TGIF

MLMM Friday Faithfuls — Money Matters

Fandango13 Comments

For Jim Adams’ Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Friday Faithfuls, Jim has asked us to respond to his prompt by writing anything we want to write about money matters. We can discuss our financial situation or the economy. Have we ever been scammed, had to file for bankruptcy, defaulted on a mortgage, been pestered by a creditor? How are we coping with inflation?

I am lucky. I’m no financial guru but I somehow managed to make it to retirement with a comfortable enough cushion that I don’t foresee myself ever having to resort to eating canned cat food for dinner.

I probably owe that to years of contributing the maximum allowable contributions to my various employers’ retirement savings plans — mostly 401(k) plans — where employers made matching contributions. Of course, with most of my retirement nest egg invested in stocks and bonds, I can feel pretty jittery when it comes to big drops in the stock market. Yet I know enough about long term investments to not panic and pull my money out of the market. Most of the time, the stock market recovers. And then some!

Plus I have done reasonably well with real estate by buying low and selling high. With all that said, I’m not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. But I am contentedly comfortable.

I’m going to use Paula Light’s TGIF prompt as an excuse to update you on my rehabilitation progress. I went to see my orthopedic surgeon today. I am recuperating nicely from my hip replacement surgery, he said. I can now walk using one cane and I’ve been practicing walking around the house without a cane. I can manage fairly well, but not without a pronounced limp. Hopefully as my muscle strength around my hip continues to improve, my limp will become less pronounced.

The news with respect to my shoulder is not so good. I still have very limited use of my right shoulder and arm without considerable pain. The surgeon wants me to continue with physical therapy through the rest of this month and then reevaluate. But if it hasn’t improved significantly by then, I may have to have shoulder surgery. Ugh.

Anyway, I hope you all had a very nice Friday.

TGIF — Good News, Bad News

Fandango10 Comments

Paula Light, at Light Motifs II, has this prompt she calls TGIF. She encourages us to take this opportunity to openly chat or jabber about anything we want.

On a personal note, I’ve got some good news to chat with you about this Friday. I have graduated from a needing a walker to get around to using two canes like one would use walking sticks. I can walk faster using the canes than with the walker, and I can maneuver around things easier, so that’s some decent progress with respect to my hip rehabilitation.

The other bit of good news is that I actually drove a car today for the first time since mid-January. I accompanied my wife for her annual appointment with an ophthalmologist — well, supposedly annual, but because of the pandemic, it was her first “annual” visit since 2019 — and she had to get drops in her eyes. That meant I had to drive us home. That was fun!

But I also have some not so good news to share with you. I’ve worn hearing aids since April of last year and they’ve been great. Until last night, that is. Suddenly I’m not hearing any base sounds, only treble, and that makes everything I hear sound brassy and tinny, including my wife’s voice. And when we’re watching TV, the actors’ voices either sound tinny or it sounds like they’re whispering.

I’m not happy about that. I have an appointment with my audiologist this afternoon. She said they first want to give me a hearing test to rule out that my hearing has further betrayed me, of if, in fact, the issue is with the hearing aids themselves. I hope it’s the latter and they can fix it.

And on that note, happy TGIF, everyone.

TGIF — ‘Nuff Said

Fandango5 Comments

Paula Light, at Light Motifs II, has this prompt she calls TGIF. She encourages us to take this opportunity to openly chat or jabber about anything we want.

Given the headline of today’s San Francisco Chronicle, I don’t think I need to say anything more.

I do, however, want to congratulate Paula on having completed all of her A to Z Challenge posts. I plan to start writing my “A” post at some point today. No pressure!

And on that note, happy TGIF, everyone.

TGIF — No Rush

Fandango12 Comments

Paula Light, at Light Motifs II, has this prompt she calls TGIF. She encourages us to take this opportunity to openly chat or jabber about anything we want.

Every year around this time I start stressing about filing my income taxes, both federal and state. They are normally due on April 15th, but this year that falls on a Saturday, so the tax filing date this year is now on April 18.

Usually I’m on top of this. I’m well organized, have all of my tax forms from my retirement accounts, social security, investments, etc. together, and I sit in front of my laptop using TurboTax and get it done in a few days. And by this time in past years, I’ve already sent in my forms electronically.

But this year, with my busted hip and arm, my surgery, my physical therapy, and all that shit, I haven’t had any time at all to focus on getting my shit together for filing my tax returns. So my stress levels were starting to reach new heights.

But lo and behold, earlier this month, the federal Internet Revenue Service (IRS) announced that Californians in 44 counties — including the one I live in — that were part of the Federal Emergency Management Agencies emergency declaration due to severe winter storms between Dec. 27 and Jan. 31, are getting a filing extension. The deadline for filing returns for those who owe taxes to the federal or the state government has been pushed by six months to October 16!

So now I can continue to focus on my recovery and not fret about a fast approaching tax filing deadline. Woohoo!

And on that note, happy TGIF, everyone.

TGIF — Almost Over

Fandango14 Comments

Paula Light, at Light Motifs II, has this prompt she calls TGIF. She encourages us to take this opportunity to openly chat or jabber about anything we want.

This is my first TGIF post since Friday the 13th, which for many, is an unlucky day. But for me, that Friday the 13th was the last day that I was able-bodied, as on Saturday the 14th I fell off a ladder and fractured my left hip and broke my right arm near my shoulder. Hence, I haven’t had much to TGIF about.

But almost five weeks after The Incident, things are starting to look up a little. I still need to use a walker to get around, and I still have. 50% weight limit restriction on my left leg, but I am starting to put a little more weight on my left leg and hope, within another two to three weeks, to begin being able to bear more weight on my left leg and maybe advance from a walker to a cane. And maybe a few weeks after that to migrate from in-home PT to outpatient PT.

My right shoulder and arm are still not doing great, but I’ve got daily exercises that I’m doing to try to get back my strength and to improve my range of motion, but there’s a lot of physical therapy ahead to look forward to.

Today I received a California Temporary Disabled Person Parking Placard for our car.

This will be helpful for my wife and me when my wife has to drive me to doctor appointments and physical therapy, which she has to do because I haven’t been approved to drive yet and probably won’t be until April. So at leased now we’ll be able to park in handicapped parking spots next to the building entrances. Every little bit helps.

And on that note, happy TGIF, everyone.