BACK TO REALITY... Same ole, same ole (Part 165a)

BACK TO REALITY… Same ole, same ole (Part 165a)

Of course the first thing Elle wanted to do upon arrival home was see the kids but two were in school. Because we wanted to get unpacked, to save time, she called her mother to have her bring Kaye over. Sometimes her mother could be ‘difficult’ but this was not one of those times. When she arrived she brought most of what would end up being our dinner. There was no food in the house at all and Elle was already exhausted from the plane ride and then being up until 2am so this was a welcome treat. Kaye was glad to see Elle but all she wanted to talk about was the fun things she did with her grandmother. I ended up going to the market to get orange juice, milk and bread for breakfast the next morning. We’d had the mail held for us so I stopped to pick it up. As the post office was the center for gossip, got all the latest. Some was just that… pure gossip, but there was one piece of troubling news. The daughter of one of the parishioners in our church was killed in an auto accident. She no longer lived with her parents but had come home for a visit. The gossip part of that was there was some speculation that she’d committed suicide by driving into the railroad bridge abutment. Regardless, it was sobering news.

We’d brought some gifts for the kids which kept them occupied while I told Elle about the death. With that as a backdrop our evening was kind of muted. Elle went to bed early while I went through the mail and started thinking about work and what lay ahead for me in the morning. To prove I was tired I ended up falling asleep while seated at my desk in the den. My intention had been to get an early start to work but, as they say, best laid plans oft times go astray. Elle wanted to get started on the wash so as soon as the alarm went off she headed for the basement and the washing machine. Even though I was on the second floor and she was in the basement I could hear her scream like she was right outside the bedroom door. I ran down the stairs and when I was halfway down the cellar stairs could see what the problem was. A squirrel (or other rodent) had gotten in and had been chewing on things and made a mess. Elle’s concern wasn’t the mess but that they might still be in the basement. She wanted me to make sure they were out before she’d go back to the cellar. I knew there was no way for me to guarantee that and I told her so. BUT… and it was big but, she said she had to get some laundry done. Her mother's washing machine, an old wringer type, had died and she'd not done any of the kids clothes all week. The immediate need was for clean underwear for the kids. So, I ended up doing a load before I left for work. By the time I got there it was just about 9am and already behind for the day.

It took about 30 seconds for Bret to let me know there had been another special Board meeting while I was gone. I’d been at the bank long enough to know that wasn’t a good thing. He couldn’t fill me in on details but it had me on edge until I could connect with Hobie. I’d never gotten a full update on the last special Board meeting held right before I went on vacation. It was one where Morris, the guy who’d provided the gift/premiums for the new account campaign for the opening of the new branch, had made his ‘report’ on what had gone wrong with that branch opening. I had a feeling that the two meetings were connected. I didn’t have to pester Hobie to find out as he soon called me over to his area. Without saying a word he pointed to the stairs right above his head. Anything said at his desk could be heard by the switchboard operator so he wanted us to head for the Board room. More intrigue.

He didn’t waste time and went right to the heart of the matter. In his initial report to the Board, Morris had pretty much trashed the new branch and the Board's decision to locate it where they did. He told them it would take probably five to six years for it to break even and told them to cut costs any way they could… including advertising. That didn’t make sense to me and I expressed it to Hobie. The problem for advertising was there was no media that targeted the branch area and the money spent would be wasted. Direct mail for any specific program we might run would be appropriate and cost effective. BUT, that wasn’t the main item for discussion. He’d proposed another branch. Hobie explained that it had been so controversial at the first meeting when he did that the Board authorized Morris to come up with a detailed plan and scheduled the meeting the previous week was to go over it. The end result was he was authorized to begin a search for locations. As you can imagine, this news hit like a ton of bricks. My first thought (negative) was they were crazy to do it and so quickly after the failure of the first one. However, I wasn’t asked my opinion so kept my mouth shut. Our meeting ended with him telling me to keep it quiet and that Morris would be back for the next regularly scheduled Board meeting… a week and a half away.

I caught up with Trish and Joanie and got a ‘glowing’ report on Joanie’s progress on learning her new job. I checked it out with Bret and he agreed. Joanie was a quick learner and would only get better with more time in the position. There had been no problems with the on-line service with the data center and staffing had remained stable. It appeared the only thing of import had been the visit by Morris. I was tempted to give him a call but decided against it. He’d gone out on a limb to tell me what his initial report contained before giving it to the Board and I wanted to keep whatever ‘goodwill’ I had with him in case something that directly affected me came up.

By the time I’d gone over the week's worth of mail that had been left for me it was time for lunch. There were two things that needed to be done… contact Cliffy about the situation at the airport the night before and… go over to the stock brokers office to see how my stocks were doing. I dreaded the call to Cliffy. I just knew he was going to be upset. I’d known him for so long I pretty much knew how he reacted when things didn’t go the way they were planned. It turned out that my father had called him first thing in the morning so he had the details. I could tell he wasn’t all that happy but, instead of getting mad at me (as I expected he would) all he had to say was that I could find someone else to be “a taxi’ the next time I was going to the airport. I accepted that and then asked how closing night at the race track had gone.

For Cliffy, no matter what the results were it could always have been better. He’d finished 3rd and was still upset that he hadn’t won. He didn’t go into detail and I knew I’d get the detailed information from Alan the next time I went to the garage to work on the car. I had so much to do at home to get caught up having been away for a week I didn’t ask when the crew was going to meet again. I knew we had one month to prepare for the National Championship and hoped there would be some free time over the next couple of weeks before we started to prepare for it.

To be continued…