Two Down and Two to Go

Stacy left for Utah today. She'll be staying with her sister for a few weeks until she finds an apartment near her new job at the Children's Hospital in SLC. Sorry to see her go; it has been nice to have her around the house. Even if she did complain about my tickling. So it's two down, and two to go.

Had an 'open house' on Saturday, but just a couple of people stopped by. It was sort of rainy, and there's a lot of kid sports going on now, so perhaps that diminished the activity (along with the general economy). We aren't in a big hurry to get it sold, although a closing date of June or July would work well. In the meantime, we get to keep the house clean and neat, ready for a visit by a Realtor and potential buyers.

At the office, more server building. Working on three web servers, and four new mail servers. That will keep me busy

Weekend Report

Working today on building two new internal web servers, one public-facing web server, and four mail filtering servers. All are on virtual machine platforms. They are Windows Server 2008-based. The web servers will have IIS7 installed, with ColdFusion 8, along with the usual TrendMicro OfficeScan anti-virus program.

Quite easy to set up, though, but a bit time-consuming. The mail filtering servers will take a bit more time to get all the filtering rules and configuration in place. The existing mail servers (four of those on individual physical boxes) handle about 700,000 messages a day, blocking above 91% of that mail as spam before it gets to our internal mail servers.

On the home-sale front, our Realtor had an open house on Saturday, with about 15 visiting groups stopping by. Although no offers yet, that's not bad in this market. In the meantime, the house has to stay clean (which is easier without children) in case of other Realtors bring a drop-in. There's more boxing and de-cluttering needed, mostly in closets and drawers.

Had a nice visit with my sister Cyndee and her daughter Galia and others on Sunday at my mother's house. Galia is an professional belly dancer; she and her husband run an international talent agency for others in that industry.

And my brother Steve showed off his older Lexus. It is currently without wheels, seats and air bags. Apparently, a common technique for thieves is to use a drill to drain the car battery, thereby disabling the car alarm and allowing a quiet removal of those items while the car is parked in front of the house.

Changing Worlds

Things are starting to change at our place.

Budget problem ($50 million deficit) at the office is requiring some massive cutbacks. The IT department has to cut back 35%, which means that there will be less bodies around here. One of those 'less bodies' appears to be mine, at the moment.

There is a possibility that some labor contract changes might help a bit, but that it not certain. Although things haven't finalized yet, it looks like next fiscal year (starts in July) will be the start of a job change for me.

I've got 23 years here, and there is a buyout if I leave voluntarily. So, after much consideration, it looks like retirement is upcoming. Financially, we'll be OK (even though I am 'only' 57), especially if we make some other changes.

So, the house is on the market, even though not the best time to sell. Our realtor (family friend) is optimistic, though, since there is some buying action in our area. It may be that we can find a buyer in about two months, and time the closing to be near the end of June.

Our plan is to move to Utah. Both of our daughters will be there by then. Christine has been there with her family for a couple of years, and Stacy is taking a job at the Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. I've got a sister in SLC and one in Denver area, so that is also an advantage.

With our house sold, we can downsize our monthly house payment and still have a nice place to live with an acceptable income. And we will be closer to our children (and grandchildren). It looks to be an exciting change possibility.

Even though I will retire from this position, I am looking for a position in the network administration and web page development / site management area in SLC. (I've set up a virtual resume at http://www.rickhellewell.com .) Don't think I am ready to stay at home all day. Although Pam is looking forward to full-time scrapbooking and grandchildren-spoiling.

So, changes are in the wind.