Getting laid off can be great fun

Whenever I mention that I got laid off people naturally offer their sympathy. I quickly explain that it was a good thing; even an answer to prayer. Here I was 73 years old and working for a great company for the last 5 years. It was a nice job with my office at home, a company car, no politics, great insurance, great folks to work with; in short, an ideal position. HOWEVER, I had often found myself thinking, "Am I just going to keep working until I keel over?" There are lots of other things I ought to be doing while I can still motate about. We have a decent nestegg and the job is not a necessity. Besides it tends to get in the way of those other things.

So, as luck would have it, the owner of the company called & wanted to get together to discuss how we could tighten things up, the company having just experienced a couple of months of economic slowdown. His decision was to lay of some of the outside managers. He promised a nice severence check, along with acrued vacation pay and continued insurance coverage until we could make other arrangments. I put on a "brave face" & told him I understood and would be ok. Inside I got very excited. And it's been great. Besides, the unimployment benefits were a big surprise to me that I hadn't even considered. $450 per week? For over a year? Wow!

This is my first posting this year on my blog. Sorry about that. I plan to get going again and include some interesting stuff including some pictures and words covering the trip my daughter Karen & I took to Chile & Easter Island recently. Stay tuned.