WednesdayLast day. Today I learned more about paperless offices. I’ve always thought this sounded like more trouble than it was worth. Paper storage doesn’t really cost much in Denver. Staff time does. But now with everything residing on the server anyway, I’m thinking it’s probably time to go ahead and eliminate the paper files, starting with the current year. We originate almost all the paper on our own computers anyway. We can carry a scanner for the occasional client paper we want to include and reference in to our work. I’d start with the current year, and let the older ones in storage just fall off by attrition. Yeah. I think it’s time. Out of here by twelve-thirty. Went straight to see our new friends Steve and Linda. Scored the windsurfer. OK. The windsurfer case was slightly overstated. There were not two masts. Only one. Steve gave us a like new, intermediate board, one mast, three sails, three dagger boards, and all the miscellaneous goodies and gear to hook it all up. It doesn’t hang anywhere on the outside of the motorhome. We just dropped it all in the front room of the motorhome and took it to Susie and Johns on the river. Then we dropped it all in their garage. We’ll figure out Plan B later. Now, I just want to sleep. Oh wait. I have to tell you about Judy’s red pickup driver. We picked up this red pickup truck on Interstate 10 in Phoenix. We drove north on Highway 51, a freeway, for miles and miles. He stayed right with us. He was driving erratically. I expected him to pass, but he never did. He would get right next to us on our shoulder, then just ride right there in my blind spot. That’s not easy to do from the adjacent lane. Every time one lane slowed down, it would throw the whole thing off. But for all his lane changing, diving in and out of traffic, he never got by. Finally just as he started to peel off at the exit, he started honking like crazy. Judy looked down and he was right next to her waving. He wasn’t wearing any pants, and his hand was in his lap waving furiously.
Trip07
Tuesday It was pretty hot, way over a hundred when we got here. We parked the motorhome under a couple eucalyptus trees, closed the curtains, opened the louvered windows, opened some ceiling vents, and turned on the exhaust fan. We decided to just let the exhaust fan run the whole time to keep the motorhome from getting too hot and stuffy inside. It worked. Every day, the solar collector on the roof recharges the batteries enough to keep the fan running again all the next day. Overall there is a net loss of battery. We couldn’t do this forever, but it’ll work for four days. We only have one collector on the roof. The system will allow for two more collectors, but they’re kind of expensive. I think we should get one more collector this year. We should be practically electrically independent with that. Today, at the conference, we focused on leading indicators, rather than trailing indicators. I think there is some merit in that. Everything we do now is historical. Well, except for the graphs. But the audited financial statements are about what has already happened. The 990 tax return is about what has already happened. The graphs are about what has already happened, but as I talk about them, we get to talking about what works and what doesn’t work, and sometimes where they’re headed if they keep doing what they’re doing. I think that is the real opportunity to help: Talking about their choices, and the effects of the different options. My racquetball guy was a no-show tonight. I did find another guy to play, though. Had a good time with him. I got to pretend I was really playing lefty, and try out all the serves and strategies I would have used against him.The water park is keeping Judy well occupied during the day.Room service dinner is pretty good.
Trip06
Monday I really like this place. Buildings scattered all around with wandering pathways, crossovers, shortcuts, long cuts, hidden courtyards, swimming pools, fountains. It’s always interesting to walk from one place to another. It’s well planted and well kept. We have great-tailed grackles, mockingbirds, hummingbirds, mourning doves, and a roadrunner. A hundred ten degrees is not really all that hot. It is so dry here that you still get an evaporative cooling chill when you get out of the water. And besides, it cools down to less than a hundred degrees at night. OK. This place is great. I’m not leaving. Just send all my mail here from now on. Let’s see. Monday. Today I learned about succession planning. Yesterday I learned about staffing. CPAs are still concerned about staffing, just like they have been for years. It is the issue most on our minds. Except this year, comments have shifted from: “I can’t get good people.” Or “I can’t get good people to stay.” To “All of my people have been with me so long now, and are so well paid, I can’t make any money any more.” Sucks huh? Sure glad I don’t live in their world. Succession planning. Everyone needs a succession plan. They all seem to revolve around how to get your partners to give you money when you want out, though. Maybe I don’t get to have one at all. Not having a partner, I don’t get to pick who should give me money. This is a conference of CPA firm owners and partners. Looks like 15% of CPA conference attendees are women. Looks like 5% are minority. No-one answered the challenge on the conference message board. However, know how lucky I am? Tonight is challenge night at the racquetball court. They open the club to local players who come here practically every night to play. I got one of them tonight. Young left handed guy. Hit it pretty hard. I got to play a few other people too, but I got thumped by Lefty. We got to talking, and he was kind enough to agree to come back tomorrow night and do it again for an hour.
Here are a couple pictures of the lazy river we floated.
Here are a couple pictures of the lazy river we floated.
Trip05
Sunday. I just have a half-day of class today. Judy was kind enough this morning to be today’s racquetball victim. After that, I went to my class session. I got out at 2pm, so we lathered up with sunscreen and spent the afternoon in the water park. The water park is great. Grass, lounge chairs, chair-side service, streams, bridges, fountains, waterfalls, water jets, palm trees, cabanas, waves, bubbles, and slides. There is a lazy river. It winds its way through the water park at a leisurely pace while you float along on a tube. Judy and I selected a double tube and circled the endless loop together for an hour. What a nice thing to do. We laid in the sun, drifted down the river, bobbed about in the wave pool, and went down the water slide. The water slide. This is a serious water slide. A speed slide. This water slide is 60 feet high. Six stories. Going down the speed slide is easy, really. You just climb to the top of the tower and sit down on the ledge at the top. Looking down to the bottom, you can see the bottom of the slide, but nothing in between the top and the bottom. You just let go, slip over the edge, and trust that the middle part of the slide truly is there, and it’s not all just a terrible. Awful. Sick. Trick. You keep your legs extended straight out and crossed at the ankles. Fold your arms across your chest. Then hold that position as you fall out of the sky, accelerating to about 40 mph, your body keeping touch with the slide every now and then on the way down. Now you might think that sliding down the slide is about letting go to start, and the thrill of the slide down, and you would be right. But there is more. There is re-entry. Somehow all that falling energy has to be converted back to earth molecules as we know them. This is accomplished amid a great roar and spectacular spray on the run-out at the end. The run-out starts with about an inch of standing water, and gets progressively deeper until it is several inches deep. This is the reason for keeping your legs crossed at the ankles. It is very important to keep your legs crossed at the ankles. We don’t want to lose any parts along the way. But there is something else that is important to do that they don’t tell you about at the top. When you hit the standing water at the end, focus. Shift your mind from, “Oh Shit! I’m going to die. I can’t breathe. Who’ll take care of the children?” to “Keep your feet down. Hit the water with your feet.” Something has to absorb the energy of this progressive impact. I know from personal experience that if your feet don’t absorb it, the next body part in line will. I can also tell you that all the little fat particles in your butt vibrating at supersonic speed can leave you a little sore the next day. After going down the slide once, I wasn’t sure I actually remembered all of it, so I felt I needed to do it a few more times, to be sure I had absorbed the entire experience. I’m now certain that I’ve absorbed enough. I never did feel I completely mastered the part about keeping your feet down at the end, though.
Trip05
Oh. There is more.
Pictures.
Pictures.