SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER... Good & bad (Part 169c)

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER… Good & bad (Part 169c)

Mae was waiting at the back door of the bank for me the next morning. I really appreciated her enthusiasm but there was a bit of planning that had to be done before the project could start. Getting approval to pay her and possibly her sister being the first step. Right behind it was in me taking the time to assess just what was there and where to start. I explained it to her and it didn’t seem to dampen her enthusiasm at all. Walking to my desk I couldn’t help but think that she was truly a ‘diamond in the rough’. She’d only been a teller for about 7 months and yet she was one of the best ones I had at the main office. Part of that was due to her maturity followed closely by the need to support her family. Lorie, in just the short time she’d been at the main office, had utilized her to help her with the master or daily “proof”. She didn’t seem to be fazed by any challenge. With another branch coming I was already thinking of ways to utilize her there.

It was a day or two before I was able to take a look at the basement. It wasn’t that Hobie wasn’t aware of the mess that was there. It was more a case of not wanting to facet. When I’d made my somewhat abortive attempt to tackle it he was more than happy to hear it. So after spending a couple of late afternoons rummaging through piles of stuff including old office furniture I was ready to go to Hobie. He, of course, had been aware of the move of the ledger cards and approved that. So, I felt I was on somewhat firm ground in approaching him to take on the whole cellar. Because we didn’t have adequate storage we’d been utilizing the employee ‘break’ room at the branch for all the journals produced by the service bureau. Even with that it was only a matter of time before they would be out of space. I’d practiced a little ‘spiel’ to help sell the idea but was only beginning when he interrupted me and, seemingly taking credit for the idea, told me he thought it would be a good idea to do something about the basement. Not overly thrilled with that turn of events I managed to keep my mouth shut and just told him I had the start of a plan right there in my hands. I offered to let him look at it but he declined and asked when I could start on it. This was going to be the ‘tricky’ part… getting Mae into the mix and possibly her sister as well.

In my preparations for talking to him I was going to make Mae a premier part of it knowing that Hobie had commented on the good job she’d been doing. But, the way it played out with him making the suggestion I didn’t think it was a good idea. So, I backed up a bit and told him a bold faced lie and that was that I’d asked Bret to assist me. Bret knew nothing about it. But, I continued and told him that with Bret’s wife working he couldn’t commit to much in after hours work. That’s when I slid Mae’s name in telling him that even though she didn’t live locally (about 35 minutes away) she was willing to give up a couple of hours most evenings and, depending on the progress, a couple of Saturday’s as well. The look on his face told me he wasn’t overly thrilled with the idea and immediately suggested Mike, the messenger custodian. I know I reacted to that and was sorry I did. Mike had proved to be good at doing what we’d created as his job but he was a “clock” man. Overtime and extra work were not part of his job description and he’d reminded me on a couple of occasions. The discussion ended with Hobie getting up and  closing it telling me he’d “think about it…”.

It was few days later when I got a call from Morris, the branch consultant. When Joanie told me who it was on the line I didn’t believe her thinking she’d gotten the name wrong. But it was the one and only Morris with his city accent waiting for me to pick up. “Good news and bad news…” was what I heard. Before I could ask he told me his “contacts” had given him a solution  to the ingress and egress problem. Before he went on I asked if he’d called Bert (the president). When he said he hadn’t I did a ‘double take’. He went on that he wanted to let me know first because, according to him, “I knew which way was up…” I appreciated the thought and was happy to know he felt I should know what he’d come up with. The “bad” was that the zoning people would only allow cars to enter the lot from the “main drag”, as he called it, and wouldn’t approve an egress back onto it. “Too much traffic and too close to a corner with a stop light.” Was the explanation. Morris then said the “good” was there was a solution… and the solution was to have the egress onto the side street. But, that had a bad side as well. It would mean loosing the use of an additional 12 to 15 feet of the property. Even though I’d been to the site I’d not seen a prospective plot plan and had no idea what, if anything, had been proposed. Once I explained that he told me we’d have to have both ingress and egress from the side street and the two way traffic would reduce the amount of space available for the building and parking. I couldn’t really grasp what he was trying to explain but didn’t tell him that. I thanked him and told him I’d use the knowledge judiciously. What I didn’t do was to ask when he was going to call Bert. I hung up a bit upset because it now gave me two things I’d have to wait on for an answer or clarification… the branch thing and the cellar project. I was young and impatient (I still am…) and wanted direction. I hated to have things left ‘hanging’.

Somewhere around that time I got a call from Ruthe over at the stock brokerage. She was the manager’s assistant and although I knew her it was strange to get a call from her. A while back the office was to put on a presentation about IPO’s (Initial Public Offering’s of stock) that had been postponed. Since that time I’d learned a bit about them and had actually purchased some stock offered as an IPO. She wanted to know if I still wanted to attend. I’d been pretty much avoiding going to the office since the incident with Lynda and her boss, my broker, Stan concerning the New Year’s Eve party. It was stupid on my part but it’s what I did. On impulse I said I wanted to attend and got the information concerning it. The public library had a nice conference room and it was to be held there the following week. That was good news as it gave me the time to prepare to see both Lynda and Stan as well as to give Elle enough time to plan on my absence. She didn’t like it when I wasn’t home to eat with the kids but when she had enough lead time was OK with it. Having Ruthe on the phone allowed me to check on the price of the stock I’d recently purchased without talking to Lynda. When she gave me the price it almost took my breath away… I’d paid $25 a share and it was at $30 and change and in only a few weeks. My immediate thought was hoping that the IPO meeting would provide some good ‘tips’ like that stock. I could only hope.

To be continued…