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River Of Data.com |
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December 10, 2000
Greetings from Idaho
While we watched the Millennium celebrations around the world on New Years Eve, along with the rest of the people on the planet, we could hardly have known that once again our life would take an interesting turn. We cannot yet say that ‘this year was pretty boring and routine’. One of these days maybe that will happen, but I am beginning to have my doubts.
Not too long after the holidays, things began to get more and more stressful at Hewlett-Packard. The new CEO had hit the ground running in July and by early 2000 she was shaking things up and making sweeping changes that left everyone wondering what would come next. One of the changes in my particular department was very troubling to me and that was their decision to move my library’s reporting relationship to another site in another state.
About this time we decided to do something we had been wanting to do for a long time, meeting with a financial planner to see how our overall picture looked (meaning (for Gail) “When can I retire?”) It was very interesting that Dan was the one who made the first contact about this, considering the far-reaching results of that action on my life. We began working with a financial advisor at American Express Financial Advisors in late January. By late February we had preliminary results that looked promising for our ability to retire at 62. Of course, this was when the stock market was still cruising along.
In early March, Hewlett-Packard made an early retirement offer to 2500 employees, including me. They said, ‘we’ll give you a year’s salary if you will go away’. I really wanted to do it from day one, but was of course apprehensive about such a huge step. I had been with HP for 23 years and was not really ready to sit in my rocking chair. Also, we didn’t think we could really afford for me to just quit working just yet. So, we asked our financial advisor at American Express to see how things would look if I took the offer. I had until mid-April to make a decision. Even though the financial side of it looked feasible, it was still a difficult decision. The unknown is always so scary. I just didn’t know what I would do. The idea of looking for a job at my age was daunting. I did, however, update my resume and applied for a couple of library openings in the area.
In the end, I decided to take the offer. Once I had made the decision, the folks at American Express asked if I was interested in coming to work for them to train to become a financial advisor. They were beginning a new business model, which includes paying the people they hire to spend three months studying and taking the necessary examinations to get licensed. After going through the interview process with them, I received an offer. I accepted at once, and thus began a whole new career. The lady that did our financial analysis is now my boss. I told them, however, that I wanted to take the summer off since I had two trips planned. They said that was fine. They were hiring two new people a month, so were willing to wait. We settled on a start date of August 9.
My last day at HP was May 10th. That same day I flew to Fresno to spend a long weekend for Mother’s Day and mother’s 80th birthday. Karen and I, along with a great deal of help from my cousin Joanell and her husband, had put together an open house to celebrate the event. My niece Julie and her family and my nephew Steven and his family drove down from the Bay area for the day. Julie’s in-laws came down, too. Her dad, John, and his wife also came along, as they were visiting Julie. John has known mother since he was in junior high and his father was pastor of our church.
A dozen or so of mother’s friends also stopped by, some of whom also remembered John from about 35 years ago. It is amazing how all these things come about. I know mother enjoyed the party, but was very tired at the end of the day. Mother has been struggling with her emphysema the past couple of years and late this year the doctor finally decided that she needs to have some oxygen available to help her breathe. She is getting used to it and still tries to get to her exercise programs a couple of times a week and do whatever she can.
I spent most of the summer just being kind of lazy. I did start studying the books that American Express gave me to get a head start on my exams. I think that made it easier when the time came. It was mostly new material to me. We did get away for a week to the Oregon Coast in June. We traded one of our weeks in Maui for a wonderful condo in Newport. We knew we wouldn’t get back to Maui this year. But we have already booked our two weeks for next year. The weather was pretty good on the coast. We just lazed around and hit every antique store between Lincoln City and Coos Bay, I think.
In mid-July we took our long planned trip to the mid-West for my family reunion. It was hard to believe that it had been three years since we had a reunion here in Boise. We flew in and out of Chicago and were lucky to catch Dan’s mom and his brother Irv and his wife and kids just at the end of their visit. We spent a lot of time with Cinda and her fiancé, Henri. They got engaged this spring and were building a house when we were there. We got to see it mostly done. They moved in about 10 days after we left. We also spent a couple of days with Andy and Amy and I finally got to see their house in McHenry. We took all four of them to a White Sox game. We also took all four of them to the Titanic Exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. I had seen it a couple of years ago, but it was well worth seeing again. I’m glad Dan and the kids had a chance to see it, too.
We drove to Columbus on our way to Indianapolis for the reunion. There we spent the night with my cousin Paul and his wife, Dotie. We had never seen their house and Dan had never met them. I had only seen Paul once, for about two hours 25 years ago, in the past 50 years. To say the least, we had a lot of catching up to do. Paul is the oldest cousin on my dad’s side. I also reconnected this year with another cousin on my dad’s side, my cousin Barbara and her husband, John, who now live in Sun City, Arizona. We missed seeing them in Columbus by two days! Hopefully we will get together with them before too many more years.
Then it was on to Indy for the family reunion at my cousin Wes’s house. Karen and mother were not able to get to it. Ed’s wife, Carolyn, videotaped a lot of it and circulated the tape so they were able to see everyone on tape. We had a great time. The motel even had the reunion in their marquee. Friday night was a picnic in the rain, but we were undaunted, thanks to tents that had been set up. Saturday morning was a brunch at Carolyn’s, and then we did some antiquing. We all met for a box lunch and a trip on a restored train that goes for about twenty miles and stops for a civil war re-enactment. Wes was acting as conductor that day and we all had a great time. Some of us were wimps and stayed on the train out of the rain, but most (including Dan) got off and enjoyed the civil war.
Saturday night was a nice dinner and sharing memories and photos. We all wrote notes to those who couldn’t be there: mother, Karen and my cousin Tim in Salt Lake City. On Sunday we had brunch and said our goodbyes. It was very hard to leave. We all decided we should have started these reunions many years ago.
Anyway, it was back to Chicago, where we were able to spend a day or so with Dan’s brother Gary and his family, who had just gotten back from Florida. We visited the place where Cinda and Henri are getting married. We also saw some of the projects that Cinda has been designing. She and Henri are now working at the same architecture firm, the one where Cinda has been working for a couple of years. We also enjoyed a wonderful dinner cooked by Marilyn, Cinda’s mom. Cinda and Henri had been living there until they got into their house in August. Then our last afternoon we went to a Cubs game. We sat in the rain and watched Sammy Sosa go 0 for 4. Bummer! But we still had fun. We headed home and realized that we had visited with some 22 of Dan’s family and 24 of mine, or the other way around. But we saw a LOT of folks in a short 12 days.
Then it was time for me to start my new career. I started, as I said, on August 9th. I spent the first 2 ½ months studying and taking tests. I passed all of them: the Series 7 (Securities Representative with the NASD), the Series 66 (Investment Representative) and the Idaho state Life and Health Insurance licensing exam. This was only the beginning, however. I am learning new things every day. And I am working about 60 hours a week. They say it takes about three years to really get established in this business. When I was in the training mode, I was getting an hourly salary, plus overtime.
As of November 1st, I am a real financial advisor and have business cards and a bio brochure with my picture on it and everything. I began seeing clients on Novemeber 1st and so far am doing ok. It is still very strange to be working at a commission-based career, even though there is a draw that I get every two weeks. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that I could be in sales and call people up. American Express does not do ‘cold calls’, but a lot of the people we call do not remember requesting information. We are also expected to develop our own clients; in addition to pursuing the leads they give us.
So I have not had a whole lot of time off this fall. I just flew down to Fresno for the four day Thanksgiving holiday to see mother and Karen. Dan went to the State Library Conference in Lewiston and the Internet Librarian Conference in Monterey. It gave him a chance to see his mom again, which was good. It is strange not to be a librarian any more. I do miss some of the people, but do not miss the hassle or even the ‘library’ work.
Our kids are all doing OK. The grandkids are growing like weeds. Tony is in the second grade and Jayla is in the third. I don’t get to see them but about once a month, even though they only live 30 miles away. We are all just too busy. Andy and Amy both changed jobs this fall. We will see what the New Year brings for them. Susanna is coming to Boise for a week this month. We are very pleased she is coming, as we haven’t seen her in two years. She hasn’t been to Boise in about 7 years and has never seen our house. So we are really looking forward to an early Christmas celebration with her. We will be alone for Christmas, except for Chris and the kids coming over for dinner and presents, probably on Christmas Day, the only day I get off for the holiday.
We are both fine, doing well and working out at the gym 3-4 times a week. Dan is doing especially well. He can do leg presses of over 800 pounds! We are both working with a personal trainer, which helps. We continue to play bridge and do football and basketball in season. Boise State will again be in the Humanitarian Bowl on December 28th, playing the WAC co-champion, the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Dan is taking a yearlong Bible class on Saturday mornings, which is a good time, since I work Saturday mornings.
Well, I guess that’s enough babbling for this year. We want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season and hope the New Year brings even more.
Love and peace to all.
Gail and Dan
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