Thursday, March 26, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
RETIREMENT IS AROUND THE CORNER
Below is a short note Carol sent to her friends. It pretty much says it all.
"After 33 years with Allstate, John will be retiring at the end of June. Allstate has decided to close the Southeast Regional Commercial Center, along with the California and New York Centers and move the operation to Chicago. Since he has so much time with the company and is the "right" age and wouldn't even consider us moving to Chicago, he can retire. He is really happy even though this is a little earlier than he had hoped. As you can imagine, we have lots of decisions to make between now and the end of June.
He, at last, can truly become Farmer John. We really love every minute that we get to spend together and are looking forward to getting in lots more travel. He loves the land and we have enough of it to keep him happy for many years to come. We are definitely looking forward to this new chapter in our lives.
With that said, we are gladly accepting contributions that can be mailed to 1294 Cooper Rd., Mansfield, GA!!! (Sorry, my sense of humor always has to come out!)
We wanted to share this with family and friends as quickly as possible, but for now, he's not going to be able to slow down at all. In fact, he will probably travel more than usual so that he will have the chance to say goodbye to all the many people that he has worked with over the years and continue to be the ambassador for Allstate that he has always been.
For many years we have talked and dreamed about this and it is hard to believe that it is finally here. He sees the light at the end of the tunnel! I have truly enjoyed my retirement and have not missed working at all and I see that for him as well. We both have so many hobbies and things we've wanted to do and now we'll finally have time for these new adventures.
Love to all of you!
Carol"
"After 33 years with Allstate, John will be retiring at the end of June. Allstate has decided to close the Southeast Regional Commercial Center, along with the California and New York Centers and move the operation to Chicago. Since he has so much time with the company and is the "right" age and wouldn't even consider us moving to Chicago, he can retire. He is really happy even though this is a little earlier than he had hoped. As you can imagine, we have lots of decisions to make between now and the end of June.
He, at last, can truly become Farmer John. We really love every minute that we get to spend together and are looking forward to getting in lots more travel. He loves the land and we have enough of it to keep him happy for many years to come. We are definitely looking forward to this new chapter in our lives.
With that said, we are gladly accepting contributions that can be mailed to 1294 Cooper Rd., Mansfield, GA!!! (Sorry, my sense of humor always has to come out!)
We wanted to share this with family and friends as quickly as possible, but for now, he's not going to be able to slow down at all. In fact, he will probably travel more than usual so that he will have the chance to say goodbye to all the many people that he has worked with over the years and continue to be the ambassador for Allstate that he has always been.
For many years we have talked and dreamed about this and it is hard to believe that it is finally here. He sees the light at the end of the tunnel! I have truly enjoyed my retirement and have not missed working at all and I see that for him as well. We both have so many hobbies and things we've wanted to do and now we'll finally have time for these new adventures.
Love to all of you!
Carol"
Even though Carol said it all, I thought I would add just a few comments.
It still has not sunk in that after the end of June 2009, I will not:
travel 50K miles every year in company car,
It still has not sunk in that after the end of June 2009, I will not:
travel 50K miles every year in company car,
fly to Home Office in Chicago periodically,
manage employees and salary administration,
write employee evaluations,
complete and approve expense accounts,
make business calls,
conduct Webinars,
develop marketing strategy,
stay in different hotels every week,
travel with sales management partners,
participate in Home Office accountability meetings,
create action plans with applicable timeline follow-up,
prepare and present remarks at Kick Off meetings,
roll out new products and services,
respond to opinion surveys with applicable plans of action,
successfully complete required security and insurance courses,
wait while the company car is being serviced,
talk to someone in India or Ireland regarding my laptop and most importantly,
visit the Independent Agencies in Georgia, South and North Carolina that I have built both business and personal relationships with after all these years!
Further, I will miss traveling with my Commercial Field Manager Team to their respective states of Florida, Texas, Mississipi, New York and Pennslyvania--we had great times and memories!
Further, I will miss traveling with my Commercial Field Manager Team to their respective states of Florida, Texas, Mississipi, New York and Pennslyvania--we had great times and memories!
BTW--that's me in center of photo at an Allstate Manager's Staff meeting in 1980--4 years after starting with the company.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
STETHOSCOPE
I hope you love the music and the message at the end--as I do!!!
PS--the "...bad to the bone.." Yorkie reminds me of another pet!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
DUDE, WHERE'S MY COUNTRY?
Here's a great and timely article written for Newsmax by Rick Pedraza reporting on Mike Huckabee's speech at CPAC this past week! One comment--and you got to love Huckabee's sense of humor. Mike refers to the Democrats' Troubled Asset Relief Plan (TARP) as Congressional Recovery Action Plan or: CRAP!
Huckabee: ‘Dude, Where’s My Country?’
Saturday, February 28, 2009 2:02 PM
By: Rick Pedraza
When former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee spoke at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference gathering two years ago, he aptly asked the crowd, “Dude, where’s my candidate?” At this year’s event, he began his speech by asking, “Dude, where’s my country?”
Huckabee, who sought the presidential nomination of the Republican Party in 2008 and now has a weekend news show on FOX News, said about the current state of politics in America today: “We all find ourselves in a very unfamiliar, and even an unwelcome, place. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics may be dead, but the Union of American Socialist Republics is being born.”
Huckabee cited a recent Newsweek cover story with a headline that read, “We are all socialists now,” and explained that as a country “we have gone from being free-market conservatives to nationalizing socialists faster than the market dives after a Tim ‘Turbo-Tax’ Geithner economic proclamation; or faster than Nancy Pelosi jumping out of her chair hearing the president speak!”
Huckabee said blame for the current economic situation in the United States can’t be placed solely on the Democrats, noting that the previous Republican administration was responsible for the $700 billion bailout program to buy troubled assets.
“Sadly, the party of Ronald Reagan became the party of Chicken Little,” Huckabee lamented. “When we needed deliberation, we got desperation; when we needed prudence, we got panic. They pulled the TARP over our eyes, and now we’ve got a brand new spending bill that we just passed in congress that they didn’t have time to read or even give a name.”
Huckabee, who refers to the Troubled Asset Relief Plan [TARP] bailout legislation as the Congressional Recovery Action Plan, said the few Republicans in Congress that did oppose the TARP were congressional heroes.
“That moment was not our best moment,” Huckabee said. “It would have been our best shot at winning the White House – a chance to offer a true, authentic conservative choice rather than a big government echo with a meek, me-too way of doing things. We missed our chance.”
Huckabee would like to grow the economy and create jobs by cutting taxes for families and corporations, cutting payroll taxes, cutting capital gains taxes, and doing away with the entire current tax structure because “it penalizes productivity, which is so counterproductive to our economy. We need to shut down the IRS and pass the fair tax.”
Huckabee would like to see the free market work itself out of the current economic crisis and said “creative destruction” is part of that process.
“Deserving companies deserve to survive, and the weak ones sometimes are going to fail,” Huckabee explained. “That happens in a market place. More innovative and efficient companies will rise up to take their place. When a free market is allowed to function without [Democratic Rep.] Barney Frank putting his hand on the scale, people don’t buy homes they can’t afford because nobody will make them a loan.”
Huckabee believes the answer is not for government to step in, but rather to step back and let the market mechanisms do their thing to create jobs and return the system to equilibrium.
“We don’t need a new philosophy,” Huckabee said about conservativism today, “we just need to communicate our principles better.”
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Huckabee: ‘Dude, Where’s My Country?’
Saturday, February 28, 2009 2:02 PM
By: Rick Pedraza
When former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee spoke at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference gathering two years ago, he aptly asked the crowd, “Dude, where’s my candidate?” At this year’s event, he began his speech by asking, “Dude, where’s my country?”
Huckabee, who sought the presidential nomination of the Republican Party in 2008 and now has a weekend news show on FOX News, said about the current state of politics in America today: “We all find ourselves in a very unfamiliar, and even an unwelcome, place. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics may be dead, but the Union of American Socialist Republics is being born.”
Huckabee cited a recent Newsweek cover story with a headline that read, “We are all socialists now,” and explained that as a country “we have gone from being free-market conservatives to nationalizing socialists faster than the market dives after a Tim ‘Turbo-Tax’ Geithner economic proclamation; or faster than Nancy Pelosi jumping out of her chair hearing the president speak!”
Huckabee said blame for the current economic situation in the United States can’t be placed solely on the Democrats, noting that the previous Republican administration was responsible for the $700 billion bailout program to buy troubled assets.
“Sadly, the party of Ronald Reagan became the party of Chicken Little,” Huckabee lamented. “When we needed deliberation, we got desperation; when we needed prudence, we got panic. They pulled the TARP over our eyes, and now we’ve got a brand new spending bill that we just passed in congress that they didn’t have time to read or even give a name.”
Huckabee, who refers to the Troubled Asset Relief Plan [TARP] bailout legislation as the Congressional Recovery Action Plan, said the few Republicans in Congress that did oppose the TARP were congressional heroes.
“That moment was not our best moment,” Huckabee said. “It would have been our best shot at winning the White House – a chance to offer a true, authentic conservative choice rather than a big government echo with a meek, me-too way of doing things. We missed our chance.”
Huckabee would like to grow the economy and create jobs by cutting taxes for families and corporations, cutting payroll taxes, cutting capital gains taxes, and doing away with the entire current tax structure because “it penalizes productivity, which is so counterproductive to our economy. We need to shut down the IRS and pass the fair tax.”
Huckabee would like to see the free market work itself out of the current economic crisis and said “creative destruction” is part of that process.
“Deserving companies deserve to survive, and the weak ones sometimes are going to fail,” Huckabee explained. “That happens in a market place. More innovative and efficient companies will rise up to take their place. When a free market is allowed to function without [Democratic Rep.] Barney Frank putting his hand on the scale, people don’t buy homes they can’t afford because nobody will make them a loan.”
Huckabee believes the answer is not for government to step in, but rather to step back and let the market mechanisms do their thing to create jobs and return the system to equilibrium.
“We don’t need a new philosophy,” Huckabee said about conservativism today, “we just need to communicate our principles better.”
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
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