Side Note: Getting used to this slightly new keyboard on the Asus laptop is slightly weird!
Ok, back to the Denver thing. Let me start by saying Jerry and I are having quite a time coming to a final decision on all of this and pressure from outside is not helping. I'd love to talk to people who don't have a vested interest in what we do because then it might clear some things up in our mind.
Maybe I'll do this in a list, it might be easier to follow....but first some reminders...Jerry works as a police officer for the railroad, he is one of four officers in the entire state of Oklahoma one of whom is the supervisor and isn't technically assigned an area of responsibility but is out of Tulsa along with another officer. There is one officer out of Enid who is retiring at the end of February and then Jerry in OKC. The officers in Oklahoma are on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week, they pretty much make their own hours but loosely work 8-4 M-F, Jerry doesn't have any direct/daily supervision as his 'boss' is in Tulsa. When the Enid guy leaves they are not filling that position, ever, it will be moved to Wellington Kansas (which also falls under the realm of the boss man in Tulsa) this would increase Jerry's area of responsibility. Jerry already does the job of at least 2 officers (both by call volume and sheer miles he covers), they will NOT hire a 2nd officer for OKC even though it is needed. The supervisor in Tulsa is probably going to retire in the next year or so, he is eligible at any time and everyone expected it (because he said he was going to) last December.
1. Supposedly the OKC position is being promoted so Jerry would be salaried and would no longer received overtime, he'd still have to work 60 or more hours a week but would not get paid for it, just straight 40 hours per week pay, the promotion would NOT come with some huge pay raise, a small one yes, but it would NOT offset the loss of overtime AND we'd loose AWESOME health insurance and have to go to the regular health insurance. There are some benefits in the long run but up front, not so much.
2. Jerry and I have wanted to move to Colorado for years now. We've discussed it and said that if the opportunity ever came up we'd take it especially if it came with a moving package and this transfer/promotion DOES include a moving package...and a very very generous one.
3. If Jerry stays in Oklahoma he'd be doing the same thing at work forever, it would likely never change. In Denver he would likely have the chance to do different things. He'd likely have the chance to move up in the company. In Oklahoma, even if his position is promoted, he'll be stuck in OKC, never be a supervisor, never move up, just be a line officer, responsible for more then 1/2 of the state, probably never getting his due credit.
4. In Denver Jerry would work shift work, he would work 4 10 hour days with 3 days off. He would rotate shifts every 4 months. Once his shift was over he would be off duty and his phone would be turned off, he would not be responsible for calls until he went back to work again. Very unlike Oklahoma where he would always be on call...
5. We are very comfortable in Oklahoma, I've been here for 13 years and Jerry grew up here, he did live in Colorado for about 10 years but he's been back in Oklahoma for 15 years. Moving to Colorado would mean learning a new town, meeting new people...I like that idea...even though it's scary, that's exciting.
6. We're of course worried about finances, the pay would be the same in Oklahoma as it would be in Colorado so of course the money would go much further here. We've done the research and know we can buy a house in our price range in Colorado, a nice house because of the number of foreclosures on the market there. The moving package the railroad gives guarantees the sale of our house within 30 days or they buy us out. If Jerry doesn't take this transfer and takes the promotion in OKC then we decide in a year or 5 years we want to go to Colorado anyway, we have to pay for the move and selling our house is up to us....obviously it's in our best interest financially to move now.
7. Jerry has family in Oklahoma, in fact his whole family is in Oklahoma. We don't see them often. We see them for the boys' birthday parties and on Christmas for the OU/OSU bedlam football game. That's it. Four times a year and they live within an hour drive of us. My brother lives near Denver so I'd live near someone in my family for the first time in 6 years. And we'd only be about an 8-10 hour drive from Jerry's family, it's not that far...not like the 30 hour drive to get to my family we are now (to California).
8. We've been looking for a new house in Oklahoma (before the Denver position came open we had already planned to sell our house and move into the next town North for the schools). I don't know why even when I find a house I like I cannot get excited about it. It's like it's not meant to be. I found a house I really like today but it's just not right. It's in an awesome neighborhood, in the schools I want for the boys, it's perfect, the kitchen is perfect. This is THE house. But something is not right and I've had this feeling the whole time we've been looking.
So a little on the people with a vested interest pressuring us...Jerry's boss is begging him to stay. I know he is freaking out because he'd have to train someone new to take over the OKC spot but we need to do what is best for us. He would not hesitate to take a job somewhere else to further his career regardless of who had to take on more work. Granted he'd also be losing the Enid officer as well but sometimes life just happens that way.
Of course Jerry's family doesn't want us to leave Oklahoma but again, they moved when they wanted for their family. That's just what you do when you have to. They moved Jerry all over the place when he was growing up, even out to the country which he hated. He almost ran away he hated it so much. It's not like we'd never see them again. Jerry said they used to visit a couple times a year when he lived there before but because they have the chickens and the cat now that they probably won't venture far from home...well...I don't know what to tell them, visit or don't, those are the choices.
Our friends don't want us to go but again, they've moved away when it was right for their family. I've got friends all over the state of Oklahoma now because they moved away from the OKC area, I'd love it if they were all right here still but they aren't. We've got computers for e-mail and facebook and phones and again, it's only an 8 hour drive to Denver, we'd still come back to visit family so it would just have to do I guess.
I actually never moved to Oklahoma intending to stay here for the rest of my life, so moving on 13 years after moving here actually seems a bit late to me...
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