BeamerBikes

Here tonight for the customer appreciation party. Good mix of customers. Busy for Tuesday night prolly due to Holidays and $3/drink special. Good mix of dancers from what I tell so far. The shoe goes in phases. I'm hopeful it's in one of the upswing. I liken it a bit to a gay Cheers with gogo boys. In amusement, I've invited multiple friends out who then caught other friends who vowed they were staying in. LOL.

I am planning another round next year. I'm viewing I bonds as my eventual last resort emergency funds. I never thought I'd be back in US savings bonds, but here we are. I'll stagger the amounts throughout the year so if/when the fixed interest rates inch higher, I'll step the older bonds into newer rates in the future. Borrowing from The Grand Budapest Hotel... I-Bonds will be my "Whiskey and whores" funds into my 60s with any luck.

Eh the shuttle busses weren't an option for my building during that time. Union Station to IBM now AMA building at 330 N Wabash just on the edge of reasonable walk in your 20s everyday. The water taxi in the summer was a nice option though. Moving into the city was seriously considered during that time period. Ended up subleasing a couple places to make my commute reasonable during busier work/school times.

@Cooper @RadioRob tried updating the Lucky Horseshoe post and it shows a status of archived and closed to new comments.

Permanently closed

Also, it's not eradicated either. The African doctor who first raised this as having a sexual component in transmission will confirm. It never went away in Africa. It's hard to say if it never got a firm foothold in Northern climates before the most active summer flesh on flesh events started to become more infrequent vs how much was due to vaccinations. End of the day, it can still hop a ride on plane from an outbreak site to Europe and/or US center next summer. I dont know if we seen the last of it. Hopefully there's enough vaccinated in the highest risk base to make sure it won't cluster up again anytime soon. Either way, I don't regret my decision to get the vaccine even late.

Followed by a mile long walk to your downtown building where you have to cross the river wind tunnel TWICE! Coworkers would wonder why I'd spend the money for a monthly parking pass.

I personally want to leave Chicagoland in February. February is THE WORST. I had hoped this winter would be the year to spend it in Key West. Sadly, those prices have climbed super high. Who knows maybe FTL, Gulf Shores, Galveston...

Any hints on best ways to stretch the heating bill while minimizing the lack of comfort encouraged. I have likewise heard using a humidifier will help make the indoors feel warmer.

This may change, but I'm viewing I bonds as my new inflation hedge/place to park emergency funds for the next couple years. Eventually plan to build up a sizeable war chest for rainy day - oh crap, then rotate some of the 0% fixed bonds into higher fixed rates as the penalties age out. That plan may change in a few years, but for now, it's better than a CD and I'm viewing these as the last resort funds. As long as you can tolerate locking it away for the first 12 months, it's not a bad option for nearline funds. As for taxable income, if I have to cash them, tax should be the least of my concerns in the near term.

You may have not noticed the increase in Natural Gas prices. They doubled just after the heating season wound down. My typical $70 November bill has increased to $160!!! Definitely plan on keeping an eye on the thermostat this winter and using spot heat for the home office rather than the whole house. Layer up and put on the electric blanket. Ouch in Chicago! **** No politics!!! ****

I suspect Balance Transfer offers are going to get even more expensive. Gone are the 2% transfer fee days. 5% typical fee now. I suspect a nominal interest rate to return for shorter months too. I'd evaluate the balance transfer fee as part of the offer. I've had pretty good discipline on parking a balance on a transfer offer, and then making regular payments to pay it off by the end of the promotional period. While also NEVER using that card for anything else since comingling balance transfer and new purchases is a recipe for $$$ in unclear interest rate structures. I'm finding I need to teach similar rules to my sister for financial literacy.

Opening a thread on folks best practices around handling credit cards. I'm re-evaluating my annual rewards card landscape. I was loyal to United for years then switched to Southwest for their reward program fairness. Now I'm considering would it better to go the route of a single high priced annual fee like an AMEX Platinum versus carrying multiple travel cards - CapitalOne, Airline, Hotel cards.

Agreed! Bumping my now resolved issue off the main page

Issey also makes a sport and night version of it. I loved international travel for the duty free shops having such a wide selection of colognes to test out and buy.

Confirmed

This is Medicare fraud I can get behind... literally!

I tried to carefully caveat it. Specifically as long as you are able to take the time and have the capacity to be your own advocate. You can put in the work to make Medicare Advantage deliver as promised. My experience came from managing complex medical condition with skilled nursing care involved that didn't always coordinate well with private insurance. It yielded surprise bills and fights for not getting preauthorized when it was scheduled outside of my control. When I compared the even playing field of Medicare and all providers knowing what would get paid for versus what's private pay with certainty, it took a significant administrative burden off me. Kaiser as I understand it has the Western US pretty universally covered. In the Chicagoland market, there was variability at play with long standing traditional Medicare providers not being in the Advantage networks. Plus dementia care meant on boarding new providers held risk for knocking the dementia demons loose. All that adds up for me to be sour on continuing the private insurer "benefit" versus universal coverage under a single national plan as traditional Medicare is. Again, it's my experience for my situation. I found private insurance via Medicare Advantage to be way too much hassles versus everyone takes Medicare. The cost savings didnt make sense for me. Why change to save money I'll end up burning through that money spending time fighting and paying bills. My situation had a lot more provider services week to week so administration was key.

My experience from 2005 to 2017 as the long term caregiver and financial power of attorney for my mom with multiple providers. 2 years preMedicare - Absolutely HATED private employer provider group health care from BlueCross "good" benefits. Pre-auth/in vs out of network/rules In Medicare, opted for traditional A/B with pension provided supplemental including Drug benefit. It became easier. Less uncertainty and overhead what was covered and how much. Dental and Vision were out of pocket and needed to be planned for. One enrollment cycle Pension Plan switched everyone to Medicare Advantage. Promised nothing would change. Could continue to see old providers. WRONG. At home care went out of network. Quickly and forcibly had them change us back to traditional Medicare. Advised the nice lady in benefits transfer out of this department for this year. She was about to hear a crap load more complaints from others. I subsequently decided in the later years to go with the Cadillac of Supplement Plans that took care of 100% of the 20% copay. It was worth the additional premium to only worry about the initial deductible in the beginning of the year and never process another bill for $5.87 or whatever chump change billshit. Medicare Advantage may be great for low health care needs, but once you or your loved one needs more regular advanced care. Switch to Traditional Medicare and big ass supplement plan to simplify the administration. With Traditional Medicare - All you need to ask. Do they take Medicare or not? If yes, everyone knows the rules and what's covered. I only had one provider refuse Medicare.

Anyone else getting icons not rendering while in dark mode? Switch to light mode and they come back. Just started today. On an android/chrome browser.

Having come of age in the mid 90s, there are some memorable ones for me. Red Joop - I could take it or leave it, but had a few bfs that loved it. Blue Joop aka NightFlight and Cool Water - I'll sometime wear it to remember someone from my past. Eternity - holy crap if anyone ever wants to remember why no smoking in bars is a good thing? That scent was so strong it could still cut through 4 hours of a smoky bar. Wear it today - definitely a little bit will do.

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble.... (song just popped in my head)

Twitter may not be going anywhere, but advertisers are leaving. Users are starting to look elsewhere. Engagement numbers are up, but a trainwreck brings a crowd. Financially, I find it hard to see how it will find its way back to a $44 Billion valuation. Leaving politics aside and definitely out of this discussion. I'm finding the Mastodon fediverse a different experience than Twitter. Some learning curve with the new platform for sure. Folks are rebuilding some networks. There's definitely more content moderation occuring depending on instance joined. This may not be sustainable in the long term. At least one of infosec folks has resecurrected a forum site. Imagine that. Company of Men. Ha! Forum sites being used in the 2020s.

I'm not going to argue shit here... If it puts your mind at ease, your own doctor says might as well, and/or it's offered locally, get the shot. OR If you have doubts in the science/stats, don't get the shot right now. Either way, live your life and be kind to one another. 24hr later after 2nd intradermal shot. I have a US quarter sized red mark, and a slightly sore neck gland (could be unrelated)

Got the 2nd dose intradermal this afternoon - no reaction so far. Finished out the regimen. If it's overkill so be it, it puts my mind at ease with one less concern. My primary doc also gay agreed might as well finish it out.