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skimomma

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Everything posted by skimomma

  1. Our's too. That is what we opted to do when we learned that traditional LTCI was out of reach for us.
  2. It could also be a disability. I don't know what it is and never have had it checked out but both dd and I cannot translate verbal numbers into written numbers. I remember my first job as a teen involved answering phones and having to take down information like phone numbers and addresses. I really struggled to hear a number on the phone and write it down. I would have to ask people to slow down and repeat and even then would often mix up the order of the numbers or miss some. I don't have that problem with letters and neither does dd. It is such an odd thing. We have no problem if the number is in written form, like on a board during a class lecture, for instance. And we both can hear a number with meaning and translate, such as someone verbalizing that we have 312 chickens (or whatever). But purely verbal number with no meaning (like a PIN)? Nope. It is actually a real problem in my current job and I have hacks in place to assist.
  3. I have experience with this. I care for a person who is now living in assisted living who THANK GOODNESS has good LTCI. When I first started poking into helping this person, their financial advisor warned me that even though they had LTCI, it likely had a lot of restrictions and limits. (He was not the one that sold them the insurance). But it was a happy surprise to find that was not true and it has been covering 100% of the AL facility for 4+ years now. It will run out (soon) but it was a huge help. However, as others have said, the level of insurance they have is no longer available to the individual. I have spoken with our own financial advisor and he said they are pretty difficult to find and have very high premiums. If you have something available via your employer, I would for sure check it out. Just keep the following questions in mind: 1. How much is the OOP premium for you while are are actively employed? 2. Will you still be eligible once you are no longer employed there and if so, are there limits to how much the premium can be raised? 3. What is the total benefit limit? 4. Is there a monthly cap to payout and if so, can you make up the difference with other income? 5. What exactly does it cover? Assisted living? In-home care? Etc..... 6. Take #1-5 into consideration to see how it would fit into your retirement plans. Keep in mind that most LTCI policies cover assisted living whereas Medicaid does not. Most people don't know that. My person is almost out of LTCI and will need to rely on Medicaid, which means moving to a nursing home. They do not really need that level of care at this time but there really are no other options. The LTCI meant 5-6 years of being able to live in AL rather than a nursing home. In their case, it might very well be that they paid out more in premiums than they ultimately got in payout. I don't think that is true, but it is possible. But even then, it was still a good move because this person would never have saved that premium. It was like a forced savings plan.
  4. Poor air quality here again today. I have wiggle room with only one run left before I leave town on Friday. I am saving that for tomorrow in hopes that the air will be clearer. I went to yoga today and will attend CF this evening. I did finish up my CF/run/Pliability yesterday. All on track!
  5. We are in a similar boat and have been for about a week now. It has been HOT here and most people, including us, don't have AC. We cannot just shut the windows when it is 85 degrees. When they say "stay indoors," I always wonder what difference it makes when all the windows are open and there is no HVAC system anyway. Most businesses don't have AC, let alone businesses. Dh's car has no AC. There is no driving around with no windows open in 85+ degrees. It's confusing.
  6. I also do my stretching outside of other activity. I find long, calm, passive stretching to be most effective for me and that usually does not mesh well with my environment and/or schedule when I try to do it pre/post workout. I find the gym setting to be too distracting to fully release and relax into stretching. So, I do mine at home at random times each day. It is a nice diversion from my work-from-home desk time.
  7. This is how we ate them growing up. The nearest Wendy's to me now is 2+ hours away but once in a blue moon, I get fries and frosty when traveling. I have spent WAY too much time thinking about this, but I have a theory as to why this is a thing. That mini-frosty that came with the kid meal melted FAST and if your parents were anything like mine, I was required to eat the "actual food" before eating the frosty. Setting aside the very real debate of which is more "actual food," the frosty, the fries, or the burger, that frosty sat melting while we tried to cram the burger and fries down. Soon melted frosty was oozing down the side of the cup, which is a TRAGEDY. So, we'd frantically (and stealthily) scoop up the melting frosty top with our fries to save it from the puddly fate growing around the base of the cup. Then developed a nostalgic taste for the combo. I feel like this is a dissertation-worthy question that someone, somewhere, should resolve!
  8. I completed CF and Pliability yesterday, as planned. We have air quality alerts and outdoor exercise was not recommended yesterday. CF is quasi-outdoors as one whole wall is open garage doors. So I was nervous about the cardio aspect. I took it easier than normal for that reason. Today is CF, a run, and Pliability. I have not done any of them yet:) But I have a plan!
  9. We had a very active annual curriculum swap in my community so I tried to stay on top of it over time, selling anything we were done with as we went. Most things did actually sell that way. For what was left at the very end, I took photos and posted on our local FB sale site in lots. I priced everything very low with some being free. I really didn't expect many bites, but much of it went the first day. The last 30% that did not go, I made into a new bundled free-to-good-home post and that went too. I did recycle anything consumable, in poor condition, or outdated first.
  10. The state in question has an encroachment law that applies if a structure was there for 15 years or more. however, all of the "fixes" I see involve actually changing the property line via purchase or easement. As in, some sort of legal action that I assume will cost money and require cooperation between the two parties.....both of which are in short supply.
  11. Let's say someone buys a house in a small-town neighborhood. All of the housing in the area is very old, 100+ years. The house has a not-attached garage on the property that was built in the 1980s, well before the current owners bought the house. The owner of a neighboring home had a survey done to establish the property lines of their lot and discovers that the garage actually sits partially on that property. What happens?
  12. I finished up last week's goals over the weekend. We did yard work all day on Saturday. It was 90 degrees and this was our first big work day this summer and the first time since I started Crossfit almost a year ago. Lots of strain on the body that normally has me very sore for days afterwards. I was very pleased to note how much more I was able to do and I am not even sore at all. I would say that is the biggest "marker" of my progress in fitness diversity. I did my planned long run on Sunday. I had wanted to get in 10 miles. I settled for 9. It was very hot and I did not want to push it. I also did my last Pliability on Sunday. This week will be lesser goals as I am leaving town on Friday with no good way to get any workouts in over the weekend. So, I plan to attend CF 4 times, run 2 times, and 4 Pliability/yoga sessions. That is a bit conservative. I might be able to get a 5th CF in before my flight leaves on Friday and also might get a third run in somewhere, but I don't want to set the bar that high yet. The CF focus this month is cardio so I don't want to stack a cardio-heavy CF on the same day as a run, but I don't know the workout details until the day of so cannot say if or how much that might happen. Today's CF is all cardio so between that and the long run yesterday, I am not going to run today.
  13. As the week winds down, my 4 CF / 4 Run / 5 Pliability goals are on track. All I have left for the weekend is one Pliability today, another one some time this weekend, and one run, which I intend to go long on. We are doing a ton of yard/house work tomorrow so I will save up the long run for Sunday and take a running break tomorrow. Next week is short again due to the follow weekend's travel, so activity will be heavy on the early end of the week with overall reduced goals. The travel is not at all compatible with any activity so those 4 days will be 100% off.
  14. I did my Pliability and CF yesterday, as planned, and have done my one hour run very early today with Pliability and CF later. I don't anticipate any issue finishing it up aside from the HEAT. It was 88 degrees when I arrived as last night's CF. The gym has giant garage doors that open to the outdoors so there is no AC. Luckily, the workout was very scalable so I was able to keep my activity within the bounds of what my heart rate will allow at 88 degrees. What I had not considered a possibility is that every mosquito and black (biting) fly within the entire county was inside that gym. It was even a game. We got to add points to the workout "score" for each bug we killed. There is no reason to assume they will not still be there waiting for me tonight so I need to decide if I should cover up, even though it is still upper 80s, put on deet, or just suffer again. I probably got 20 bites last night! (and 15 more on my run this morning) It's always something......
  15. I am back from my camping trip! I did the three runs over the weekend which wrapped up last week's modified goals. This week's goals are 4 CF, 4 one-hour-min runs, and 5 Pliability. I did not do anything yesterday so I will be need to hit CF every weekday. I'll probably save two runs for the weekend, with Sunday's being a longer run. It is super hot for the first time this week and I have not acclimated yet, so I anticipate slower runs.
  16. I did early morning CF and Pliability today. CF was a beast! Lots of running. Which is good since I don't have time to run before we leave today anyway. So, all I have left of my "revised" weekly goals is 3 runs while camping. Fingers crossed. I'll be off grid until Tuesday and we will be packing up and driving home on Monday (no activity) so I will be setting my goals for next week on Tuesday.
  17. Thanks for all of the feedback. I have gone back and forth on this for days now. I will be all resolved that is is time, then I catch her grooming herself or playing with a toy (both almost never happen these days). Then a few hours later she is falling off of a chair. Sigh.
  18. CF and yoga class done for today. I will not have time for a run so I am going have to officially revise my goals for the week to be 3/4/4 CF/Run/ROM. I need to plan better in the future so that last-minute things don't derail my plans. This will still be a stretch. I am currently at 2/1/3. Getting the remaining CF and Pliability won't be a problem but to hit my run goal I have to do a one hour run on each day of my camping vacation. That might be hard if the weather or anything else does not cooperate, but I will try!
  19. To be clear, some of my travel plans are for fun and could be changed. But most of it is because I am the sole caregiver for an elderly person with dementia living in a facility 10 hours away. I have to make those trips to get *them* the care they need. I really have no choice.
  20. Thank you. I am very sad about this and of course would like her to just live forever. I am struggling to balance her quality of life with my own logistics and I appreciate feedback from others that are not looking at it from my perspective.
  21. Sigh. Yes, this is also part of it. In addition to this all, I don't think I can ask our cat sitter to clean up after messes, even within an isolated space. Even if she would actually agree to do it, she would likely not do a thorough enough job to satisfy me. We have only had four cats, including the two we currently have, over the course of 25 years. They live forever. I already mentioned our last cat-passing. The first cat we had passed when we were out of the cuontry. While she was very old, there had been no other warning signs so it was a shock to all of us. And traumatized that cat sitter so much that he quit cat sitting....even though it was 100% not his fault in any way. Our current sitter is young. I would hate to traumatize her.
  22. In theory, I agree. However, this is a new vet for us. Our old one retired during Covid. So he does not actually know this cat at all. And I am asking here first because of the experience we had with our last cat. It *was* a different vet but she encouraged continuing treatment well past what I now retrospectively see was "time." I easily went along with it because I love my pets and assumed the vet would tell me when it is time. Now I know that is not true so I am looking for opinions before I talk to the vet again. I feel terrible that we waited too long last time and I don't want to make that mistake again. And I also have the additional logistical issue of cat pee everywhere. In isolation, that would not be a factor, but considering her age and recent decline, I cannot see isolating her or attempting to litter box "retrain" as doing anything other than contributing to her misery.
  23. I started a thread a few weeks ago about my 20yo cat that has what we confirmed is chronic kidney disease. The vet ran the senior cat profile to confirm that and also to verify that nothing else is wrong with her at this point....other than being deaf, which has been true for a year or so now. After a $500 vet bill, we were sent home with the advice that there is nothing else really to do aside from monitor her for pain or distress. He didn't even think the prescription food was a good idea for a cat so old and set in her ways. The vet seemed to think she might live just fine with this for a year or even more. However, since then, things have gotten worse. Keep in mind this cat was feral when we "kidnapped" her at age 3 and she is not very affectionate. She generally hates being handled but will occasionally come around for a pet or two on her own terms. She likes to be in the same room with people so she can judge them but otherwise is not a people cat. She screams bloody murder any time we pick her up (always has, so not necessarily a pain issue). It is *very* hard to distinguish between her normal cranky behavior and what could be discomfort or distress. She has lost a significant amount of her spryness just since we went to the vet. At that point, she was still jumping up on the kitchen counters, looking for goodies. She is no longer able to jump up there but still tries regularly and fails. She has been falling OFF of stuff, like chairs and tables. She has also started randomly screaming more frequently. She started this when she went deaf but since our vet visit it has been several times a day with no real indication of what she wants. Before that, we could usually tell that she was asking for something like turning on the faucet for a drink or right next to the treat cabinet. Her pee balls in the litter box were huge before the vet and are even bigger now. She also misses meals occasionally. She forgets to show up when the auto-feeders go off and if we are not home to find her, our other cat (happily) gets a double meal. All of this was manageable. Until yesterday when I was cleaning the house and vacuuming one of our sofas. I noticed an odd spot and turned out to be a urine stain. It did not look old. I tore apart the entire couch and found evidence of other puddles (we don't use this couch much, obviously). I could not tell for 100% sure that any of them were new and we did have an incident last year in which the cat flap to the basement (where their litter boxes are) had gotten stuck shut while we were out of town and it took the cat sitter a few days to put it all together. Both cats may have peed there during that time. But I still think the one I noticed first is recent. It was in the spot in which she naps most days and was not the volume that this cat is producing these days. It almost looked like an accident....like started peeing then realized she needed to get to the box. Given how frequently and how much she is peeing due to kidney failure, this seems understandable. So I was not initially concerned. Then today, I was cleaning the litter boxes. Luckily, these are in our unfinished basement. She happened to come down while I was cleaning the boxes and was acting odd. She was wandering around then found a spot to pee on the floor! I watched it happen and I *think* she did it while I was watching on purpose. Almost like a "Look at me, something is wrong!" There was also plenty of pee in the boxes so I know she is using them at least part time, but now I see I have a problem on my hands. We are traveling a lot over the next few months and we will have a cat sitter visit each day, but they are not at all equipped to deal with this sort of thing and I am not at all OK with my house being destroyed by cat pee. So, I am back asking for advice. I know many will say take her back to the vet. And I will. But also know that even if the vet can find a medical explanation, we are very limited in what we can do. This cat will not allow anyone to administer meds or manhandle her in any way, so I am not going to sign up for torturing a 20yo already-cranky cat with meds or other interventions. Is it time? I made the mistake of not recognizing "the time" for my last cat that we did finally euthanize at age 22. We should have done it much sooner. What says the hive? If you had a 20yo, cranky, deaf, cat that was now falling off of things, screaming a lot, no longer grooming themselves, and peeing outside of the box, would you consider euthanizing? Since I am fairly certain nothing can be done to improve her quality of life, is this current state potentially miserable enough to consider it while also balancing the fact that I will likely have to quarantine her to a small space to minimize the damage to my house for the rest of her life. Obviously, I will be bringing her to the vet again but I want to know if it is even reasonable to consider ending things.
  24. It's day 2 of my week and my goals are already jacked. I intended to run, do Pliability, and go to CF today. I was registered for the after work session of CF but just got a call that I need to present to a group for my job during that time. So, I have to cancel and there are no other sessions today. Given my travel plans this weekend, this means my goal of 4 CFs will not happen. I can get a maximum of 3 now. I *may* be able to add a run to my day tomorrow to substitute in but no promises. I did my run and Pliability for the day.
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