This is to catalogue our trip back to our home state to start the next chapter of our life.....
The title for the first leg should be something like "You better be careful of what you wish for...", then the second should be.."But wait, there's more!"
So, let's start with being careful of what you wish for.
Carl & I had been talking about retiring for some time and "I" got to thinking about how we could accomplish this. Living where we were, it just didn't seem feasible. The cost of living, the cost of housing, etc. There was no way we could survive on 50% of what we were currently unable to live on. So....I got to looking in to the benefits of working for whom I do and getting a transfer, if nothing else, to get rid of my expensive house. Low and behold, it sounded like the answer to our dilemna. My job would pay for a transfer, possibly buy my house if I could not sell it. Pay for moving, pay for living quarters for up to 60 days and other little benefits. So I started checking the openings of offices in Texas and Utah. Several came up that I possibly would like, so to start out, I put my name up for consideration on 3 or 4 larger offices than mine, knowing that it was just to get my name out there and for me to start perfecting my application. Then one day I see where this office was open in a total different area than I had been looking at and I think, well, gee, what could be wrong with that AND....it is the same level as my current office,so I could possibly just get a lateral transition, so I sent in my paperwork. About a week later,I get this email about the position telling me to call the POOM (Post Office Operations Manager - the upper level manager for Postmasters)
So, I call and she says that she needs to to set up an interview,so, we set it up for Friday at 9:30. I come in to work early so that I can make sure all of the information that I need is available. Meanwhile, I had called several offices in the area trying to get helpful information that would help me determine if I even wanted the job and to try and find out how this POOM interviews. So when I call in that Friday, no one answers the phone....uh-oh, I think...was this a come-on. Was this a courtesy type call? Well, I then decide that I will be more persistant and I keep calling back. After about 20 minutes the secretary answers the phone and tells me that she went to the airport (acting like she knew nothing of this call for an interview) and that she will have her call me later. That kind of burst my bubble a little and then I really felt like this was just that, a courtesy kind of thing that she was required to do and someone else would be chosen from that area anyway. I decided to cover my bases and email a reply back to her first email as well as replying to whoever she send carbon-copies to. She did call me back later that afternoon and we set up the appointment for Monday (never once did she apologize for not being there that morning or make any explanation for not letting me know that things had changed). So I decide, okay, I'll play this out. I go into work early the following Monday morning and call.......again, no answer...after another twenty minutes,the secretary answers and says that she is not in. Again I tell her that we had an interview scheduled,so she gives me her cell phone number. I call the cell phone, she answers, asks me about 4 or 5 questions, then promptly tells me that she will turn the paperwork in that afternoon for me to be appointed as postmaster of Port Aransas and how soon could I be there! ...talk about blowing me out of the water with shock, excitement, fear, happy, sad, glad, and oh my gosh, what have I done!!!!!
Then the whirlwind begins. I tell my employees, they are in shock. I tell my boss, she tries to talk me out of it. My kids are actually thrilled (at least they made me believe that they were) and a couple of weeks later, we were on our way.....
Next chapter is "But wait, there's more...."
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