Category: Opinion

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Assisted Living: Pros and Cons

There comes a point in life when many people have to decide on whether to continue living independently, or transitioning to an assisted living facility. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and it’s best to consider these before making what can be a life changing decision. Weighing the pros and cons is important.

Assisted living services for seniors can provide a number of benefits. One of those is flexibility. As we age, our bodies change, and so do our needs. Properly staffed facilities can help us at any stage of life. These facilities often have staff on hand that can make expert decisions on our health and give proper advice on conditions that could be considered ‘red flags.’ This staff is available full time, which means in emergencies, people can trust that they will receive critical attention.

There are a few cons, of course. The biggest concern people have is costs. Assisted living requires early planning on the part of a person so that they can afford the month to month costs. These costs can also increase as a person’s needs increase with age. For these reasons, it’s best to start making economic preparations sooner rather than later.

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Popular Attraction in NYC You Don’t Want to Miss

Among all the cities across the globe, New York City is among the most famous, and for good reason. If you plan on taking a trip to this eclectic city, be sure to catch these attractions!

Times Square

There is absolutely no way you can go to New York City and skip over Times Square. This iconic area in the city features constant excitement around the clock. From the dazzling lights, to the eclectic shops and eateries, to the dynamic array of people constantly making their way around, Times Square is definitely not a spot in NYC to be missed. There’s really never a dull moment there!

Empire State Building

Another iconic landmark in New York City, the Empire State Building is open to tourists 18 hours a day. You can take a guided audio tour if you want in order to learn more about the things you’ll be seeing from the top of the city. You can even take a bus tour of popular attractions in NYC!

Central Park

This lush area of greenery is spectacular all year round. It offers the ideal getaway from the concrete jungle of the city, and features 50 fountains, 21 playgrounds, bike paths and rentals, and 36 bridges.

Statue of Liberty

There’s simply nothing that symbolizes NYC more than the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island. There are a number of city boat tours that go around the island that you can take, in addition to tours offered on the premises that you can reserve in advance.

New York City is definitely a one of a kind place to visit, offering a host of things to see, hear, and do!

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Pumpkin Patch Hunting

Today I went to the local Pumpkin Patch and hunting the most perfectly round big pumpkin I could find. I had a large one last year that was taller than it was round and it carved really nice. But I wanted something different this year.

The pumpkin patch had the pumpkins grouped by size. The really big ones were $40! Wow! I couldn’t believe that people are willing to spend $40 on a pumpkin that they don’t even eat – they just carve it and set it outside to decorate their porch.

The one I decided to buy was beautiful and I only paid $25. I think I could have found one cheaper, but this is a charity sale for the church youth group. I figured that since Halloween is supposed to be a holiday for the kids anyway, that supporting a youth group with my money was the right thing to do.

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Unique Wedding Favors and Making Them Special

I know I posted about wedding favors already but I wanted to keep going and share a little bit more about them. You really can offer your guests unique wedding favors. Surprise your guests with something they have never seen before. Maybe give them something that will bring a laugh or smile to their face.

Unique wedding favors tell the guests something about the couple. Give your friends and family a personalized calculator and they might think you are trying to help them balance a budget. If you give them a bag of Jordan almonds they will know that you wanted to offer them a tasty treat. Even further, share with your guests a scented and monogrammed candle and your guests can relax in the luxury of their home to the lovely aroma your flavor provides.

Your wedding favors can even enhance your wedding theme. For example, say you have a destination wedding, maybe you could pack little acrylic suitcases with a tasty treat. If you have an outdoor wedding, think about providing your guests with a small picnic basket to remember the occasion. A cute idea for a Las Vegas wedding could be to pick up some toy coin machines that you personalize. There truly is a unique wedding favor for every taste and style.

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Sometimes you need a little bit of help communicating

I was quite interested to hear my friend Linda talk about her experiences working as a pharmacy technician at a local Rite Aid store. She had learned a bit of Spanish back in high school (she took two years of Spanish) but then shortly after graduating from high school she moved to Maine, where nobody spoke Spanish. People either spoke English or Canadian-French where she lived for twenty-nine years.

When she moved back to Virginia, she started working at Rite Aid, and found that a lot of customers were Hispanic, and did not speak English at all. She tried to brush up on her high-school Spanish, but it had been over thirty years, and although she managed to help most of the customers, there were a few times when she had to call the store’s translation company and put the customer on the telephone to facilitate the communication that was important.

When she was taking pharmacy technician classes, she learned that the second-most popular language spoken in the city where the classes were being held was Farsi! Clearly, the need for translation services will continue to grow for many decades to come.

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Buying Used Musical Instruments

When Jim was telling me that he was thinking about buying a used musical instrument, I was a little concerned that he might regret that. I hate to admit that I am so suspicious about buying things that are used, but I have had some bad experiences with things that break down the moment I get them! But when Jim told me that he was being really careful, and trying to find what he wants through the selection of instruments through the musiciansfriend used selection, I felt a little better. I would imagine that the business would probably check them over pretty well before selling them.

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Critters Getting Into My Garden

I have a garden that I planted this year. It’s in the only spot of my whole yard that gets enough sun to grow anything. My neighbor lady is mad at me for planting the garden there – she says that I should have put it in my back yard instead of the side yard, because “no one wants to look at that!” I have to tell you – I was actually offended that she told me that. I don’t see anything wrong with having a small vegetable garden in the side yard, and there are so many trees in my back yard that nothing will grow back there – not even grass!

For the past several mornings when I go to check the garden and water it, I have found one of the bean plants broken off and ruined. I suspect that some kind of critter is getting into my garden at night and breaking off the bean plants. We have skunks, foxes, rabbits, raccoons and deer in my neighborhood. Do you think any of them are interested in beans?

I have no idea what kind of critter it would be – and I sure hope that it is not my neighbor doing it to spite me!

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Happy Independence Day!!!

Family watching fireworks (free clip art)
Family watching fireworks (free clip art)

I love the 4th of July!!  We really go all out to decorate, well we do that for every holiday but there’s just something about Independence Day that I love!!  We always have a huge community picnic type party with grilled hot dogs and hamburgers with all the fixin’s and of course potato salad, baked beans and we can’t forget the banana pudding and homemade ice cream.

Then there’s the fireworks display.  I love all of the laughter, ooohhh’s and aaahhh’s from the children when the fireworks start.  It’s just a wonderful time for all!!!   I hope each and every one of you have a wonderful 4th of July and remember what the celebration is all about, our independence!!!

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Many Uses for Binder Clips

One of the most useful office supply items is the binder clip. I’m sure you know what item I’m referring to – it is a black metal clamp that has two silver colored wire clips that you squeeze to make the clamp open. Some poeple call them “alligator clips” because when you squeeze the clips the metal clamp is a little bit like alligator jaws that slap shut with a lot of force. If you have an extra large binder clip that clamps down on your finger – it does hurt!

The binder clips were used in offices as an alternative to 3-ring binders to hold a stack of papers together. There are different sizes of binder clips that hold any number of sheets from extra small binders holding 2-10 sheets to the extra large binders holding up to 300 sheets.

But I use these binder clips at home for other purposes, too. My open bags of snack chips and pretzels are rolled and clipped to keep the air out and the chips fresh. When I have a big bag of fresh vegetables, like carrots or broccoli, I roll the tops of those packages and put a binder clip on them, too.

To hold batches of grocery store coupons together, I use a small binder clip on the bottom so that I can easily flip through all the coupons and easily read the expiration dates.

Do you keep any binder clips at home for a different use? I’d love to hear what you use them for, too.

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The Internet offers consumers different ways to order things

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I go shopping online I am uncomfortable filling out an order form that requires my credit card information. With all of the recent publicity about hackers getting into systems through the Internet, I find more and more that I would appreciate finding the item I want to purchase, and then actually placing the order with a phone call. So I was relieved when I was thinking about buying something from the musician’s friend website to see “To place your order, call us toll-free at 800-449-9128” as an option for ordering. I think in this day and age, this is a little bit more secure than sending the information electronically. What do you think?