At Last! Retiring for GOOD!

Have you ever experienced a time when seemingly everyone around you is: Sick Unemployed or short of money Experiencing personal traumas One foot in the grave Depressed (often for good reasons - situational, not endemic) And otherwise not in a good place? That's my situation right now. In my own family, both my brother and sister are not well (my brother is in the hospital), and my husband is slowly recovering from an antibiotic-resistant infection and pneumonia. In my husband's family, most have a variety of long-term illnesses, including the brother nearest in age with congestive heart failure. My eldest is also experiencing a large number of sick or troubled people in her life, and my youngest grandchild is sick with a virus. I'm getting afraid to answer the phone, for fear that it will be more bad news.

I've been doing some scheduling for future posts. Rather than just churn out stuff whenever it occurs to me, I've been making a conscious effort to space out my posts on an approximately 2-3 times a week schedule. I would appreciate your spreading the word about this blog on social media. It's my hope that others might benefit from reading my story of retirement prep, and my experiences once I finally do retire. I've been discussing this with my husband, and I'm leaning toward plugging the plug at the end of May. I may see if I can set up a part-time gig with a college for extra money. This should leave me relatively free for some travel and kicking back - as well as writing and pursuing my hobbies.

Coffee - Bad? Apparently, NOT. This process has been going on for many years: Some medical study is made about health. Popularizers exaggerate the effects shown in the study, and inflate the core results into a program to improve/extend healthy lives. Eventually, the government gets on board, and mandates changes to diet, exercise, medication regimens, or medical procedures. After years of pushing the system on the general public, an honest re-evaluation of the effects is made, and - guess what? The advice is found to be completely wrong. Repeat Repeat Repeat Diet advice has gone from: Calorie reduction Exercise Low-fat High-carb Low-carb At the present, the low-carb forces appear to be on top. Never fear, they'll find out eventually that positive effects have been exaggerated, and the negatives minimized. Same with exercise. I'm not against regular movement and activity. What I'm against is mandating the same thing for everyone. The down side...

Hoo-Boy! This issue has been called the Third Rail of American Politics, and it surely has that potential to kill political careers. A large part of the problem is the scare tactics being used by activists . They are playing on the natural desire not to lose a benefit, or to treat any change in a benefit as a personal attack on the individuals who are receiving it. In the article linked above, the seniors are furious at the idea that the program won't be available, just exactly as it has been in the past. They consider the benefits theirs, by right, and any change as taking away something that is THEIRS. They don't seem to have heard that old country saying, "Don't count your chickens until they're hatched." The US Representative holding the meeting, Rosa DeLauro, fed into their fears. DeLauro, who has a 97-year-old mother, said she's sensitive to cuts that affect seniors. Though she knows that the country needs to cut programs and bring down the...

As I am winding down on the plan to retire in another year, I find that I am particularly excited about fully enjoying that time, and working to make it the Best Year Ever! In that vein, I find myself writing down more of my process, including mapping out the units, with labs, and reflecting on how well (or not) it worked. I have been working ruthlessly, both at home and at school, to weed out outdated curriculum, better organize the materials and equipment I have, and to prepare to leave with all things done.

I've been using the Chrome extension OneTab for several days now, and it's been worth the installation. What OneTab does is reside on the menubar, and - with a click of the button - move all of your tabs to a single location. That tab holds them, waiting for you to click on the tab you want. When you do, that tab - and ONLY that tab - starts loading. This speeds up the process that can get bogged down with multiple tabs sending the message to load. This is a great feature, as often I find myself clicking on many links at a time. By using OneTab, I can do so, then, with a single step, hold those tabs in Limbo until I'm ready to look at them, one at a time. Get OneTab here.

Now, I know that some seniors are adamant: NO CHANGES TO MEDICARE, EVER! While it might be nice to stand, line in the dirt, opposed to ANY changes in Medicare, I'm afraid that is NOT a realistic scenario. Medical care - particularly for seniors - is expensive. Insisting that doctors and other medical providers just suck it up, and take less money for services, has led to difficulty getting doctors to agree to see you. NO medical care is worse than pricey medical care. It's the remedy of choice for politicians - there are fewer doctors than seniors, and seniors are the most reliable voting segment. Better to starve a doctor, than to tell a senior that he has to accept more expensive visits. I've been investigating this for a few weeks. Like it or not, almost every senior will be affected by this issue.  I've read some of the available proposals, and have summarized a few below. I'll be posting more on this in the coming weeks; it's likely to be tackled ...