“Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed.” – Baltasar Gracian

Friday, December 29, 2006

Final Post of the Year

I’m sure glad that Lynne posts to her blog almost every day so people can stay up-to-date on what is going on with us. The downside is that I don’t feel as compelled to write. But, before 2006 leaves us behind, here is one more post for the year.

It has been a year of upheaval and change for us. Late in 2005, I learned I would be losing my job at Agilent Technologies in Colorado. At least we advance notice and time to prepare. The plan of record was to sell the house in Fort Collins and move to the cabin where we can live very frugally. I’d do some consulting and work from there—we even put in a satellite Internet connection. We planned to build a garage, extend the cabin and settle in there for several years.

Then came an offer to join a small, privately-owned company in New Jersey as their Marketing Director. We jumped on it. Within a few months we had bought a home in New Jersey, moved the entire household including 7 dogs and 3 cats, and put our house up for sale in Colorado.

It was a good move. We enjoy New Jersey a lot. We are closer to Lynne’s mom. We have a great house in a great location. My job is fun and challenging.

But, we’ve faced some problems too. Most notable is the loss of 2 dogs within the past couple of months. And, Bart is declining, too and we’ll probably lose him within a few weeks. Losing 3 of 7 dogs in a matter of months has been very difficult for us. On top of that, our house in Fort Collins has not sold. We are making two house payments each month—one out of the severance I got from Agilent which will continue to get us by for a while. But, the stress would be a lot less if we could just get that behind us.

The weather in New Jersey has been warm and dry this fall and winter—not what we expected. And, it has been wet and snowy in Colorado—not what we expected. Lynne insists that her presence influences the weather.

We are hopeful for a good 2007. We certainly wish all of our friends and the readers of this blog the very best.

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Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 12/29/2006 at 08:11 AM
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