ANOTHRER YEAR... More adventures (Part 168k)

ANOTHER YEAR… More adventures (Part 168k)

It was around 9pm when I got home and I found Elle getting ready for bed. This had been her second day of teaching and she was a bit overwhelmed. The teacher she was substituting for had not made lesson plans for what she was going to teach for the week so Elle had to try and make them up as she went along. She’d stayed late just to do the plans for the following day and in so doing found out that Cliffy (the race car driver) and his wife, Beth, had another boy born on Christmas Eve. She also found out that Beth was the secretary for the principal and was on maternity leave. The principal also told Elle that Beth had been the one to suggest Elle be called to come in back in November. Because the racing season was over the pit crew and their wives didn’t get together weekly like they did during the season so Elle didn’t know about the birth. Her job was a surprise to me as I was only aware of Beth’s cake making business. Hearing Elle tell of her regular job I had a feeling that she would be getting a lot of calls for the rest of the school year. We then chatted a bit about the vestry meeting and when Elle headed up the stairs I was convinced that I’d survived the ’storm’ over New Years Eve. It was still too early to do more than snuggle but even that was progress.

While trying to get to sleep I decided to go ahead to make the move of Alice to the drive-up window even though I knew she’d be upset. I had a little ‘wiggle room’ as far a her salary was concerned and was going to use it to sweeten the change. I was also going to use the same ploy I’d used with Peggy and that was to put her “in charge” of the school savings program. The first pick up of deposits was scheduled for Thursday so I needed to get her prepared for it. Mae had the demeanor to accept just about anything and it was move that Lorie wanted to make. By doing it I figured it would give me a little ‘boost’ in her eyes. The only real problem I anticipated was with Lillian as she and Alice had become fairly close. My idea was to talk with Mae first and let her know about that item. I had confidence that she’s handle it.

It went pretty much as I’d expected. I had to be at my persuasive best with Alice but did promise that she’d go back out on the ‘line’ when an opportunity arose. The whole situation with Mae was still somewhat ‘up in the air’ so I couldn’t do better than that. As far as ‘real’ work was concerned, we were more than half way through the “busy period” and lobby traffic had started to slow down. I checked with J J on the mortgage submissions for the meeting and because we were in the holiday season there were only a few. I envisioned a quick meeting and possibly getting home by 6pm. With the improvement in Elle’s attitude towards me I was hoping I’d be able to do more than snuggle that night.

Just as I was about to head for the meeting the workers from the company that had hung the Christmas decorations showed up to remove them. The daughter of the owner was with them. I’ve written about her in the past… a Swedish cutie in her early 20’s who liked to wear what I call ‘farmer john’s’, or bib overalls. For whatever reason, she liked them extra large and that gave anyone caring to look down at her waist, on the sides, the chance for a panty peek. She was taking her coat off as I walked by but didn’t get a look. On the stairs I turned around and wished she and her crew had arrived a bit earlier. I hoped, for sure, that it would be a quick meeting.

The chairman of the committee for this month was one of the weaker trustees when it came to running meetings. But, with only a few mortgage submissions to review I expected there wouldn’t be  much in the way of discussion. I’d mentioned that when Hobie told me I’d be taking the minutes I was a bit concerned because “Polack Joe” was on the committee for the month and he had a way of getting attention. It was like he looked to hear himself talk. In any case, the submissions sailed through without much discussion and I was collecting my papers when I heard the unmistakeable voice of “Polack Joe”. He wanted to bring up the next branch the bank was contemplating. What should’ve happened was for the chairman to tell him he was out of order and to bring it up at either the branch committee meeting or at the full board meeting… but he didn’t. I won’t go into any detail of what took place over the next half hour but the gist of his diatribe was that the bank had made a big error with the first branch and he wanted to make sure that the architect doing the next one designed it so that if it, too, was a ‘bust’, the bank could sell it for use with another purpose other than as a bank branch. I remember sitting there looking at him and wanting to shake my head in disbelief… but I didn’t dare. By the time the meeting was over all the decorations were gone from the lobby. I was just about to my desk when Bret came up to me and win a whisper let me know I’d missed a ‘really good show’, or something close to that. The smile on his face told me exactly what he was talking about. He didn’t give me any description and I was left to remembering “Polack Joe” running his mouth.

I’m not going to even try to tell you I hadn’t thought about Lynda since our meeting with Stan, her boss. However, I didn’t know where I stood in her mind… or, for that matter, in Stan’s mind. Seeing that I’d be able to leave around 5pm I gave a brief thought to stopping over to see how she was doing. The phone was out of the question because there was always the chance that Ruthe would answer. I definitely didn’t want to talk with her or with Stan and certainly didn’t want to ask Ruthe to get Lynda for me. So… I let the idea pass. I thought about how to connect with her on my way home and really couldn’t come up with an easy way.

When I got home I found the kids (and Elle) had made a devils food cake for dessert. It had been a while since having one of them and we were all sick of Christmas cookies. I took it as another sign that New Years Eve was past us and was looking forward to bedtime. All went well until about 8pm when I got a call from the minister wanting to know what we should do with all the clothes for the thrift shop that had ended up on the floor of the storage shed where they’d been stored for the holiday season. My first reaction was ‘Why is he calling me?’ and not the senior warden who, technically, was in charge of the business end of the church. I reminded him of that and closed by saying that to put them back up for sale without washing them wasn’t an option. He didn’t appear to be happy with my response and I didn’t want to get into the matter with him. I told him that if they wanted to just put them out, as is, they would have to re-price them and tell the people about their condition. As I hung up the phone I felt like a rubber band, being pulled in different directions by different people. The call left me in a foul mood and I was mad at the minister. I knew I had to watch myself with Elle and to be careful I didn’t get her upset as well. I was sure my chance for a ‘fun’ bedtime had been dashed.

To be continued…