Five things make a post
Dec. 17th, 2023 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carbonel1. As of October 15, I have (mostly) retired. I'm still working a few hours a week as a copyeditor, but as a contractor rather than an employee. I'm enjoying having the extra time.
2. Lydy and I bought one of those package deals that cover airfare and hotel, and spent four days in Paris in early November. I'd been there once before, in 1979; she'd never been there. We walked around a lot, did the hop on, hop off bus, took a food tour in Montmartre, went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and visited the Louvre. We also had a nice dinner near the Louvre that was recommended by our food tour guide. Despite two very tight connections on the way home, all the travel worked out the way it was supposed to. I definitely want to do more travel, and this trip proved that doing it on the cheap can be successful.
3. The main annoying thing that's been taking up too much of my time has been dealing with health insurance. The Medicare supplement insurance I'd had with my company wasn't eligible for COBRA, even if I'd wanted it (which I didn't at over $900 per month, sheesh). I signed up for a BCBS policy, then had to do it all over again when it was canceled because I'd failed to dot an i or cross a t. I also had to get a policy for medicine (Part D) and set up COBRA payments for dental insurance, which puts off further decisions on that for another eighteen months.
4. MY YULETIDE STORY IS DONE AND POSTED. Every time I've signed up for Yuletide, it's gone to the wire, and this year was no exception, despite my best intentions. I had an entire eight hours of cushion when I hit the upload button, but it's done, modulo a final edit when get my brain back again. Thanks as always go to Pat WINODW for plot noodling and beta reading.
5. I'm trying to get various parts of my life into better order now that I have more free time. My finances are not completely taken care of, but they're much better now than they were at the start of the year. I have good intentions for decluttering the house, but little progress so far. Watch this space (but not too avidly).
And how are things going with you?
2. Lydy and I bought one of those package deals that cover airfare and hotel, and spent four days in Paris in early November. I'd been there once before, in 1979; she'd never been there. We walked around a lot, did the hop on, hop off bus, took a food tour in Montmartre, went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and visited the Louvre. We also had a nice dinner near the Louvre that was recommended by our food tour guide. Despite two very tight connections on the way home, all the travel worked out the way it was supposed to. I definitely want to do more travel, and this trip proved that doing it on the cheap can be successful.
3. The main annoying thing that's been taking up too much of my time has been dealing with health insurance. The Medicare supplement insurance I'd had with my company wasn't eligible for COBRA, even if I'd wanted it (which I didn't at over $900 per month, sheesh). I signed up for a BCBS policy, then had to do it all over again when it was canceled because I'd failed to dot an i or cross a t. I also had to get a policy for medicine (Part D) and set up COBRA payments for dental insurance, which puts off further decisions on that for another eighteen months.
4. MY YULETIDE STORY IS DONE AND POSTED. Every time I've signed up for Yuletide, it's gone to the wire, and this year was no exception, despite my best intentions. I had an entire eight hours of cushion when I hit the upload button, but it's done, modulo a final edit when get my brain back again. Thanks as always go to Pat WINODW for plot noodling and beta reading.
5. I'm trying to get various parts of my life into better order now that I have more free time. My finances are not completely taken care of, but they're much better now than they were at the start of the year. I have good intentions for decluttering the house, but little progress so far. Watch this space (but not too avidly).
And how are things going with you?
no subject
Date: 2023-12-18 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-18 02:43 pm (UTC)i think that i will never retire so that i don't have to deal with post-job health insurance.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-18 05:38 pm (UTC)My breakthrough this year on the decluttering front was the creation of Zoom SORT! sessions. So far, they're working well as one-on-one sessions with friends who also want to declutter. We Zoom together for an hour or thereabouts, each with whatever boxes/bins/bags o'stuff, and do the work while visiting, marveling over what we found, making progress. I've been doing them most weeks for about 6 months now and am pleased to be on the last of what I think were 16 boxes full of family stuff that followed me home from my sister's house in 2019. I've shredded a couple hundred pounds of paper with personal information on it. The last box from Sue's are more of her credit card statements, tax filings, and health records.
Let me know if you'd like to try a few sessions in the new year. While going through papers is especially easy on Zoom, it can also be something like "I'm going to declutter this shelf/flat surface/whatever. (I'm overdue for a session with Elizabeth Clement; we planned to declutter our dressers this fall and then I dropped the ball.)
Onward!
no subject
Date: 2023-12-18 06:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-20 01:21 am (UTC)