That face is irresistible!

My thoughts exactly!

The mosquito dunks are for the rain barrels.

I always have several kinds of nuts on hand and dried fruits. I usually also have some dried fruits. Mark loves to make dried pineapple chips, so those are normally on hand along with dried cranberries. If I have enough heads up and it is Michigan cherry season, I will go grab a couple lbs of those, and then just let people graze. So long as we have the liquor cabinet stocked, the food doesn't need to be elaborate. 😁 I also have a lot of baking supplies on hand, and have been known to toss a pan of maple syrup, cinnamon mini muffins in the oven. The muffins are really nice with tea.

So many people I grew up with had parents who did this. Back then it was the automotive industry. They could start working for one of the big three at 18, work 30 years, and have a fully vested pension. They had their lifetime medical insurance. The parent would retire, and then do something on the side to stay busy and have extra income. Medical insurance is the biggest issue. Now they need to save a lot more in order to pay premiums, deductibles, and total out of pocket expenses for many many years if they retire early. But if they can a manage it, I am all for it. I think quality of life is an issue that is not often taken into consideration. I do think this will be achievable for my youngest sons. They enjoy being roommates which allows them to save money and share resources. It is working well for them, and they aren't likely to have children. If they change their minds about becoming parents, they will have a nice nest egg for their respective families.

I am so sorry, SKL! This is kind of thing is so tiring. And again, if is the work life balance issue because it seems to be so impossible to juggle it all. I know how difficult it is to manage aging parents and life. My dad got cancer, and my mom had major surgery the year our eldest son started college, and our next youngest son began his senior year and college applications, while the sophomore was doing DE but couldn't drive yet. I honestly thought I wasn't going to make it through, and I ended up in trauma therapy due to the nightmare. I still have physical effects from it all. If you can afford the transition to retirement or less income to do something less stressful, I encourage it. Your girls are going to want you around for a good, long time, and this kind of stress is why Americans have so many health problems so young. My daughter in law is already, at 23, showing signs of stress induced health crisis. We are doing everything we can to help her find a different position. If she doesn't make the move, she is too to have high BP by the time she is 25, and who knows what else by 30.

This is a very important point. Mark works 54 but in reality it is 60-65. His employers have always been disrespectful of down time, call whenever they want, and require 24/7 access. If he isn't under anaesthesia, he is on call as an IT worker. It is pretty disgusting, but it has been this way since the early 2000s. This is why I want him to retire as soon as it makes any fiscal sense to do so. But insurance is a worry, and since he is 4 years older than I, as soon as he does retire, we have to buy insurance on the marketplace. What is available here is a joke. High deductibles, high out pocket, low number or practioners accepting marketplace plans. Americans do not have work life balance for the most part. I do think policy should be changed to Medicare for all. This would be a game changer. In the absence of that, since the age for withdrawing from 401K without penalty is 59.5, the eligibility for Medicare should be lowered to that.

There are a lot of variables. I am currently retired from paying work, though I do have gig work now and then. It is NOT ideal, but with a mother and mother in law who have a ton of medical appointments in the city and cannot drive to them, someone had to be the chauffeur. We don't have uber/lyft/taxi/public transport out here in the sticks. Were something to happen to mil, and my mother moved to France with my sis, I would go back to work for pay, but only until Mark retires in 5 years because he wants me to be free to travel with him, and unless I went back to teaching and could do some summer travel, I would otherwise be tied down for the duration of the job. If something happened to Mark, I would go back to work and stay there until 70 if health held out. I would need it to help me move forward emotionally. The empty house would make me nuts. In general, when it comes to those in physically active jobs, and public safety jobs, I honestly think we don't retire soon enough in this country. We might live a long time, but not necessarily at all well, and the signs of memory gaps/quick recall, etc. sooner than folks are often willing to admit. Allowing people out off the workforce sooner could really prevent a lot of problems, and allow younger folks to move up in their careers. Though not a fan at all of age discrimination, I have to also concede that the limitations of advanced age and health should probably trump that of discrimination so positions in public health, public safety, public policy making, should have a cut off. But in order to have that cut off, we need a much more robust safety net and Medicare starting at a younger age. For women, I think we tend to live longer than men. Possibly if our jobs are body and brain friendly for our condition, working to 67 or 68 might be wise. But, it dh ds have down stream negative effects on the younger folk who can wallow years in entry level positions because there is no room for advancement. I also think if you own your business, you have a unique set of stressors that the employees do not have. Stress is such a huge factor in declining health. I am not sure continuing past 62-65 is even wise. My father owned his business, worked to 72, died of cancer. There were no golden years of hobbies, traveling with mom, expanding his vegetable garden (something he had always wanted to do), bee keeping (another bucket list item), and just generally having more time to spend with family and grandchildren. His parents though had saved a lot toward retirement, gave up owning businesses when much younger and went back to work for someone else so they had less stress and more regular hours, and were able to retire early. My grandfather had a heart attack when he was 50, and financially they were able to let him retire. My grandmother worked to 58. It was back in the day when they could get medical insurance pretty cheap and without the "pre-existing" condition thing. Doctor office visits and meds were very affordable so they could make it work until Medicare kicked in. There probably isn't really an ideal time. Too many considerations. But in general, I am supportive of sooner than later when possible because getting to leave the rat race and spend time with family, and enjoying some down time is important. I think it is actually be better for health in general, but only if the retiree stays active physically and mentally. Don't be like my uncle who retired at 62, became a t.v. slug, and then wondered why he was so bored with life, and his memory was slipping. Well duh! Be more like my 87 year old uncle who to this very day volunteers with the American Red Cross, and since he physically can't help with disaster clean up anymore, now helps coordinate getting emergency medicine supplies for folks who have house fires, tornados, etc. and are without meds but need them right away. He loves doing this work, and it keeps him sharp mentally.

This is common here because the locals do not want to pay taxes. They also don't want to pay for insurance, and then if they get hurt on your property, hit up your homeowner policy. It is a bad situation for you.

This is what happened to me. My very intensive community fine arts program director job never came back from covid. Oue 4H rocket team and science club was disbanded by the new 4H program leader. During that time some friends turned out to not be very good friends as we discovered just how polarizing it was to wear masks and take precautions due to our elderly mothers. When I got vaccinated, it was the nail in the coffin of some relationships. I grieved and moved on. During that time, I found out that I genuinely enjoyed solitude or at least a small, inner circle of mostly Mark, our kids, honorary kids, my one nephew and his wonderful wife, and one couple whom we have remained close to and are just a wonderful couple to spend time with. They moved and are 3 hrs away, so we meet in the middle once every 3 months, and that works out okay for everyone. We did rekindle a bit of a lost relationship with Mark's cousin and his wife, and we love communicating with them. They live in NC so once a year is about all that we will ever be in each other's presence. I found that some anxieties and stresses I was experiencing went away with these changes. I found that I do better when I spend more tike outdoors which doesn't equate to having to be super physically active in the outdoors, puttering around the vegetable garden, reading a book outside, building a little fire in the evening and sitting out, taking a walk....I do so much better. We boat a sailboat, and there is nothing Mark and I like more than to be out on the water together or with our bachelor sons who are becoming quite the sailors. We kayak. We van camp. I will say I enjoy quick chats with people when we are our van camping. We don't mind at all running over to another campsite and helping someone with a wayward tent they are struggling with, snoozing with park rangers. It is quite nice. Nothing gets personal or awkward, and we can just walk away when we are ready. But we don't socialize on any regular basis and since Mark works from home, he doesn't have coworkers planning outings or get togethers that include him. IlHe enjoys not having that pressure put on his evenings. We don't church so there is no religious community. Moderate to moderately severe solitary seems to work for me.

These are gorgeous, Scarlett!

Yes. Save save save. It is what my father did not do. But, to be fair to him, up front costs combined with the need to keep reinvesting to upgrade equipment, vehicles, advertise the business, and get it settled and stable meant that for many years, there wasn't a dime to be saved. Many young adults have no idea this is often the way of things when establishing a small business. They hear what the plumber charges per hour, and think they can just take that all home. I am a big fan of encouraging graduates who want to establish a small business to attend college for a two year business degree with an emphasis in accounting. I am also a big fan of making them attend a trades conference for their intended speciality, and listen to the special speakers, talk to the wise owls who have been doing it for decades. They need to understand that overhead is a small business killer. They need to know how to manage this. According to the small business bureau, 20% of all small businesses fail in the 1st 2 years, 45% within 5, and 65% within 10. One of the biggest mistakes my father ever made was maintaining a storefront and fireplace displays. Sure people liked to walk in and see options and possibilities. But the cost of that was astronomical. The rent/ownership of a storefront is not for the faint of heart even in rural areas, the commercial taxes are big, the overhead is terrible. If he had simply put up a small office space in a small workshop/pole barn on his home's property, and worked out of that with a photo gallery of completed jobs for potential customers to see, I think he would have saved $50,000-100,000 a year. When he died, his store and office space on main street of that town, valued at $250,000 sold for $43,000 at auction. The realtor had tried for 12 months to sell and never had a bite. My old mother living on social security and a small military pension could not keep insuring it, and paying utilities, winter heat. She would have gone bankrupt. In the 7 years since it sold, 4 different start up businesses have set up shop and gone out of business. That is less than 2 years each! The coffee shop lasted at most 6 months. There are ways to do it and make it reasonably profitable, but the business plan has to be spot on. This is often not the case, just a dream, and a jump in with both feet kind of thing.

Dd and son in law found that hiring makers just to help them load the UHaul/Penske truck on one end, and then hiring again on the other for unloading was the most economical way to do it, and the fastest way to get their things to their final destination. The truck wasn't that bad to drive really. LOL, Dd did it because she also had her paramedic background and drove ambulance from time to time so she didn't think it was a big deal. This was the only way though that they found they could move without a 2-4 week delay in getting their stuff. This is how our nephew, a recent graduate of dental school, is currently moving. His dad though is coming to drive the truck. My bil has a LOT of large equipment and driving experience that nephew doesn't have. If the moving company did the whole thing, his 5 hour move would be a 14 day delay. They would load him in the semi first, then load another household or 2 moving to the same area or along the path, and then whomever got loaded on last, gets unloaded 1st.

Working beyond our bodies is such a reality for so many. My dad was in heating and cooling, and worked until he got cancer at 71 because he couldn't afford to retire. His body was busted up long before cancer, and his pain and exhaustion was palpable. I see this all the time in non sedentary jobs. Of course sedentary jobs have their own health issues because hours a day at a desk contributes to disease. It is something we are not good at planning for or even talking about in this country, and no one wants to change anything at a policy and community level to make it better. The single biggest issue in region is lack of benefits. There are only a handful of commercial, larger companies that employ tradespersons and therefore have health insurance, disability and life insurance, paid vacation. Most tradesfolks here are independent, without benefits, and the cost of doing business is high enough that even though the hourly wage on paper looks grand "trades people make huge money", the reality is their take home on it is NOT grand often landing them a net take home far less than my 2022 electrical engineering graduate made his 1st year straight out of college. It is a real problem, and we need trades persons very badly. There is the ACA but for our region, the deductibles are just huge, the out of pocket maximum is huge, and the number of practitioners accepting these plans is low so it ends up being a lot of premium to pay while being in practicality, uninsured except for something truly catastrophic. We just need to be really honest with our kids, and help them create back up plans. One option might be obtaining a trades teaching certificate for the county tech centers that so many high schoolers attend. Is the pay great? Not at all. But the state benefits are excellent, and having that low premium, low deductible, every practitioner takes it health insurance and a pension program is a good long range plan. Work the trades for a while, get a bunch of experience, then do one of the shorter routes to a teaching credential before the body wears out. Another would be to do both college and trades licensing so the young adult has a project management degree (MSU has an amazing construction management program), but also is licensed for more than one trade. They can work a decade or two doing all the hands on work, and then transition to PM. My niece is a PM, graduate of MSU program, and oh my gosh does she make the bucks AND gets to have a hand in the whole construction process, AND, benefits up the wazoo, but no longer has to worry so much about her body giving out before she can retire. I am hopeful that future tech innovations will allow medical professionals to work longer and better due to advances in patient care that mean they have far less lifting and standing to do. I have seen some things in the works like robots that can carry heavy gear, and rotate patients. If those are perfected, that could really extend the health of their bodies.

I might try that.

The hard thing with gardening is plants vary in how much they want. Sigh. My tomatoes are drowned. We keep getting these downpours with not enough time in between to dry the beds out. I don't know if they are going to survive. But my peas seem to think this all fun a games. I feel like all you can do is Google pictures of underwatered and overwatered of each and every plant, and then try not to go crazy extreme one way or another in between Mother Nature's attempts to prevent humans from eating fruits and vegetables. At this point, I feel like I need to dig into my raised beds and start a blast furnace blowing into the soil. 😠

If we get these AND murder hornets, I am going to go live underground! 😱

When we were in Egypt, my favorite clothes were wide leg linens pants (usually blended with a little cotton which made them soft), and loose linen tops or chambray, even Batiste or what is known as lawn, all which are very soft, thinner cottons. The sun was so strong that everything was long sleeve, and I wore a sun hat that I could pull my pony tail through in the back. Amazon sells several styles. Mine was rather wide brimmed. I was fairly certain I would be a lobster if I didn't stay covered. I few times I wore some gauzey scarves instead of the hat, and I never to say that was a great method of saving my hair from frying in the sun. Mark even wore an Egyptian cotton Galabeya. JJill has some very nice, very pretty linen pieces, mix and match. They are pricey though. I do think they would last a long time as their things seem to be high quality.

I love it! That is precious!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/joro-spiders-new-york-giant-venomous-spiders-spread-east-coast/ I am not looking forward to seeing these. But I am sure it is coming to my state soon.

We travel with frozen meat all the time. The key is the quality of your coolers. We have a large Rtic which is comparable to a Yeti. We pack it full of frozen items and then put ice on top. Nothing even begins to thaw until 3 days in and then only what is on top. Everything else is still solid, and the things on top are not even halfway thawed. If you have lower whality coolers, it is going to be a lot tougher. But you could try insulating the coolers by wrapping them in quilts to help them stay a lot colder inside, and definitely run air in the car. Do not open them up until you reach your destination.

This is very true. When we moved from Indiana to Oregon, we paid for the big moving truck and took a lot of our stuff. We did have somewhere free and safe for our baby grand piano to be stored, but everything else had to go into storage. By the time we found a lot and built our home, we had paid a TON for storage of everything else. We could have just sold everything before we left, pulled a small u haul trailer behind our station wagon with essentials, dd's crib, and replaced what we needed for the cost of the big budget trucks and storage. My baby grand did not do well in the move despite being well packed and on a kick board to protect it. Cracked the sound board, and ended up being sold for peanuts. I could have, at that time in the 80's, gotten $7500 for her (she was a collectible piano), and bought something else when we arrived. When we left Oregon, we sold the car and everything but essentials, rented a small moving van, and set out. We did better financially with that move, and it was another one in which we were in temporary housing for a while before settling down so it would have been a lot of stage money down the tubes.

I believe pods.com can store your pod at their facility. But I think that is pretty pricey. They charge $149 a month for the pod not including the storage if memory serves. Also if you see ads for "moving broker" don't click. These are people who promise to get you the lowest price moving experience for your needs except after they barter down the quote with whatever company they want to use, the quote is through the roof because of their commission/fees which are very high. Do the leg work yourself. I have also read that you should call to get quotes, not email. Apparently, there is a little bartering to be done if you call, and discounts of around 15% are often offered. That was on a reddit moving forum. I don't have any actual experience to back that up.

Boy, did I need this cop in middle school band!

Seriously nope. Both my husband and I came from homes where if you were not actively defending yourself or someone else from a situation that would make our fathers take our side, we would have been beaten even as teens. Neither of our dads would tolerate fighting. My dad was quite pleased with my response to the sexual harassment. But if it had been over anything less than that/started a brawl just because I was ticked off, I would have caught hell at home. Probably a belt. Mark would have definitely gotten a belt.