AUTUMN... preparing for changes (Part 142d)

AUTUMN... preparing for changes (Part 142d)

First things first was a saying I got tired of hearing my grandfather say to me when staying with him. Like a lot of young boys, I didn’t have ‘staying ability’ when tackling difficult projects. I don’t know what made me think of him as I looked out onto the work area and saw the mass of wires strewn around by the telephone company workers. They had gotten a bit out of hand and were making it difficult for the tellers to move about. I decided to concentrate on that project because it was right there in front of me and not 'pending'.

It was a bit of luck that I chose to confront them when I did. The foreman on the job was best friends with Trish’s boyfriend. I’d noticed him chatting with her from time to time and felt he wouldn’t be upset if I asked him to concentrate on one or two work areas at a time. He was nice enough about it and then hit me with an offer I didn’t have to think twice about. Even though we’d only asked for five dedicated lines he told me there was enough wire assigned to the job to provide another three if we wanted them in the future. He could lay in the wires during this installation at no added cost. Then if we wanted to add more teller machines it would be a simple procedure to activate them. It made sense to me. All I had to do was pick out where they might go.

Their work day was over at 4pm. By then they had laid out the wire for eight machines and would be back to finish the primary ones in the morning. With that done it gave a me chance to think about Laura’s request... and the problem that it presented. I loved the idea of Joanie wearing the Sans Soucie panties like Laura was wearing but getting to them was going to be difficult. I’d spread my pantie stash out and into three different locations in and around the house. I’d hidden all the new panties I’d gotten from my friend Willie in the cedar lined closet in the North West bedroom now occupied by Anne. The only way to get to them involved a bit of rearranging the contents and I didn’t dare try it while Elle was home or, for that matter, Anne either. If Laura had asked me the past Wednesday or Thursday it wouldn’t have been a problem. With Elle teaching and leaving for work along with the older girls at 8am I would’ve had a window of time to have gotten to them. Now... I just didn’t know.

Tuesday was the day before the ‘busy period’ began so, for the most part, it was spent making sure everything was in order for the onslaught of customers. The telephone people were done by noon and all we had to do was get the new machines in, test them and we’d be on-line. I couldn’t wait. The people at the service bureau had assured me the we’d be amazed at how much faster we’d be able process transactions. Albie told me that the lines of customers would be noticeably shorter and that was something that everybody was looking forward to.

Wednesday was more than the beginning of the busy period. It was the full Board of Trustees meeting and, hopefully the approval to allow the service bureau to input our name and address file. That was the key to going on-line in December, something I felt was imperative. I’d actually had dreams of still being on the old system and having the bookkeeping machine (computer?) go down before we got the IRS forms printed and mailed. Thankfully, being busy with all the added customers, the day went quickly. When I saw the Trustees filing in I started getting nervous even though I wasn’t going to have to make the presentation in front of them.

It was a fairly quick meeting because there weren’t many mortgage applications. I saw the Trustees headed for the back door and was waiting for Hobie to find out their decision when the phone rang. It was Bert, the president. He wanted me to come upstairs to his office. Not a good sign. When I walked in I saw Hobie and Gee, the Trustee who was an attorney, with the president. The Board had approved what I wanted to do but under one condition... that we could put off paying for everything (equipment, inputting the name and addresses and training) until after the first of the year. I immediately wondered why they called me in to tell me that. There wasn’t much I could say but it left me wondering about the convoluted thinking of the majority of the Board. Hobie said he’d call the service bureau in the morning and I was excused. By the time I got back to my desk everybody had gone. Even though there were things I could do I was so discouraged that I picked up my briefcase and headed for the door.

Barbara and her sister, Mo, were working with Jean and Anne on their ‘cheering’ as I pulled up the driveway. I hadn’t seen much of Mo since school had started. As soon as my girls saw me they headed in my direction and the sisters headed for the opening in the hedge. I was disappointed by that as they’d been wearing their cheerleading uniforms. At supper Elle told me that there had been a home soccer game and Barbara had invited our girls to go and see them cheer. So, they all went and Elle had brought the sisters home afterwards and they'd stayed to play. I mentioned that they had pretty much disappeared as soon as I drove up. She just smiled.

More times than not I just dragged my briefcase home without ever opening it. For some reason I decided to get something from it and found an envelope with just my first name handwritten on the face. Puzzled I tore it open and found a note from Moira. I looked at the date and saw it was written on the weekend and had probably been there since Monday. In beautiful handwriting she’d written a note reiterating what she’d told me back right after she’d been hired...  “Thank you for believing in me...”. It made me feel good but I honestly couldn’t think of anything special I’d done or said to warrant that. It did make me think about her and the situation she was in. In spite of all the other things going on I vowed to follow up with her and her meeting with Gee the next day.

To be continued...