First, I won't say much about a conversation I had today. But if handled wrong, it could have led me (and the other party) down a rabbit hole of accusations, as someone else's problems reflected issues related to me that should have been addressed in the past. Luckily, I managed to avoid the rabbit hole, and not get stuck with indirectly referencing my past.
Next, something my immediate supervisor said at the office today leads me to believe that they are gradually planning for my exit. If that's true, I won't cry much. In less than a week, I'll probably be happy about it, as I will have the freedom to book a "bucket list" cruise. No, it's not the cruise I really want to take. Instead, it allows me to get most of what I want out of a trip to Hawaii without breaking the bank.
Now that I've talked to the custodian firm for my 401k, I'm ready to take a couple of one-time distributions. However, I must talk to my tax lady and a financial planner before I start this process. If I were closer to the age I could start collecting Social Security without early penalties, I'd do so. However, it pays for me to take some money out of the 401k, and let my SS benefits grow by 8% per year. But this is not the only issue I have to deal with. I need to find out what are my best options involving Medicare, as well as whether I can find affordable Long Term Care insurance.
Last night, I went to visit an ex-girlfriend. No, I'm not talking about my most recent significant ex. Instead, I'm talking about an ex with whom I broke up about 20 years ago. We are still friends, and this was the first dinner we've had together since before the pandemic hit. So we had a lot to catch up on - and catch up we did. Although I had tasty leftover BBQ ribs to take home, they didn't make it to my car. Sadly, I left them on top of the parking pay station before I went upstairs to fetch my car from the lot. It was just as well, as the food in this place was a touch salty, and I didn't need to have any more. If anything, I'd have liked to chat more with my ex. Hopefully, next time, her husband will be there as well. He is a great guy, and I know that they are better together than we ever could have been.
Lately, I've been looking at taking a Hawaii cruise. The 11 day cruise tour offered by NCL is way over priced, as they have taken actions which should help reduce the spread of the virus on their ship. Unfortunately, reducing available cabins to limit the number of passengers has also resulted in excessive price increases. So a cruise I could have taken for about $5,000 (after all expenses) before the pandemic would not cost me about $12,000+. There is no way I plan to spend that kind of coin for a 10 day cruise tour with the route below:
Instead, I am looking at the following cruise being offered by Holland America. This seems to be a much better current value, I could get 18 days on a cruise ship, but only 6 days in Hawaii instead of the 10 I'd get on Norwegian.
This cruise would still keep me in the $5,000 base. But I would still need to deal with transportation, gratuities, and excursions. Yet, this is the trip I will likely take, as I don't see the Norwegian Cruise becoming cheaper anytime soon. I mentioned this to a friend, and she sent me a link saying that people of our age shouldn't be going on cruises at this time. The one issue I have regarding this cruise might be the air travel needed to reach San Diego. I hate flying, with all the TSA headaches.
However, I have a plan to help me minimize the effect of TSA on my travels. If I can't avoid security theater, I can make sure I'm not on stage for long. There are two TSA Trusted Traveler Programs that I am interested in: Pre-Check and Global Entry. For the extra $15, I'm leaning towards Global Entry - even though I've never flown outside of the USA. (I have a niece that now lives in London, UK.) With a trusted traveler number, I can breeze through security - and reduce the number of interactions I have with people who can hassle me at key points on my trips. So, do I spend the $85 for Pre-Check, or do I spend the $100 on Global Entry?
As I now write this entry, I am watching "When the levees broke", a documentary on Hurricane Katrina and our government's inadequate response to the needs of the people in New Orleans and the rest of the region. Why do I mention this? We recently started evacuating American Citizens (and a few others) from Afghanistan, and we're showing a similar ineptitude. Americans have short memories, and we do not learn from our collective past. A hundred years ago, we suffered from the "Spanish Flu" pandemic, and we forgot those lessons. And now we are making the same mistakes we made a century ago. I've come to believe that we need the power of big government, but limit the size of the bureaucracy to allow leaders to implement quick and informed decisions. But, if we get rid of the bureaucracy, we run the risk of incompetent, corrupt leaders steering America towards an authoritarian government.
You'll note that I've rambled from short and simple things to ideas of a complex scope in this entry. My brother complains that I can't help but talk of politics, and he is right. As long as humanity has existed, our ability to communicate well has affected us at both micro and macro levels. Communication skills and thought are involved in each of the items mentioned in this entry. In the first case, I understood the hidden message meant to trap me into a discussion on someone else's terms. In the case of the 401k, it illustrates my need to communicate with people who have information I need for planning my future. In the case with my ex-girlfriend of 20 years, I realized that I couldn't communicate well enough to have a good relationship with this woman. With my cruise, the internet facilitates communication that I would have once depended on a travel agent to supply for my decision making. And lastly, regarding government, we see that these issues affect all of us at both micro and macro levels. There is a limit to how much information each of us can process, and not all of it makes us feel comfortable. Last night's conversation may not have made me feel more comfortable about things which have happened. But they made me more appreciative of what I have accomplished in my life.
