Archive for the ‘Humor / Quote’ Category
A Friend Recently .. .
. . .mulled replacing some of her furniture
but she gave it up because she said
she and her recliner go way back.
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Caregivers Pay Economic, Emotional Prices
Besides the shoulder-stooping emotional cost of caring for ill and ailing loved ones, there is can be an enormous economic price to pay by the more than 22 million U.S. families who provide such care.
Caregiving costs individuals some $660,000 over their lifetimes in lost wages, and lost pension contributions and Social Security because they take time off, leave their jobs or miss out on opportunities for training, promotions, and plum assignments.
Almost 85 percent of employees reportedly make adjustments to their work schedules by taking sick leave or vacation time, decreasing work hours, taking a leave of absence, switching to part-time employment from full-time, resigning, or retiring.
Elder care has more negative impacts on workers than does child care, particularly for those who are the primary caretakers for an older adult. Taking care of an aging parent is always difficult, but it is even more difficult for employees who have to care for their parent in their own home. It essentially means employees have a second shift of work when they get home.
As the population ages, the number of caregivers grows and the personal and corporate costs rise. Employees who care for elderly or sick relatives with long-term-care insurance are twice as likely to stay in the workforce as are workers who care for relatives without coverage, according to data from three MetLife institute surveys.
In addition, working caregivers of loved ones with long-term-care insurance coverage are less likely to experience such types of stress as having to provide constant attention to the care recipient or having to offer caregiving while ailing themselves.
It’s A Brand New Week . . .
. . .and coming up are a social hour Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.
for everyone marking birthdays this month
followed by an Activity Review meeting at 4:30
then there’s the Talking Stick Casino outing
departure at noon Thursday
and the Goldfield Excursion leaving Verena at noon Friday.
Just some of the goings-on squeezed in between everything else.
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It’s well and widely known that babies are delivered by storks,
but has anyone ever seen a heavy kid dropped off by a crane.
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Save a Buck in Bucks County
“If you can’t find it at Rice’s Market, you can’t find it anywhere,” we were told before we visited this bustling Babylon of bargains in New Hope, PA.
Proclaimed to be “the biggest flea market in the whole world,” it’s within a two-hour drive of Manhattan, Baltimore, Atlantic City and Philadelphia. Among our bargains were a knapsack and several eel-skin wallets (for gifts) for less than one-third the price we had seen in retail stores.
Rice’s Market opened more than a century ago a dozen miles from the New Jersey border in a pocket of eastern Pennsylvania’s Bucks’ County that is packed with pastoral land and crisscrossed by country roads.
This mecca for black-belt shoppers, bargain hunters and browsers is less than an hour away from Reading, the city that is to outlet shopping what Bethlehem is to Christianity.
But Bucks County is more than a magnet for shoppers. It became one of the nation’s first destinations to take aim at the ecotourism market by promoting the environment and tourism in cooperation with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Some of the millions of visitors who flock to the Liberty Bell-Independence Hall complex in downtown Philadelphia take the time to relax out here among the few remaining vestiges of colonial America. While America’s future was charted in the Pennsylvania state house, the nation’s past is preserved in customs, traditions and historic sites throughout this region that has become a getaway for urban-bound residents of such metropolitan complexes as Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Bucks County rolls some 50 miles up the Delaware Valley from the northern rim of Philadelphia County. William Penn made his home here more than 300 years ago. It also features the 19th century residence of author Pearl S. Buck, who won both the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes. Bucks County is the sort of place you can spend a jingle-bells Christmas or a sun-speckled summer vacation.
Doylestown, the governmental seat and “capital” of this county peppered with bed-and-breakfasts that remind you of grandma’s house, is the site of the intriguing 44-room Henry Chapman Mercer home. It was made of poured concrete shortly after the turn of the century as a showplace for the exotic and eclectic Mercer-designed-and-made wall and floor tiles that line corridors winding through several floors from the main hall’s dozen exits.
Less than 30 minutes away is Washington’s Crossing, where the general who was to become our first president led his troops across the Delaware River on a cold Christmas Day before the Battle of Trenton.
Another plus for this region is the fact that it’s perched on the edge of Mennonite country, with its eye-catching quilts and home-made mouth-watering foods such as shoo-fly pie.
Remember the . . .
. . . Verena Voices.
Check back a couple of days here —
2:30 in the dining room.
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The San Diego Union used to have a spot for essays
on its editorial pages called the Southwest Pocket .
I enjoyed contributing because it was a break
from posting pap about local political shenanigans.
It’s Finally Occurred To Me . . .
. . . that the reason
people give out free advice
so easily is
because they aren’t using it.
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Be a Good Scout at Tax Time
Be prepared. This maxim emblazoned in Boy Scout lore also applies to the thorny annual chore known as “doing my taxes.” A simple system of keeping receipts and monthly statements can save you a lot of aspirin at filing time. It can also cut down on your cost of tax preparation since the less time your tax preparer has to spend on your return, the lower the bill.
Three basic items will help establish a workable record-keeping system:
— your checkbook register,
— a clutch of file folders for financial statements and receipts, and
— a workbook to log any deductible expenses, such as mileage to and from medical appointments. Your tax preparer can advise you on how to make this basic program work best for you. They might suggest that you update your files monthly.
It’s always wise to call your tax accountant early because the rules keep changing. By starting early, you’ll be aware of what you’ll need to wrap up your current year’s tax filing.
Remember that banks, bosses, and brokerage houses — almost anyone paying you an income of any sort — report these transactions to the Internal Revenue Service. The agency gets all these notices and its computers try to match up the information from these sources with the information you prepare and file.
Besides staying ahead of the game by being prepared, keep in mind that the IRS makes mistakes. It’s easy to foul up a Social Security number, for example, and you might get an IRS notice based on garbled data. One tax preparer recounts often an incident in which a bank’s report to the IRS of a customer’s mortgage interest payment was read as interest income. The taxpayer was then notified by the IRS of a disparity in tax owed to the government because of this “additional income.”
It Was Just . . .
. . . the other day
that I mentioned I couldn’t remember
the last time I had a cold.
Now I remember.
I caught one yesterday and still have it.
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All we hear about Humpty Dumpty is his great fall.
He musta had a lousy summer.
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Fish Fight Arthritis
The omega-3 fatty acids in fish bolster your body’s ability to battle inflammation that autoimmune rheumatoid arthritis causes to its victims’ joints, heart and lungs.
A couple of fish servings a week can alleviate the pain and discomfort as can a daily dose of fish supplement.
Vitamin C-rich foods, such as citrus fruit, also can help. Two CCs – celery and cherries – can alleviate the pain caused by gout, a form of arthritis that flares up without warning to attack joints. Cherry juice also can help.
If you’re prone to gout attacks, you should avoid carbohydrates, such as white bread, and commercially prepared baked goods as well as processed foods.
Nice Quiet Week . . .
. . . but prepare your questions
for the Town Hall meeting at
4 p.m. Tuesday in the 2nd Floor Theater
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I don’t have to be patronized
by physical-health nuts
who show off their six-packs.
I just pat my tummy
and point out I have a keg.
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Penny Earned No Longer Worth It
The penny may soon be only in our thoughts, to paraphrase an old adage.
The wisdom of producing pennies is being questioned because the coin costs more than 2 cents to produce.
Canada quit making pennies a decade ago because it was costing 1.6 cents to produce 1 cent.
This relinquishing of the penny is a reminder of the pressures being exerted to do away with cash.
British lawmakers are mulling laws that would make sure that the less-than-20 percent of their population that relies on cash will receive their change in cash
Promoters of a cashless society argue that maintaining automated teller machines (currently paid for by the banks) is costly. Retailers and other businesses report accepting cash takes more time and costs more than payments made by store card, debit card, credit card or cryptocurrency.
And don’t forget that handy-dandy contactless-payment tool in your hand – the cell phone.
The pressures for change are not going away.
Next in the line of sight of those who want to abolish coins is the nickel. Their argument sounds familiar. It costs more to make a nickel than its worth – about 7 cents.
Britain is abolishing checks slowly but surely. They originally planned to dump checks in 2018 but it’s taking a bit more time to smooth out the wrinkles caused by their demise.
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Why Is It . . .
. . . that people who maintain
they don’t believe everything they hear
feel they have to repeat it?
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Contributed by Kathy F.
Father Murphy’s parish was poor so he asked his parishioners for suggestions on how to raise some money. He was told that the owner of a race horse always seemed to have money so he decided to purchase an equine. His lack of experience and budget led him to buying a donkey, which he proceeded to enter in the races at the local track.
If finished third in its first a race and the local sports page ran the story with the headline, “Father Murphy’s Ass Shows.” The bishop reportedly was was not pleased. The donkey won its next race, which was reported with the headline, “Father Murphy’s Ass Out Front.” While the bishop was said to be highly displeased, he didn’t take any action. Until its next race, when it came in second and the headline read, “Father Murphy’s Ass Back In Place.”
The bishop ordered the priest to take it out of its next race. The headline on that report was, “Bishop Scratches Father Murphy’s Ass.” That did it. The bishop told the cleric to get rid of the animal.
Father Murphy couldn’t bring himself to sell it, so he gave it to Sister Agatha who’s rural convent had a lot of grass-munching space. The editor who printed that story wrote, “Father Murphy Gives His Ass to Sister Agatha.” The red-faced bishop told her to get rid of the beast anywhere, as long as it was out of his diocese. She managed to sell it to a rancher in another county for $10. Which was reported under the headline, “Sister Agatha Peddles Her Ass for Ten Dollars.”
And the bishop was buried three days later.
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Bocce Ball Fans . . .
. . . who wish to revive their skills
should grab a jacket and meet at Verena’s front door
at 11 a.m. Friday
to leave for the courts at Chandler’s Tumbleweed Park.
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Have You Ever Noticed
that the reward
for a job well done
is more work?
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What’s In Any Name?
In an earlier post, I discussed several versions people have of offered of my name over the years. During all that time, I’ve saved clips of names that must have given their owners interesting moments during their lifetime.
The Troy (NY) Record is the source of this submission — the Rev. William Knight Gown. It also provided the name of Elizabeth Streetman Oberhellman Hickenlooper Duttonholter.
In Nevada, a Pansy Spicer married a chap whose last name was Garden. In Chicago, Liberty Banister reportedly married Charity Stairs.
Rachel Harr wed Daniel Hardy in Maryland for a Hardy-Harr ceremony and celebration that sounded like a lot of fun. A Denver dude named General Pancake exchanged marriage vows with a gal named Farina.
A Florida bank whose president was Jerry Banks had a cashier named Golda Counts. Employed in a downtown San Diego bank at one time was a staffer listed as A. Dollar.
The following were collected by a professor at Yale: Shady Banks, Crystal Chanda Lear, Will B. Muchmore, Quigg Newton, Purdie Good and Dr. I. M. Sick.
Long-time-ago Texas Gov. Big Jim Hogg had a daughter named Ima Hogg. I unearthed a Jack Daniels in Chile and a Christian Guy in Britain.
And Dr. Whet Fartz attended to patients in Pittsburgh while Ben Dover sold real estate in Butts County, GA.
A Longtime Colleague . . .
. . . just returned from a trip to China.
I asked him what is was like
when he was over there.
He said he couldn’t complain.
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You Folks at Verena
can learn how to make in-home medical appointments
at 2 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday) 2nd floor theater.
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Not All Seniors are Senile
Our current day culture still emphasizes the glamor of youth while blowing the dust off of people considered old who function at a level somewhere between a chimpanzee in diapers and a toddler with a hearing deficiency.
This myth of diminished capacity is being eroded somewhat by the more than 70 million baby boomers moving into the aged cohort. But there’s still a great need for communication between the young and old. In underlining the seriousness of the situation, David Solie draws on the German proverb:
“Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.”
“Bodies don’t work as well when we age, so it seems reasonable to assume that brains don’t work
as well, either,” he writes in his book, “How to Say it to Seniors.” While the book was put together as a tool for consultants working with seniors, his insights also have applications for family and friends. Examples of successful seniors he cites include Verdi’s “Otello,” the founding of the Christian Science Monitor by Mary Baker Eddy, and the design and construction of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York City. These achievements were attained when those individuals were aged 70 and 71.
“Our love of the biological model of aging has duped us into believing that ‘slowing down’ is synonymous with diminished capacity,” he states about the segment of population “that Tom Brokaw writes about in ‘The Greatest Generation.'” So there is no excuse for the communication gap separating children, parents, and grandparents, especially when it comes to money matters.
You should know, for example, if your parents have enough money to live on in their retirement. If they have never discussed it with you, then you can use a variety of tactics to broach the topic.
For starters, vital for everybody is the need to maintain control over their lives. So if your parents are already retired, Solie suggests you ask them for some help by explaining how they came up with their retirement plan. This can lead to exploration of both your financial situations – yours and theirs. The discussion, once opened, can expand to medical and health coverage, estate planning, and wills.
Parents can use the same strategy by asking their children for some book-keeping help to refine their retirement financial plans. Then they can both work on a program. Look over all insurance policies, tax returns, pension statements, property deeds and mortgage documents, loan papers, bank and credit-card statements, and any other pieces of the paper trail that led them to their present position.
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Mature Life Features 