Category: Retirement

i’m officially, technically retired

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It’s official. December is my birth month. I’m now 66. According to the rules and regulations of Social Security, I have applied for and been granted full retirement benefits, which I will start receiving in January 2020.

Since October I’ve been fighting to get enrolled into Medicare Part B. That took two trips to two different Social Security offices, along with very long waits-in-lines. The first time I dropped off the necessary paperwork and they essentially lost it. The second time I just stayed there until some human took my application and stamped it received. After the second trip it took 48 hours for me to officially show up in the government system, which for me was 5 December, or over two months of waiting. I’m so glad that’s finally done.

I registered for Medicare Part A (hospitalization) back in 2018 when I turned 65. That was an extremely easy process; enroll online and then wait about five business days. Then wait another 30 days for my Medicare card to arrive in the mail. Such an easy process compared to the insanely complex process for Medicare Part B.

I say ‘retired technically’ as I’m still working part time at the same place I’ve been working at since August 2017, for the same hourly rate. I don’t have to pay for group insurance through them anymore, which will save me nearly $500/month. My medicare plus supplements will cost about $300 total, with no deductibles on drugs and doctors visits.

I have no idea how long I’ll be working part time. But the money is still good, even for part time work. I’m in a serious saving mode where it’s all going into the bank for certain future high-dollar projects. My wife for example wants to travel to Scotland, and I insist we travel first class because of the additional leg and body room. That comes in handy for people with medical issues such as severe arthritis, which applies to both of us now.

Here’s to an interesting future.

my apple 12.9” ipad pro, 2017 edition

whbeebe2 Comments

Let’s try this one more time…

I’m now the proud owner of an Apple iPad Pro 12.9”, 2017 version. It came with 512GB of internal storage and LTE wireless connectivity (which I’ve yet to turn on, and probably never will) along with WiFi. I purchased it with a logi keyboard cover so that I can sit in front and type effortlessly into Ulysses, or just about any other app.

The Rational

I purchased the iPad because it was the biggest one Apple makes, and I’d decided I wanted a tablet that big. Once I got the 12.9” device it sunk in why everyone who buys it loves it. Whether is upright as a screen or flat on the table as a drawing surface, the 12.9” is just so much bigger and better than the 9.7” Pro, which I also own. It makes the case that the iPad can take the place of a notebook just that much stronger. It’s no wonder that other manufacturers have attempted to create so-called two-in-one machines, where the screen detaches from the keyboard and you can then use the screen as a tablet. Apple went in the other direction, and as far as I’m concerned Apple has done a much better job.

It also helped when it came to make the purchase that this particular variant of the 12.9” Pro was 45% off when purchased from B&H Photo out of New York. Add in the fact that no tax was charged and shipping was free withtwo day delivery, and I was placing my order. I took a bit of the iPad savings and invested it into the logi cover/keyboard.

And then there’s Ulysses

I’m also getting to know Ulysses better. I’m signed up for their yearly subscription on all my devices, including my MacBook Pro, but I’ve only toyed with it up until now. I went on ahead and signed up for the subscription because it’s very inexpensive and I strongly believe in supporting the independent developer community whenever I can. On all my devices I try to keep my app collection as limited as possible, keeping only those apps that I work with on a regular basis. Ulysses doesn’t quite fall into that category because I don’t use it on a regular basis, but as I move further into retirement, I intend to use it daily if at all possible.

Writing (as opposed to word processing) just seems to flow with a writing tool like Ulysses . It’s the same kind of easy flow I feel when using other text-oriented tools, such as Proton Mail for e-mail and Textastic for code editing. I’ve spent decades trapped in the endless cycle of not writing, but publishing, trying to make the written word look good. I somewhat blame Apple for starting that, but it’s been in Microsoft Word where I’ve done 99% of that kind of work. Again, that’s going to change going forward. I can publish to WordPress, for example, and I’ll live with the defaults with regards to formatting.

This entry, if you’ve been following along, has no image, not photo or drawing. It’s just words with a title. That’s the best place for me to start. I’ll worry about adding images later and then publishing all of that to WordPress and ASL. But for now, again, Simple is Good.