Rafting on the Rio Grande

(click on an image for a larger picture)

On Friday, June 13th, we all quit work early, drove north an hour to take a trip down the Rio Grande river in a raft. Stacy and Russell had organized it. This was our company event for June.

Starting last January, once a month, we started budgeting money to do something fun, just to break the grind of working every day. Everyone's been given opportunities to choose what the event would be. In February, Stacy decided to hire a psychic and everyone had half an hour. (Remember, our shop is in Santa Fe!) Russell had just been hired, though we actually decided to be a little bit discrete and not clue him in on the event. Could you imagine starting to work at a place and at the end of the first week, being told that the company had hired a psychic for their employees?

Helen and I went away for seven weeks in March and April to Bali, India and Sri Lanka. Apparently everyone back here went out to a dinner movie café. They saw, Gangs of New York. Rumor has it that some people thought it was a little violent.

In May, it was Helen's turn to choose, and everyone got a good massage from the people who have a healing clinic above our shop. That proved to be very popular and extremely relaxing.

I think that the rafting trip was the most exciting event so far. There's been a drought in the Southwest for some time now, but we had a good snowfall last winter in some parts of the Southern Rockies. There's still some water running down the river even after the farms in southern Colorado irrigate their potato fields. There were seven of us in a raft. I elected to go in one of the inflatable kayaks, as did Russell. The trip started mellow enough, an easy float down some slightly choppy waters. But an hour or so later there were some interesting moments negotiating through some class three rapids between large rocks.

For the record, I flipped once, trying to "surf" behind a tricky eddy. Fortunately, moments before, I had given up my camera to the outfitter in the raft who had a dry bag. Russell, who flipped three times, looks like a pro in the photo.

Those in the raft made it down the stretch without dunking at all. At one point, though, it did seem as if they were not going to make it. Too bad I didn't have a tape recorder to record Gloria's screaming panic for posterity.

We came back later that afternoon, totally exhausted and well prepared to start the weekend. To me, as a business owner, apart from being able to meet our payroll and overhead week to week, the most satisfying part of running our business is the group energy that we've created. I like trying my best to see that everyone who works for us is supported with living wages, bonuses and a full benefit package. Everyone also needs to be appreciated and have fun too.