Kind'a cool ...

[Thumper]

It's a Christrmas ad put out by a British department store.


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[BarryBobPosthole]

Too soon, Trumpstick.

BKB

[Thumper]

Have you walked into Wally World lately?

[BarryBobPosthole]

Not lately and hopefully not in the near future.

But I know what you mean.

My neighbors, who mostly hire Mexican people to put up their Christmas lights, have been lighting the damn place up already with Christmas lights.

Who's gonna put up their lights next year I wonder?

Its still too dang soon.

BKb

[Thumper]

I can't agree with you more. Frankly, Lynn and I haven't really "done Christmas" in years. It's great when you have kiddies in the house, but we've been together 31 years and if there's anything we want or need (and can afford) during the year, we buy it. We do usually get together with friends for a big dinner and exchange small gifts. One year we all took a Christmas cruise (Caribbean) together and had a great time, but for the most part, Christmas is just another day for us. We haven't put up a tree or decorated in 20 years.

I think it's silly to walk into a store the day after Halloween and see all the Christmas stuff hitting the shelves.

[quercus alba]

Bah, humbug!

[BarryBobPosthole]

Julie works in retail so we have a special hatred for Commercial Christmas. We haven't had a full holiday with the family at Thanksgiving or Christmas in years because of it. Hopefully, next year she'll get to retire. If we can figure out health insurance we will anyway.

BKB

[Thumper]

Ha ha! Q/A just reminded me of a childhood memory. There was a certain neighborhood in Orlando where all the "rich people" lived when I was a kid. It's the type neighborhood where all the neighbors tried to out-do each other with their outside Christmas decorations and every year, it was the go-to place to "see the lights". There was always a long train of vehicles driving through the neighborhood to view the decorations. The main highway through Orlando in those days was the route that took you to the west side of town where they were located, and the highway skirted a lake where you could see the lakeside houses across the water before turning into the neighborhood. It was always an incredible production, but there was one house in the center of all of it with a VERY large sign with nothing but blue bulbs that said, "Bah Humbug". Ha! Even as a small kid, that was always the house that thrilled me then most! :D

[quercus alba]

Working on my curmudgeonisms

[Chicken Dinner]

Don't worry. I'm sure "Trumpcare" will hook you and Julie up...


Julie works in retail so we have a special hatred for Commercial Christmas. We haven't had a full holiday with the family at Thanksgiving or Christmas in years because of it. Hopefully, next year she'll get to retire. If we can figure out health insurance we will anyway.

BKB

[BarryBobPosthole]

Oh yeah. And it looks like Paul Ryan amd Trump have a plan to eliminate Medicare, which pretty much fucks me, excuse me, pretty much screws me and anyone else not yet old enough to get it.

I may have to go back to work if he does and thats not just a slim chance. With a pre-existing condition like kidney cancer there's not an insurance provider in the world who would give me an affordable policy.
BKb

[Thumper]

Once Julie retires ... VA for you.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I'm going to reapply afyer the first of the year. Two years ago they said I made too much money.

Funny but I don't remember them saying that was a requirement when I swore in.

Regardless, with something this potentially serious I don't want to change surgeons/oncologists.

BKb

[Chicken Dinner]

Bunch of dang Scrooges. All of you...http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161115/0b665fbf6765c9d20ef1d49918782766.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Thumper]

I'm going to reapply afyer the first of the year. Two years ago they said I made too much money.

Funny but I don't remember them saying that was a requirement when I swore in.
BKb


Yessir, when I went in, we were promised FREE healthcare for life. I think it was 1998 (?) when Congress got the bright idea to change VA coverage to a tier system and add various levels of co-pay based on income. I could have dealt with a change if they'd grandfathered in the existing veterans and implemented the new policy with new recruits, but it didn't work out that way. I thought it was pretty sucky that they could actually take something away they'd already promised and it was earned. I did what I signed up for, they reneged on their end of the bargain. Luckily, when I had my business, I could control my salary and stay under the income level to maintain coverage. The negative to that was that it cut into my Social Security benefits due to lower reported income. VA coverage is also a major reason I don't get married. My retirement plan depended on having VA coverage. If I marry, they combine our incomes and it throws me into a higher tier than I can afford. We also face what you're now facing, once Lynn retires, we'll have to figure a way to pay her insurance. If we're married, we'd have to pay for both of us.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I think you have much better VA medical facilities where you live mainly due to the number of retirees that you have there. The VA hospital in Muskogee where I'd have to go suck big ones. Lots of horror stories. And that is a disgrace if you ask me.
If they offer medicare to veterans, which I think makes oerfect sense, then I will be all over that like a hobo on a baloney sammich.

Speaking of, I spoke to a friend who was in telecom in the Air Force when I was. He is retired, made great money in his career, and got the same runaround I did when he applied. He filed for disability for hearing loss, which is about ten per cent, figured out some way to connect it to his service and when they approved his disability he got 100% coverage. (not 100% disability, 100%coverage). Anybody that listened to HF radio and SF as much as did in those days ought to have some hearing loss. He went to some place, a VFW I think, that helped him figure out what paperwork and so forth.

I've actually considered it but can't get past the disability part. That ain't right. But neither is Social Security disability people get for what are basically lifestyle choices. I may say to heck with it and see if I can get it though now that nobody cares about integrity any more.

BKb

[Thumper]

P-hole, I would imagine with your retirement income and Julie still working, you will still be in one of the upper tiers and will have deductibles. Best case scenario, your tier deductibles will be lower than what private insurance would cost you. With Julie still working, it may even throw you into the upper tier where the VA does not even provide coverage. I guess Congress figured people who are considered "well off" can afford their own coverage. There's a tiered co-pay level somewhere on the net, but I always have trouble finding it for some reason.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Well once Obamacare is repealed and replaced it'll be easy peasy right? Prices will go tumbling down. I mean if the price increases are all due to Obamacare, then it only stands to reason they'll come down and everyone will be able to afford insurance on the open market.

Or was that more campaign talk we all knew was BS?

BKB

[Thumper]

Yeppers, I do have service connected hearing loss, but have never applied for it. I suppose I'll just keep it in my back pocket for now. I wore those old bakelite headphones for almost 4 years with morse code blasting into my head. The control station in one ear and the outstation in the other. The volume was always cranked waaay high to drown out all the other activity around me. When I took my exit physical, the doc told me I showed substantial hearing loss when compared to my entrance exam. TBH, I don't ever remember wearing any sort of ear protection when firing weapons either. I fired a bazillion .223 rounds as well as a few belts through an M60. (not to mention playing with a few grenades from time to time)

I already have a 100% disability from the VA, but it's not considered "service connected" which means I still have to work with the tier system. As it stands, the ONLY thing I pay for is $8/mo. for prescriptions. (each)

I also have Agent Orange exposure and am on the National A/O Registry, but so far (knock on wood) I have no symptoms (which, of course, would amount to a service connected disability).

[Thumper]

Well once Obamacare is repealed and replaced it'll be easy peasy right? Prices will go tumbling down. I mean if the price increases are all due to Obamacare, then it only stands to reason they'll come down and everyone will be able to afford insurance on the open market.

Or was that more campaign talk we all knew was BS?

BKB

When it comes to insurance costs, everyone knows talk of costs dropping is B/S. ;)

BTW, since I was put on Disability at age 57, Medicare automatically kicked in two years later. (it will at any age once on disability) Once you're on Medicare, the VA will automatically charge Medicare for whatever they'll pay for, then the VA picks up the balance.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I had a buddy I worked with at MCI that was a ditty bop in the Squids. In fact the way we initially got to talking about it was he had a speed key on his desk. He said he could be sitting in the break room on board ship and they'd have five or six speakers going all with traffic on them and he could pick out his call sign and run off to his duty station when he needed to.
I always thought he wasa special kind of twisted.

When I was in tech school in Biloxi me and two buddies talked three ditty bop WAFs into going over to Pensacola with us for a long weekend in February. That was one memorable weekend I tell ya. They were kind of twisted too. And in the grand scheme of things three good looking WAFs in the entire Air For e was amazing in it own right.

BKb

[Thumper]

I was very close with two WAC Ditty-Boppers. We were 05Hogs (05H-20's). They were HOT, HOT, HOT! (and gay :( )

For some odd reason, they loved me and came over to my hooch regularly. I always had visions of a sammich while I attempted to change their ways. I thought I was gonna finally be the meat in the sammich on my birthday one year when they baked me a birthday cake, brought it over and we ended up with such a fierce case of the munchies, we pretty much devoured it! They ended up spending the night at my place and we all ended up in a giant papason chair I had. BUT ... they only teased the hell out'ta me. Lot's of kissing and grab-ass ... then they'd start making out with each other! I think that night I ended up with the worst case of blue-balls I'd ever had. We remained close friends until they DEROS'd and when my buds swore I was banging both of them, they always played along with it. You wouldn't believe how many guys fantasized about getting between those two!

I managed to find one of them on the net a few years back and we emailed for a while. She's pretty much a fat hog (as Trump would point out) now ... but I guess I ain't much to look at these days either. I will say, there are some fond memories of the three of us hanging out though. ;)

[LJ3]

It's a Christrmas ad put out by a British department store.


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Dude, you owe me 2 minutes and 10 seconds of my life back. In other words, as long as it take you to "finish" with those two ladies if they ever took you up.

[Thumper]

Ha ha ha ha! It looks like someone took the video above and did a bit of editing! ;)


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[Captain]

Like it much better. But I'm diplorable