Thursday. Two steam trains. Red wing blackbirds. Meadowlarks. Nice noise. Giant forty-five foot American Eagle with a huge box trailer. Way bigger
than they need for the VW Bug they keep in it. Judy visited with them.
Turns out they’re not just being pretentious. They travel with a son who
has some breathing problems. They tow a huge box trailer with a VW Bug in
it, and a hyperbaric chamber. Not quite the traditional motorhome
equipment, but they do what they need to do to make it work. Rags didn’t have to escape today. We just left the door open and let him go
in and out as he wanted. After a while, what he wanted was to go play in
the ditch. It’s a small ditch, full of water, weeds, and bugs. Who could
blame him? We put his leash on and tethered him over in the shade, by the
water so he could play all he wanted, unsupervised. Worked at home. Lunch in the sun. Had the meeting. It was a long one. I ended up explaining all the
nonprofit income recognition principles, that the prior auditors didn’t get
right, to the Executive Director and the Bookkeeper, and the Board
Treasurer. The Treasurer, an accounting professor. How presumptuous is
that? Presuming to educate the educator. He agreed with the logic and is
satisfied with the 2003 financial statements. Yesterday, I did the same
thing, but that treasurer, a retired CPA, agreed with every conclusion
except one. He was adamant that I misinterpreted a principal. I offered to
send him documentation supporting my position, but he declined. He said he
already knew all he needed to know. He was right, and I was wrong. It
wasn’t a point I could concede. It would have led them down an
inappropriate accounting path. By the end of the meeting, he was still
right, but he graciously conceded that even though I was wrong, he could
live with the way I wanted to do it. Whew. So. Back at Durango, we said our goodbyes. Sue, the person I’ve worked
with here promised that next year the job would be so easy that there would
be plenty of time left over for her and her husband to take Judy and me on a
mountain bike ride we’d never forgive. Oh boy. Another one done. That’s it. No more jobs. No more excuse.
Tomorrow. North. Or west. We could go east to get there. We’ll decide tomorrow morning.