For Sale
2006-05-05, 10:23 a.m.

Day 620 For Sale

Actually written Thursday 5/4 but couldn't post till 5/5

Big corporate meeting morning of 5/4/06 officially announced what we had all suspected. Our division here is officially up for sale. Or at least looking for �strategic alternatives� Seems that the minds at the top of the corporate food chain don�t want to invest in our business anymore, but would rather focus on other core strengths. It�s in the national financial news. Former largest employer in Rochester trying to sell off a division. Go check it out if you like.

Stinker is, our division has existed at this company, in one form or another, for 110 years. Guess we won�t make it to 111. For the last 10 years or so we�ve also been the #2 division in terms of generating revenue for the company � billions of dollars a year.

Everyone around here is a little numb at the moment. Trying to absorb the news and figure out what it means both professionally and personally.

Deal won�t be finalized till year end at the soonest. There are also no options internally to the company. All employees currently devoting 80% of their time to supporting our division are now �frozen� as far as internal transfers go. We were the hottest division going in the company. People were transferring into our group because we needed them. Now � we�ll all be working for GE or Siemens by the end of the year. Guess I�ll have to throw out all those polo shirts with the corporate logo on them. Just wouldn�t be appropriate to wear them anymore.

Worst part of the whole announcement? I missed my normal work out time to be at work for it. Announcement was at 7am � I�m normally doing my weight work by then. Might have to try and go tonight. Hate to go two days with out a good sweat.

Bob is headed down to Wayne�s for a visit. He insists that he�s going to finalize things with Wayne and get set up to go to the Legacy � regardless of Wayne�s opinion. I have little faith in that happening. I feel he�s too susceptible to suggestions and will knuckle under to Wayne & Kay�s constant whining of �why don�t you want to live with us?�. It�s a terrible alternative, being stuck all day in someone else�s house with no way to go anywhere, but I�m afraid he�ll forget about all the positives about the Legacy. He�s taking all the brochure�s down with him to at least show them to Wayne. Bob�s also had the opportunities to talk to some long time family friends as well as his own brothers. To a person, they all felt the Legacy was the best option, and also wondered if Wayne wasn�t so interested in having his Dad live with him just to get access to his money. Maybe these talks with other folks will help. We�ll see how things go.

I emailed Cindy about out little corporate announcement. She took it surprisingly well. I could tell because she called me approximately 5 minutes after I hit �Send�. We managed to have a relatively normal conversation and she wasn�t actually crawling through the phone lines panicking. That may all change tonight. Again, we�ll see how things go.

Might be off the hook for a 25th anniversary diamond ring. Could trade it in for a roof for our patio. That would make a nice summer project.

I better go maintain the divisions value.

Updated stats:

Weight start: 206.5 on 1/1/06 (265.0 on 1/15/05)
Current weight 195.00 on 5/2/06
Target: 180 by 7/1/06
Next �official� weigh in: 5/6/06

The Keep on Truckin goal: (idea stolen shamelessly from Marn�s Big Adventure)
Miles at speed 5/1/06: 325.44
Miles with cooldown: 358.55
Target for 2006: 1000 miles

Might have to add a little something for the 5K training too.

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