Thanking God for His many blessings. When I lost my teaching job spring of 2011 there was a lot of stress due to uncertainty about what direction things would go. But I appreciate the timing, as even though neither of the 2 jobs I tried to transition into worked out ... steel sales 5 months and the Roche incoming call center 3 months ... it worked out like this. First, the spring of 2011 a friend had an opening at a security job so I picked up a little bit of work there for 3 months, had my summer off to take the 2 grandsons down to Browns Pool ... one of those life doesnt get better than this things. We found out my father-in-law had lung cancer, and I was able to make the trip out to CT with my wife and visit with my in-laws for a week ... in fact, got the call for my 2nd interview at the steel sales position while in CT. Worked Sept - Jan, and got short notice, Friday afternoon, the first week of Feb. that I was not to come back, but my wife and daughter already had plane tickets to visit my in-laws at their winter snow bird home in Largo, FL. So I ended up going on a flight a couple days later, but spent the week with them ... my last time to see Gpa Olson. He died the end of Mar., the same day I interviewed at Roche. I got a call later that day saying I had the job, well, had been accepted for the training to do that job. They wanted me to begin the training (4 weeks of classroom, then 3 phases of on the phone transition into the regular job) within a month, and I was still able to use the excuse that my father-in-laws health situation was uncertain and I might need to go on short notice. And I did. I ended up flying to FL and met my sister-in-law and her husband in Largo, and we loaded up the U-Haul and brought Gmas things from FL to CT, where Ryan, Dawn, and Priscilla flew out to meet us for the funeral, but Ryan and Priscilla had to return to their jobs, and Dawn and I spent an extra week out there in CT relaxing, even making a run into VT so I could make the claim Id been in all of the states east of the Mississippi. The next training session was in early Sept, which worked out great for an old teacher use to having summers off, and again I spent it at Browns Pool with the boys, helping their mom out a little as Lainey Nicole was born in Mar. shortly before Gpa Olson had died. I had fun just following the boys around that spring and summer, giving their mom the one on one time she appreciated with her little girl. When I started the Roche job, I knew it would be the Mon - Fri, year round, no teachers summer off! But I only made it through 3 months, not hitting goal points for the 2nd level of performance on the phones. However, I got in my Thanksgiving paid holiday before being let go, and again, the positive was that my son transitioned from his Medtronics job to the Intuitive job, and it meant a lot of training ... several 3 week stretches out in California. So being out of a job meant I could be a bit more help to Vanessa with the 3 kids and her husband out in CA with a lot of work studying even when he was at home. ... and again, another summer at Browns Pool. My teachers schedule didnt miss a beat, though I missed the teachers pay. But right away spring of 2011 I was able to start drawing my retirement pay, about 1/3 of my teachers take home pay, but on Dec. 24th, I started receiving my Soc Sec which is about that same amount as my pension. So Im not getting rich. Im still paying on my home mortgage which I had hoped to have paid off before retiring from teaching, but my wife has been able to work her nursing job, and I feel it is reasonable to shoot to be totally debt free within 2 1/2 years. Well see. : ) But for me, life is much less stressful, and there is not the pressure that anyone else is really depending on me, like use to be the case with my wife being a house wife and the kids growing up. I know other factors will come into my life, especially complications with the old age aches and pains, but for now, those are more minor and of no real immediate concern. I miss my running, but am very thankful I can get out and walk! I enjoyed working on my landscaping project ... much more than my wife liked looking at the slow progress with an ongoing appearance of a construction site ... but it gives me a little incentive to look past this winter cold, and dream of getting the terracing finally fixed up as I envisioned it. Time will tell. Thank you, God, for a good life. : ) HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL. God bless.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 02:48:23 +0000
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