What did you do today? 2017 version

[HFWR]

The show (Elegant Gypsy Electric 2017) was very good, a mix of electric and acoustic. He has a violin player (Evan Garr) who is outstanding, apparently self-taught. Enjoy!

Saw him last August with, I believe, the same band, in Chicago.

 

[spncity]

Last night for Valentine's - went to dinner at a new-to-us Mexican food place. Good enough to go again sometime.

Ordered some Sugru.

Today, working on some paperwork. Nice fire in the fireplace insert keeps the heat pump from coming on (if it's above 30 degrees outside). Food cooking in the oven.

Beautiful sky at sunset.

 

[brewer12345]

Aside from the installation of a poop catching tray, the coop is done. Of course I am realizing that I also need a place for the roosters and breeding hens to get jiggy, so I will soon be knocking together a far more basic conjugal visit pen. Then there is the raised bed I have to build.

 

[braumeister]

Nice job.
I take it the enclosed portion on the left is the packaging room where they lay the eggs in those little compartmented trays.

 

[RobbieB]

Painted my new picnic (grill) table.

 

[brewer12345]

Nice job.
I take it the enclosed portion on the left is the packaging room where they lay the eggs in those little compartmented trays.

Since they are quail they will be filling really tiny cartons.

 

[Ronstar]

Nice table, RobbieB. What's the story on the legs? Looks like metal.

 

[RobbieB]

Those are plastic pieces left over from a previous project.

2 x 4 Basics makes them

 

[sengsational]

Not as impressive as a quail coop, but I decided to allocate some time to a non-programming hobby project. I bought this for my dad a very long time ago and now that he's gone, my mom asked if I wanted it. It had sat unused for decades, but needed just a little TLC to get it sea worthy again. Of course I went overboard (hehe!) and put in a handful of modifications to make it better than the 'stock' version. The picture isn't my actual vessel, but I'll try to remember to take a picture when I sail it.

 

[brewer12345]

Is it a kit boat? Should be fun to sail.

 

[sengsational]

^ Yeah, a kit I built for my dad decades ago. I looked-up and found the assembly instructions so I could make sure I got the rigging re-done properly.

 

[MRG]

Picked up my prep kit, dear lord there's a gallon to drink. I thought the last time it was a couple of bottles(I imagined they were like little pony Miller beers). Oh well. I also managed a shingles vaccine in the visit. The pharmacist mentioned I hadn't waited long since my 60th. Hey it was free.

 

[coveredbridge]

Celebrated 4 weeks of FIRE today by getting up early and frost seeding some areas around the house where I'm trying to get some grass established. Sun's up now, should be a beautiful day. Time for a coffee break!

 

[street]

Not a darn thing. I should be doing something and have plenty to do but I'm not. Lol

Sounds like a lot of great days for all of you.

coveredbridge >>>> I did frost seeding about 3 weeks ago. I did alfalfa what kind of luck have you had frost seeding?

 

[NW-Bound]

My wife called up a doctor's office to set up an appointment. This is the doctor of two of our relatives, so we thought we would be safer with him. Our existing doctor is not in the network of the single ACA insurer here, so we need to find a new one. This new doctor, I did check before and he was shown as in the network and accepting new patients.

Nope. He is no longer with that insurer. I wonder what happened. Who was refusing whom? In any event, we found another, this one a young doctor, and perhaps he accepts the lousy pay that this insurer dishes out. I am just guessing. I don't know how this all works.

Anyway, we drove to the old doctor's office to sign the consent form to release info to the new doctor. The clerk was of course sad to lose us after so many years. She said they were still working with that only insurer in town to get a contract, but did not know when it would happen.

When there's no competition, the sole insurer can squeeze both patients and doctors. Would they? Did they?

 

[Marita40]

We broke a record high today--60s in MN in February!!! Everyone is out frolicing, of course. Even the golf course opened.
What IS this world coming to?

 

[Philliefan33]

Had a busy day at the AARP tax prep place. It's a rewarding volunteer gig -- everyone I've helped has been very appreciative.

One situation today made me hope that there is a special circle in hell for slimy "financial advisers". Little 82-yr old lady toddles in with her walker, another tax aide works on her return. She owes over $1000 in Federal taxes, mostly due to capital gains. This is someone living on SS and some IRA distributions -- not much monthly cash flow and that tax bill is a major hardship.

I did the quality review on her return, and all the time she is fretting about the taxes due and insisting that she didn't make any money. She shows me her account statements. She did, in fact, have $4K in STCG because her lovely money manager is churning her account like crazy -- moving money back and forth between two funds every few weeks.

She is paying a 2% management fee for the account. Who knows what fees she is paying for every transaction. Those expenses probably ate up 75% of her gains.

It was obvious that the poor woman does not understand what is happening. I so badly wanted to tell her to fire her manager and put her money in a Vanguard fund or two, but we are not allowed to give financial advise (which I agree we shouldn't).

 

[aja8888]

Spent 12+ hours at the hospital today as DW was lining up to get her second glue infusion for fractured vertebrae. Started with a bone scan at 7:30 AM that didn't pinpoint the break areas that well and then had subsequent MRI conducted at noon which indicated the location of the new fractures. Also saw a potential rib fracture (which can't be addressed with this procedure).

At 2:00 PM'ish, the procedure was started to glue the fractures ( kyphoplasty):

Description of Kyphoplasty Surgery

DW was under a general anesthesia and the procedure lasted two hours. The number of repaired vertebrae is now 5. Got home at 8:30 PM. She will not be too mobile for the weekend and maybe a bit longer because of the fractured rib. I thought the two root canals I had this week were tough (not!).

 

[W2R]

Spent 12+ hours at the hospital today as DW was lining up to get her second glue infusion for fractured vertebrae. Started with a bone scan at 7:30 AM that didn't pinpoint the break areas that well and then had subsequent MRI conducted at noon which indicated the location of the new fractures. Also saw a potential rib fracture (which can't be addressed with this procedure).

At 2:00 PM'ish, the procedure was started to glue the fractures ( kyphoplasty):

Description of Kyphoplasty Surgery

DW was under a general anesthesia and the procedure lasted two hours. The number of repaired vertebrae is now 5. Got home at 8:30 PM. She will not be too mobile for the weekend and maybe a bit longer because of the fractured rib. I thought the two root canals I had this week were tough (not!).

Sorry to hear about all of this. I sure hope the two of you are feeling better soon.

 

[REWahoo]

DW was under a general anesthesia and the procedure lasted two hours. The number of repaired vertebrae is now 5. Got home at 8:30 PM. She will not be too mobile for the weekend and maybe a bit longer because of the fractured rib. I thought the two root canals I had this week were tough (not!).

Rough.

Here's wishing both your and the Mrs. all the best.

 

[Ronstar]

Rough.



Here's wishing both your and the Mrs. all the best.

+1. Hopefully the procedure works and eliminates the pain, and then move on to the ribs.

 

[aja8888]

Thanks for the well wishes everybody.

These fractures are not happening due to DW doing anything physical. It's scary that one can have this happen for no apparent reason at all. The operative word here is osteoporosis which makes the bones very fragile.

 

[NW-Bound]

Please keep us informed on your wife's progress with the treatment.

My wife had a recent bone scan, and they said it was thinning. She's only 60. There's some expensive medicine that she can take by injection. We were checking it out when she had to change doctor due to change of insurer.

A Web site said that osteoporosis affects 1/2 of the women at the age of 60. Yet this was very rare 100 years ago! There is a list of risk factors such as too much protein or sugar in the diet, caffeine, etc..., but none of those apply to my wife.

 

[pb4uski]

Had a busy day at the AARP tax prep place. It's a rewarding volunteer gig -- everyone I've helped has been very appreciative.

One situation today made me hope that there is a special circle in hell for slimy "financial advisers". Little 82-yr old lady toddles in with her walker, another tax aide works on her return. She owes over $1000 in Federal taxes, mostly due to capital gains. This is someone living on SS and some IRA distributions -- not much monthly cash flow and that tax bill is a major hardship.

I did the quality review on her return, and all the time she is fretting about the taxes due and insisting that she didn't make any money. She shows me her account statements. She did, in fact, have $4K in STCG because her lovely money manager is churning her account like crazy -- moving money back and forth between two funds every few weeks.

She is paying a 2% management fee for the account. Who knows what fees she is paying for every transaction. Those expenses probably ate up 75% of her gains.

It was obvious that the poor woman does not understand what is happening. I so badly wanted to tell her to fire her manager and put her money in a Vanguard fund or two, but we are not allowed to give financial advise (which I agree we shouldn't).

Great example of why we need a fiduciary rule.

I wonder if there is a way to frame some advice to her that is not providing financial advice but would prompt her to have a loved one review her situation. Something like... the fees that you are being charged are higher than average... or the turnover in your account is higher than typical... perhaps you should have a loved one review your situation for you.

An interesting question to me would when does high fees and turnover cross the line and become potential elder abuse? To a degree where your organization would have some sort of obligation to report (like a medical professional's obligation to report child or elder abuse).

 

[NW-Bound]

Great example of why we need a fiduciary rule.

Agree.

But I am not sure it would help much in reality. The FA in the above case could just say "But look. I got her $4K of gains that she would not have".

There were stories of FAs churning client accounts and causing heavy losses. Those were a lot worse.