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It took me a while to realize there were cracks in the wall, too.

"Lean back and relax, sir. This could take a while."

I have never seen the movie ET.
 
Don't know why not, just haven't. But now it's become a kinda "thing" for me, almost a weird badge of honor, or at least distinction.

How do you even know that, presumably off the top of your head? I'm both amused and impressed. Bravo!

Just a note of caution when it comes to wardrobe choices.
 
I've seen myself in enough photos that forced the thought, "That's not really how I look, is it?" Well, the sad answer is "Yes," that is how I look in the lens of a camera, and in the eyes of others.
 
The mirror is not a true friend who tells you what you need to know, but rather one that tells you what you want to believe. Think of all the people you see each week or month on the streets, in shops, and in restaurants, dressed in age-inappropriate garb - too tight, too bright, too-20s-in-your-50s - but apparently oblivious to their reality. Neither their mirror nor their friends have told them the painful truth.
 
All this from one in his early 70s, with many dinners and a little wisdom under his belt. If you're younger and fitter and braver, you may well look good in younger and trimmer fits.
 
But be aware that your only honest friends are a camera and your own eyes. Be guided more by their honest appraisals then be deluded by dreams of a youth that may be moving past its prime.

Just a note of caution when it comes to wardrobe choices.
 
I've seen myself in enough photos that forced the thought, "That's not really how I look, is it?" Well, the sad answer is "Yes," that is how I look in the lens of a camera, and in the eyes of others.
 
The mirror is not a true friend who tells you what you need to know, but rather one that tells you what you want to believe. Think of all the people you see each week or month on the streets, in shops, and in restaurants, dressed in age-inappropriate garb - too tight, too bright, too-20s-in-your-50s - but apparently oblivious to their reality. Neither their mirror nor their friends have told them the painful truth.
 
All this from one in his early 70s, with many dinners and a little wisdom under his belt. If you're younger and fitter and braver, you may well look good in younger and trimmer fits.
 
But be aware that your only honest friends are a camera and your own eyes. Be guided more by their honest appraisals then be deluded by dreams of a youth that may be moving past its prime.

X3890 apparently stands for the world’s most popular flight tracker. It’s also a pattern number for a Wedgwood design for dinner plates.

Oh. My. God!

And so then he says, "They're not gonna lick themselves. Bitch."

Emphasis on "practically".

Like paying at the pump, slide it in and out quickly.

Is this the Green New Deal I've heard about? If so, it's got my vote!

Is this the Green New Deal I've heard about? If so, it's got my vote!

Now that's a 12-step program I could get into! Plus One!

In more out the way places, the Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky is wonderful and includes the reassembled great hall of a Tudor-era manor house deconstructed in England and brought to America. I remember being fascinated with that in high school.
 
Also, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond is a world-class collection of art in a much less hectic locale than museums in larger cities. I particularly like the Antiquities galleries.
 
And though not a museum, the architecture and embellishments of the main building of the Library of Congress in DC, is -for me- a transcendent experience, well worth my four visits. Particularly impressive is seeing the remnants of Jefferson's Library, sold to replenish Congress' Library following loss of the original Congressional collection in the War of 1812. To see, but please don't touch, books bought and used by Thomas Jefferson is a spine-tingling experience.

Tiger Woods. Tab? $55 million.

Cute couple. I just hope one of them doesn't start "whining".

Handsome boy, impressive arms.
 
I can't, however, stop thinking of the last thing he must have heard before leaving the house that morning: "You're not wearing that, are you?"

In more out the way places, the Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky is wonderful and includes the reassembled great hall of a Tudor-era manor house deconstructed in England and brought to America. I remember being fascinated with that in high school.
 
Also, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond is a world-class collection of art in a much less hectic locale than museums in larger cities. I particularly like the Antiquities galleries.
 
And though not a museum, the architecture and embellishments of the main building of the Library of Congress in DC, is -for me- a transcendent experience, well worth my four visits. Particularly impressive is seeing the remnants of Jefferson's Library, sold to replenish Congress' Library following loss of the original Congressional collection in the War of 1812. To see, but please don't touch, books bought and used by Thomas Jefferson is a spine-tingling experience.

And we're off!
 
A problem I thought had been solved has come back, thanks to the wonderful civil servants who run SSA and Medicare.
 
As posted previously, my Parts B and D premiums in the year of my retirement and enrollment in those plans were increased in accordance with IRMAA policies, and were substantially higher than I had anticipated. My 2018 income put me in the highest IRMAA bracket, but knowing my income would decline significantly for 2019, and even more in 2020, I filed a Form SSA-44 to request a decrease in the IRMAA amount for 2019 (to a lower tier) and its elimination for 2020. The people at my local SSA office agreed and my requests were approved and implemented. Problem solved.
 
Oh, really?
 
I have now learned that the IRMAA amount for any given year (2021) is based on the 1040 AGI from two years before (2019). Accordingly, I recently received a notice of (a) a same-for-everyone 1.3% increase in benefits, and (b) the re-imposition of IRMAA amounts for both Parts B and D, based on 2019 income, the aggregate effect of which being a reduction in monthly cash in hand, apparently because SSA/Medicare seem to be believe income increases in retirement, even after it's already gone down. I've checked; it doesn't. Well, not that much.
 
I called SSA (a 40-minute wait, followed by a 20-minute conversation) and was told I could appeal, if I wanted. I was also told that if SSA later determines that too much money was taken in the IRMAA increase for a given year, the excess will be refunded. When I asked if that didn't automatically impose a two-year delay, I was told, "Gee, I guess it does!" Nothing like working with the best and the brightest. And this was nothing like working with the best and the brightest.
 
I said that arrangement sounded fair and, if needed, they could just put the refund check on my grave. No response.
 
Being retired, I clearly have the time to fight this fight again, but I don't know if I have either the strength or the stomach for such a re-match.
 
This is so much harder that I though it would be. On the plus side, it might turn me into a day-drinker.

Don't tell me! He works at the Community Chest.

I may have posted this elsewhere, but if so, I'll repeat it here. Ironically, memory fails.
 
A man fresh out of the shower saw himself in the mirror as was appalled at his reflection. He told his wife that he stood there looking at an old, fat, bald man, way past his prime, and begged her to help him feel better about himself.
 
She replied, "Well, on the bright side, your eyesight's damned near perfect."

Don't tell me! He works at the Community Chest.

I have lived in Virginia near Washington, DC for almost 40 years, and frolicked in the bars and clubs of that city with much enthusiasm and great delight. Four of the most handsome and hunky -and hung- men I have ever met anywhere, including my years around San Diego, LA, San Francisco, and Houston, have come from Maryland, specifically Baltimore and its environs. There's just something about Maryland men. I fell in love with each, of course, one at a time. Maybe they put something in the water up there. If so, it worked.