Yesterday, I had one of those days where everything takes ten times longer to accomplish than it should. I thought I’d be able to breeze through a stack of things at my desk, but it was more like slogging through a tar pit!
When my parents lived in southwest Missouri, they had wonderful gardens. The year I lived with them, I discovered that my mother is a plant/bulb impulse buyer. She’d see something in a magazine and shoot off an order. When the order came, she’d hand the box to my Dad, and he would get his trusty shovel, and head out. By the time I got to watch this little ritual, they’d lived there about twelve years. Everywhere Dad put his shovel into the ground, he brought up six or eight bulbs that were already there. I think every inch of garden had been planted by then. So, for every new bulb she wanted planted, there were six or eight to be given away, shared with friends, or ditched!
There was something else about the land they’d settled on . They lived in STONE County. I’ve never seen a place more aptly named. Other than where my father had arranged for soil to be trucked in, there was just three inches of soil on top of rock. If you picked up a rock, you’d find it was nesting on two more just waiting their turn to get to the surface, so we really tried not to disturb the rocks! So, Dad was limited to the built-up gardens for his planting forays.
I know…that was a bit off the subject, but yesterday reminded me of those frustrating planting days. I had my union report finished early. It sat on my desk for a couple of days before I got ready to print the check that was to accompany it. Two minutes, tops, right? Nuh uh!
The last thing I do before I cut the check is to be sure that the totals on my report match the totals in the computer ledgers. My heart sank when I realized I was way off. I pulled up the Union Dues Payable account, and scrolled through it, and discovered that we have had a new employee for a full month, and no one had told me. (sigh…)
The report was already filled out. There was no room to amend it. I pulled up an electronic version of the report, corrected it for current charges, and filled it out for just the one employee, checked the totals (which looked much better) and then I cut the check. I made copies for the accounting firm, copies for us, and copies for a union representative. When the accounting people can’t figure out that I’ve paid in full, using two report sheets, I want the union rep to be able to explain things to them. Finally, I addressed two envelopes, had Dear Husband sign everything, and gathered our copies together for filing.
This little chore should have taken two minutes. It took more like 90, and that put me behind on everything. I had to work in the office for a bit after dinner to be sure things that were needed today were done. I’ve had several chores turn out like this. It’s no wonder that I can never see the surface of my desk.
I’ve been bookkeeping for our company for 20 years. You could say that I’m an old hand at it. But, every now and then, a spate of things occur that simply take longer than you expect them to. In this case, communication about the new employee would have helped, but it’s not always this sort of problem. To work here, you have to be a self-starter. You have to be able to resolve things in a timely manner, and you have to be a mind reader! And, I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else!

My family is so funny.
Sunday I came down with laryngitis. I’ve been without a voice for four full days. This morning you can hear me, but for the past four days we’ve had to use every means at hand to communicate.
I was trying to talk to Dear Husband about something that he would have to do in my stead because I couldn’t use the phone. I was seated at the computer, trying to dash off a hand-written note to him, when I had one of those “DUH!” moments. I turned to the computer, brought up Word, and changed the font to 14 or 16, and typed like a mad woman. He could read over my shoulder as I typed, and it made “conversation” a lot easier.
I found that rather than try to make sound, if I whispered they could understand me. Well, Dear Husband and his son could hear me. Elegante Mother is more than a bit hard of hearing these days, so we did a lot of lip reading, and the guys would fill in what she missed.
I needed to gather information for a personal financial report. I had to call two banks to ask for account amounts. The secretary at the main bank and I are friends, so I called, got her answering machine, and squeeked a request that she send me her fax number. I faxed her an explanation of what I needed, and we conversed on and off through the day via fax.
I didn’t know anyone at the second bank, but I went online to their website, and managed to find an e-mail address. I typed out the problem, and my request. They called me and asked me to tell them the last four digits of my Social Security Number, and then she gave me the info over the phone. Two out of two! Not bad at all. It takes some creativity, but you can get around a lot of problems in this electronic age.
What struck me so funny about my family was that as I struggled to communicate with them, their hearing got better! Dear Husband has been saying “What?!” a lot this past year. I discovered that when he is focused on me, he can hear me whisper across the room. If I have EM’s attention, and she is watching me as I speak, she must lip read to get some of what I’m saying, and she’s more likely to be up front about what she’s missed now than she was a few years ago.
To resolve this situation, I have to be sure their attention is fully engaged! Dropping a plate behind their backs, standing on the cat’s tail, “accidently” spraying them with the hose at the sink, touching them when they don’t know I’m there……what else could I do???
I’m so very lucky that they were supportive. My voice is coming back, and the sinus stuff is abating. It’s nice to know that I could have gone to bed, and they would have taken over for me, but it’s even nicer to know that they were willing to work with me to mitigate the problems.
I’m sending a big THANK YOU! to my family, and to everyone who has helped make this week easier.