June was a very complicated and consuming month.

First off, all the normal simple little things happened that occur to all of us at some point; The mortgage went up, some mail got lost/misplaced by the USPS, a rock chipped the windshield of the truck, etc. Either way, these are day to day issues and by themselves, virtually controllable.

And then the rest (I’ll try to keep it brief)…

A friend of ours rented a cabin up on a lake in a place called Scotch Valley Estates, and since there was more than enough room, she invited us to join her. We love the mountains and this seemed like a good way to get a couple of days of peace and quiet. It was in fact, a beautiful place with an incredible view and I did enjoy my time there. There were some “internal” issues with the children and structure of the group that I had to deal with, but other than that, it was a nice change. We got there on a Friday night and I left the following Tuesday to get back to work. Shannon and the boys stayed until the following weekend and from all indications had a great time. I’ve made it my mission over the years to get a “Mountain Retreat” home for my family someday. I find it’s the one place that I can actually relax and be myself. It’s a lofty goal, but one that’s high on my list.

While all this was going on, Margo (my Mother-In-Law) was at our home watching things and taking care of our animals. Her Mother (we call her Gran but her name is Myra) is in a close-by nursing home on Hospice and Margo was spending as much time with her as possible. She’s deteriorating physically, and I don’t think that it will be much longer. We have her in our thoughts… Nonetheless, it made the care of the house and animals while we were away much easier on both us and on them. I tend to give Margo a pretty hard time, but she’s a good lady and I’ve come to like her very much.

Following Shannon and the Boys’ return, the preparation for the Gastric Bypass surgery began almost immediately. Shannon went to Barix Clinics in Langhorne, PA for the surgery, and from my perspective, these people have their act together (and I don’t say that often). The facility was excellent, the doctor I met was very down-to-earth and at the end of the day, everything went very well. She’s been home two weeks now and she’s doing very well (down 20lbs). It’s a full liquid diet at the moment, but Shannon’s handling it like a trooper. I’m very proud of her, this is a big step.

And through all of this constant running and insanity, I learned something on the business end as well.  When I leave the office for a period of time, sales go down considerably. Everything that needed to be taken care of was, but the sales of new products and overall volume did drop notably from previous months. Not a large shock, but it is a cash flow mess for June. I’m going to use this information however, to build in the mechanisms that help to curb that shortfall in the future and try to correct the deficiencies now, before it gets more problematic. Ahh, the masochism of Small Business…

Anyway, as you can tell, June was insane. I’m hoping July will be a little less eventful so I can get everything not done in June straightened out. Only time will tell I expect…

Phil Malmstrom
philm@mycoffeecuphasfeet.com