Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say

Grrr! &*##^#$@$ (Those are swear words, in case you didn't get it.) Have you ever just wanted to stamp your feet and scream in frustration? Hubby was in charge of the money throughout this whole 2006 edition of the local Lions' fundraiser, the rodeo. Yessirree, right here in downtown Ontario a bit of the Wild West comes to visit each Civic Holiday weekend. And it's a big hit with people for miles around, thus being now the biggest Lions' fundraiser here every year.

For four years this event has gone on and you'd think it would be seamless. Everyone would know their jobs, lists of duties would have been written and carefully followed. People would work together to make this event happen without a hitch. In a perfect world, maybe.

Anyhow, hubby's accounting heart really gets pumping with his CFO Rodeo job. He plans early how much money for each of the many floats needed. He makes detailed sheets of number of bills, rolls of loonies and toonies and delivers the floats to each section head. He contacts them all, making arrangements for pickups and deliveries. He delights in serving the club in this manner. He is a numbers man to the core.

You would think with so much planning that I would have nothing to say regarding my title. I wish! Saturday morning at 8 we headed out to Lion Chief's farm to pick up one float, a plan made the night before. They had a garage sale going on but no Lion Chief and no float. It was down at the rodeo grounds. No choice but to head down there and find him to pick it up, making us late for our trip to the city to exchange some of the coin we had for fives. As the day went on, I accompanied hubby to the event and saw first hand how disorganized some people were regarding money. They would come running up to him, saying they needed a float for something else. Someone would need more change than they originally wanted. Where are the cash drawers? Who is going to take over for me? The questions flew fast and furious about many more things than hubby's finance job.

On it went through the next two days. One person forgot to call the people who had signed up to do the bar, so no one from that Lions' club showed up. That meant others had to leave their jobs short and take over the bar. Where were the bar chips? No one knew? We had them last night. Do you have extra Lions' vests? You can't take that fence down till the bar is closed. No! You can't. Oh, what's it matter? There's no one here checking.--The list goes on and on of the mayhem over the whole weekend. Several times hubby arranged to pick up money one place, only to find someone else had changed the plan.

Yesterday, the Monday after, three of us were cooling off in the pool rehashing the event. Now you have to remember this was three teachers, used to organizing not only ourselves but hundreds of students all the time. We shared stories like the ones above. We had to get it all out. Why don't people stick to the plan? Say what they mean and mean what they say? Finally with a resigned laugh we decide the event came off well anyhow. So many of these people don't plan but the rodeo is a huge success for yet another year. Just goes to show you we humans stumble through and make things happen. Sort of like life, I guess.