I had to smile while I was waiting in line to check out at Schnuck’s grocery store a couple of days ago. You know Easter has come and gone when the chocolate rabbits hop into the clearance basket.
Mother and Brother Mark would harvest as many of the rabbits they could find when they went on sale. The orphan bunnies shivered in the basement freezer until they were melted down for whatever purpose the pair could come up with.
April rains bring spring flowers
Tulips at Kingsway Dr 04-02-2023
The gentle rains caused the tulips Mother planted decades ago to welcome Spring, but the next round of winds and rains whipped them to shreds before I could decorate Mother and Dad’s tombstone as was my usual custom.
I decided that chocolate bunny rabbits would make a good stand-in. I hurried to the grocery store and found that the cart still had an abundance of the hoppers.
Dad’s birthday was coming up
Chocolate rabbits for LV – Mary Steinhoff 04-15-2023
Dad died in 1977. If we populated his birthday cake on April 17 of this year, the 106 candles would be visible in outer space.
I thought he’d appreciate that I sampled the rabbit before delivering it.
Mother’s rabbit was fancier
I thought Mother deserved a fancier rabbit than Dad.
It’s fun coming up with something a little different to show them they have been remembered.
American flags have always been a big deal in our family. When I was kindergarten age, I had a small flag that I would put out first thing every morning. I remember crying because we were late getting home one night and I was sure the Flag Police would arrest me for not bringing the flag in when it got dark.
Mother flew flag almost every day
Mother 7/02/2011
Mother’s flag wasn’t all-weather, and it wasn’t lighted at night, so she only put it during the day when it was pretty. It provided the perfect backdrop when her kin came to visit.
What’s with the tattered flag?
New flagpole 10-12-2020
I put a flagpole in the front yard and bought an all-weather flag that is is lighted at night. I noticed the other day that it was starting to fade, so I made a mental note to replace it before long.
I went out to South Carolina to spend a week with Son Adam and his family. When I got back to Cape, I could see that a strong wind storm must have come through because the tarp over my carport was in tatters.
A couple days later, I noticed that my flag had a small hole in it. By the time I got a replacement ordered, it had grown in size.
I’m going to put up the new flag on Veterans Day to mark the sacrifices that have made it possible for that flag to wave in my front yard.
I’m sure Mother would be happy to see her flag tradition continues.
This Boy Scout sticker on the back door has been looking out onto the porch for more than six decades. After I shot it, I had the uncanny feeling that I could see Mother in the background of the photo.
It’s probably just my reflection, but I wasn’t wearing a shirt with that color when I took the picture.
Dad travelled quite a bit looking to buy used heavy equipment for his next job. He’d pore over auction and sales catalogs until he had made a list of possible buys; then, he’d saddle up his pony and take off to see if the equipment was suitable and in good condition.
He told me one time that if you were going to stay in the construction business, you had to work the margins: one piece of equipment too many or one too few, or one worker too many or one too few could mean the difference between making deadlines, and profits and loss.
He had a good track record of paying a good price for a bulldozer or dragline, using it on a job, then selling it for what he had paid for it or more.
Disputing a charge
LV Steinhoff credit card receipts 1977
One file folder I ran across had many exchanges between Dad and his credit card company over a Cullman, Ala, Days Inn charge that had been double-billed.
The amount in dispute was $14.71. Like I said, it was all about the margins. Nobody was going to soak Dad for $15.
Look at these amounts
I’m sure Dad gritted his teeth before paying a Best Western in Americus, Ga., $21.20. I can remember the first time I stayed in a place that gouged me $24.99 (plus tax).
The Guest House Hotel in Bushnell, Fl., was a more reasonable $12.48, and even the Cullman Days Inn wouldn’t have been bad at $14.71 if they hadn’t tried to charge him twice.
Expense account confessions
LV Steinhoff credit card receipts 1977
I was a collector of receipts, even if I didn’t use them on a particular trip. I was especially fond of Waffle Houses because they were almost everywhere, and they didn’t have any identifying marks on them.
Not all my staffers were as diligent about keeping track of receipts, so I went to an office supply store and bought one of each receipt pads they stocked. Rather than having accounting kick back a report that was light on backup, I’d give the staffer some receipt books, and say, “Fill in the holes, but don’t use the same book in multiple towns, and don’t keep them in numerical order.”
I learned that from Dad
Dad’s partners were great at what they were great at, but they were a little light when it came to business matters.
At tax time, Dad sat them down and said, fill out your expense diaries to account for what you spent to the best of your knowledge. Don’t use the same pen to fill out the entries. Here are black, blue, green and red pens. Vary them.
They followed his directions
When he looked at their diaries, they had followed his directions.
Exactly.
The entries were black, blue, green and red; black, blue, green and red; black, blue, green and red….
That’s when I learned that you can never be too careful giving directions.
“Find the jacket”
Florida-born Sarah Steinhoff shovels snow on Christmas Eve 2000 while I watch in my field jacket
When I left on an out-of-town assignment, the weather was supposed to be warm at my destination. Unfortunately, a cold front moved through and caused the mercury to plummet.
It’s hard to take sharp photos when you a shivering, so I dropped into an army surplus store and picked up a field jacket for less than fifteen bucks.
Accounting kicked it back saying that we don’t pay for clothing items.
I reworked my report and shot it back.
“This is for the same amount as your first report,” accounting said.
“Find the jacket,” was my answer.
That coat is still one of my favorite pieces of clothing, even if it HAS managed to shrink in the dark of the closet over the years.,
