Water Cooler Talk

Since the temperatures have been under 50 degrees on my front porch the past few days, I thought we might move our conversation this morning to the office. I am, after all, the Wyoming girl who has thoroughly embraced Arizona, and I get cold pretty easy, as all my kids will tell you ("is it just me, or is it chilly in here?" "IT"S JUST YOU, MOM.").

So you may have noticed that the office now has a new coat of paint; the trim was being finished up yesterday. It's not as noticeable from the street, but it's much improved close up. The geraniums are planted and blooming in the front flower boxes - the best place I've ever seen for geraniums - and the wallpaper is complete, and now there are just a few small indoor painting projects and our sprucing up will be finished. Next stop for the painters will be the grain tanks.

We actually do have a water cooler in our office; I have never seen anyone stand around it and talk. I guess that is more likely in the larger offices; we usually get our water and then go back to the conference table or the desks to do our chatting. I have joked before about our management style - "Management by Eavesdropping" - because everyone can hear everyone else in whatever conversation they may be having. Except me, of course; accounting requires some solitude, so I hibernate in the back office, emerging only for lunch or questions.

On the paperless front, or the "less paper" front, that is, there continue to be wonderful successes, and irritating glitches simultaneously. Early this morning we received a call at our house about an electricity issue at one of our barns, and we needed the account number to call for service. "Easy!" I exclaimed. "I'll just remotely pull up that last bill I paid." And we did, in less than a minute. But we couldn't view it. Sigh. My attempts to work from home have been sporadically torpedoed by connection problems. That should be rectified this week.

Balancing that irritation is the success that my accounting through October 31 was completely caught up before the middle of November - a feat not accomplished for some time, since the work has increased exponentially over the past few years. Even with the glitches, I am convinced this really is the way to proceed. I do want to get most of the bugs worked out before I drag the rest of the office into the process, but we are very near.

This week of Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the very slow season. It isn't that there is no work to do; there is more work than ever. It's just that because of the holidays and the extra family events and trips and such, it's difficult to get the principals in one place to make decisions. So the work that is already underway will plug along, and any major decisions will most likely wait until the new year. Don't misunderstand me; we relish the holidays and the extra emphasis on family events. This is just acknowledging the facts about how the season affects the community-building.

I'll keep my ears open for more water-cooler talk, and pass it on when I can.