Lastly will be happy anniversary to mom and dad ... crazy to think it was fifteen years ago in '94 when this all came together!Work was getting back to normal a bit after a few crazy weeks, then I think all the execs decided it was time to shake things up again. We had a couple great planning sessions for the Customer Service Center and our retention strategy before the news came on Thursday that our leadership would see a big shake-up. Early in the morning I was called into one of our 2nd VPs office to learn that my boss' boss, Mike Thomas, would no longer be in Policy Service with us but rather move back to Support Services. Our team would then merge with another PIC team in Claims to form a super-team, which should be pretty interesting to see how it'll all work out. Our manager wasn't there on Thursday/Friday to break the news to everyone, so it fell on me to let our teams know about the shake up. It was another one of those leadership opportunities to just listen to people and ease tensions, especially during the economic times. 
My team took it very well and I hope they truly feel as optimistic as I do about the move. The one thing that really does suck is that we are losing Mike. He has been the best boss I've had in my working career here at Aflac and even before that. He's very down to earth and just a real person that pushes you hard to be the best you can be. I know he'll do great over there and hopefully we can hook up again some day, good luck Mike! O yes, and I ended out the week with a great edible surprise from Jenny wishing me luck on the triathlon, thanks schnookums:)
My team took it very well and I hope they truly feel as optimistic as I do about the move. The one thing that really does suck is that we are losing Mike. He has been the best boss I've had in my working career here at Aflac and even before that. He's very down to earth and just a real person that pushes you hard to be the best you can be. I know he'll do great over there and hopefully we can hook up again some day, good luck Mike! O yes, and I ended out the week with a great edible surprise from Jenny wishing me luck on the triathlon, thanks schnookums:)
This week also brought an end to our summer kickball season. We finished the regular season in 2nd place and then came into the tournament and lost in the semis. My buddy Eddie's team ended up winning the coveted Michael Jackson first place trophy:) We never expected to be as good as we were, but I tell you we had a blast doing it... bring on the fall league! I even had a 6-ft bunt home run in the last game after I ran over the 1st baseman and a couple errant throws ... one of those that you had to be there to believe!
Sparkle the Springer was also this weekend where a bunch of volunteers from Aflac got together to clean up the state Opera House. It's a beautiful facility that we vacuumed, dusted and spit shined for five hours. It was pretty fun to hang out with some of the volunteers and see the good work that we could put together.The best part of the week though had to be this weekend suiting up for the Callaway Triathlon that we had been training for over two months. Rick, Steven, Eddie, Rick's dad and I all had our delicious carb-load meal at Cafe Amici the night before to prepare for the significant loss of calories and sweat for the Sunday race:) We headed out around 6am for the feat at the beautiful Callaway Gardens, where Caden was lucky enough to join thanks to a great spectator following we had! After we set up our bikes at the transition station and strapped on our pretty green swim cap, it was off to the start line.
The four boys were in the second wave after the collegiate athletes and Rick's dad (military officer that trains for a living ... so I did not feel bad getting beat by a 40 something, because to be honest, I also got beat by a 60 year old I think:). The gun went off and after getting kicked in the head about 7 times, the breast stroke was in full swing for .6 miles and it only took me about 17.5 minutes, and I didn't even have to hold onto the buoy:) I was the first one out of the water in our little group and then it was on to the bike, and thank goodness for training at Flat Rock park (which in fact is a lie, because it is definitely anything but flat) because I did quite well finishing 16 miles in 57 minutes, about 19.5 mph. Unhappiness took over when my dang iPod cut out after the bike, leaving me musicless for the run, but cheering fans kept me goin'. I took my sweet time into the last run transition for the next 5 miles and finished the race in a dead sprint to pass an old guy that had smoked me the whole race finishing at 2 hours, 8 minutes and some change (final results at - http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?pubID=3&rsID=83271). I actually felt much better than I thought I would after the event cheering in the rest of my pals as they crossed the finish line.
About the time I finished, Caden came in for a big sweaty hug and we wished Jenny best of luck on her marathon start (I think Caden was a bit hyper from Sonic's happy hour cherry limeade leftovers pictured above:). Yeah, Jenny ran for 26.2 miles and actually finished the whole thing (wow) with a great time of 4 hours and 50 minutes, ridiculously amazing 11ish minute miles! Way to go honey:)Labor Day has been great to relax, play with the pooch, mow some lawn and get some rollerblading action in. I hope you all have a great shortened week as I start up on the MBA class action - Wednesday and Friday night, yahoo ... wish me luck;)
Until next week when Jenny returns from Hawaii ... you all have a great week of wondermousness.
Alwayz,
Nate
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