End of an era (more changes!)

Today my husband had a phone appointment with our local social security office. He's decided to go ahead and claim his social security retirement, effective immediately! He went off to work today prepared to give two weeks' notice, and by the end of this month he will be (mostly) retired!

He's been managing the aquarium section of the pet store for 26 years, so this is a big moment in his life. He's not quite at full retirement age yet, but his social security check will be almost exactly the same amount he makes at the store. The plan is for him to continue to service aquariums, which is his own small business. From those jobs he earns just below the maximum he's allowed to earn while receiving retirement benefits, so his income will remain exactly the same, but he'll only be working a few hours each week (and on his own schedule). Once he reaches full retirement age there won't be a limit on how much "side" income he's allowed to earn.

I'm so happy for him! He's always been such an incredibly hard worker, and he deserves to have time off while he's still young enough and healthy enough to enjoy it. And he's grown increasingly unhappy with the pet business. He worries so much about the animals that get sold, and of course they're sold to anyone who has the money to pay for them regardless of whether they can or will take care of them. That's just part of the job. Even selling "feeder" goldfish bothers him. So now that's not going to be part of his life anymore! And he's really looking forward to learning how to do some home improvement projects he's been thinking about and having time for fun.

So the big changes in our house continue! What a year it's turning out to be, and it's only February!

A couple of brief updates

It was disgustingly warm and damp when I left work this afternoon. So far, this month has been nothing but mild temperatures and drizzly rain. I'd rather have at least slightly chilly weather as we approach Christmas to set the holiday mood. I shouldn't complain, though. We've barely had to use the heat and that's going to save money on this month's power bill. Saving money is top priority this year.

That being said, the pet store reopened today! It's already been sold, believe it or not.  I never imagined things happening this fast--it's been less than a month since the previous owner died unexpectedly. A couple of men (business partners) from Savannah, Georgia bought it. They already own three stores down there and are looking to keep expanding. Gregg's job appears to be safe for the moment, which is a relief to us both. We're still going to be very cautious with spending this Christmas, though, with an eye on saving money instead of spending it. Who knows what these new owners will be like and what kind of changes they may want to make. It seems prudent to shore up our savings over the next couple of months, just in case. You just never know. 

In neighborhood news, the turkey I saw on Thanksgiving is still hanging around! It almost has to have been a pet at some point. She's (it's a female) not too concerned when she sees people and has been spotted in everyone's yard at one point or another. Sometimes you'll see her just walking down the street, minding her own business. Other times, she can be spotted under one of the big old oak trees that grow here, eating acorns. Someone down the street decided to start calling her "Theodora" and so now that's her name. I guess you could say she's become our neighborhood mascot! What a crazy thing, huh?

We have seven school days left until winter break. I'm so anxious for the time off--hopefully there will be a lot more time for blogging activities then. Work sure puts a damper on all the enjoyable things in life!

I hope everyone is well, and I look forward to catching up with you soon.

Thankful

 It's the eve of Thanksgiving and I'm grateful for so many things at the moment.

• It looks as if Gregg will keep his regular income for the next couple of months in exchange for going up to the store a few times a week to maintain the aquatic systems and to help the manager care for the animals. The late owner's brother is in town meeting with attorneys to sell the pet stores and settle his affairs. A number of potential buyers have stepped forward, but appraisers will have to come in and put a monetary value on the stores before they can be sold. This process could take up to two or three months, and in the meantime the brother will be cutting Gregg and the manager (as well as the managers of the other two stores) checks every two weeks for their regular salary. What a relief that is! It buys us some time to prepare for whatever might happen next.
•  I'm feeling much better. I'd caught a mild cold a couple of weeks ago that led to some chest congestion, and although I didn't feel bad, when I went for my (already long scheduled) follow up appointment with the allergist, my lung function had gotten really bad again. He thought my right lung sounded like an infection was setting in so back on antibiotics I went. He also prescribed another round of prednisone. Prednisone always makes me feel so much better that I wish I could take it more often but of course it has bad side effects. 
• Dare I say this? Let me just whisper it, lest the Universe should decide to smite me upon my return to work next week for my hubris: work has been going better and my boss has been much calmer and easier to be around. Everyone was happy, given that we had a two day work week, and things felt more relaxed and almost fun than they have all year. We had a giant Thankgiving staff potluck in the library yesterday, and with almost 50 people bringing dishes, it was a feast. I couldn't even come close to sampling everything. There were two cooked turkeys, lots of homemade fried chicken, dressing, casseroles, hot dips, meatballs, puff pastry appetizers, a huge crockpot of savory collard greens (those were one of the biggest hits of the meal), deviled eggs, rolls and biscuits, fruit salad, watergate salad, and I don't know what-all. The dessert table was also full: fruit pies and pound cakes and brownies and cookies, tortes and banana pudding and hot cherry crumble (in a crockpot). Two teachers got together to make an autumn punch out of sparkling cider and pomegranate juice and sliced fruits. There was so much left over that all of the staff was asked to please take food home for their families, and we all did. I also brought back my contribution, which was virtually untouched, much to my disappointment.

Nobody wanted the healthy option! :)

• George is doing much better. I'm SO grateful for that--it's been a real worry. We're pretty well convinced now that he doesn't have a torn ligament in his knee, just some arthritis. He's still favoring that leg a little, sometimes, but he rarely limps and wants to be active. I'm still giving him a (lower) dose of the NSAIDs once a day, along with fish oil at night, to try to keep that knee as loose and pain free as possible. We're also slowly building him back up to twice daily walks, and he seems much happier for it. So are the rest of us! Those walks have been sorely missed by us all.
• Last thing I'm thankful for: this girl.

She's brought so much fun and energy and lightness to our home this year. She's wildly playful, smart, and very affectionate. It's been a joy having a young dog again. And this is the start of her first holiday season with us!

Tonight, Thanksgiving eve, is special in our home because it was the night before Thanksgiving 2007 when a stray puppy showed up at door and became our beloved Ginger. Since it was her homecoming day, it became a personal family holiday and that hasn't changed since she died. Now we have Poppy, who shares so many of Ginger's good qualities that I think she's going to be a worthy successor to her. 

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow if you celebrate, my friends!

Upheaval

Right before bed last night, I looked at my phone which had been in my purse all afternoon. I had a mysterious text from the last manager of Gregg's pet store (who moved to Charleston a few months ago) saying to please call her, it was an emergency. I couldn't imagine what in the world she needed, and I told Gregg to check his phone to see if she had tried to contact him. Lo and behold, he had two missed calls from her as well as three missed calls from the current manager. This was all highly unusual, and so of course he immediately called the current manager back to see what was going on.

That's when we had a terrible shock. The owner of the pet stores, John, had simply dropped dead over the weekend. We were absolutely stunned. 

John was the third owner of the stores that Gregg has seen in his 20+ years as the "fish guy" at the Florence store. He was mid 50s, divorced, no kids. He apparently had a girlfriend who lives an hour or two away, and a brother in Louisiana. As far as we know, that's all the family he had. 

This morning we got a little extra information but not much. John felt bad and called himself an ambulance and died as soon as he got to the hospital. There's some speculation that it may have been an aneurism that killed him, but we don't know for sure.

Now we have no idea what's going to happen. Gregg is meeting with the manager this morning (and Jessie, the old manager who's driving up from Charleston to help) to try to figure out what to do about the live animals for the moment. Of course, the stores won't (can't) open under the circumstances. We have no idea how this is going to be handled, but what a mess. Hopefully John had some sort of will and an executor named in case of an event like this, but Gregg thinks it's unlikely given the sort of guy John was. What a mess!

And of course, we're worried that Gregg's job there (which is half his income) is now a thing of the past. He got in touch this morning with one of their vendors (based in Atlanta) who said she knows someone who might be interested in buying the stores, but who knows when or if that will ever happen. So many things are simply up in the air at this point.

If this is truly the end of the stores (and that's more likely than not) Gregg will have some tough decisions to make. He just turned 64 last week--old enough to draw Social Security, but not old enough to collect his full benefit from it. Thank goodness that he'll still be able to earn money from his aquarium maintenance jobs (up to a point) while drawing SS if that's what he chooses to do, and that well may be his best option. There are, of course, other local pet stores that would probably be thrilled to have him as an employee, but I'm not sure he wants to start over somewhere else at his age. Also, it's hard to look for a new job when you have a small business on the side that needs to be accommodated, time-wise. At the very least, I suppose he can draw unemployment while he decides what to do. 

I know he's really sad that all the years he's invested in this job is probably going to end this way, and sad about what happened to John, too. What an awful situation.