pretty much knew what the problem was. If it hadn't been raining I could’ve fixed it myself but decided I’d stop by James’ garage and ask for a favor. The last couple of times I’d stopped for gas he hadn’t been there so when I walked in the office I knew we had some catching up to do. I hadn’t seen Peggy since the christening of her baby so that was the first order of business. James said she appeared to be doing well and that her periods of melancholy were now few and far between. That was good news. Hearing it made me feel guilty for not trying to stop by and see her. James assured me that he’d squeeze me in and would call later. I told him of my diagnosis of the trouble and suggested he start there. He just smiled.

It was almost 9:30am when I finally got to my desk. Lobby traffic was slow not only because of the bad weather but also the fact that the “busy period” was just about two weeks away and the depositors were waitng for that to make withdrawals. One of the things on my “to do” list for the week was to finalize the ads, both print and radio, for the upcoming new account/gift campaign. I hadn’t heard anything about the delivery of the gifts that we were to give away. I’d had nothing to do with ordering them as three of the Trustees had supposedly taken care of that. I was hoping there wasn’t going to be a problem. The girls who were going to open the new accounts had been hired and would be starting in two weeks so at least I felt fairly comfortable with that.

If here was one thing that might be called an Achilles' heel for the 'busy period' it was the teller line. I felt good about Gina’s ability for regular ‘traffic’ but she’d not been through a ‘busy period’. However, Janet, Jerene’s replacement, was technically still being trained. Her personality was still a bit of a problem. Both Bret and I had decided she had a superiority complex. She had a college degree and here she was working with the ‘peons’. Her husband was an officer in the Air Force and stationed just down the road and didn’t expect to stay there all that long so getting a job commensurate with her education was pretty much out of the question. If there was a plus to her it was that there were any number of Trustees who had commented favorably about her ‘maturity', even though she was younger than half the other tellers. I could only hope that she could handle the pressure.

The 'next big thing' was the school board election the following night. In a way I wished I really had something of import to work on as I found my mind wandering back to the election and Bob's chances. It was still bothering me why there seemed to have been a change in attitude from one Saturday to the next. Something just didn't seem right and I had no idea what it was. Time seemed to crawl by.

To be continued...