Bill Roper's Journal

The check for my 401k rollover arrived today, so I ran it out to my financial advisor's office so it could be deposited into my rollover IRA. Having that done is a great relief, because doing this via check rather than via EFT seems, well, dumb. But done it is.

We also discussed locating some more money, because I am going to hemorrhage cash this month for a variety of reasons. That's being done.

Tomorrow, I have to run Julie to the bank to open a checking account so that she has a place to direct deposit the paycheck from her summer job. Today, Julie aced her pre-exam to get her learner's permit, which means that actual practice driving is going to start soon.

And then I have to fill out an appeal to file with Social Security / Medicare so that my Medicare premiums are based on what I am making while retired instead of based on what I was making when I was actually employed.

I miss coding. It was *much* more relaxing.

The first coat of red paint has gone up in K's room. It's very red. There's still more work to be done though. I have been promised that I can relax tomorrow (it being my birthday) as long as I am willing to come supervise some of the work. Much like my father, I am excellent at supervisory work of this nature, so I am fine with that. :)

Tonight, I went down to Tobias Music for a Taylor Tone Show. It was a lot of fun and I learned a few new things, which is a good outcome.

I didn't buy any more guitars which is *also* a good outcome. :)

I want carrot cake for my birthday, which means that we need some unsulfited coconut. The easiest place to find that is Trader Joe's, so I headed there after lunch. They've moved all of the bulk items of that sort to a different aisle, but I eventually got a pointer and tracked them down.

The slot where the unsulfited shredded coconut goes was absolutely empty. Drat. There were coconut strips nearby, but they would not work nearly as well. I poked around and then noticed something *behind* the coconut strips. This turned out to be the single remaining bag of the coconut that I was looking for. Having won the scavenger hunt, I picked up a few more items for the household and headed home.

At 2 PM, I had the video appointment with the La-Z-Boy tech to inspect my broken recliner chair. They are sending parts and will send a tech to repair it. This will cost about $250 total, but that is still better than replacing the chair, even if it is 13 years old. Looking at the website, matching the original leather recliner would cost around $2100. Eek!

Then I called Home Depot and managed to get the order for the new storm door set up. This had gotten dropped on the ground in the general confusion of getting K back from college, but is now paid for. Now someone just has to install it.

Meanwhile, K is ready to begin painting her room. Whee!

Gretchen's application for Social Security and Medicare has been processed, which is good, because she has more immediate medical needs than I do. My application is still in processing, I'm told because they need to check my earnings record. We've got an appointment for Monday to sign Gretchen up for Part D and Medigap insurance, after which she will be good to go. Me, well, I've got COBRA, but since it's subordinated to Medicare, I *may* be able to get prescriptions with it right now. I need to check on that. And the kids, at least, should have coverage once they get done processing that.

I went out to see my financial advisor today and we are in the process of getting things moved from the Oracle-sponsored Fidelity accounts to our accounts at Ameriprise. This will (of course) take a while. But it's in process and -- although it can't be completed until late next year because of some restricted stock -- it will help get things sorted out.

Since I slept badly last night and took a nap this afternoon, that was pretty much the sum total of progress for the day. All things considered, I will take it.

Someone has now written an AI-driven wiki dedicated to hallucinating on various subjects. Yes, this is of absolutely no use, save for entertainment.

Here, for example, is the article on The Great Filking Schism of 1799.

We got a call from a nice lady at Social Security at 7:30 AM on Thursday as she was the person who had been assigned our application. We explained that the thing that we were most concerned about was getting signed up for Medicare, because without that, we effectively have no health insurance, even if we signed up and paid for COBRA. She said that she would push the application through to the Medicare processors and that they would pick it up on Monday or Tuesday. Apparently, I managed to complicate the process by filing for Social Security benefits at the same time. It's not clear how I could have filed for one without the other when filing on-line, although I could have (I suppose) if I had taken the Medicare application to the Social Security office. The process seems to be complex.

Today, I signed up for COBRA for myself and the kids. If I could have, I would have just signed up for COBRA for the kids, but that is not allowed by Oracle's plan. I also extended our dental and vision insurance for all of us. Gretchen is going in to have her crown applied tomorrow for which dental insurance should help, while the entire family needs the services of the optometrist, so while extending vision insurance is not normally the best choice, it looks like a pretty close bet in our case.

I took K to Home Depot to pick up some painting supplies and paint chips. Painting is going to begin soon. First, there will be spackling.

And when I got home from Home Depot, Gretchen announced that the freezer was misbehaving. I have acquired a freezer thermometer and we will see what things look like in the morning. I also checked. I recall that we bought a five-year service policy from the store we bought the refrigerator from. And my blog tells me that I bought the refrigerator in July, 2021.

Good.

So I did a thing.

Back in early March or thereabouts when I was still employed and figured I was going to start collecting Social Security in May, I said to myself that I was going to have a bit of surplus cash and that I wanted to buy myself a retirement present even if I wasn't planning to retire for some time yet. And I put a deposit down on a pinball machine, because -- although I have a Flash machine in the basement that is *almost* working -- new pinball machines do a lot of things that older pinball machines didn't do.

The pinball machine arrived today and is now installed in my office.

It looked smaller in the woods.

K's goal is to get the walls of her room repainted in some color that is not the current really *bright* yellow that has been there for some years. This means that she is packing things up and finding things that she wants to donate to charity. I made the first run to Goodwill this morning, which mostly got rid of books that she had outgrown.

There was a lot of deferred cleaning downstairs that needed to be taken care of. Gretchen loaded and ran the dishwasher, while I swept up an enormous pile of debris and dog hair that needed to be disposed of. Then Gretchen and Julie potted some seedlings for their windowsill garden, which means that the potting supplies can be put away for a bit.

I started assembling the new side table for the patio and quickly realized that -- given the available work surfaces -- this was really a two person job. Gretchen was good enough to come hold things together while I bolted the parts into a whole. The only real problem was that the mini-wrench that they sent was not a great fit for the nuts, but it could be made to work and eventually did. The kids have carried the table out to the patio, the mess has been cleaned up, and one more thing is finished.

Yay!

I am getting more things moving, but less things have been moved than I might have hoped. On the other hand, there's that annoying problem of needing to do your research.

I have one form left to fill out before I can go apply to get Gretchen and me on Medicare A and B. Then I need to handle the D and G parts, but I have someone helping with that -- but before I can do that, I need to figure out the exact rules for getting the kids on COBRA, preferably without me. This will require a call to the COBRA administrators. Apparently, there is some possibility that the kids could get 36 months of COBRA coverage -- or maybe even until they are 26! -- but the rules around this are all maddeningly complex. I suspect deliberately so. :)

There's also the possibility of signing them up for a marketplace plan, which *looks* like it might be cheaper, but there's the question of whether you've actually got anything better than a catastrophic plan in that case, given some of the deductibles. I need to pick some brains on this. And check and see which doctors the kids are currently using and whether I would have any coverage in that case.

On the other hand, I have managed to use GoodRx to get a prescription that Gretchen needed refilled at a substantially better rate than I would have if I'd taken it to Walgreens, even with the coupon that the pharmacist was ready to apply. That's a good thing.

And my computer has been returned to Oracle, so they have released my severance. About a third of it got bitten off for taxes, which is not a great surprise. I was already going to make estimated tax payments to land in a safe harbor for next year, but all of that will have to be adjusted in some way that is not yet obvious.

I need to apply to start my Social Security in May, but the website is being a bit stubborn about that, or at least it was when I was trying last week. Maybe it will be different this week since I've been officially terminated. It's hard to say, but I can go back at that. The worst case is that I'll drop the application in on May 1st.

Meanwhile, Gretchen has arranged a dog sitter for the day that we're running down to pick up K from school, so that's good. She's also set us up with a quote to get the asphalt driveway replaced when the neighbors are doing it, which will result in a small discount. They also quoted fixing the front step, but that is not going to happen, because it is way too expensive to fix a relatively small problem.

Things are getting done. I'm just getting tired of spending all of my time sorting these messes out when I *should* be not working. :)

I used to bowl. I could probably bowl again, but my knees would comment on it. So for the moment, we'll content ourselves with knocking down metaphorical pins.

My previously scheduled -- and now vital -- meeting with my financial advisor was this morning at 10 AM. I had planned to get up at 8 AM, giving me plenty of time to get ready and get out the door, but my body had other ideas and I finally gave up trying to get back to sleep around 6:45.

The meeting went well. We sorted out a number of items. He shared with me the contact info for a guy that they use to help sort out Medicare issues who *may* be able to give some advice on how to get the kids insured. Or maybe who will know someone *else* who can give that advice. In any case, the steps are in the right direction.

I grabbed lunch, got home, and decided it was time to take a nap, which I needed pretty badly.

This afternoon, I got hold of my life insurance company and have modified the policy so that it will not increase in value as much, but also so that I stop having to pay for it for the next 20 years. That change won't take effect until the anniversary date in August, but that's fine. It is a done item.

I looked over some stuff for FKO, but recording scratch tracks for that needed to wait until tomorrow, because time was running out. I also checked out Xfinity, where I need to get some statements to submit to work for reimbursement and determined that I am paying *way* too much for my current plan. I just need to sort out what plan I need to be on. That will be a mission for tomorrow.

I took Gretchen out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse so we could use the free appetizer coupon that I'd received via email. This meant Gretchen got a nice steak which is a welcome change from the usual dinner courses at home. (There is nothing *wrong* with dinner at home, but it is not a nice steak.)

When we got home, K pinged me, as she's having difficulty sequencing some audio files in the Java program that she's writing for school. I checked some references and gave her some ideas to try. This sort of thing is easier when you're looking at the source code. :)

And then Gretchen and I watched tonight's episode of "Will Trent", which was a wonderful thing. We have preserved it on the DVR and will be going back to watch the sequence that begins with the ceremonial firing of the cannon that was put on the mantel in Act II through the end of the fight scene.

Seriously, unless you do not like police procedurals *at all*, you should be watching this show. It took about four episodes in the first season to get us hooked, because the beginning is a bit of a slow burn, but the writers and actors here are doing a great job.