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Still Here
Mar. 1st, 2025 11:45 amMy relationship with social media is not expansively polyamorous: I have a tendency to settle on one or two venues that I read compulsively, while forgetting about all the others (except when I want to post some blog/podcast publicity). Thus Bluesky has been getting all my love, Mastodon has been left to languish, fb gets browsed as a timewaster, and Dreamwidth...well, I'm not going to check when I last posted.
And yet, I love blogging long-form, and there are all manner of things that aren't really appropriate for the Alpennia/LHMP blog. So here I am. Maybe I'll even get caught up on my book reviews.
As of today, it is 60 days to retirement. I'm still angsting over whether my social security and medicare applications will get processed in time. I thought I'd allowed way more than enough time, but then they blew past the "normative processing times" posted on the websites. Well, I did some searching online with questions about current wait times and found a discussion with crowdsourced data that looks reliable. The conclusion of that discussion is that social security applications are being processed by start date, not application date, and that people have waited multiple months only to have their applications approved just in time for their desired start date. That helps a little, though it means I should be hearing very soon now.
In reality, as long as my payments start by May, it makes no difference in cashflow. (I picked February as my start month because it was my earliest 100% date and if I waited after that I was leaving money on the table.) The Medicare Part B start is a bit more critical since I need it approved before I can switch to Kaiser as my Medicare provider. I suppose I should research what my options are if there ends up being a gap before it kicks in.
The spring season in my garden has officially started. I've harvested my first two artichokes and am having some successful experiments in treating the artichoke leaf stalks as cardoons. I planted the replacement persimmon tree (and discovered the one it was replacing had rotted at the graft, so I may have planted it too deep). In the cleared bed around the persimmon, I'm seeing if I can manage to start an asparagus bed. And I also decided to squeeze in one more citrus tree--a mandarin. I think this weekend I need to begin processing the Seville oranges. I have plenty of marmalade in several varieties from last year, so I think this will be a candied peel year for the most part.
And yet, I love blogging long-form, and there are all manner of things that aren't really appropriate for the Alpennia/LHMP blog. So here I am. Maybe I'll even get caught up on my book reviews.
As of today, it is 60 days to retirement. I'm still angsting over whether my social security and medicare applications will get processed in time. I thought I'd allowed way more than enough time, but then they blew past the "normative processing times" posted on the websites. Well, I did some searching online with questions about current wait times and found a discussion with crowdsourced data that looks reliable. The conclusion of that discussion is that social security applications are being processed by start date, not application date, and that people have waited multiple months only to have their applications approved just in time for their desired start date. That helps a little, though it means I should be hearing very soon now.
In reality, as long as my payments start by May, it makes no difference in cashflow. (I picked February as my start month because it was my earliest 100% date and if I waited after that I was leaving money on the table.) The Medicare Part B start is a bit more critical since I need it approved before I can switch to Kaiser as my Medicare provider. I suppose I should research what my options are if there ends up being a gap before it kicks in.
The spring season in my garden has officially started. I've harvested my first two artichokes and am having some successful experiments in treating the artichoke leaf stalks as cardoons. I planted the replacement persimmon tree (and discovered the one it was replacing had rotted at the graft, so I may have planted it too deep). In the cleared bed around the persimmon, I'm seeing if I can manage to start an asparagus bed. And I also decided to squeeze in one more citrus tree--a mandarin. I think this weekend I need to begin processing the Seville oranges. I have plenty of marmalade in several varieties from last year, so I think this will be a candied peel year for the most part.
