RamblingDon – It’s MY Turn to live MY Lifestyle

I have a few hundred articles on HubPages, which is a writer’s site designed for my fellow writers and I to exhibit our works.

Recently, I started a series of articles focused on my wife and my lifestyle of traveling in our RV.

I will also include our opinions and comments on not only the places we have seen, but on some of our fellow campers.

If the title looks interesting to you, click on the link below to read and, I hope, enjoy that specific article.

It’s MY Turn, MY RV, and MY Lifestyle

 

I hope you enjoy!

by Don Bobbitt, 2017

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The OLD MAN in the Keys, a developing digital book

For want of a title, I thought this was an appropriate one. I am OLD! and I am presently living in my motorhome in a campground in the Florida Keys and I have opinions about this place and the people who visit here.

As I walk and drive around the Keys, I continue to wonder what draws people down here, in this heat and high humidity.

Add the high cost of visiting here, and unless you are a fisherman, the lack of things to do, and what you end up with, is a long string if small islands that exist on tourist dollars and still manage to look worn out and dilapidated.

Well, I have put together several chapters of my musings on just what I see that makes this place so interesting.

If you are in any way interested, I have placed my chapters onto my HubPages site, and you can start with chapter-1 by clicking on the link below.

The Old Man in the Keys

by Don Bobbitt, May, 2017

You don’t know me, I’m one of those who voted for Trump

Yeah, here I am, one of those Average Americans that came out of the woodwork to vote for Trump. (Or, was it to vote against Clinton?).

Anyway, I was up late, watching this very important election and finally the results turned and started going in Trump’s direction, and I must say, the consternation and shock on the faces of the whole world of journalists was, honestly, entertaining.

I got to watch the final end of the thousands of repeated and twisted ads fired at Trump and his supporters.

Anyway, i wrote a pretty good article where I attempted to explain to these opinionated news-mongers, just who I am. I am, simply put, a veteran and a common man who worked his whole life without any superlatives that the liberal press would be interested in exploring.

Me? I am just an Average American, who was finally able to symbolically  “spit in the face” of those who have ignored the plight of us, the Average American over the past decade.

Click on the link below to read my article.

You don’t know me.

by Don Bobbitt, November, 2016

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I was Just Thinkin’ – Here I sit, Retired?

IWas Just Thinkin' - IRS Agents, FBI Agents

That’s right, I’m Retired!

And, here I have combined two different articles of mine for efect. The first half I wrote when I turned 65. The second half are my reflections on then, Now and what I am afraid about tomorrow and our future as retirees.

Click on the link below to read the article.

Here I am, RETIRED, Reflections of a Retiree.

by Don Bobbitt,2014

Copyright, DonBobbitt, 2014, All Rights Reserved

Sunday Morning Politics - Who is looking Out for ME?

I’m just Having a Great Day, that’s all!

Don_09

I just thought I would let everyone know.

I’m having a good day, today.

You know how it is, some days you get up and you (or your body?) just isn’t in sync with the world.

Something might ache a little more than normal, or your brain is a mili-second out of sync with the physical universe, and you keep tripping over things, or dropping things, or whatever. Continue reading

I Was Just Thinking! How big must your Cajones be?

IWas Just Thinkin' - IRS Agents, FBI Agents

That’s right Exactly How Big must your cajones be for you to run for political office?

I’m just wondering, you understand. I am not interested in the job myself. But these people have gotten themselves voted into such plush jobs that for them to use their perks must take a pretty large set. Continue reading

SENIOR JOKE – Gun Control for Seniors

Here is another funny email Joke that I received yesterday. 

There was a bit of confusion at the Sporting Goods store this morning.

When I was ready to pay for my purchases of gun powder and bullets the cashier said, “Strip down, facing me.”

Making a mental note to complain to the NRA about the gun registry people running amok, I did just as she had instructed.
When the hysterical shrieking and alarms finally subsided, I found out that she was referring to my credit card.

I have been asked to shop elsewhere in the future.
They need to make their instructions to us seniors a little clearer!
Bamboo_01Don Bobbitt

 

 

A Seniors View of His Medical Insurance Future

Ryan-pic by DonkeyHotey via flickr

It seems that we Seniors are eating too much Chicken at the political picnic!

And, if history is any lesson on how corporations and governments operate, I and the rest of us Boomers, are in serious trouble.

I figure that once the younger people of America get put on “Coupons” for their future insurance,
I assume we older ones with be the next ones who get the shaft. 

It would be a natural and obvious next step for the government as Medicare costs go up, if for no other reason than that there will be less people on Medicare and thus the shared costs will be less. This in itself would drive our Congress to give we remaining participants our own “Coupons”. And applaud themselves for doing it.

Here is the thing about COUPONS that we should all remember.
1- let’s say that Congress approves and issues a Coupon for $150 per month for you to go out and buy insurance yourself with independent insurance companies.
2- Everyone goes out and purchases insurance coverage for $140 per month at first.
3- Then, 3 years later inflation has made the insurance companies charge $170 per month.

Where do the “Coupon”  holders then stand?
Well, they write a check for the difference themselves, every month, until Congress meets and approves an increase in the value of a COUPON.
4- So, after another year, they place a bill before congress for a COUPON increase $170, right?
5- Well, If you assume there are 50-Million people on Medicare that’s $20 times 50-million or over 1-Billion dollars would be added to the National debt.
6- So with this kind of potential increase to the debt, there will be a lot of fighting over whether an increase will be approved at all.
7- And if it is approved then they will, in all probability, add provisions to cut the coverage available and thus reduce that awful 1-Billion dollar future debt.

This is my scenario analysis and as we Boomers and Seniors die off, our combined influence and leverage in congress will slowly decline until we are an insignificant force to be dealt with, at the worst times in our lives, when we are in our eighties or older.

And, if my scenario is correct, by the time Congress did anything to raise the coverage and implement the change, the insurance companies will probably have raised their rates to $180.

See the problem?

So,get ready to be put on the perpetual CATCH-UP Wheel of shrinking Medical Care.
Bamboo_01Don

 

I filed my Taxes and learned something along the way.- Moving Expenses


I filed my taxes the other day, and boy am  pissed.
I retired, and like so many retirees I decided to move to a more friendly climate.
I purchased a small place in Florida and I relocated there last year, so of course, I expected to get a little bit of a tax break to offset the expenses of moving to my new abode.

Well GUESS WHAT?
Our loving and supportive Congress decided that we, the retirees of the world, do not deserve to claim these moving expenses.
No, if I am employed and even if I get help from my employer, they feel that a working person should still have this tax break.

But, me? A Retiree?
Nope!
No matter that I am now on a very limited retirement income.
No matter that my move was made even more expensive because of my age and health requiring more hired labor than ever before.
Nope, We the Retirees, the Seniors, the Baby Boomers have been forced to live within yet another federally enforced limitation on our remaining years.

THANK YOU CONGRESS!     AGAIN!      For NOTHING!

 

Don Bobbitt

Minor Adjustments to my SS and Medicare?

I watched our president on TV today. And I tried to listen to the whole thing.

Really! I Tried! I tried very hard!

But, everyone, it seems, is off and running for Office or Reelection, and he is no exception.
He went On, and On, and On.

The republicans beat him up! He beats them up! They beat him up! He beats them up again!

Anyway, he did drop one of his little Bombs on us while speaking that I caught.

He, the democratic “defender of the Faith, and the Little Man”  said that his proposal for the Budget now includes some minor adjustments to Social Security and Medicare!

Well, There you have it. some Minor changes!

I gues that it’s now Ok for both parties to make either Some minor adjustments as the great defender said,  or as Perry let slip, disband the whole thing.

Are these really our choices today?

What we once paid for, and had stolen over the 70’s and 80’s by Congress, is now definitely up for grabs.

The only question is; Just how much will be taken away from us, not if it will be taken away.

But, How much?

Here is my question, though.

When did our generation of over-achievers, just give up and bend over like we are doing now!

When did we turn into such weaklings?

When did it become unacceptable to stand up and speak your mind and demand that what is yours must stay yours?

I am truly confused!

Was there something put into the shots I had to take when they removed the Not-Yet-Cancerous growth on my head?

Was there something added to the pills that I, and so many of us, have to take daily to keep my transplanted Kidney alive?

Was there something on the needle that sucks out my blood for testing quarterly in order to check for other more deadly diseases that I am susceptible to with the drugs that I take daily?

Was there something in the Pills that I have to take for the attacks of Gout that I get, almost weekly, due to the side effects of my anti-rejection drugs?

Was there something in the Pills I have to take for High Cholesterol that is a side effect of my anti-rejection drugs?

I don’t know!
Perhaps that is as good a reason as any for so many of us becoming a complacent “walk all over me” personality. The added pains and costs of treating them as you get older, certainly aren’t paid for by Medicare. Medicare pays for most of the cost of the generics and cheap pills.

When you get down with a serious illness, you quickly find that the are those pills that were expertly placed into the “other level” of drugs. The ones that cost $1, $2 or even $5 each!

And then you fall into the famous “Doughnut hole” What a well-designed way to screw the elderly. I can hear them now, as they designed the payment system.

“Let’s pay a little something to the elderly for their cheap pills, but, if they are really sick, and need real medication, lets put a window on what medicare will pay.

Let’s make the window so they can be seriously Ill and at the same time have to worry where they will get the money to buy the pills that might keep them alive.

And then, if they are well off enough to pay for their drugs and stay alive then, once they have destroyed what little savings they have, lets, turn the coverage back on, and help them with some more Medicare payments.”

You  just gotta love the people that we elected, that do this to their constituency. The same constituency that gives them, in return, lifetime coverage after they are elected. Lifetime coverage with no minimums, no maximums, no limits.

And we just sit here and listen, shake our heads and take our afternoon naps!

Well, Sorry people!

While I still have enough savings to pay for my portion of the added cost of my drugs, I will stay alive, and I will try to fight against such people as those that I see on TV now, as they walk that crooked path to the next election, with their skilled, forked-tongue statements of nonsense and lies.

Who cares about me? I do!

Who cares about US? We had better get together and start, and I mean Start Now!

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Don Bobbitt

Thanks for all the Fish!

A Sunset on the planet called Earth before it was destroyed.

I don’t know if you are my age or not, but back in the Sixties, there was a great, camp, book that everyone, who considered themselves Cool, had to read. It was originally a radio show, but quickly turned into a book called “The HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy”.

Even though it was a purely comedic work, I, along with so many others my age, read it, related to so much from it, and had many discussions on it’s “hidden” meanings, how it applied to our world then, and even more. It was a Camp hit of that time.

And, if you haven’t read it, it is still entertaining, even today.

Because I had read it so many times, and it was so entrenched into my mind, throughout my adult life, I would, occasionally, throw out one of the many ambiguous quotes from the book, in meetings, and such, just to see how many people caught what I had said.

Often, my comments would be met with laughs or at least a smile, and a few times, even a few responding comments, that only a fellow 60’s “Hippie” type person would understand.

Of course, over time, as we aged, and our working peers became younger, the responses and finally even the smiles disappeared, all to be replaced with questioning looks.

But, I really didn’t care, and with my particular and often peculiar personality (or so I have been told), I continued, at the appropriate moment, of course, to sling one of my generational lines into conversations, Just for the Hell of it usually.
Anyway, one of my favorites was. “Good Bye and thanks for the Fish!”

I won’t go into a lot of details about it here.

Leave MY Fish Alone!

Suffice it to say that it was a critical line from one of the most important characters in the book, and from the story itself, it was an important statement to all of the people of Earth.

If you don’t understand, but I have piqued your interest, then read the book.

If you were able to pull the statement from the cobwebs of your mind, and are sitting there, smiling, then maybe there is hope for us Retirees, yet.

Hope that we can wake up and see the changes being wrought in our world, and try to stop or at least change it for the better and for us as Baby Boomers, before it is too late.

You, and I, need to recognize the two-faced guys for who they are and we need to burst from our lethargic positions, remove their crowns and reject the insanity that we have allowed them to spout.

And, if nothing else, we need to see that our own, personal, “Boomer” insanity is made a higher priority in the order of the cosmos that we presently live in.

We can find the great computer “Deep Thought” quite easily. I mean, it’s just sitting there, in plain sight, so that is no longer the problem.

With access and a little control over Deep Thought, we, the Seniors of the world, can band together and present a unified front to the wicked Mouse distorted chaos that reigns as truth, in government, and especially, in DC, today.

I have found MY Towel!

As long as we make sure that we have our towels with us, we can march together, even if only via email and phone calls, and scare the President of the Galaxy into a new consideration of the real “Question”.

That is, once we have explained to him and his fellow Mice in Washington that even though the answer is 42, he needs to understand the real question, and not some nonsensical financial suppositions that are touted by mere power hungry Congressmen.

So, Retirees, Seniors, Baby Boomers, old Hippies, and all of the concerned people of the world, lets unite, and pose the real and honest great question to the Cosmos.

We need to ask them; “Why are you eating All of Our Fish?”.

IF we can get them to leave out Fish alone, then maybe we can find a way to grow our Fish, and have not only, enough for ourselves, but maybe, if we use our towels of truth effectively, we can even generate more to share with others like the X-Gens, and Y-Gens, etc.

But, we do need to move now, and tell them; “You can Keep Your Thanks, and we will Keep our Fish!”
Along with; “And, if you don’t listen to us, we will have your own, personal little secret planet of corruption and self-involvement ……….. destroyed!” We know who to call, and the price is relatively cheap, considering all else in the Cosmos!

As an aged, silver haired Boomer, who has found his towel in my old attic chest that I call memories, I am now awake to these happenings, and you need to join me as I say;

I want my Fish left alone!?

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Don Bobbitt

Tea Party members of Congress and Repubs taking oaths?

Tea Party members of Congress and Repubs taking oaths?

Click the link above to rad my article on this ridiculous state of affairs when OUR Elected Officials in Congress decide to forego our reasons for electing them and decide to form into their own Gestapo!

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Don Bobbitt