read52

On Monday, I got into a car accident right in front of school. I am ok but my car is probably totaled ( will find out today). I have to cross three lanes of traffic to get into the driveway of school. Some days the traffic is so bad that the driveway is blocked. So the first two lanes stopped and I inched out to check traffic and a car came driving a little too fastest for the traffic and hit me.

Is it a sign?

Yesterday, my partner and I took our students to Mount Vernon. It was a great trip because we had plenty of parents to help out. The weather was great and the kids had fun.

We are going to be diamond for the first time this summer. We are going on Liberty of the Seas. Are drinks only in the diamond lounge or are they loaded to our cards so that we can get them at any bar on this ship?

Thanks sooo much for your advice. We are flying out of BWI on July 16th to Fort Lauderdale to cruise the Allure of the Seas. It'll be my 3rd time on the Allure, but first with my toddler, so I'm sure it will be a difference experience.

We have flown two times out of BWI with my daughter, her husband and her two kids. Everything that previous posts mentioned works. They board people with disabilities first. My husband is disabled so we got on first and saved seats for them. Families with small children go next. Then the people who paid the extra to preboard. You might want to pay for the preboard so everyone can sit together.

Retired at the end of April 2016, coming up to age 57. Husband, 61, semi-retired, but working more it seems now that I'm home. Has a couple of projects he hopes to finish soon. We'll spend more time at the beach and have more time to travel and cruise. Are wrapping a cruise in July with before-and-after land touring. We'll be gone three weeks. This is our retirement vacation as well as the celebration of our 30th anniversary.

 

If anyone is planning to take a cruise...do it now, or soon. I hate to sound maudlin, but we have friends who have gotten very sick and died soon after retiring. Take time for fun, whatever that is for you. Enjoy!! Do good things. Be kind to each other.

You are so right about enjoying when you can. 11 years ago when my husband was 53, he got viral encephalitis from shingles. Then a year later prostate cancer at 54. He could no longer work but he made it through both illnesses. After he finished his treatment for cancer,we won a pair of airline tickets on the local tv station. We decided to take a cruise and we have been hooked ever since that time.

Getting close to the end of another school year.

My husband had viral encephalitis which left him with seizure condition that was not completely controlled by medication. After a seizure a person may not remember who they are. We started to cruise at this time. I got my husband a medic alert bracelet in case we got separated. New ones come with a stick that can hold all their medical history including listing of medications. Although he is 99% better, I am with him at all times or he is with a family member. I like cruising because if he gets tired, we can go back to the room and rest and order room service plus there is a doctor on board if we need one (we have never needed one).

By the way, my mother is in the early stages of dementia but she lives in another state with my sister so I know what some of the challenges are.

I started posting here a couple of years ago, when I noticed a friend on this site. I was not ready to retire (I have a few years to go.) but I found a lot of good advice about retirement here.

Hubby was fired two years from retirement. Has worked part-time since. His countdown was blown out of the water! I retired last year from a very stressful job. There is a lot of excitement around the idea of retirement, but it depends on the individual as to what retirement really means. We enjoy a combination of working non-stress jobs, traveling, and, most of all, spending time together. Hope yours goes the way you want!

I agree with you. Retirement is different for each person and couple. My friend's husband just retired and she said she did not know what he was going to do with his time. She has been retired for a while because she got sick several years ago. She was concerned about how their lives will change now that he will be home. Then I was talking to another teacher who had two children in her 40's and she said that she will be working until she is 70 so she finish paying for their college. My husband (he became disabled 11 years ago after two illnesses) and I have discussed about when I will retire. I still enjoy my job and he does the housework so it will be for next couple of years. I know that we will be helping my daughter and son-in-law with their children by getting them to school and taking care of them after school. Maybe I will work parttime but we shall see what happens. Of course we will fit in some cruising and maybe get to Europe one day.

It happens on every ship and every port. We like to watch the "runners" as we call them. One time a family got a tugboat to bring them to the ship. If you are on a RCCL tour they wait for you. One time in the DR, we were on a RCCL that was to take 2-3 hours. It took 6 hours because it poured. A electric pole came down in front of our bus and it took time for the buses to move. That time the ship waited because 300 people were not back at sail away time. We also had to be tendered in so there was water about a foot high in the tenders.

Every one got back eventually.

The cherry blossoms should be in full bloom in the next day or two if anyone wants to take a quick trip to DC.

Uh oh, where in Wisconsin?

In the Wausau area, today they are to get 12 to 15 inches of snow. My parents grew up in the area. I lived in Milwaukee from the time I was a kid to age 35. Then my family and I moved to Maryland about 29 years ago for work.

No, thank God! It was mostly northern Louisiana and areas south where the rivers overflowed. We are in Kansas City right now. Janice got an invite from Harrahs. Very nice place!

I see Janice is still enjoying herself in their casinos. LOL They had some flooding near my sister's house in upper Wisconsin.

Hey Debbie, were you and Janice effected by flooding that I read about in your part of the country?

It is hard to make that final decision to retire for some of us. Health insurance is one of those factors. My health insurance ends when I retire. We will have to purchase some backup insurance along with Medicare. My husband has been on disability for 11 years and he has health issues although much less than when he first gone sick. Back then the insurance company paid out $100,000 one year and $40,000 the next year for his two illnesses. That does not include what we paid out. My daughter had a friend who was only 31 that had 6 million dollars in health bills. She spent the last two years of her life in a hospital. She died one year ago. Sorry to add something so sad but it is a thought for many people.

We were on the Quantum last March right before they went to China. We were also on a cruise right after they had noro so I remember all the handwashing. But the ship looked the same. We were told that they made some changes to the ship just for the market in China. Keep the pictures coming.

Debbie, my granddaughter got into my school. My daughter will drop her off in the morning between 7:00 and 7:30. I am always to school by 6:30 am. Then she will come home with me at 3:30 or whenever I leave. My daughter went to my school from 3rd through 8th grade. It should be fun.

5 months until our next cruise with my son and his family. We are going out of Galveston.

Well, I turned 64 on Saturday so I am getting closer to retirement. I still plan to work part time for awhile after I retire from fulltime work.

My brother-in-law got lung cancer not from smoking (although he did smoke up until about 6 years ago). He got his business from his father. They sell fireplaces and free standing stoves. They also would clean chimmeys which is how he got it.

I am sure that it has been said (I did not read the whole post). RCCL will continue to leave from winter ports as long as their are people who will book on their ships. Most of the ships are full all the time. The New York and DC area have people with money but maybe they don't want to fly. Warm areas can have weather problems too like hurricanes, etc.

I had mine out 3 years ago. I had it planned to have mine out on a Monday. Since I am a teacher, I decided to take the whole week and did all the lesson plans. Then my dad died the Saturday before the surgery. So I called the doctor and asked when was the soonest that I could fly (my parents lived in another state). He said to give it a week but he ok'd me to fly the Friday after the surgery. The surgery was nothing, a few hours in a surgery center and I felt much better then before. Check about flying if you are doing that.

My husband had surgery on his belly button about 3 weeks before our cruise.

He just stand out of the pools.

We were on the Quantum last spring right before it went to China. We loved the ship, the activities, and the dining. But they were adding staff for China and most staff were not like on other ships. They were not as social but it could have been a language barrier. They made mistakes but they were new to the job. We plan on going on the Anthem some time even though it had a few problems.

I am in the DC area and tomorrow we are going to have 70 degrees. We had a bad thunderstorm last Wednesday with high winds.

Read52, I'm sorry to read about your husband with the bad cancer, and your mom with Dementia. Down through the years I have heard people say, "Oh I know what your talking about." Well most of them have NO clue. My mother had Alzheimer's, so I know exactly what you are going through. May God be with you through this time.

Actually it is my sister's husband with the cancer and she is the one taking care of my mother. My husband had prostate cancer ten years ago but he beat that. My sister is trying to get power of attorney to deal with my mother's health issues since she is at a point where she can't make those decisions anymore. They live in another state so I am on the phone with my sister on a daily basis. Right now my sister and her husband are at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. My sister has a friend living with them for the last 6 months who helps to take care of my mother.

Debbie, my granddaughter came to my school yesterday to take her "test"

for kindergarten. She was so excited. I gave her a school sweatshirt for a gift.

My partner is coming back next year and she said that she has not decided yet when she will retire.

I finished work early, at 45 due to countless back surgeries. My husband is a year and a half younger than myself (I am 55) but he is very much looking forward to his 55 th birthday in summer of 2017. He will be at his job for 38 years ( he was hired right out of high school) with the govt. He is ready now but he will lose too much of his monthly pension if he goes early. I am looking so forward to him being around more and more time to travel! Life is too short!!

I agree with your husband. If I teach until 66 and I can collect my social security and still work. That is what my partner does.

Read this as an antidote to that nausea-inducing article:

 

 

Mid-lakes Navigation captain recounts Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas stormy cruise

Best review that I have read about the event.

Sorry that I have not been on for awhile but I have been busy. My brother-in-law has stage 4 lung cancer and my mother's dementia is getting worse. I looked once or twice and could not find this site so I thought it went bye-bye. I am still 2 or 3 years away from retiring. I want to make sure we have all are ducks in order financially before I do. My husband has been on disability for 11 years due to being ill and the results of it. I still like to teach but went to a lower grade this year. Debbie, you were right I like teaching third grade better than I did before. Also my partner is 5 years old than me (she is 69) so I am the younger teacher. Debbie, my granddaughter will be coming to my school next year so that is another reason that I want to continue to work. Hopefully, when I do, I can get one of the parttime jobs at my school or be the primary sub. Although the public schools in my area pay $200 a day for subs and the closest public school to me is a block away. Something to think about.