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"

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,

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!

BTW--that's me in center of photo at an Allstate Manager's Staff meeting in 1980--4 years after starting with the company.