HAPPY CHANUKAH! (at sundown)
Try as I might, I could not find photos of our Menorah alight!
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Try as I might, I could not find photos of our Menorah alight!
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12:00:00 AM
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Have a happy!
ReplyDeleteJust remembered something I wanted to say---health care reform is kicking in in a way that a lot of people should notice. We were paying $570/month for Miyoko's private insurance through Kaiser before she qualified for Medicare. That dropped to $190/mo for Medicare plus Kaiser supplement (Medicare Advantage). Come January it will be $110. That's with no Part D doughnut hole.
At my job the company can't afford such good coverage as we have had--group insurance costs are scheduled to go up by 20%. So we will get a higher-deductible plan (still Kaiser). The monthly cost for me and one of my bosses would have been $1000/mo; with the higher deductibles it will be $848/mo. When I qualify for Medicare I will go off the company plan and they will raise my pay to cover private insurance costs--$110/mo would give me as good a plan as everyone else, but the boss said go ahead and get the deluxe supplement as well, total with extra for income taxes about $235/month, a savings for the company of more than $500/month and I get coverage equal to what they would have to pay more than four times as much for. Pretty darn good, eh?
I think a lot of seniors/golden agers/geezers will notice the big reduction in Medicare costs late this year or early next year. Don't see how any of them will credit the Republicans for it, but suppose some will. On the other hand, Medicare is usually taken out of Social Security payments, so maybe they will think it was a cost of living increase in Social Security. No matter how they look at it, the extra money will be welcome.
= Total Envy! =
ReplyDeleteHubby and I figure that about 3 months before we become eligible they'll change how it works and make it far more costly. It's been that way all through our years, since we're on the tail end of the Boomers, and come to need services just when there is little way to fund them anymore.
It's 2:30 in the morning on the first of December, the door's open and it's 60ยบ. Raining pretty hard, under a flood watch, and according to the radar, we've got several more hours of hard rain. But I *don't* think it's going to flood.
ReplyDeleteHope you're still safe and dry, puddle. ♥
ReplyDeleteHave a look at the close call we had this morning in the 65mph winds!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=303566&id=637766753&l=aa70610e53
Smithsonian, Google Remember Rosa Parks : The Two-Way : NPR
ReplyDeletewww.npr.org
Fifty-five years ago today she and others began the Montgomery bus boycott that helped change the nation.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/12/01/131726285/smithsonian-google-honor-rosa-parks
Safe, dry. River's about even with the bridge, but the culverts lookin' to be clogged. Sunny. Cold.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I was not quite three months old.
ReplyDeleteOur lights have been flickering a lot the past hour.
ReplyDeleteMy Main Squeeze went out to the bank (a half mile or so from here) and SAW a big old 40-50ft fir just snap off and land in someone's yard.
Trees and wires are down on a street near here, blue lights and all that.
No sign of our tree guy yet, though that's not shocking given all that's going on out there.
And the radar reveals that we ain't seen nothin' yet.
Ally update at baby ~~
ReplyDeletehttp://eatapyzch.blogspot.com/
http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=allys
It's been raining here since not long after noon. Windy and cold. Old Man Winter is definitely making his presence felt.
ReplyDeleteMy James Taylor and Carol King concert DVD arrived today. Also everyone here, including me, has started listening to Christmas music.
We say that Christmas music is fair game from the Feast of St. Francis (Oct. 4th) onward, because Christmas was St. Francis' favourite holiday. :-)
ReplyDeleteI kin live wit dat, lol!
ReplyDeleteI try to be restrained and not start with the Christmas music till December. Mum used to start it round about the middle of October when I was little, which I could handle, but then one year she started it in September, which totally freaked me out. Ever since then,for thirty years or more, I have not let a Christmas disc touch my stereo till December First.
ReplyDeleteYou are definitely not Canadian. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWe Americans tend to wait until after Thanksgiving.
But the Canadian Thanksgiving is on Columbus Day.
(Which makes a lot more sense for a harvest festival!)
RAR! If my computer doesn't stop crashing, I can't be held responsible for what I might do!
ReplyDeleteHowever, earlier in the evening I did find a really cute Matt Monroe song that has been running in my mind since last night:
My Kind of Girl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWKGBVdFic4&feature=autofb
???
ReplyDeleteHow did Canadians get into the discussion?
BTW listener, I hope you're feeling better♥
December 1 was the first snow of the season in the Chicago area. Big flakes in the morning, but didn't last long. Accumulation probably not measurable. Windy and cold, though.
ReplyDeleteWe've got a *maybe* snow tonight forecast. But nothing much really promised. Trying not to be grouchy: it IS December, lol!
ReplyDeleteIf all our rain today had been snow, the accumulation would have been respectable. But, it wasn't cold enough. Very windy though. We may get a few flurries over the weekend, but nothing to amount to anything.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Miyako's Medicare Advantage premium is going down. Most people with Medicare Advantage plans will see their premiums go up because the government is cutting back subsidies to what it would expect to pay for those of us on traditional Medicare.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, changes to Medicare are already kicking in, and most of them are good. Amd BTW, does anyone recall when the expanded Medicaid eligibility kicks in?
♡
ReplyDeleteJust that Canadians start playing Christmas music in mid-October, after their Columbus Day Thanksgiving.
ReplyDelete"Well the first of December was covered with snow,
ReplyDeleteand so was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston..."