Thu 10-15

Thu 10-15

Well, did I get an earful of gossip today! Rose has transferred here from Butterfield Station, and Diane is the traveling gold inventory person. Rose is now here at Akela permanently and Diane is filling in. Both are big talkers and have been with Bowlin for some years. They proceeded to trash everybody they've ever worked with, including Leeann. Seems Rose used to work at Akela and she and Leeann had a "personality conflict." So there are strict guidelines from Alfred about what she's to do and not to do. Lots of what they had to say made no sense to me as they were talking about people I don't know. But they sure had a lot to say.

The unrelenting gossip is another aspect of corporate culture I don't care for.

Diane said at one point that she might want to stop traveling and manage a store again; I said okay, you and I can swap job. She travels I-10 to each store at least once a month to inventory the gold jewelry. Now, you understand that it get counted every night (at least it does at Picacho but not at Akela), every sale is written down and a running count is kept. There are items in the store that cost more than some of the gold so why isn't it counted and inventoried? We do have to record every AQ (indian-made) sale and do a running count, but it doesn't seem to be as critical to the company as the gold stuff. Go figure.

Diane also has a really loud voice, and has a verbal tic that is in every sentence (...and what have you...), sometimes twice. She's 60, stout, and fair, maybe 5'7". Rose is fairly short--5'5" or so, short gray hair, age 63, stresses easily, has a husband in really bad health. They mostly hung out and talked. Diane left at 4pm, forgetting to close out her register (Rose did it for her). So then Rose turned her attention to me as audience and talked and talked. I now know her whole family history. Neither of them know anything about me, not even where I'm from -- no curiosity.

When it came time to close, Shane dropped in just to check but basically she did it herself, with me helping. I could hear her breathing getting fast and raspy -- Rose, I said, it's not the end of the world, you know. But she's a self-confessed worrier and fretter.

Tomorrow at the Apache Homelands Cafe, there's a big meeting of many Apache bigwigs to discuss what's happening with the plan to make it a casino. One of the guys who was working on the computer system yesterday was in the store and said we should drop by to show our support. Somehow the guy and I got to talking about birthdays and he was very surprised to hear how old I am -- said he found it very hard to believe. Wasn't that nice? Of course, he bought a straw sombrero to wear while mowing his lawn, so maybe his judgment is a little suspect. On the other hand, it's a practical choice, wide enough to shade both shoulders, so maybe he's very clever. On the other other hand, having a lawn you have to mow is not smart, especially out here.

Am looking forward to Alamogordo. Hope it happens soon. The legs are not happy being stood on for seven hours a day.