Posted on

Durango

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.

Posted on

Pagosa Springs

Wednesday. Pagosa springs. Exit conference. It went well. Annie attended. Judy
didn’t. I’ll need some help from Diane to finish the federal compliance
part properly, but the fieldwork is done. On the way there, we stopped at a place we’re supposed to be able to find a
Grace’s Warbler. A campground half way between Durango and Pagosa Springs.
Ponderosa Pine and underbrush. A nice place. No warblers. Actually, tons
of invisible birds singing. None moving. We listened. We stalked. We
watched. No warblers. I did see a Warbling Vireo. A new bird. Smaller
than a robin. Soft gray. No eye-ring. White eyebrow. White under-eye
too, but not connected. It had to be a warbling vireo. Or a Gray Vireo. I
looked in the book, and a warbling vireo is supposed to have a light yellow
wash underneath. I didn’t see that. I’m almost positively, absolutely sure
it was a warbling vireo. No new birds on the list today. Not quite sure enough. Steam train past the RV Park this morning. Then another. They’re running
two trains a day now. Last night we had visitors. The lady Judy met at Honeyville, the store up
the road, wants to sell the house and buy a motorhome. Judy invited her and
her husband to come by after work and take the tour. Nice people.
Interesting. Broke. He worked for Enron for 26 years. The entire
retirement was in Enron stock. Now they have a house, but no retirement.
She works selling honey. He works as a mechanic. Tomorrow, the last part of the last job to finish. The Durango job. The
exit conference got pushed back to 3pm. That will give me all morning to
clean up and organize the piles and piles of paper I have collected and
generated. I get to work at home until the meeting. Then. Back to the front range.

Posted on

Durango

Tuesday. Barn swallows. Bank swallows. Steam train. Exit conference scheduled for this afternoon. Didn’t happen. Started work
at 9. The target kept moving. We kept after it. Caught up to it in the
afternoon. Nailed that sucker to the floor. We got it. No more wiggling.
Now the exit conference is scheduled for Thursday. Exit conference for a different client in Pagosa Springs tomorrow. We’ll
stay here at Alpenrose and commute to Pagosa. Wow. A fifty-mile commute
each way. Monday, in Silverton, our commute was ten blocks. Pagosa Springs. I wonder if Judy will be able to occupy herself while I’m
at work. The Friday job in Evergreen rescheduled. That leaves us all the time we
need to wrap things up here. During our evening walk tonight, we noticed some big orange foam cushions
stuck on the bottom corners of a bedroom slide. Wonder what would prompt
someone to do that?