TRANSITIONING... into Fall (Part 141a)
Sunday was spent at
church, painting and cleaning up. With painting being a mindless
exercise I found myself thinking about returning to work. With all that
had transpired during the week I’d rarely given it a thought. The most
pressing thing was the training I’d have to go through for the upcoming
conversion of the bank’s ledger card system over to the service bureau
and computer. I’d put off doing it prior to vacation and now had to face
it full on. I was really excited about what it would be like once the
new system was fully operational but had some fears about ‘glitches’
getting the ledger information over to the computer. There was only one
way to go... forward.
Seeing sandbags piled around the cellar
entrance as I pulled into the parking area was a reminder to me of just
how high the tides had been during the storm. The bank building was
actually built into the riverbed. The river was located right at the
back part of the parking lot and every time we had an Easterly storm
there was a concern that the cellar might get flooded. I’d only seen the
need for the sandbags once since I’d started at the bank but,
remembering how high the tide had been at my parent’s house, it made
sense.
Hank was there to greet me as I walked up to the door.
Inside, the only teller at her station was Gina and I got a ‘knowing’
smile as I passed by. I was pleasantly surprised to see Trish at her
desk as she was a true nine to fiver. As soon as I walked through the
gate to my desk, she followed. Turning to look at her it was obvious she
had something to tell me. Far from the days after I started at the bank
and could hardly get her to acknowledge me, I’d been ‘elevated’ to
being one of the first to hear the ‘latest'. In thinking about it now as
I’m writing this I remember being somewhat shocked. However, after
having written about some of the events leading up this point, and
having it all fresh in my mind, I probably shouldn’t have been. The
‘news’, such as it was, concerned Laura and Joanie. Laura was going to
be moving in with Joanie and her parents. My first thought concerned
Laura. I remember wondering why she would put herself in such a
situation what with Joanie’s mother being an invalid and her father
being an alcoholic. But Trish , probably seeing the look on my face,
quickly explained the reasoning behind it.
Laura had been renting
a garage apartment from the lady who’d just retired from the accounting
area. When the lady retired Laura was told the house and property would
be put up for sale and that she should start looking for another place
to live. I knew all of that but hadn’t kept up with the situation. When
Joanie came to sit in for Trish while she was on vacation, she’d become
friends with Laura. I was pleased as I felt they were good for each
other but this, to me, was beyond comprehension. In any case, when Laura
told her that she was going to have to move Joanie offered to have her
live with her. As they were both lonely and shared some of the same
interests they began to pursue it further. As an added incentive Laura
wouldn’t have to pay rent only having to put some money in for food. As
Trish was telling me all of this I kept glancing over at Laura. I think
my first words to Trish were ”I hope it works!“
Next was Bret’s
‘blow by blow’ description of the mini panic when the rising tide got
up to the main part of the parking lot. I’m not going to say that I
would’ve picked up on it sooner than that but, by the time they did, it
was almost too late to get sand and bags to build a ‘dam’ around the
cellar entrance area. Some water did get in but they were able to keep
it from doing any real damage. Bret added that they only had three
tellers and about a dozen customers on Wednesday. Other than that it was
just a slow week, one of the reasons I’d chosen it for vacation time.
Hobie
had the real ‘news’. Pressured by the service bureau to get started on
the training he committed me to spending Wednesday and Thursday at their
facility. He’d been given an outline of what was planned for me and it
looked like it would be two very busy days. I spent almost all of that
Monday going through the mail and responding to it. Tuesday was
gathering the detail of all our product offerings (accounts) and the
rates of interest paid on each to review with the service bureau’s
programming staff. In so doing I even found there were things I wasn’t
aware that we offered. By the time I left for home my head was
‘swimming’.
The service bureau was about an hour and a half away
from the bank. I knew that from the trips I’d made when doing the
initial research. However... I’d not made the trip during ‘rush hour’. I
left my house at around 6:30am figuring on arriving at 8:30am. Adding
the 15 minutes from my house to the bank and then the heavy traffic the
trip took about 2 1/2 hours. The service bureau ‘big wigs’ were waiting
(impatiently) for me. I was met by the vice president, Bruce, and his
assistant, Albie. Also there was George, the man who was responsible for
producing all the transaction journals we would need in place of our
existing ledger cards. The last one was Grace, the lady who would
oversee not only my training but, when the time came, that of all our
tellers.
After handshakes and greetings I was turned over to
Grace. She was a pleasant looking woman around forty years old. She had
an easy way about her and, as I was about to find out, the patience of
Job. She led me into their training facility where she introduced me to
the new style teller machine. She knew the ‘ins and outs’ of it like
she’d been the one to design it. I was overwhelmed right from the start.
I had to slow her down and plead for her to ”speak English“. After a
laugh we were able to communicate fairly well. She wanted to focus on
what I’d be able to do in the way of minor repairs without having to
call for repair service. She winked when she told me that I wasn’t to
tell anybody from the manufacturer about what she was showing me.
Being
mechanically inclined that part was fairly straight forward. When she
took the cover off to show me the processor which was underneath I got
something I certainly wasn’t expecting. To point out some of the key
components she got down on her haunches. Thoroughly engrossed in what
she was talking about and pointing towards what I learned was a ‘mother
board’ she had spread her legs creating a nice open pathway to her
crotch. Very thankfully she wasn’t looking at me when she did. She was
on one corner of the machine and I was on the other not more than two
feet way. Her skirt was short enough to let a fair amount of light in
and what I saw was something I’d never seen before. Her crotch seemed to
have, for lack of a better description, dimples. After seeing that I
lost all concentration on what she was talking about. The peek lasted
for maybe ten seconds but it was long enough that I would’ve bet money
on the ‘dimples’.
To be continued...
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