Tonight two of my girls said goodbye for a few months, and I think the thought hit them that there will soon be an ocean between them for an extended period of time. Lots of waterfalls. Glad I could hold it together. I also said goodbye to Michigan, some very dear friends and family; I often fail to realize how blessed we have been with strong relationships. I know they really love Sofia and just put up with me:) Our flight was cancelled (Booo, American Airlines) for crew rest, which I fail to understand, so we’re staying in East Lansing, alone:( But it is what it is, and we’ll have one less day to get our darling kitty cat ready for travel. Good news is, I’ll have an excuse to do less cleaning before we check out of the apartment:) Time marches on!
The Final Lap of the Rat Race?
If you’re signing up to start receiving Social Security…it’s easy. Online form, mostly well-worded, mostly self explanatory. Pretty good web form works overall. HOWEVER, if you’re using a foreign (non-U.S.) bank account, it won’t work. So press “Learn More” and it will tell you to go to your Social Security Office. Four hours in Vienna VA office, just to learn that “You should not have click on Submit, and we can’t put in your bank account for a week or two.”
“To be safe, give it a month, and then you can change it online…” except we’ll be gone in a few weeks, and to change it online, my foreign bank account STILL won’t fit in the US format, so I’ll still get an error that says “Come in to our office…” The good news is that when you do get to the front of the line, they are friendly, empathetic, polite, professional, and equally frustrated….but still can’t help.
So assuming there are no further glitches…I will start drawing benefits…we just don’t know where the money will go. We do have a solution, however. “We can’t make appointments, so come stand in line in a few weeks and perhaps your claim will be in the system and we can amend it.” 🙂
Nearing completion
Sofia’s sister Mena inspects today’s addition…Kitchen cabinets. The Cozinha is Sofia’s favorite place, and we’re loving how open it is so she can cook and entertain:)
For Better and For Worse
Getting ready to retire. Cleaning up loose ends. Dental Insurance will go, so today I had a bridge cut, an old tooth pulled, and they didn’t even give me good pain meds….plus I went right to work. So don’t put off until the 45 day mark before you retire and move to an island:)
Still Working on it
I’ll play a little until I get the hang of it.
In the beginning …
Haven’t had time to finish this site yet, but then again, it’s designed to talk about Life AFTER I retire…so I’ll have time soon. Lots of moving parts to this retirement, moving out of the country, building a house, storing items for daughters, etc. So it’s a challenging process, and I expect the adjustment will present some challenges as well. So if you want, you can read and watch them here:)