Our employees went to a summer schedule this week. We all work 6 days a week from mid-February until the last week of May and 5 days a week the rest of the year. The way the schedule worked out this year we have quite a few sales employees on Tuesday's and Wednesdays. The opportunistic business owner that I am thought that maybe I could come in today, check on things and then visit some retail nurseries that I have never been to like Maas down in Seabrook or Warren's Southern Gardens in Kingwood. I knew we would be short a cashier because of her vacation but I thought we were still going to have adequate help. I opened the store this morning and before I could sit at my desk I had a distraught salesperson requesting the rest of the week off because of a close friends recent death.  I am now down a bedding salesman. I still have enough employees to leave for half a day though. No problem. About 5 minutes later my daughter Kelly walks in the store like she has a book balanced on her head....very carefully. Her back was out. She had to go right to the chiropractor who told her she needs to go home, rest and ice her lower back. Can anything else happen? Absolutely! I thought our back up cashier was going to be there but I found out early this morning she had school today. Ok, I am going to stay at the nursery and do whatever I need to do. With me there we have enough to get by and still service the customers. Then I find out that my daughter Sherri had to leave for an hour and a half to a school function with my grandaughter. Now I have to start moving employees around like chess pieces to fill in the gaps. I make my one and only salesperson, that I have left, a cashier. I call up my greenhouse bedding grower, Marcella, from the back forty to be a back up cashier/sales helper. I am answering questions, the phone, writing up orders, loading up customers purchases. We were very busy but we still serviced our customers and their needs in a timely and professional manner. I will say we did miss a few phone calls.
            When these not so unusual occurances happen I think "What would have happened today if I had not been here?"  I believe a distraught salesperson would have sucked it up and stayed. I think Kelly would have stayed and helped until Sherri came back from the school function. I think a cashier would have come and worked on her vacation day if called.  I know my employees would have adjusted, re-adjusted and made the right decisions for the nursery. Maybe I'll see some interesting new nurseries next week or whenever the stars line up perfectly.