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Thursday, May 22, 2014

A grumpy day goes extraordinary


Work has weighed me down so much recently that I've contemplated locking the door behind me and throwing the key in the river on my way home. I am an elected official. Our sole raison d'ĂȘtre is to do the people’s work. Sadly, I work with some appointees who see job security in obfuscation. I’d rather roll water uphill than deal with them. But I must. That story has no end—yet. Stay tuned.

The other shadow in my otherwise gay and sunny life is the end of the audit, my usual clean audit. But one of the trustees (the elected officials with authority!) came through with severely trampled toes. Completely self inflicted; the auditors were only doing their job. But I dreaded tonight’s exit conference.

So, I went for a ride this afternoon. The sun was shining, the breeze blowing, and a beautiful afternoon. Pictures always help.  I went in search of one or two. I took a picture of the road department yard; the road super is making everything shine for Memorial Day, and he laid new striping with a paint roller. “Sequestered funds,” he says. He’s funny.



Actually, I went back to town because of the rain barrel. I've mentioned our road super is the poster child for conservation. Boston was selected to display one of the rain barrels painted by the local high school art class and auctioned recently. The road super was insistent I get a picture for the web site, and I didn’t see how I could be in two places at once on Memorial Day, with my own marching band in another town. But he came into my office this morning and said I could take a picture right now, it was here! I came back in the afternoon to do it justice with my “real” camera.



I looked at the river behind a new shop. It’s still flowing down hill. I went into the shop and discovered the proprietress is an old friend. But I’ll save it until I make a tour of all the shops again.



I stopped to take an absolutely magnificent picture of dogwood blossoms mingled in a spruce tree. A bury your face in the blossoms picture. But, the wind would not stop blowing and I could not get high enough to photograph down into them. Next time I’ll figure how to get on top of the dumpster.



I came home for a nap, and went to the meeting. It was superbly contentious, until the lead auditor took control by literally outshouting the trustee. Point made the auditor assembled her papers to leave. I asked her to remain and review the audit with the rest of us. 

It was a good audit of my books, but, the auditor noted, the management letter must reflect one trustee would not sign the “representation letter.” It basically says the trustees and I represent our records are correct, blablabla. I saw the wheels turn; the trustee took up pen and signed the public document.


Passing the auditors in the parking lot I smiled broadly and wished them a wonderful weekend.

23 comments:

  1. Ouch. I am so very glad that you had the dog wood and that gorgeous rain barrel to take the taste of that contentious meeting away.

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  2. As Annie says.."the sun will come out tomorrow...".
    Jane x

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  3. Beautiful photos. I love the rain barrel. Please don't climb on dumpsters.

    Love,
    Janie

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  4. Nice picture, the dogwoods particularly. We'll have a few in a few weeks.

    Suffering fools, never a strong point, but I wish you the best.

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  5. My heart goes out to you, Joanne. Lovely photos.

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  6. The pictures are lovely but so must you be to deal with pompous twerps.

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  7. Why is there always one person in a group that just can't seem to get along with the others? I hope its a long time before your next audit. In the meantime, I enjoyed the pictures; that rain barrel sure got painted very cleverly!

    betty

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  8. Whew, glad that hard stuff is over for you. At least for another year. The photos are great. Always nice to be outside in nature, isn't it? It has healing qualities. Have a great weekend. xx

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  9. I'd hate to come up again you..The truth always comes out..Thanks for your efforts.

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  10. Dear Joanne,
    menkind seems to be so very, very similar all around the world - only slight differences between yours and ours... A beautiful stroll (don't climb too high for a photo - though I never knew dogwood can climb --) and a good nights sleep heals "trifles" (one has to watch them). Have a beautiful weekend!

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  11. Glad you can surround yourself with the beauty of nature to wash away a sour meeting.

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  12. It's a wonderful time when the dogwood is in bloom... I am full of admiration for you getting involved in local politics. And from what you describe it is evident that politics is often the same the world over -- contentious! Today in the UK they are counting the votes in the local council elections and the airwaves are full of politicians making excuses for what for many of them was a bad night!

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  13. I'm so glad the audit worked out well in the end. The photos are beautiful, I love the painted rain barrel.
    The dogwoods are lovely, such a delicate pinky mauve.

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  14. Hari OM
    Huh, here I am having to wrangle council as a customer - and there you are having to wrangle with 'em from the inside. Just keep watching that river. If it starts uphill, run like the clappers. YAM xx

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  15. don't be getting on that dumpster to take any photos, lovely photos and looking forward to the shop tours, nature heals all

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  16. I just resigned my own volunteer position on a town committee. Thank heaven.
    No more pointless meetings filled with chit chat rather than business (when all I really wanted was to be home), no more members who talk a good game but actually do nothing.
    I'm glad you had a satisfying resolution to your own town issue.

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  17. The rain barrel is lovely;

    If you DO climb on the Dumpster next time please have someone get a picture of you up there :-)

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  18. That's terrific! Job well done!

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  19. Wow. Beautiful photos, the dogwood, the rain barrel, just awesome. Glad the whole audit thing turned out okay in the end. Glad I'm not an elected official, too. :-)
    Deb@ http://debeioneille.blogspot.com

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  20. That rain barrel is very spectacular, the dogwood is lovely too.
    Dealing with some people is a real pain but there are always some nasties always around.
    Merle.........

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  21. Worked for a municipality at one time in my life. It can be tough sledding at times. However you were able to put it aside and enjoy the nice day with your camera. A good way to balance out frustration. -- barbara

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