The sun finally came out today after a long absence. It has been like gloom and doom for about the last six weeks. Winter has finally showed its' ugly presence with snow and ice along with wind and single digit temperatures. The countdown until spring is on and I have a feeling it is going to be late. The seasons have shifted and the gray skies have left the mood here dismal.
January seemed to last forever and it was unkind to my husband and I. We suffered through a bout of Norovirus that took the wind out of our sails. As we grow older it gets a little harder to recover. I have been hibernating and have been out only for groceries and one luncheon with friends. The fear of getting another illness such as the flu haunts us. The schools have closed a couple of times to try and slow the spread. So much for our flu shots which seemed to be ineffective this year.
I was at the store today looking at flowers trying to imagine what summer feels like. There were a lot people picking up Valentine gifts. My gift is food for the soul. It is always a pleasure to cook for my husband. He enjoys the food and so do I.
This year has brought higher health insurance cost and medication prices still increasing. I am hoping for the sake of all of us that the government will pass something to lower the cost. My heart always aches when people can't afford their meds.
We attended a seminar last night about getting the most from social security and the new changes. Overall consensus is high cost of healthcare and insurance if you retire before 65. There are not many companies these days that will pay for insurance if you retire before 65. We fall into that category. Cobra is very expensive. The advice to young people working is to plan not only for supplementing social security but start a fund for medical expenses if you want to retire early. Hopefully by the time our children retire their will be a better system in place for affording healthcare.
I need to look at something beautiful to get through the rest of this gloomy weather.
Happy Valentines Day !!
Life is beautiful !!
Elizabeth :)
