Monday, January 07, 2013

After the Epiphany...


When the song of the angels is stilled
When the star in the sky is gone
When the kings and princes are home
When the shepherds are back with their flock
The work of Christmas begins:
                                                      To find the lost
                                                      To heal the broken
                                                      To feed the hungry
                                                      To release the prisoner
                                                      To rebuild the nations
                                                      To bring peace among people
                                                      To make music in the heart.

                                                           ~ Howard Thurman

15 comments:

  1. Whoop for Dean!

    Getting caught up with the blog...

    Wonderful Ally photo, listener. I used to have dreams about a light yellow house with white trim… Also absolutely outstanding Ally news. Is the pill to increase her appetite? If so, what is it? (So my idle curiosity can be satisfied, and so that I can stay away from it! Diet starts tomorrow, Monday...)

    Bill--Pardon me, but what is the connection between the annuity and the IRA? It sounds like something we might be interested in before long…

    Merciful heavens--is there a candle page for Tanner?

    --Alan

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    1. As you know, once you turn 70-1/2 you have to start taking money from your IRA. One way to do that -- the way that will guarantee you income for life -- is to use the money to buy an immediate lifetime annuity.

      That's what Penny and I have now done with our annuities. (Joint life annuities in both cases.) I'm currently just taking the minimum required distribution from my 403(b). I plan to trun it into an annuity at some point, but suspect that the monthly payment will be higher if I wait. Hard to be sure, however -- TIAA does an amazingly poor job of explaining how these things work.

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    1. Yea, verily!!!

      My niece moved home to Boston from Madrid this year, duevtonthe economy. It's pretty awful.

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  3. Beautiful picture and beautiful poem!

    Bill, thanks for the birthday wishes!

    Listener, I had to laugh at your enthusiasm to hear all about my day, as it was very quiet indeed. Didn't have cake. Didn't get my lemon meringue pie either, as I was sleeping when Patty came by and, since I hadn't been feeling at all well for the past few days, Mum didn't want to wake me.

    Had Stouffer's Mac & Cheese for supper. Started to watch an Engelbert video after supper, but Sis came upstairs about twenty minutes in looking very forlorn and demanded that I watch Mr. Hobbes Takes A Vacation on TCM with her. What could I do? I'd forgotten what a good movie that is. Then we watched Take Her, She's Mine, which I'd never seen before. Very enjoyable, though it did bring home to me rather forcefully what I don't have. Sis isn't terribly sensitive. Though at least it was better than all the movies about weddings she made me watch during one trying patch. I have no objection to a story that ends with a wedding, but she managed to find several that were actually about weddings. *sigh* However, I digress. I enjoyed the Jimmy Stewart movies. Once they were finished, it was bedtime.

    I got a lot of birthday wishes on FB, enough to bring a lump to my throat. All things considered, not such a bade birthday.

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    1. Cat, it makes me sad that you didn't get a special treat on your birthday and didn't get first dibs on what to watch. I'm glad you got good, needed rest and had someone to watch with. What's your favourite movie? Favourite meal? I'm sending them to you virtually. :-)

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  4. Glad you had a decent, working, birthday, Cat! Agree with you about the picture and the poem.

    Mr. Beau kind of went on a rampage last night. Mea culpa ~~ I left him loose when I took a nap. Boyohboy did he take the place apart. Usually it's only emptying the garbage can, but he was in fine fettle. . . . May take a few more days to finish cleaning up.

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    1. Yikes! What a bad boy! I'm sorry you now have all that extra work.

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  5. Beau! Go lie down, boy! No donut!

    Oh my goodness, puddle! That dog sure had spunk! I just wish he didn't exercise it when you're not looking!!

    Pace yourself. ♥

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  6. BTW snitching beautiful photo for Arty....

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  7. This night turned out harder than expected, though it's all small stuff. I picked up VT*Grand from school and we were so happy to be together for the first time since Christmas!! (Usually it's weekly.) We attempted to make cookies, but needed one ingredient, which Mah*Sweetie picked up on the way home. We made tissue paper stained glass pictures and coloured together awhile. All good thus far. Sweetie came in and made dinner, while we were finishing up the cookies. Might have gone well except that it's a galley kitchen and anyway I was so careful not to use milk in the recipe (VT*Grand may be lactose intolerant) but used butter in the recipe. So the cookie cutter cookies we'd just made could not be eaten by VT*Grand. At least I didn't want to take that chance as she has to go to the hospital on Weds for some testing.

    I'll be meeting VT*Grand her and Mom at the hospital on Wednesday to help entertain her while she has four hours of testing and cannot eat from the night before. We're going out for lunch afterwards. I know it's just a milk-digestion test, but I'm just a teeny bit on edge until they name exactly what the issue is.

    Then I'll be going in to work that afternoon, on my day off, so a coworker can attend her ex's oncologist appt with him.

    Friday is my next day off. Hoping to make it count.

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    1. ...I'm feeling kind of wiped out despite a good night's sleep last night. Gonna turn in early.

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