Happy New Year

[andyg0404]

Happy New Year everybody. Hope it's a happy, healthy and prosperous one for all.

Andy G.

[Betty]

Happy New year to you, & everyone else too.

It's already the New year in Europe, Asia, Australia, & New Zealand, with a little over a half hour until midnight in my time zone in the Eastern USA.

The biggest Ball-Drop celebration is in NYC, but how many know the second biggest is just across the state in Buffalo, NY? But it gets no national coverage. I believe my channel has more footage of the Buffalo event than anybody else, & those were phone camera clips.

It's a shame with all that investment in the drop, entertainment, & fireworks it only gets a few seconds coverage on the local news, & some mobile phone shots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whKb7I8qLVQ&t=14s

[Angela M...]

Happy New Year andyg, Betty and all our friends here. Hope 2019 will be a better year for everyone. I cannot say that 2018 was that bad for me even though I had some health issues but who doesn't at our age. They were not as bad as some have endured (Betty, thinking of you) I should not complain. I tend to forget my age and then do something that stresses my old body then I pay for it later. I try not to complain much as there is always somebody worse off than me so I try to remember that and get on with the day to day routine of being retired and looking after myself and my house. At some point in the future I may need to sell as I cannot pay others to do the work around here, it is too expensive now. I recently paid 2 guys to replace a piece of facia board and clean the all eves-troughs. It was $250.00 and as much as I hated to pay, it had to be done. Myself and tall ladders don't get along anymore and I fell last year and almost killed myself, not to mention I can't even lift the ladder anymore. So to all who visit here I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. 

[Betty]

Oh yeah. I even turn down a lot of work at home jobs because it takes more physical strength than I have anymore, or too much time physically than I can endure.

I just barely get through routine household chores. A days worth of chores can take a week to complete. Can't even build or put up shelves myself anymore. I never re-arrange the furniture anymore. It stays where it is all the time.

Although I had some rough times over the past few months, very recently I'm feeling a bit better. Went up to my eyeballs more in debt again to make it so, but I'm still alive & kicking.

Desperate times call for desperate action. It's seems like I'll never catch up, & be forever in debt. Through most of November & December, there was a real concern that I might not be here anymore by now, but I pulled through again, but it wasn't cheap. 

Last year at this same time, it looked like I might not make it to the new year or much past January too. There must something about the season changes & the holidays that pushes COPD sufferers to the limit.

For what I spent on my COPD in the past year, I could have covered the down payment on a modest but comfortable home in the city or a new car.

Most people don't know, but I caught that flu that almost killed me, & destroyed my lungs about a year before the 2007 fire. I was already planning on buying a home at the time, & was driving a fairly decent vehicle.

Medical insurance didn't cover all of it, & when the owner's son took over where I worked I lost all my medical insurance. So my illness put me in debt & had to stall buying a home. Then I lost almost everything in the fire (fire bug set fire to the vacant place next door on a windy day), & that put me in debt further. I had to sell my truck, which I really needed for some of my work.

Every year my COPD continued to get worse, costing me more. But the worse it got the less I could earn.

I was saving up for a house, retirement, & old age, but that flu, COPD, & the fire set me back far. It's probably good that I didn't jump early & go in debt too far to buy a house, because with COPD, I would have had to sell it. COPD would have prevented me from caring for a house properly too.

I've been battling COPD for 12 years. Nobody ever knew about it or noticed much until it became crippling. Once you have COPD it can only get worse -- sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. And the worse it becomes, the quicker it becomes more worse.

Boy, getting old is sure expensive just to survive... at the worse possible time too. It happens just when we're least likely to earn as much as we used to, or can't work at all anymore.

I had some wonderful but modest, realistic retirement plans by the time I was 50 for when I was 65, even some cheap modest retirement travel/trips. Oh well, maybe in the next life.

[Angela M...]

Yes Betty, old age and illness sure limit our plans for a happy retirement. Like you I also had travel plans and perhaps winters in Florida. My parents had a place in Fort Myers for the winters and we used it in summer for vacations. I pictured myself there in my old age too but dad sold it when he found out he had Cancer. He did not want us to have problems with the Will and Probate taxes etc. After mom passed I thought I would get a part time job but Arthritis and ageism prevented that in some cases. Now I am passed it and too stiff and cranky to deal with the public these days LOL. I remember you having the fire and losing everything even your wonderful girls dresses, panties etc. and looking for your lost kitty for days afterwards. You are living proof we can endure most things thrown our way but it is not easy or cheap as you point out. Dad told me to start saving for retirement in my early 20's and I laughed when he said I would need a million bucks to retire comfortably in the future. Well I could get by without a million but a few hundred thousand would be nice.