Monthly Update

Well, it's certainly been an eventful month of August in the Hartley household!

The biggest news is that Allstate will be shutting down its St. Petersburg call center in about a year, which means that I'll be out of a job. The shut down is scheduled for sometime in 3rd-quarter of 2008, so it gives me plenty of time to go out and look for work. Have no idea what I want to do. Right now, the thought, at my age, of having to go out and look for work, especially in an office environment again, is just too daunting. My plan right now is to stay at Allstate until the very end, collect my severance and bonus, then look for work. If I stay to the bitter end, I will wind up with about 6 months of severance, which sounds like a lot, but when you have to pay your own medical insurance, it goes fast! The reason they gave us such a long notice is that the company is opening several other express centers to take claims and we've known all along that once those centers open, the claim service centers are history. The company figured that since they had all the plans in place, it was only a matter of time until rumors started about when we would close, so they decided to let us know right up front so we would have some time to plan our future. Some of the call center managers in our center and others had apparently already seen the writing on the wall, because there have been a number of managers who left recently, and when I saw that they were leaving and where they were going, it seemed like some of their moves were lateral instead of a step up. Now we know why! So, right now my plan is just to check out the type of jobs that are out there and what they pay, and file that info away for when I am ready to actually look for work.

The other big news is that the apartment complex we are living in is going condo. Not a big surprise since the company that bought the complex several months ago is mainly a condo complex management company. Our lease is not up for almost a year and the complex is sending out letters and having meetings begging people to stay. We certainly want to stay since we like the complex and love the apartment. The timing on our lease actually turns out to be pretty convenient since that's about the time I should know more about the actual CSC shutdown date. Another positive thing is that the complex should be making some major improvements if they expect to sell condos at the price they are asking. We have first rights on our condo, a 3/2--asking price $595,000. When I saw that price I could hardly stop laughing! Someone said "you must really live in a nice apartment and complex." I said if they came in and saw the apartment, they would be dead before they could leave because they couldn't catch their breath from laughing so hard. Not that there's anything wrong with the apartment--we actually love it--but I know about what condos in this area run and there is no way they can make enough improvements to the complex and the condo to make it worth that kind of money. No wonder they are begging people to stay! Anyway, no sweat on this one--we have a lease, we want to stay, they want us to stay, so we'll just reevaluate the situation in a year, along with everything else.

Tracy is such a loser!!!!!! She's now lost 50 pounds!!!!! I'm so proud of her and her dedication. It has made such a difference as to how she feels. Still a ways to go but she'll make it.

Even I've lost 19 pounds.....about 10 more to go.

More later, time to go to church.