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Post by ghostrider on May 7, 2018 12:55:15 GMT -5
Where is everyone? I just made my reservation to Downstream Casino for Sunday night. No I don't like to gamble but mom does so for Mothersday I'm taking her to the casino. It's only about an hour and a half or two away I think. I know it isn't that far but by spending the night it'll give her some extra time in the am to gamble while I'm sleeping in. LOL She rolled her change yesterday and Anthony paid her in quarters for his phone bill.
I plan on taking a book and watching HBO in my jammies from the time we can check in at 4pm. This is the only time I can force myself to rest and relax. My days off are almost always spent working in the corral or horse pen etc..so I may even hit the spa treatment while there. OMG I sound OLD.
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Post by horsespoiler on May 7, 2018 22:56:40 GMT -5
When you can't keep up with your mother in a casino I think you are old. I became ancient years ago. I've never cared much for the gambling but when I went to Reno ages ago with my Mom she gave me nickles to play and wouldn't let me go to the room until I had played my 3 rolls. I hit $150 jackpot. The machines in the casinos here don't take coins and they pay out in slips when you want to change machines. It lost a lot of the excitement when they changed to that. When DH and I went to Vegas years ago I bet we didn't spend more than $20 on gambling. There was so much more to do. He went to class all day and DD and I hit the pool and the strip. She was about 13 at the time and we went to an amusement park at the MGM Grand and a pirate show there too. In the evening we would all three wander through the different casinos and check out the different stuff they had on display. Have a good trip and I'm sure you will find something to see while you're there.
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Post by ghostrider on May 8, 2018 20:32:38 GMT -5
I looked at the site and they have a really big outdoor pool. I will definitely take my suit. We used to go through vegas all the time when we'd go to mom and dads. The kids loved staying at Circus Circus. She told me tonight she wants to go really early! UGH check in isn't till 4! I was hoping to leave around noon!
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Post by vsolubo on May 20, 2018 12:16:54 GMT -5
GR; Actually most of the IRS doesn't work with tax returns, that dept only works about 3-4 months out of the year. The rest of us are trying to get people to file their returns or pay toward the balance they owe. And since federal hiring has been frozen since 2009 we don't even have the resources (people) to do that anymore. We are doing almost no audits & collection of funds are down dramatically. Since 2009 the IRS alone has lost over 22,000 employees & since we (like almost all federal agencies) are banned from hiring, it's only going to get worse. At the end of 2008 the average wait time on the phone was 5 minutes now it is 1 1/2 hours, because we have less than half the customer phone reps we had prior to Obama.
I never cared much for betting either, I'd be bored to death at any casino.
Lots of rain, over an inch! Have my garden out, so glad there was no hail.
Took a gross distribution from my TSP account, now that I'm old enough not to be charged the 10% penalty, it showed being withdrawn Friday but not showing in my savings account yet. Once I pay off my few bills, I plan on quitting my part time job.
Went to my Dr appointment last Friday, this was to check out my memory, Dr said although my recall is much slower than he would like at my age, my ability to recall was much better than most people my age! We did a long "interview" & he said the same thing the other 2 Dr's told me...I work too much & most of my health problems are directly a result of exhaustion. So my plan is to pay off all my bills by Sept & give notice at that time. Basically 3 months to "retire" to 1 full time job.
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Post by ghostrider on May 20, 2018 19:14:57 GMT -5
Good for you! so you're quitting HiVee? Wmart has cement floors and causes most associates to have troubles. Last night I woke 4 times with the worst cramps ever. Hit the back of my thighs and before I could get out of bed to stand it had gone into both calves and up into my left butt cheek! OMG I've never had them that bad. I don't know if I need more magnesium potassium, or too much iron or what! I had taken a muscle relaxer before bed and at 3;16 took another and still had one more after that.
What's a TSP account?
We got a lot of water down below by the creek and road too. I love living on a hill. We lost one branch before dark last night it's about 35' from my door and fell 12' from my truck. Thankfully I parked at the door and not where the tree fell. It would have totaled my truck it's huge. Took off a branch from the tree near it when it came down. Then at 8:20 I had just got up for church, took my muffin out of the toaster and the power went out. I went back to bed because I can't go to church with dirty hair! When I got up Anthony told me the tree on the neighbors side of the fence fell over and took out our power lines both here at our pole and at the transformer. They got it back on around noon.
Mom and Jim had left for church before 8 so were surprised about the power outage. They keep saying WOW we can see way into the field now almost to the neighbors house! It was a huge bushy tree and split right down the middle. I can't believe I didn't hear it go because the branch was really loud.
The boys go to the vet tomorrow for their spring check/immunizations. Yippee Then I need to do their sheath cleanings and they're good for the summer.
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Post by horsespoiler on May 20, 2018 23:23:25 GMT -5
GR, I hope your vet bill is lower than mine. Last year for 3 horses it was over $700!They had their teeth checked but no work done and all their shots. This year we're giving them ourselves. About 10 years ago we had a bad storm rip through here and a huge cedar tree, 40-50' tall and almost 3' across fell right outside our bedroom. Never heard a thing. Not the wind or the tree. It was pulled up by the roots. There were so many trees down and power was out for the whole town for over a week. They said it was like a horizontal tornado and you could see the path in aerial photos. Most of southern Oregon was affected. The timber companies bought all of our down trees so we didn't have to clear them out. One neighbor had 3 logtruck loads removed from his property.
V, I'm glad you will be able to cut back to one job. I don't know how you do it.
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Post by luvmymorgan on May 21, 2018 19:52:40 GMT -5
V, I hear you on wanting/needing to quit your second job. Some days I think I need to get another part-time job, but I just don’t think I can do it again. I was never home, dogs didn’t get any attention, & I was so tired all the time. I don’t know where I would find the money to pay board, supplements, farrier & vet if I still had Risty.
They are talking about triple digits starting this weekend. Had my AC serviced last week. Technician said the system is 28 years old & most would have been replaced twice by now. Just thankful every night when I get home & the house is reasonably cool. Keep it set around 80, but don’t want the dogs to suffer during the day. Hoping is the AC quits the warranty company will not refuse to replace the unit. Service guy said warranty companies usually want to repair, repair, repair instead of replacing, but my system is so old they would be unable to get any parts.
I had an expensive last couple of weeks with the AC service & having Toby put down. Had a vet come to the house, he passed so peacefully & that way the others knew, not just taking him away & not bringing him back. He had a bad tumor on his stomach and lesions all over his body. At least he isn’t suffering anymore.
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Post by horsespoiler on May 22, 2018 3:14:23 GMT -5
The last few days have been very sad in this area. On Saturday night at about 8:30 a 17 year old drunk driver hit a motorcycle head on and killed the 2 people on it. An hour later 3 senior girls from the same town the motorcycle crash was in were headed home on I5 when a car further down the highway turned around on the interstate and headed back up on the wrong side of the highway. It hit them head on and the 3 girls and the single occupant of the other car all died in a fiery crash. Then Sunday morning a neighbor's pony was killed by 2 pit bulls and a lab mix. They thought the pony had drowned in the creek the dogs chased it into but when they were able to pull it out of the gully they could see where the dogs had ripped it's throat up and had bitten it's nose and ears. Needless to say we are all watching for those dogs and they will be shot on sight or Animal Control will put them down. This is not the first trouble the neighborhood has had with dogs running loose. It's bad enough to have to watch our animals for bears and cougars and now a wolf has been photographed just a few miles away. This is one of the wolves they brought in to bring back the population but they are using a different species, a wolf from Canada and Alaska that is much more aggressive than the wolves that were originally here. They are killing deer and cattle for sport and have even been known to snatch a small child from the street in a small village in Alaska. The dogs were seen chasing the pony so they knew who killed it. Very sad and there are a lot of new calves out right now and I saw quite a few out with the range cows too.
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Post by ghostrider on May 27, 2018 16:49:22 GMT -5
HS that's a lot of grief for a week. Kids today do not realize a vehicle is not a toy and a lot of parents don't teach their children about respecting the vehicle or other people on the road. The kid that killed Kelley Marie had two tickets and one wreck within the 10 days before he killed her. You'd think the parents would take away his license? nope instead they took him off their GOOD insurance and got him a cheap one so they wouldn't be responsible.
Talking about bears...they're going to open up bear hunting in MO again. Who'd have known there's bears here!
Our vet did the rabies, 5 way and west nile X's three and it was $225. They'll check them for anything you want and they don't charge me. I was tickled because the other vet did the shots and he complimented me on how good the boys all were on needles. They don't flinch a bit. He said I should see some of the horses he does! LOL
LMM that's a good way to do it, I never thought about what another animal thought. A couple days ago one of the managers was talking to a customer and said her AC unit was going out and how much it was going to be. The guy did AC and said yep a central air unit usually lasts about 15 yrs. Your's must be a good one to have lasted this long. 80 though would kill me here with the humidity.
4 associates called in last night and they asked me 4 times to stay till 10pm. I told them no and was off at 8. WM is really turning into a crappy place to work. It used to be family friendly and we were respected. They have a new program called One Walmart or something like that and they are nickel and diming us, almost all employees will work 1-10 accept the bare necessities and they are writing up everyone for all kinds of dumb things like they are trying to get rid of us while at the same time they're hiring a couple here and there. Makes no sense. One dept manager gave his 2 wks Saturday and one 28 yr associate turned in her paperwork and said she's retiring because they're going to make her work in other departments besides fabrics. We've had a lot of people quit or transfer to another WMart.
Our pianist at church has to leave after Sunday School to play for another church service where they pay her. She tapes the music for us and the lady who leads the singing plays it. Works out but a lot of work for the two of them. So today the pastor and the two ladies asked if it's okay to switch our church and sunday school around? Works for us all but will be weird to have church first. One couple only goes to church and they are always in a hurry to leave after so this is good for them also. Ever hear of a church that does SS last?
I went to TS after church for two fly masks. One for Boomer and Rain, Buddy is borrowing Rains stretchy one till his Cashel(warmblood) comes in. They got sprayed down and when 1/2 dry, fly spray applied. This is the first fly spray day. They went out and rolled and seem to be in a lot better mood. The guy who waited on me retired from WMart about 3 yrs ago and I told him to tell who ever orders fly masks that not all horses wear average horse! ridiculous for all 30 fly masks, in 3 brands to all be the same size and that's what I didn't like about the other farm stores in town no one carries warmblood or cob!
Bought two more fly traps and put them in the back of the property behind the corral. They work really good but Anthony puts his too close to the house and attracts the flies to the house. HELLOOOOOOO
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Post by vsolubo on May 30, 2018 12:15:24 GMT -5
GR, a TSP is the govt 401K. I actually changed from HyVee's to Price Chopper after they opened a PC here in Ottawa. I just couldn't drive an hour 1 way to HyVee's anymore. Plus, I felt like I was being taken advantage of, the manager kept telling me he would make the cooks & front line people do what they were supposed to...but never happened. They learned how much I helped after I quit because the manager refused to hire another person just to wash dishes & made them wash the dishes themselves! HS; I'm glad the people got the trees removed; win/win for both sides! I'm really sorry for all your town's losses, it is really sad that so many young people have lost their lives. Did animal control take a report on the dogs? Is there anything legally anyone can do? Hopefully the next time they attack anyone's livestock there is someone with a gun & good aim! LMM; I'm so sorry you lost your Toby. I've been there to many times. I got the money...30 years of working for the govt & all I got is $100,000; before taxes, I actually only received $70K. After trumps speech though, I'm not quitting PC. Trump stated that this Sept he will not sign a budget, unless his wall is fully funded. No matter how long it takes. He doubled down that he plans to shut down the govt, possibly for the long term. Since the wall he wants is multiple millions of $$$'s; the reason they refused to fund it fully last year, I doubt if it flies. Trump has been given dozens of examples of walls, all of which are much cheaper, but he has stated he only wants the most expensive one.
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Post by luvmymorgan on May 30, 2018 19:36:45 GMT -5
V, $100,000. for 30 years doesn't sound too bad. I never enrolled in TSP when I worked for the Gov. Actually, I can't remember if we even had it back then. I've been putting figures together for hopefully retiring when I hit full retirement age of 66 in about another 18 months. Might have to pick up a PT job somewhere if I can't get some things paid off before then or I might keep working & draw SS anyway. Need to decide in a couple of months if I want medicare. I kept the Gov. health coverage-which will go to secondary & Medicare become primary. I don't want to drop the Gov coverage since I can never pick it up again and don't want to bypass Medicare & then have to pay a penalty if I want it in the future. Decision, decisions!
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Post by horsespoiler on May 31, 2018 18:30:58 GMT -5
Well they know who the dogs belong to and the owners know what happened. They don't really care, it is a known drug and criminal house. Animal control said since they didn't see the dogs kill the pony they couldn't do anything. That's not what the law says though. It says even chasing or harassing livestock. Also if a dog has blood on it and is eating on the kill it is presumed that the dog did the killing. The dog was guarding the body and threatened the old man who owned the pony when he came looking for it. But once again they didn't want to deal with it. I'm not even sure if they came out to take a report. When there was a stallion running loose and trying to get to mares, even going into pastures and yards, we called and no dept would claim jurisdiction. We told the sheriff that there were a lot of mares right here and we would protect them if we had to and shoot him because he didn't care if there were people there or not. they said well, if you ave to you have to. He ended up jumping into a neighbor's pasture that he couldn't jump out of and they were able to locate the owner. The pony's owner says it's not done yet. I've seen several companies that start making it very difficult for employees that have been around for a long time trying to get them to quit so they can hire new employees at minimum wage and with fewer benefits. It really sucks and a lot of the time you end up training your replacement without knowing it. They will change some company policies just enough to anger the older employees without making it a drastic change or too obvious. Then they wonder why they can't get or keep decent employees.
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Post by vsolubo on Jun 4, 2018 10:16:43 GMT -5
V, $100,000. for 30 years doesn't sound too bad. Except in my job I talk to people every day that worked for private companies for less time & they have a million or more in their 401K's! People that retire at my age & are getting $3-5K each month from their 401K's. The estimate of monthly payment from mine was only $300 a month; which is why I took almost the entire amount. Since I still work there I can't close it so I had to leave some. A friend of mine was messaging me on FB about a good non-sugar sweetener so I was telling her that I only use stevia or real sugar. We went back & forth about her health, which is really poor right now, & which artificial sweeteners I recommended. After going back & forth for at least 15 minutes with me telling her all artificial sweeteners have been shown to react in the body just like real sugar, with the same problems with blood sugar & that all have been linked to cancer she finally admitted all her drs have told her the same thing, the nutritionist told her that & so far everyone she has talked to has told her that. I asked her why she kept asking people about it then & she told me the only thing she will drink is soda. She wants to find 1 that someone will tell her it is ok to drink. I told her until her current infection is cleared up she should not be drinking any pop at all & she should stop period! Then she asked which flavored water I drink, told her I don't buy them, I get filtered water & put in sliced strawberries or lemon or whole berries.... Then once the water is gone I have desert! Finally getting my bath taken out & getting my shower put in. I'll be glad I won't have to try to step over the bathtub side only to try to stand in a bathtub that isn't flat on the bottom! Trying to balance in this tub was hard as the bottom was steeply sloped with a v bottom! Tub is cast iron & the bathroom is very small so the poor man doesn't have much room to work in. The new girl that is cleaning & feeding at the barn has agreed to clean Marie's pen every Wednesday so it stays cleaner. I hated only being able to clean on Fri-Sun & leaving it a mess the rest of the week. Not only do I not like Marie being in a dirty pen, but it made it really hard for me to clean on Fridays!
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Post by luvmymorgan on Jun 4, 2018 20:33:08 GMT -5
V, maybe I never got into TSP was because I kept Civil Service & didn't switch to FERS? I never had an option to withdraw a lump sum, but since I've been getting the Civil Service pension since 1996 of a little over $1200. a month before taxes & insurance deductions, I know I've gotten back far more than I had paid in. My AZ sponsored retirement (in place of a 401K) is only going to net me a little over $300. a month since I will only have about 5 years with them. The lump sum (before taxes) would be equal to about 3 1/2 years monthly pension so I don't think I will take their lump sum. Not sure what my SS would amount to so I'll probably need a part-time job to help cover expenses. At least until my car get paid off. Too many things to think about & try to work out!
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Post by ghostrider on Jun 5, 2018 23:14:33 GMT -5
V that's about what I'm earning in my 401 also. The first two yrs I only put in 2% and WM matches us up to 5 or 6%. Then when I went full time 6yrs ago I went to 3% and a couple yrs ago increased it to 5%.
I bought the biggest solar charger TSC had, hooked it up and it'll be ready to turn on tomorrow. If Rain gets out again then he's jumping over it and he'll be done getting turned out with the others. He'll have to stay in the wooded pasture all the time!
Sheriff won't do anything out here in the country unless some person gets mauled. Maybe not then either.
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