You may have forgotten everyone's favorite North American marsupial, the opossum.
A bit of a treat last week, I saw a badger and a big doe elk.
This morning a rancher told me hunters shot a 550 lb feral hog on his property last week.
Guys...without the dash the phrase "got head-on" (meaning I was in a frontal collision) takes on an altogether different meaning.
Last edited:
Nearly 58 and hoping for another 3-5 years working, to stash more away in order to be comfortable....but you never know.
The thought that anything can happen, has been proven out several times in my life. I just hit a milestone of working for 40 consecutive years, but I won't relax until it's over !
The thought that anything can happen, has been proven out several times in my life. I just hit a milestone of working for 40 consecutive years, but I won't relax until it's over !
Saturday will be my 56th birthday, but the gift giving started early this morning::
General Mills to close Lodi plant, erase 430 jobs - Business - The Sacramento Bee
This is where I have worked for the last 22+ years. I'm truly saddened to see it coming to an end. It's a big hit to a small city. But, ready or not, it looks like I'll be retiring earlier than I had planned on. No firm dates yet. I may get to work long enough to pass 57, and if so severance will take me to 58 before I will have to start drawing my pension. That will help. Not that I couldn't work somewhere else, but I'm not sure I'll really want to start over.
We're all out of the plant through the weekend. It will be hard to want to go to work on Monday.
Bill
General Mills to close Lodi plant, erase 430 jobs - Business - The Sacramento Bee
This is where I have worked for the last 22+ years. I'm truly saddened to see it coming to an end. It's a big hit to a small city. But, ready or not, it looks like I'll be retiring earlier than I had planned on. No firm dates yet. I may get to work long enough to pass 57, and if so severance will take me to 58 before I will have to start drawing my pension. That will help. Not that I couldn't work somewhere else, but I'm not sure I'll really want to start over.
We're all out of the plant through the weekend. It will be hard to want to go to work on Monday.
Bill
Longest i worked at any one place was 8 years. the only folks in management who stayed longer after age 40 were the owners. anyone in management is expendable with the new crop of MBA's.
So I started my own business.
I made it to 45+ consecutive years of continuous employment with the last 41 years at Motorola. The layoffs continue at the plant where I worked. My last boss now thinks that there is 1 to 2 years left in thee place.
Last week all of the retirees got the same letter. The one that says "We are discontinuing our retiree health care plan." Welcome to Obamacare. The existing retirees were getting low cost health care, we were promised the same deal...Yeah right. That was one of my fears about retiring early, now I need to pay for health care....so......
I have been filling out applications for any employment that pays more than I would collect from Social Security. Most of the applications go unacknowledged. The others get an instant "go away" message.
I did get two phone calls from an application I put in for a factory maintenance man that paid $21/hr. Then, nothing and my emails and phone calls were unanswered. I met a guy in a local gym who works there. They hired a young guy with no experience that can't fix dookie.
Good luck!
Words of advice
Anyone mulling buying obamacare/ACA coverage through either a state or national exchange BEWARE!!!
Most of these plans have fine print that often is obscure limiting coverage to incredibly narrow networks of doctors and hospitals, almost all to in state only. Take it from one who knows... read your policy carefully before buying in. We got (almost) screwed by this, as Anthem's website would not work to download the policy for review last February, and they failed to send us one even after we bought it (here in Kentucky), so we were unaware of the "details" in spite of 4+ months of trying.... 😱😕🙁
So, say you have some complication or rare condition that requires your transport out of your coverage area (happens more often than you think), you won't have ANY insurance coverage at all. You won't get the benefit of the insurance adjustment, nor any payments for services rendered. Incredible, huh??? You don't hear any of this in the discussions about health care, do you?
It was only due to my continued efforts and long term job related connections to Anthem's upper management that I was successful in having our no coverage out of state/network appeal decision reversed for all my surgeries this year (been a bad summer).
The net effect was going from a potential $300,000+ hospital bill for no coverage (even though we bought a plan that said we had out of network coverage) to owing $9000 total out of pocket yearly maximum per plan (deductible and co-insurance), as all the claims (over 64 and counting) are being reprocessed and paid in-network 🙂
. You DO NOT want to go through this, especially while trying to stay alive and heal after multiple invasive surgeries and radiation.
Just a word of warning... I've been healthy most of my first 62 years, but after retiring in the 63rd, I've had to pay the piper!! As I just turned 64 a week ago, I'm hoping for a better year ahead.
John L.
Anyone mulling buying obamacare/ACA coverage through either a state or national exchange BEWARE!!!
Most of these plans have fine print that often is obscure limiting coverage to incredibly narrow networks of doctors and hospitals, almost all to in state only. Take it from one who knows... read your policy carefully before buying in. We got (almost) screwed by this, as Anthem's website would not work to download the policy for review last February, and they failed to send us one even after we bought it (here in Kentucky), so we were unaware of the "details" in spite of 4+ months of trying.... 😱😕🙁
So, say you have some complication or rare condition that requires your transport out of your coverage area (happens more often than you think), you won't have ANY insurance coverage at all. You won't get the benefit of the insurance adjustment, nor any payments for services rendered. Incredible, huh??? You don't hear any of this in the discussions about health care, do you?
It was only due to my continued efforts and long term job related connections to Anthem's upper management that I was successful in having our no coverage out of state/network appeal decision reversed for all my surgeries this year (been a bad summer).
The net effect was going from a potential $300,000+ hospital bill for no coverage (even though we bought a plan that said we had out of network coverage) to owing $9000 total out of pocket yearly maximum per plan (deductible and co-insurance), as all the claims (over 64 and counting) are being reprocessed and paid in-network 🙂
. You DO NOT want to go through this, especially while trying to stay alive and heal after multiple invasive surgeries and radiation.Just a word of warning... I've been healthy most of my first 62 years, but after retiring in the 63rd, I've had to pay the piper!! As I just turned 64 a week ago, I'm hoping for a better year ahead.
John L.
I have read your story and unfortunately too many others like it. Two of my former bosses at Motorola passed away shortly after retiring. One worked his butt off in the stress factory, and dropped dead 3 months after retiring. The other lasted 2 years.
It looks like you are headed toward recovery. Great! Hope the next year, and all the rest are better.
Anthem has been the administrator for Motorola's private insurance plan for the past 10 years or so......I have NOTHING good to say about them.
Let's see, they will pay to have the cancer cut out of your face, but won't pay for any "cosmetic" surgery to replace the divot taken by the surgeons blade. I have several rather ugly spots scattered over my body where the hole eventually healed itself. The scar tissue turns a rather funky color of grey after several years.....It's still better than the cancer.
For all currently healthy guys and unhealthy one's look out for natural materials to help with or prevent problems that older people might get or have. Many do work. If it's has been in use for several hundreds of years or more , there is a good chance that they really work.
Might prevent or reduce the problems. Search them on the Net.
It will help you have a healthier and happier retired (?) life......often at very little expense.
Cheers.
Might prevent or reduce the problems. Search them on the Net.
It will help you have a healthier and happier retired (?) life......often at very little expense.
Cheers.
In a cruel twist of fate, I wrote about my previous cancer surgeries 2 posts and 3 weeks ago. In those 3 weeks a fresh cancer popped up from nowhere. Surgery is Thursday.
It has been 4 years since any recurrence, and now I get 5 new tumors. 4 were quickly nuked with topical chemo, but #5 just laughs it off. I have moved 1200 miles, so it's all new doctors in a new state, and a third rate hospital.
It has been 4 years since any recurrence, and now I get 5 new tumors. 4 were quickly nuked with topical chemo, but #5 just laughs it off. I have moved 1200 miles, so it's all new doctors in a new state, and a third rate hospital.
Just a thought..... but when time to retire or are feeling your age.... move closer to hospitals and doctors rather than further away. Might not seem romantic or pretty compared to the great out doors etc etc. But just more practical.
-RNM
-RNM
This is a wise suggestion Richard.
George, my Best Wishes for a successful treatment.
The power in You is one (the) key factor.
George
George, my Best Wishes for a successful treatment.
The power in You is one (the) key factor.
George
Sounds reasonable... until you realize the quality of hospital / physician care ranges from criminal to not so good... and is getting worse due to the current political climate.
Federal efforts to somehow quantify this attribute are fanciful (PQRS, ACO's,MSSP,etc.), all designed by bean counters to cover their own butts. Adds many hours of laborious documentation to the patient care experience...what part of this encounter do you think gets short changed?
Doesn't really matter how many DR's there are, when none of them know or care what the they're doing, and are constantly pushed to maximize revenue
George, I hope you get decent care and heal successfully.
John L
tubelab, best of luck to you and everyone else who is a victim of the big C. I am going to the hospital on Friday for my semi annual scans to see if mine has come back or not. If it hasn't I go on to yearly scans. If it has, I will be giving away lots of stuff.
No one knows when or what will do you in..... just keep moving and doing what you enjoy until you are dead and cant anymore. You may become more limited in what you can do but we can adapt and adjust to keep doing what we like.... fortunately electronics and audio and music can be enjoyed without a lot of mobility. So keep on moving and doing. Dont worry about when and what will do you in. It WILL happen. Life is to be experienced.... all of it. What a trip this is.
-RM
-RM