Plodding Along . . .

We keep plodding along.  Not much happening.  Things are mundane.  

Football season has started.  I do not watch pro football anymore unless someone else watches it.  I just do not select it.  I find it very predictable.  College football is exciting, it is unpredictable thus much more entertaining.

LSU is off to a poor start.  The primary quarterback broke his left arm just before the season started and the number two quarterback is in play.  He has done so so.  The offensive line is already beat up after the first game and thus they look kind of lackluster.  I think it is going to be a tough season for the Tigers this year.  Lots of potential but no real winners abound.

It is getting cooler at night indicating fall is approaching.  Days remain hot and Hurricanes abound.  Right now it is Nicholas but it is not gonna bother us up here in North Texas.  We had some cloudy days and a bit of spitting sprinkles but no rain, nothing, nada.  South Texas and South Louisiana are gonna catch it again but mostly rain with some wind, but nothing like Ida.

New Roads that escaped any serious Ida weather will probably get a lot of rain out of Nicholas.  And that will not go down well.  The people are getting tired of it.  False River will probably rise and be slow to fall as the run off will be slow.  The country side is soaked, so the water has move on down to the Gulf of Mexico as there is now where for it to soak up.  That makes all the rivrs, bayous, and sloughs slow to empty.

Soon it will be grinding season and sugar cane will be harvested. Pointe Coupee Parish is now the largest producer of sugar in  the state.  We always did well but were second to the river parishes.  Times have changed much of the river parishes are now chemical plants and industrial development.  Pointe Coupee being up river will probably not have that happen anytime in my life time.  I do expect it will happen but not for the next 20 or so years.

Time keeps rolling on.  Take care. 

Healing . . .

 Judie's pressure wound is healing well.  We are neat the end.  We were told to pack up the vacuum pump and ship back to the owner's.  No butt patches, drape tape or vacuum leaks to contend with anymore.  Iy has been along trial.

Now using a different bandage, with a transfer gauze patch.  The wound has grown more and more closed.  It is now less than a  quarter in size from was one a fist wide gape.  She is more comfortable and perhaps less turning left and right.  She will continue to live on an air pressure bed.

The bed has an air pump and runs through a cycle, four minutes with half the tubes inflated, then four minutes with the other half of the tubes inflated and then four minutes with all the tubes inflated.  It is nothing you can feel but it does the trick to prevent pressure sores from developing.  It took several months for them to develop probably while she was in the rehab hospital.

I believe the surgeon who cleaned them out was a butcher, cut her up something fierce to get all the bad areas out.  I think he did more than he had to do but I am not the surgeon and that is all in the past now.

We still have a couple more visits to the Baylor Scott and White wound care clinic to go.  But we can see the end is in sight now and are pleased we are getting over that.

We seemed to have learned everything the hard way.  Her heart surgery, day surgery, was far more severe than we thought it would be.  She is still sore in spots on where the worked on her.  But the clip is installed on her heart and after two bouts with A-Fib, the A-Fib has all but disappeared.  And the risk of a stroke is greatly reduced to almost nothing now.  In reality it was a mile stone and we are now past it.  He Cardiologist says one more visit three months from now and then probably not again for a year.  Sounds great to me.

And it is a little cooler today, a rain storm past over us and we had a light shower.  It is all dry already and soon the temperature will soar again.  This time the humidity will be off the scale so it will not be comfortable for the rest of the day.  We of course will be just fine in the air conditioned house.

Now we need to hear from Generac that they have our back up generator and will install it.  Ida caused a further delay as they sent all the generators to Louisiana.  That was kind of disappointing with the further delay but very understandable.  The Generac guy started to him and haw, and I said I paid for this thing back in April and I was getting tired of waiting.  If not installed by October I will consider cancelling the order.  They keep advertising their products but neglect to tell you they can not deliver them.  A sorry out fit.

And the beat goes on . . .

Judie's Doctor Day . . .

 We are back seeing doctors again.  Today we had two appointments yesterday, one in the AM and one in the PM.  The first one was with the Cardiothoracic Surgeon.  The second with was with Electro-Cardiologist.

We had to drop of an Oxygen test kit at the lung doctors office first.  So we charged over to his office to drop of the kit.  We will hear later about what ever the test results are.

In the case of the surgeon, we learned at his office that she had a telephone appointment with the doctor that took care of the office visit.  So we turned around and loaded up the van.  We decided to go eat breakfast at the "Old Pancake House" which as modest restaurant chain located in Fort Worth.  This particular establishment was also often visited by the pianist Van Cliburn.  He has since past away but it was one of his favorite spots.

The second visit with the Cardiologist was successful.  He had been treating her for A-Fib and since we stopped a counter active drug, the A-Fib has also stopped.  The contra active data came from Express Scripts, the military Pharmacy.  They would not fill either prescription until the doctors or someone took action.  We elected to stop the other drug and maintain the Pacerone which treats A-Fib,  As said, since then she has had no A-Fib attacks and her pulse rate is normal again.

We saw a spine specialist last week and he did an electro conduction test on her right hand.  He confirmed she has a severe case of Corporal Tunnel syndrome.  He said perhaps she could be treated by a shot to reduce the inflammation.  Judie is shy of getting surgery for anything now days.  He also said she had had a neck injury some time in the distant past.  We could not recall such an event but accepted his opinion.  There was nothing that could be done for the neck injury.

We also saw last week her Pulmonologist, the lung doctor, in Weatherford.  He was the one that ordered the Oxygen test.  She had to where a device that measured her Oxygen levels through the night while she was on Oxygen at a 2 liters per hour rate of distribution.  We have an Oxygen concentrator, a bit blue device on wheels that literally filters Oxygen right out of the air.  They have to change the filter periodically, I think it can send a signal out indicating when it needs to change the filter.

The lung doctor put her back on a breathing treatment twice a day use her breathing mask.  The treatment takes about 7 or 8 minutes.  I do not know nor notice any relative improvement but neither do I note any degradation.  Sometimes I think that doctor tries different things here and there on her with little or no effect.  He had her on a sleep Apnea machine for a while and that was a paid in the butt.  She eventually just stopped using that machine, it is in the closet somewhere.  She has yet another machine that literally thumps her chest, we call it the thumper.  She did that for a year or so with no change in anything either.

So we are finding ourselves back into a more regular routine.  It is a job to prepare her to go out and I know it is taxing on her meager reserves, but it is getting done.  We have yet to do the hand doctor again and Urologist yet.  But that is coming up soon.

The beat goes on . . . 

Cash Flow . . .

 Cash flow is often a measure of how successful a business is doing.  But to me it is something else.

When I started investing in stocks and bonds I selected those investments based on yield.  Yield is the rate of the dividend for year paid usually quarterly, interest rates that can be pain anywhere from daily to annually and/or capital gains which is the appreciation of the asset that has been sold.  I deliberately selected investments that pay something.  In the case of dividends it was usually at least 3% per year.

And that is my definition of my cash flow, cash flowing into my accounts.  I soon found a host of investments that paid dividends or yields of some sort.  I found life insurance would pay about 4% a year usually on an annual basis.  I have one policy, a Universal Life insurance policy that currently pays me on a monthly basis 4.5%.  My cash value of my regular insurance policies pay me 4% per year.  I usually have that stipend converted to paid up additional insurance thus compounding my return.

In the case of my three New York Life insurance policies I have not paid a dime in premiums in years but let the existing policies take the "dividends" which are essentially a return of capital, to buy more insurance.  Today the cash values exceed the amounts of the original face value of the policies.  I just let them sit there and do their thing and it makes more and more money of time.  I am sure my children will enjoy the largess when I die.

All of my investments pay me something.  I do not have a pure growth stock in my portfolio.  I do have such instruments such as Master Limited Partnerships (aka MLPs). Real Estate Investment Trusts (aka REITs) and some Closed End Funds.   All of them pay something.  In the case of MLPs and REITS must pay out  a large percentage of their annual income, you get to pay the taxes on that but the returns are usually around 6% or greater annually.  Given that a Certificate of Deposit only pays something like less than a half of a percent annually, well that is a great return for your money.

In recent years I have not bought or sold bonds.  The Federal Open Market Committee controls the interest rates and artificially suppressed the yield to less than half of a percent.   So stocks are a much better investment given that their returns are not controlled by the FOMC.  I do have some municipal bond funds and have not done anything with then for years.  I just collect whatever they pay and usually reinvest in stocks that pay much better.

So what does all this mean.  I means that between my IRA and regular brokerage accounts we accrue about $20,000 a year.  About half of that is in the IRA and thus is tax sheltered.  My annual objective is to make my IRA regenerate at least what I have to take out annually.  On average I have done that, some years I don't make back and other years I make back and more, so on balance my IRA has generally stayed the same in value and yet the Government required distribution grows per law.

This year has been spectacular and I believe is being driven by the Dem Congress shenanigans.  We are gonna pay for that later with higher taxes.

Cash flow has been very good to us.

Lessons Learned . . .

 Years ago when my father was still alive, he sold a rent house that he and his children owned together, he owned half and us kids owned the other half but he had control of the deal.  He got tired of dealing with it and so he sold it.

He took the money from the sale and bought three annuities of equal amounts ostensibly for the three of his children or in the case of my deceased brother, his children.  The annuities were earing about 8% or so and we were the assigned inheritors of the annuities.  He reached an age where he had to sell the annuities or annuitize them.  He chose to sell annuities and put the proceeds in our names with a brokerage account.

He asked me what I wanted to do with the money and I said, "Get a tax exempt bond fund."  He asked my sister and she did not have a clue as to what to do so he did for her what he did for me, bought into a Franklin Tax Exempt Mutual fund.  In the case of my brothers children, he simply distributed the money amongst the the four of them equally.

My sister kept the bond fund for awhile but could not tolerate the changes up and down of the fund.  It was not very volatile but it was enough to bother her.  So she sold it and took the cash,  I have no idea what she did with it but I suspect she put it into her house.  She was divorced, a single mother but her children were grown and had been well taken care of by their father.  She had become a school teacher and did not make a lot of money, so she used it to probably pay off her house, or at least pay the mortgage down.  She lived very frugally as she had little or no excess money.  I know that my father helped pay for her mortgage here and there over the years.

I took the monthly yield, usually about $100 or more in tax free interest from the Franklin Fund and put it into my T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund.  It was a monthly pay out and I did that for several years until I moved to New Mexico and had to sell the Franklin Fund to buy a house in Ruidoso, NM.  I never thought much about the money that went into the New Horizons fund, I just let it ride and reinvested whatever the fund generated in income over the years.

About three years ago, that fund paid me just under $10,000 in capital gains.  I was astounded.  I had quit reinvesting in the fund when I moved from New Mexico to Texas in early 2002.  I had generally swept the proceeds into a money market fund for selective reinvesting.  Last year the fund paid me just over $10,000 in long term capital gains and almost $5,000 in short term capital gains.

The lesson learned is to let an investment grow.  The T. Rowe Price New Horizons fund has continued to grow and grow in value.  And it has continued to pay an outstanding capital gains annually.  Have patience and avoid rapid and early cashing out of a wind fall such as the one I got from my father.

I never got to really thank my father for the windfall, I regret that immensely.

Its Been A While . . .

 It has been a while since I signed into the old blog.  The old password was kaput, so had to go through the trials and tribulations of setting up a new password.  There is no reason for the change except that Google does not like to use old passwords.  Finally got through that rig-a-marole and here we go again.

On December 31, 2020 Judie became a paraplegic, she can no longer walk.  She developed a blood clot in her lower spine (known as a Hematoma) that essentially crushed the nerves so she does not feel anything from her waist down to her toes.  The Neurosurgeon successfully removed the blood clot and all the pain went away but we had to learn a new life style and make a lot of changes.

We had to sell her car and get a Dodge van modified with a ramp so an electric wheel chair can be loaded and unloaded with her in it of course.  And we had to remove a bath tub and shower arrangement and modify the space into a hand shower set up so she can take a shower in a wheeled chair.  And we had to get a Hoyer lift to get her into and out of her new hospital like bed.  And mattress had to be changed to an air mattress that constantly cycles to prevent bed sores.

And she did develop pressure sores, had an operation to get all the bad tissue out and has gone through a long and arduous stay in hospitals get the sores healed.  They are not finished healing yet but are close to being healed up.  She spent up wards of five months, closer to six months in hospitals and rehab facilities but is home now.  

She has gone through a heart procedure to treat her A-Fib to prevent strokes.  Her mother suffered almost 10 years with strokes.  That was the installation of Atriclip, a clip that goes on the appendage of the heart that leads to strokes.  It is an external thing to the heart but does involve poking holes in her left side and various tools used to install the clip.  It is considered day surgery but she had reactions to it after it was over.  It triggered a lot of A-Fib reactions and the Cardiologist opined it was the heart protesting the clip.  Later we found one of the drugs she was taking interfered with the anti-A-Fib drug and triggering A-Fib.  We stopped that drug, Airecept, which is a memory enhancement drug.  She now takes Pacerone which treats A-Fib.  Since she has sworn off the Airecept the A-Fib attacks have stopped. 

I am the chief nurse and bottle washer plus cook and dishwasher.  Well the dishes get washed in the dishwasher and the clothes get washed in the washing machine.  But I am the one that puts in the dishes and clothes and unloads them after washing or hangs up the clothes and puts away the silver ware.  But I do cook breakfast, instant grits and turkey sausage plus some fruit daily.  The something lite for her lunch and then supper.  We have ventured out to eat once so far and probably will do more later.  Sometimes I go get sandwiches or to go food.

She has a spiffy electric wheel chair now, trimmed in purple.  It could have been blue or green or red but she selected purple ala LSU.  It is an amazing machine and should be.  We had to pay for one feature, a vertical lift of about 10 inches.  All the rest was paid for by Medicare.  Here is the startling fact that blew my mine, it cost $31,000.  We had to pay $2,600 for the vertical lift mechanization.  It has headlights, a horn and a clock in it.  Turns on a dime and gives you change and weighs about 300 pounds.  So do not get run over buy it.  We already have a dent in the refrigerator from a clash with the chair, minor thing but a reminder of how powerful it is.

We are settling in after all the various hospital stays and recoveries.  We have long term care insurance and will get her some care people after we finish with the pressure sores.  That treatment is paid for by Medicare so we do not have to pay for medical care yet.  But once that is over, we will have to pay for her daily care if I can not provide it.  Fortunately, we have the long term care insurance and it has been approved.

Life goes on no matter what happens.

What a Struggle . . .

 It was a struggle to get back into my Blog, False-River, again.  Google does everything not to help you.  You have literally fight your way back into the Blog.  

Well here I am.  I have much to tell but that will occur later.  I have to go fix supper for me and my bed ridden wife.