51 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 11-13-17”

  2. I posted this at the end of R&R yesterday regarding the “HSA” discussion.
    Just FYI, you cannot use an HSA with Medicare. I found this out when I hit my official “retirement age.” I didn’t retire but did file for social security. Under SS, you have to sign up for Part A Medicare, so I could no longer use my HSA at work even though I was enrolled in a qualifying insurance plan there. I am able to use the FSA (which is the one that doesn’t roll over), but they’ve improved that process by including an option for them to automatically send you a reimbursement when a medical bill comes in. Plus, they reimburse the entire annual amount even prior to the contributions equaling that amount. So, in other words, the odds of losing it are very slim. BTW, did you know that when you “lose” it, your company gets to keep it – to cover other folks who may have used their entire amount and left the company prior to contributing it.

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  3. I have done it again. I have ruined a perfectly good book. Last week, being in the North Carolina mountains reminded me of Catherine Marshall’s book Christy.
    Yesterday I downloaded it to my Kindle to read. In the foreward Marshall’s family is talking about the book and that it is loosely based on their grandmother Leonora Haseltine Whitaker Wood. So what did I do? I Googled her. While I understand it is a work of fiction, in real life there was no Miss Alice, nor Dr. McNeil. Leonora married the preacher within 4 months of arriving in Cutter Gap.
    The real Cutter Gap was taken over by the Federal Government as part of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in the 1930’s

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  4. Good morning. I am finding it difficult to launch into the search for new health insurance. For three years now my holidays have had this hanging over them as the top priority.

    Tonight is the big meeting about merging churches. It is all in the hands of the two leadership teams and God. If it happens it appears we might lose our wonderful bi-vocational minister to senior adults. Also the other church planter with a sports outreach would not be with us. He is the black pastor who did a wonderful sermon in which the power of the Holy Spirit was distinctly evident. I recommended him to the pastor search committee as one of my choices for pastor. We are certainly a fluid church lately. We gained another two church planters yesterday who will intern with us for a year while they prepare to begin their church.

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  6. I’m glad we moved to Hendersonville before Boulevard BC in Falls Church merged with Annandale BC to form United Baptist Church. That church had two pastors for over ten years. Two senior pastors, that is.
    It seems to have worked.

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  7. Those who follow “Jeopardy,” Austin and Lilly are both on tonight in the second round of the “Tournament of Champions.” I had both of them on my list as wanting them to make the final three, and obviously they can’t both make it.

    It would seem that racist, sexist America is rooting for the white male instead of the two contestants “of color,” one of them a girl. Figures! 🙂

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  8. You’ve convinced me. I don’t want to grow up and I never want to get sick.

    Too late.

    Honestly, if intelligent, informed people like you can’t figure this out, how does anyone else?

    That’s my question about the FEMA discussion here in Sonoma–5900 households, today, have to either sign up for FEMA or submit paperwork for the private contractor permit.

    Period. End of discussion.

    This is why we’ve been flooded from attorneys from our of state–not smelling the smoke like the rest of us but a fire sale on insurance companies.

    It’s beyond disgusting.

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  9. My weekend was totally wild, I was so exhausted we both went to bed by 8 and some of us slept until 6. And my husband spent all day Saturday at home! Of course, yesterday he escorted me everywhere.

    Today is less intense but a lot of running around in my repaired car. I thought I’d have a break tomorrow afternoon but my brother is coming to see the ruins.

    I drove over the hill Saturday night on the way to dinner on the west side of town. That was my first glance of the Fountaingrove fire–at least from the road, while driving at dusk.

    I’d been warned. While I could keep the tears from rolling down my face, four weeks after the event, it was horrifying and sobering. I saw only a small portion.

    All I could think of, beyond, why is that house still standing? was the lives that have now spun out of control and wonder how/what you make of it all? I suppose it will be different when rebuilding begins, but right now it’s desolate and tragic.

    Which is what my brother wants to see.

    Residents are resentful of tourists. I’ll have to figure this out somehow. Fortunately/Tragically, I can argue I’m driving by friends’ homes. 😦

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  10. Good morning! I am having a productive day around here. I have been enjoying the wild life pictures. Each time I look out the window, I see a leaf or a flower that makes me wonder what sort of haiku Janice would write about it. I am off to get pumpkins for stock feed, later in the day. I must care for hubby and do school with boy first.

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  12. re HSA — I signed up for Medicare Park A a year ago as was required of me. But I did not sign up for any supplemental (and I still need to sign up for Park B this week). Instead, I continued to opt for a work-sponsored plan, the one that included an HSA, which I have participated in throughout 2017 (so far) without an issue.

    But I *thought* the broker suggested that there were HSA plans sprinkled within the supplemental Medicare options as well, although I may not have heard him say that. I don’t really care at this point, I just want something that offers decent coverage without huge out-of-pocket expenses, without a large, quarterly premium and without having to change doctors. And I don’t want to pay $1,000 for my eye drops, half of which only run down my cheeks, along with my tears over how much they cost, in 2018. I know this is probably not doable in the real world, but it is my goal. 🙂

    What a wonderful feeling not to have to go in to work this week. And I’m giving myself permission to not feel pressured to spend every day doing house stuff. Let it sit. I really just need a break.

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  13. dj, having an HSA with Medicare is illegal. My tax attorney caught it and my company confirmed it. They didn’t catch it in the first place because they didn’t know I’d filed for SS. They had to move everything I had in my HSA to an FSA, which sort of backdated it through the prior year.

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  14. I’ll check with my broker, maybe I just need to withdraw it then. Not that much in there, frankly, but I could maybe use it to at least partially reimburse myself for the eye drop expenses this past year.

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  15. From IRS publication 969

    Qualifying for an HSA
    To be an eligible individual and qualify for an HSA, you must meet the following requirements.
    You are covered under a high deductible health plan (HDHP), described later, on the first day of the month.
    You have no other health coverage except what is permitted under Other health coverage , later.
    You aren’t enrolled in Medicare.
    You can’t be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s 2016 tax return.

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  16. Ah, I’m a law breaker then. Who knew?

    Janice, I feel for you having to navigate the health care landscape every year. What a nightmare it’s all turned out to be. Our work-sponsored plans go from bad to worse these days, though the vision & dental are still decent so I’ll be keeping those.

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  17. Ironically, our HR just sent out an e-mail that starts with, “As you may be aware, if one is eligible for Medicare, they may not contribute to a Health Savings Account (HSA), per IRS regulations.” However, I think she is mistaken – it’s not if you are ELIGIBLE for Medicare, it’s if you have enrolled in any part of Medicare.

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  19. I have not had vision or dental for many years. I keep up with my 6 month visits with dental and have been blessed overall with few broken fillings or cavities. I have the one broken tooth now that is broken on the backside. I can wait a little longer. My eye problems are what they are. For years my vision has not been corrected to 20/20. I have to work around it.

    I do hope for a much better plan for the new year. I need to get serious about shopping. It’s just not the kind of thing I want to spend the time I need to for finding what is best for my situation.

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  22. Kim – I usually do my research after reading the book, or watching the show or movie, as the case may be. But yeah, the real life story often ruins the fictional or semi-fictional representation.

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  23. One of the debates in Christian circles over the past couple years or so has been about whether or not we should vote for or support a candidate who is morally questionable. With more allegations coming out against Roy Moore, I’ve read that some evangelicals are digging in their heels & supporting him merely because of his conservatism, while others have withdrawn their support.

    A fellow believer on Facebook posed the idea that perhaps some Christians’ insistence on voting for Republicans no matter what is a matter of serving one master over another, serving conservative political ideals over Christian values & ideals.

    Something to think about.

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  24. I’m back communicating (or trying to) with my ‘old house’ paint consultant in NJ. I think working with what is essentially an early california/southwest style house isn’t what he’s particularly used to doing. 🙂 I just sent him a pic of a cream/tan adobe house with a muted dark blue trim/door (it’s in New Mexico and much more rustic than my house, but I do like how the colors play off each other).

    He emailed me his preferred color charts but i’m finding them impossible to work with, they’re tiny thumbnails that I can’t separate & when I try to enlarge them I can’t read the ID numbers.

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  25. I couldn’t find any southwest style homes on his blog, only Victorians and other styles of old homes, but I did ask him first if mine was the kind of home he could advise on. He didn’t say no, so I assumed he felt he was equipped to do it.

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  29. Kizzie@2:14, I often think, when I witness a Christian being blindly partisan to one political group or another, of what Paul said, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.” (II Timothy 2:4).
    I see more and more the importance of Christians avoiding the idol of politics. I’ve just been reading the account of the brutal Lebanese Civil War from 1975 to 1990. The Maronite Christians did great evil to those they considered their political enemies, including the cold blooded massacre of 1000 Palestinian civilians, men, women, and children, in Sabra and Shatila. To be sure the other sides (there were many) did equally horrible things, but as Paul said to the church at Corinth, “Why should I judge those who are outside? Those who are outside, God judges.” It is easy to just shrug and say, well, they were just nominal Christians – the name of Christ was still brought into dishonour, and that dishonour continues to have repercussions. The merciless conduct of the Christians led to a hardening of tone from the other sides – on of the primary documents in the readings is the declaration of Hezbollah, three years after the massacre, in which Christians are pressured to convert or be considered enemies and the declaration specifically mentions the massacres as an instance of the betrayal of the Maronites. The Lebanese Civil War was brought about by the Maronites’ refusal to engage in political reform (the conflict started when the Phalange, the Maronite paramilitary group which later committed the massacres, attacked a bus of Palestinians, killing 27), because they feared that the changing of the demographics of the country meant that any kind of proportional representation would lead to Maronites being the minority in the legislature. In seeking to preserve their way of life on earth, they lost their ability to represent the kingdom of heaven. “He that saves his life shall lose it.”

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  31. Although I didn’t mention it specifically in my 2:14 comment, I assume everyone caught the reference to Jesus’ words about not being able to serve two masters.
    _________________

    I’m pretty sure I told y’all that on the morning Hubby died, I got a call at around 4:30am, telling me that he was rushed to the ICU, & that they’d had to do CPR. You can imagine how horrified I was to hear this, & how foggy my thinking was as I had been awakened suddenly from deep sleep. After okaying the doctors to start TPA, to hopefully dissolve the clots that had developed in his lungs & elsewhere, I alerted Nightingale, & we quickly dressed & left for the hospital, picking up Chickadee on the way. (The Boy was with us, too, of course.)

    Upon arrival in the ICU waiting room, I had to make the decision for them to cease doing CPR. I had to let him go. (The doctor said that brain damage had probably already occurred, & he wasn’t going to make it anyway. It was the right thing to do.) Shortly after we went in to say goodbye, he died. Some have tried to comfort me by saying he probably knew we were there, but it didn’t seem like it. (I have wondered if he saw us there as his spirit left his body.)

    I’m pretty sure I told you all of that already, on the day he died. But I’ve been going over those events in my mind for the past couple days, not obsessively, but for a few moments here & there, especially as I was lying in bed last night.

    What I don’t think I mentioned was that as we came out of the hospital, the day was dawning. It was quite light, but the sun was still lowish. The phrase that popped into my mind was “the cold light of day”. We often think of a new day dawning as a sign of hope, but that day was dawning upon the first day without Hubby. There was a surreal feeling about it.

    As we walked towards the parking lot, Nightingale stopped & stooped down. Her eyes had noticed a lovely flower with drops of dew or water on it. She bent down & took a photo. (It came out beautifully, & is now her cover photo on Facebook.)

    Besides calling the funeral home & meeting with them in the early afternoon – & being so relieved at all the things they took care of, including being paid out of the life insurance money rather than wanting payment up front – I don’t remember much, other than the feeling of shock & intense grief.

    But one thing does stand out in my memory. That evening, standing in the bathroom after brushing my teeth & washing my face as I got ready for bed, I buried my face in the hand towel & wailed my heart out, almost screaming.

    I don’t know why I wanted to share that with you, but I did. I think writing these things here, & the emails I write to a couple close friends, are my form of journaling.

    Life feels so odd now. It is so much the same, but so different.

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  34. Husband and I were both off today and we finished our headboard and managed to put up a post and beam (decorative) that our good friend gave us from his grandfather’s homestead log cabin. The have used a few of the logs in their eclectic home and I thought the old weathered logs would go well in our son of a homesteader’s farmhouse.
    We also got the outside Christmas lights up and working. Now I can start getting the house ready for decorating inside 🙂 🙂

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  35. Since working in the nursing home, Nightingale has said that she is not in favor of CPR for the frail elderly. It usually only buys a little bit of time, if it works, & it often causes painful broken ribs & bruising of the chest. She feels that it not only extends suffering, it adds to it. (She is not, however, in favor of euthanasia.)

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  36. Oops. I didn’t finish what I was gonna say there.

    Because of her knowledge of the pain that CPR can cause, she was upset to hear that they had had to do it a few times before we got there. She hoped that he wasn’t suffering while they did it. I think he must have been too out of it by that time, at least I hope so.

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  37. Kizzie, I’m glad you do feel safe with us.

    My husband and I stayed with my sister for nearly two weeks after her husband died. After she put her children to bed, she would often turn the music up really loud and go into the living room and wail. My husband and I would hold each other, and I would decide when she had had enough time “alone” and I could go out and be with her. She and I would stay up long into the night. But those nights of my sister wailing, hoping the loud music covered the noise from her children’s ears, were haunting.

    God keeps every one of our tears in His bottle. He knows, and He loves you.

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  38. Kizzie, I thought the same thing when I saw what you said about his having undergone CPR, that CPR usually isn’t really a good thing unless it’s a young person with a freak reason for needing it.

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  41. I’m glad you are sharing your thoughts with us, too, Kizzie.

    My sister was widowed a little after her first wedding anniversary. They were living in a mobile home and building a house on their property when he died in a construction accident — buried alive under a wall of dirt that collapsed on him while in a trench that would eventually be the basement to the family home. It took too long to get him out, having to dig by hand, as using machinery would have been too dangerous, not knowing exactly where he was, and, though CPR got his heart beating again, he was pronounced brain dead at the hospital the next day, and my sister signed the papers to shut off all the machines he was hooked up to.

    My sister and her infant daughter went to live with my mom and dad while the house was being built, and my parents reported how heart-wrenching it was to hear her crying at night.

    A more difficult thing — losing the spouse you love — I cannot imagine.

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  42. Death, such a strange thing for us when it strikes close.

    I remember being in Iowa, I was maybe 14, when my uncle, a farmer, died completely unexpectedly. I wasn’t “close” to him really, but it was a close family member of course and my father, his brother, I knew was deeply impacted.

    The next day I remember looking out into my grandmother’s very familiar backyard and thinking, how strange, a life is gone and everything looks … the same. How can that be?

    I also remember, after losing my mom (also unexpectedly), going out to eat — probably the first meal I’d had in a day or two, I was barely able to sip some soup as I recall — with my ex-boyfriend (and also a very good friend). After he parked, we were walking toward the restaurant, the street was dark and quite, a residential area, and I just turned and threw my arms around him and sobbed and sobbed, it was just heart wrenching.

    Kizzie, not a day goes by that I don’t think and pray about what you’re still going through.

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  43. “Snow Dogs” is on tonight, I haven’t seen that in ages, very fun for dog lovers 🙂

    And I watched “Rain Man” the other night, it was interesting as the relationship and some of the disconnects the brothers had reminded me of my relationship with Carol.

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  47. Ree at 8:16, didn’t you see my smiley face?

    Have you watched “Jeopardy” enough to be familiar with who “Austin” is and his popularity? If not, really quick overview: he’s a bartender, and when he showed up on the show, my husband’s first comment is, “I wouldn’t want [our single daughter] to bring that guy home” because he’s a bartender with crazy hair. But the guy is very intelligent and obviously knows a lot of history, geography, etc. But he’s very expressive, so if he gets an answer wrong, rather than just getting it wrong, he’ll say, “Yeah, whatever,” like trying to tell himself it doesn’t matter. And starting the second or third day on the show during the times people are being introduced he’d do a mime–like one day he pretended to make a balloon animal, then mouthed “It’s a puppy,” and then “popped” it with an imaginary pin. He made some huge bets, one day winning $69,000. He won 12 days in a row, and some days won enough money that his total earnings zoomed far past the other 12-day winner in the last two years, more than $400,000, the fifth earnings in Jeopardy history, I believe. So people were tuning in the show to see what on earth he’d do today and how much he would win, and how long he would keep winning.

    People are not, of course, watching him because he is a “white male,” but in a day when white males are the only people it’s OK to attack, I was making a joke of all of America seeing three people in the semi-finals tonight and rooting for the one among them who’s a white male. (He won, BTW, so he will be going on to the finals, and winning at least $50,000 more, possibly as much as $250,000.)

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  48. So you are not merging? Did they not want to become Baptists?
    Dj I actually like a dark trim on a house…our neighbors had a very dark green trim on their forest green house…they painted it white and ugh…not liking the look…but I guess they do and after all it is their house 🏡
    Rain Man…my son’s father in law is in that movie…briefly…when the brothers are on I75 there is a close up of a KY State Patrol officer directing traffic…that’s Jim and he is a retired KY State Patrol officer…the consensus was he should be the one with the close up…he can look quite intimidating 😠 😊 but he is a really great guy…..

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  49. I actually do watch Jeopardy most days recently, and I am familiar with Austin. He’s pretty entertaining, and yes, I like his risky bets. I thought you must be kidding, but my eyes aren’t good enough to make out which emoji is showing which emotion.

    I have tonight’s show DVRd, so I’ll watch it later. And I don’t even mind knowing that he’s going to win. 🙂

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  50. Ree, I figured that even the west coast had already seen it, so I wasn’t giving a “spoiler.” Didn’t think of DVRs. But it takes off some of the stress when you watch it, I guess, since you know the outcome!

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  51. Yeah, I watch mainly for the fun of answering the questions and only secondarily to see who wins. But occasionally there’s a player whom I root for, like Austin.

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