TRANSITIONING... to Autumn (Part 141d)

TRANSITIONING... to Fall (Part 141d)

Elle was certainly glad to see me back home. She claimed she ”didn’t sleep a wink“ the night before. The only ‘news’ she had was that Rex had called to say he had our new (to us) Sunfish sailboat and would really appreciate my picking it up (and paying for it) as soon as possible. As much as she and the kids wanted to get it right away there was no way to do it that evening. First of all, I didn’t have the money. Secondly, I was tired. It had been a stressful two days... in more than one way. I did promise that we’d do it the next evening.

Even though I was tired I didn’t sleep all that well. On my mind was the ‘bombshell’ that I’d exploded by asking if the service bureau could move the conversion up. I knew I’d have to brief Hobie and, if they could do it, I’d have to accelerate the order for the new teller machines as soon as possible. When the original order was placed the manufacturer had told us they ”expected“ they could meet our delivery date of mid December. Based on the date Bruce and Albie were working on for us we’d need them by the first of December. The main point I’d have to emphasize to Hobie was that it would save us money (using the ‘Time is Money’ theory) by not having to produce the 1099 forms ourselves. I rolled and tossed most of the night trying to come up with just how to present it all to him.

When I met with him he did, thankfully, fully support me. I spent the whole morning meeting with him and other key officers who would be directly involved. The whole while these meetings were going on I was wondering when Bruce and Albie would call to confirm their ability to accommodate the new conversion date. When it got to be noontime and we still hadn’t heard from them I really started to get worried. The call came in mid afternoon. It was ”doable” but would take a lot of work. When I talked with Albie about it I realized that we’d benefit from the timing of it. The conversion would take place the week before Christmas, traditionally, one of the slowest periods of lobby traffic which meant we'd have fewer transactions to double post. By the time I left to go home I was ‘drained’... but I’d promised Elle and the kids that I'd go pick up the new sailboat. Actually, I'd almost forgotten to withdraw the cash for it but remembered before all the cash boxes were locked in the vault.

To accelerate supper Elle had made up a tuna fish salad. I gulped mine down and, after taking our original Sunfish off the trailer, hitched it up and we headed for Rex’s house. There were three boats on the front lawn. I didn’t know which was ours and when the kids got out of the car went over to the one with red stripes across the foredeck. Approaching it I sure hoped it wasn’t ours. Rex had told me the one he had for me was only a month old and had hardly been used. The one the kids were climbing on had quite a few ‘battle scars’.

Rex soon appeared and stopped at the one with the green stripes. If I’d been paying attention I would’ve known as it had two dagger boards and two rudders in the cockpit as Rex had described. A quick inspection showed little wear. For all intents and purposes, it was a new boat... and I was getting spare sails and parts as well. Rex helped me load it on the trailer and we were off. Back at home the girls wanted to know when we were going to go sailing in it. I told them I didn’t know and then Elle sort of sabotaged my plans for the next day when she said we’d do it in the morning. Then they wanted to put the sails up right away while the boat was still on the trailer. The green stripes on the hull gave the color of the sails away... they were green and white. We had just raised them when Barbara appeared from behind the garage. She was looking for Jean and Anne to see if they wanted to do some cheering before it got dark. By the time she got to the boat the girls had climbed aboard and were pretending to be sailing. When the girls saw Barbara they wanted her to climb up with them. I’d had to lift my girls up onto the deck and Barbara wasn’t all that much taller than they were and when she made an attempt she didn’t make  I told her I’d give her a boost. She was facing me and I put my hands under her arm pits as she made a sort of a jump and I was a bit surprised at her weight. Once up on the deck she had to spin around on on her fanny to get her feet into the cockpit. As she did I got that split second peek up the leg openings of her shorts that I was hoping for.

Anne tried to explain the parts of the boat to Barbara. It was funny watching a girl of almost seven teaching a girl twice her age about sailing. What was interesting was in seeing Barbara actually paying attention. When I did I teased her and told her that she not only needed to learn how to swim but should learn to sail as well. When my girls heard me say that they started pleading with Barbara to go sailing with them. I knew she’d decline based upon what she’d told me (that she didn’t know how to swim and was afraid of the water) when I’d asked her to go on our first sailing picnic using ‘B’s’ boat only two weeks earlier. When she did Elle stepped up and told her she should at least go with us when we took the boat on it’s ‘maiden voyage’ the next day. Hearing that the girls were all over her, pleading with her to go. She didn’t immediately say she would but she didn’t say “no” either. Once everybody was back on the ground Elle and I ‘worked’ on her and got her to say that if we could do it and have her back home by 2pm she’d go. We told her she didn’t have to actually go sailing but that we’d be on the beach and she could play and watch the kids while we were out sailing.

Elle had told Barbara to wear a bathing suit even if she didn’t know how to swim but Barbara only laughed and told Elle she didn’t own one. At that Elle suggested she wear clothes that wouldn’t get ruined if they got wet. We were ready to leave at 9am but Barbara wasn’t there. I sent the girls to see if she was coming. A few minutes later they all returned and I did a bit of a ‘double take’ when I saw Barbara. She was wearing a pair of pale blue knit shorts that had some white spots on one side. She saw my look and laughed, explaining the Elle had told her to not to wear anything “good”. It only took a few seconds to realize the spots were due to Clorox getting splashed on them as Elle had done the same to some of the older girls clothes. But there was something else... they looked like they were a size too small.

To be continued...