Pappa Hardy's Musings on Life.

I just can’t wait until I retire. I at one time thought I would want to work forever, but now, after all of the turmoil that has been occurring for the last 10 years, I would love to be able to just shut the world out. Things are happening to quickly out there. I guess I would love to take an ostrich approach and just be able to ignore the world. Unfortunately, or fortunately, that is not what I I really should be doing. I should be engaged and attempting to make a difference. I think making a difference is important. I think we all need to be out there doing the right thing. Even with that knowledge, I still can’t wait until retirement.

From the evening news tonight you would have thought that the entire financial structure of the United States had just quit functioning. I have to admit, it was an interesting and also stressful day at the bank. It is not every day that the DJI loses 500 points. The DJI Average lost that much in October of 1987 when the market was a lot smaller. We recovered.

Things are changing fast, that is for sure. Lehman Brothers disappears over a weekend, with Merrill Lynch being purchased by Bank of America. What some people, the ignorant, and most of the populace of this country don’t understand is that the investment banks are not the same as the commercial banks that they equate banking with. The commercial banks and the majority of the banks in this country are much safer than the country realizes. It is going to be a wild ride for the next little while as the markets sort out all of the problems that have come because of the greed of a few who put together mortgages that were not good, and then the populace of this country who wanted a home without paying the dues required and who wanted to profit by using constantly rising home prices as a way to build their equity.

Yes, it will take a while. Those of us who have 401k’s and the such will need to hold out for a while, but I believe that this country will recover. In the meantime, we have a Presidential Election in process and the candidates will beat this to death. We also have basic problems that need to be resolved, the IRAQ war, Social Security, Medicare, and budget deficits. Whoever is elected President has a real challenge on their hands. We will recover from this supposed financial meltdown.

Monday and Tuesday has been a wild ride for one who is a banker. I have never experienced anything quite like this before. While at work, the stock of Zions Bank, for which I work, was falling like a rock during the day. While we at the bank don’t believe that there are real financial reasons for this to be happening, it does reflect how much emotion affects the way people feel about financial things.

The current recession is partly the result of the fact that people believe that it is going to be bad. When people believe the way they do, then it becomes that way. Well, I do hope that the bank can withstand this illogical onslaught by the waves of illogic. The bank is not in trouble. Well, today shall be another very busy day.

Have you ever gone to a training event where you are supposed to be able to understand the subject better after being trained? Well, that happened to me today, and I walked away probably more confused than before I started. Somewhere, between the noon hour and 1pm things got jumbled and I never recovered. This is particularly troublesome when you realize that you have a little over a month to learn this stuff, get it done right, and have loans approved, and yet keep up with everything else that is happening at the office. I feel like I am falling into a whirlpool, and the currant is pulling me down. Training? It ain’t always what it is sold to be.

Going to a third world country like Mexico reminds you of how difficult earning a living can be. While in Mazatlan, we saw everything from a cliff diver risking his life several times a day, beggars on the street, street vendors assailing you at every turn, trying to sell you anything and everything, and tour guides.

This was an interesting experience. As a nation seems to become more developed, there is less of this going on. The cliff divers were incredible and I enjoyed the tour guides. It was harder dealing with the beggars and street beggers, because you only have so much time and money, and I am on vacation and would like to not have to deal with all of that so much. In any event, people will do anything to make a buck.

First Day back to work. Oh, it never pays to leave in my profession. You go to work, the work starts to pile on, and alas, none of the stuff you worked so hard to make sure got done while you were gone actually got done. It is just a never ending mess. I sometimes think I should have stayed home.

That little ditty of a title describes our return home today. I always hate coming home the worst, because the fun and anticipation of the vacation is over, and you know that tomorrow you have to go back to work. I worried about that all day long, but finally we are back to home sweet home and now we can get on with life. Home Again, home again, jiggity jig.

If you had read the Book of Mormon, you might think that I was referring to the sign that Christ was being born in the America’s. Unfortunately, what I am writing about is not quite so dramatic or faith inspiring. Rather, it refers to the day and night before we left for vacation in North Carolina.

It was so busy at work on Friday that I didn’t get a lot done that needed to be done before I left to go on vacation. We then went to the Salmon Supper in Payson, which if you have never gone is a terrific event. The salmon was just wonderful. We had good company too, Gordon and Christie and their number one in utero, Grandpa and Grandma Hardy, then the Hardy’s left at the Hardy Hacienda.

Once we came home, it was time to get packed up and ready for the vacation. You would think that we would know better and have been all prepared. Instead, we had to start from scratch so that meant that I didn’t get all of my packing and preparation done until almost midnight. I had to go back to the office therefore to get the job done and so here I was, sitting in the Payson Branch of Zions Bank at 2am in the morning. Once that was finished, I had to gas up the car and do some other stuff.

3am, I am sitting awake in the computer room of the house, and the question arose, do I go to bed for 90 minutes or do I just stay awake and get ready and go. Well, I didn’t think 90 minutes would help me so I stayed awake, mainly because in order to get to the Salt Lake airport and get on our way we had to leave Payson at 4:15am.

Well, I stayed awake, for the first time in probably 20 years, all night long. I know there have been times when I felt like I was staying up all night long, but most of the time I had at least a few minutes of fitful sleep.

Well, my lack of sleep showed up in the next days activities. We had trouble in going through security at the airport because I had forgotten to pick up the boarding passes, and then we had a little time in Phoenix to change flights, and then the long flight across the US of A to Henderson, North Carolina.

I had heard that North Carolina was beautiful, but I was unprepared for the things that I saw there. It is such a beautiful state. When we arrived, we still had things to do, and by that time I was unprepared for how luppie I was starting to get. I think that I only survived because I was so excited that I was able to survive. It was such a beautiful day and a great way to end “A Day, A Night, and A Day”.

After today, I just need to be handled with care:

Back to work today. There is never enough time in this profession to get it all done. What makes it worse is three fold

1-Staffing models that say we can get by with less than what it takes to do a deal
2-Working in a branch, where interruption is the norm rather than the exception
3-The fact that there is a labor shortage has also made it harder to get additional help

I have so much to get done, and just don’t seem to have the time to get it all done and taken care of. From talking to other lenders, I don’t think I am the exception, but rather the norm. I hope it gets better.