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VIKINGS NEWS – Been strangely quiet on the police blotter this off season. #NoJinx. Other than QB ramblings that mean nothing until we are closer to the season, not much going on. I will probably watch the latest QB show on netflix. Each season has been pretty good. We learned about Holy Tuesday even.
Wife and I are currently binging The Pitt. I normally hate medical dramas, especially when they show kids in pain. Somehow, I get past this and the show is really well done. Shout out to all medical professionals. I could not do that. Anyone have any favorite pastimes to replace watching and ranting about NFL football? Mine are golf, reading, and finding TV shows that do not suck.
TGIFF
NFL News –
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Griffen in the news again.
He is messed up.
He was still correct about Kirko.
Kirk is ass…….
This is a personal topic, so no need to actually answer but im curious for you gentlemen, how long your now long term partners or wives made you “wait” or court them before they finally let their walls down and you two became an item? I know every ones life and back stories are different, so far mine is starting to fall in line and it feels good but it was an up and down and complicated journey for sure to get here. Anyways, back to football talk.
Been married for 35 years, still waiting for her to let her walls down.
Actually, we hit it off pretty much from our first date. We did work together for a couple of months before we went on a date.
Lol to the first comment. And thats awesome, thats kind of how its supposed to go in a perfect world right? Ha. Me and her hit it off, also as co workers but it was already complicated because she was still in a relationship with a piece of shit guy, this was, almost 3 years ago. And were almost up to a year mark where she finally left him, and had a lot of work she had to do on herself, and focus on just her and her kid. But I was there through it all, we had our fun moments and our fights to get to this point but, we always came back to each other. And I didn’t want another person, I knew she’s the one that just gets me and we click so easily, and her kid is AWESOME. That was worth fighting for, to me anyways.
I remember you mentioning this a few years back and said it cooled off. Congrats on keeping it going.
My wife and I were young when we met, I was 19 she was 17, we didn’t date until she was 18.
I truly dont think she knew what it looked like or felt like to have someone actually care about her, and not just use her. It was hard to stay patient, and we both ended up talking to other people off and on but, it always came back to her.
Yeah my parents were high school sweethearts too, got married when they were 19 and 21, I still tell them they were stupid lol. I just turned 33, she just turned 29.
I’ll leave some details out but second date I moved into her apartment, 84 days later we were married.
Long talk about a potential future together after first date.
That was 34 years ago
DAMN. That is wild. When you know, you know I guess.
Would not recommend that for everyone, but it worked for us
There’s no rule book to this kind of thing.
My parents met on a blind date and 6 month later they were married. Dad was 23 and mom was 19. They were married almost 62 years before dad passed away.
Maybe a year, but depends how often you talk. I have fortunate to talk with my future wife about 2+ hours 2-3 times per week for almost an entire summer and so we knew each other very well before our first actual date (long-distance temporarily).
That is fortunate. Knowing as much as you can before you actually dive in is smart imo.
Yeah, met at an end-of-year party in school and then talked all summer and went on our first date after about 3 months of talking a lot. Was very interested and fully vested at that point, so it was easy from there.
Based on what I read on reddit forums, the current dating scene is so different from what I experienced in the late 80’s and early 90’s that I may as well be discussing the dating scene in the 19th century.
Allowing for that significant limitation, I/we typically knew by the third date that this was serious.
For context I was far from a player and a total awkward nerd, but in college I had two serious gf’s that spent lots of time at my apartment and said those three little words, completely got dragged over the coals by “psycho” when I first came to MT because I was convinced by the first two ladies mentioned above that I could make it work, dated off and on a couple of ladies for the next year, then met my wife.
FWIW my wife said I was incredibly shy and awkward but it was endearing and I was “cute”. She was very much like that country song, “are we gonna do this or what”?
Aw, that is cute lol. Yeah, some times people have to go through the wrong people so you KNOW when the right one is there. I’ve had some night mare dates over the past 5 years, trust me.
But not with her, hell, we just spontaneously would hang out as “friends” and it would turn into basically a date night. Supper, see a Jazz band play, go ice skating etc. The big 3 words came out a few days ago…
The big 3 word?
I want money.
Who are you?
I’m a dude.
Kind of small.
(while pointing) Ha ha ha!
😄 😄 so far have heard NONE of those so. Good sign
We tease because we care. I’m very happy for you man.
Less than a month, for sure.
I was ready to commit before she was.
We have now been married 37 years.
Old guy alert.
We had our 38th anniversary at the beginning of July.
lol
Guys are always ready to commit first. Women have to over analyze everything first until their feelings line up.
Nice part for me was, my wife asked me out.
First time I met her (at work) I asked her out(never waste time), and she informed me she had a boyfriend. I figured “no worries, she is not interested” and proceeded to go about my business and date a couple other coworkers briefly without finding a decent match.
I had no idea she had broken things off with her ex, and eventually she asked me out.
First date I was pretty much hooked. We had dinner at Figlios, talked and walked around lake Calhoun, went to Williams for another beverage.
I could be myself around her. That was the biggie.
Thats an awesome story. Its the little things. Not having to wear a “mask” around someone is so important. I feel that with my girl and she feels that with me. She made the comment last time she stayed at my place because we were being stupid and yelling movie quotes at each other from the bedroom to the bathroom, and she goes “Its nice to know you can just be your stupid self with someone and they are the same way right back”
My wife and I still quote MASH and CHEERS.
Our children are confused about it, but I care not.
2 great shows.
Affairs of the heart seem to very greatly from person to person but at least in my case guys weren’t always ready first.
My first wife died from a car accident. It hit me pretty hard and I didn’t date or see anyone for seven years. Just didn’t.
Then one day went to a golf tournament and while in the hospitality tent a nice lady got me a beer. We had a bit of a nice talk.
Three days later this lady walks into my office (she got my info from my buddy). She asked me out to dinner and. for some reason I accepted after never doing something like that in years, never even a thought of it.
Two and a half months later we were married and have been now for almost 40 years.
When it’s right it’s right I guess.
Im sorry for your loss, but also very happy for the renewed love. Its easy when the gal asks you out first, a lot less single guys out there if more women did that haha.
It worked out great for me and it will for you.
I’m a big believer in the saying that all things come to those who serve and wait.
You have been very patient about this so I am confident your time will come
I appreciate that, truly.
My wife’s mindset was to be married by the time she was 30.
I just happened to be the guy she started dating at 28.
Married 30 years.
i would say a couple of months and we were pretty into each other.
Obviously the QB competition is at the forefront of the preseason for the Vikings. What else is everyone looking forward to watching for our favorite team, this preseason?
I am wanting to see how our young players on the defense are going to do. Would like to see improvement on the O-line, Will Fries and Donovan Jackson will be in their second year with the team and Blake Brandel will be in his second year of playing Center.
Run game run game run game. And D Line. I really want to see if KOC finally has his head out of his ass when it comes to creative run game and scheming to the roster you have, not what he thinks it should be. Im also excited to have a younger defense, especially on the line. There will be growing pains but I really think this defensive unit will be humming come mid season and will keep us in a lot of lower scoring games.
I agree our run game is more on KOC then on the players. I feel we know what the players bring to the game. It’s more of how are they going to be used, or maybe more so if they will be used.
The D Line.
Lots of potential, both the good and the bad type.
THE PUNTER COMPETITION!!!
Wait, do we have a new punter?
Yes, two of them
Then low key excited for a punter battle lol
We let Wright walk at the end of the year.
I do recall that now. He was great in 2022 and idk what happened, just kind of was average overall with some stinker games last year.
It will come down to who can be a better holder for field goals. Personally, I prefer it when they have a back up QB hold for the field goals. More options for fake field goals.
Right now I am binging Heroes on Netflix. I’ve never watched it, partly because I heard that the later seasons kind of tanked. I am enjoying the first season.
Loved the first season of that show.
Should have ended there IMO. I never finished it.
Im re-watching the first season of True Detective again. Its become a yearly thing for me for a decade. Its still SO good.
Best stand alone season of any tv series ever. So good.
rec
I wish something new would come along and scratch my itch like that. Well acted, well written, dark, gritty, etc. but not too far up its own ass.
I think early seasons of GOT were very well done.
I also really liked The Night Agent and The Recruit on Netflix. They were well done IMO.
But yeah, not to the level you are mentioning.
Agreed , first 4 season of GOT were AMAZING. 5 and 6 and its moments but the cracks where showing. The night Agent sounds familiar…
Night Agent and The Recruit were good, stupid ass Netflix canceled The Recruut.
Yeah, I was super-Surly about that.
I like that show.
Hey DE, concerning your question on the old thread about investing SS.
If I were to take SS early and invest it, yes, it would be because I’m still working the one day a week and because I am still operating my online bookstore. I would not make over the amount of income that is allowed by SS when you take SS early. With that income and my wife’s income, I would be able to “invest” part of my SS by jacking my 401k deduction way up on my one day a week job and continuing to put money into Roth IRAs. So I would be indirectly investing my SS. As some say, if you wait, it is like a guaranteed 8% increase to take SS later, but if you have some risk tolerance, the market has been averaging 10%, so if you invested a chunk, like in one of my scenarios, then you would move your tipping point up. In one scenario I played out, and I only used a 7% rate of return, it moved my tipping point up to my 90s. In another scenario (which we really don’t want to do), I invested almost all of it until 67 and there was no tipping point. In that scenario I would make more money by taking it early and investing it than I ever would from waiting until my full retirement age to take SS. But in that scenario, we would be having bread and water and hunkering down and doing nothing. That would be pointless just to make a few extra bucks when I’m 80 something.
As I said, I enjoy playing with numbers and in that aspect it has been fun doing this. But on the other hand, I need to make a decision so I can start focusing on some other stuff. For now I am nearly 100% sure that I’m not going to take SS day one, but will wait until 1/1/27 to really make my decision.
All of that makes sense.
For me, taking SS at 70 and working another 3 years will allow me to invest 100% of the maximum SS income into either my future FL condo, or my standard brokerage account that is mostly index funds. That plus having this home paid off at around 67-68 should allow more savings as well.
I am planning on this. We will see what God has in store for me.
I thought I would be dead long before today.
Perhaps there is an even simpler way to look at this leaving investing activity aside. As an example, say you can get 2500 a month at 65 and 3000 if you wait to 70. You take the 65 option. Thus you get 2500 per month for 5 years earlier which is 30,000 a year for 5 years or 150,000.
The other route, wait to 70 get 500 more a month or 6000 a year. At 6000 a year extra, how long to recoup the 150,000 that was given up by waiting until 70.
No interest here, buy maybe it might help to simplify things.
Just a thought.
And VP, not to scare you, but tighten your seat belt cause the medicare options and supplements is one of the most screwed up messes I have ever encountered.
It is.
I will be able to be on my wife’s policy, so I don’t think I need to go through all of those hoops.
I’ve got a few years before medicare, but I’m dreading it already. Fortunately I will stay on my wife’s health insurance policy for now. And if I understand it correctly, her plan is a plan that I can stay on since it is compatible (not sure of the correct word) with medicare, so I would just have to sign up for the original part so I don’t get penalties later and would stay on my wife’s policy until she retires. Like I said, I’m dreading it and I need to do a lot more research on it.
I have run the numbers using my SS statement. My personal tipping point, or in other words, the age where I would start making more by waiting vs taking it now, is between age 79 and 80. That is without doing any investing of my SS. So if my only concern was “straight cash homie”, then it would make a lot of sense to wait until my full retirement age of 67. However, as has been discussed a bunch the last 2 days, there is more to this decision than who gets the most money. Some experts split retirement up into the go-go years, the slow-go years and the no-go years. Typically a person will spend more discretionary money, ie, vacation travel, in the go-go vs the no-go years, so there is some deciding of do you want some money up front or save it for the no-go years? That might depend on if your other retirement funds can’t support you in the no-go years.
Yep, if I am able to work, I will wait to get the larger amount. I will need more to offset the ever increasing inflation and medical expenses.
Even if I die 3 years later and “lose” that SS “Bet” buy a large amount, it would be better for my wife since that time I am working we build more equity/assets.
If I happen to live to 90+, we will be more financially comfortable with that extra amount from SS. Even if it only pays the TV bill by then.
Set up an account on the SS site and you will get your personal statement so you will have an idea of what you will get depending on what age you retire.
I have done that. as soon as I turned 62 I did that.
I even look at it when having a rough day at work.
Me waiting to 70 is worth it for me. I did not extrapolate the data to find the break-even year(probably around 80). I just want the larger amount.
If I take it earlier while working, I will get killed in taxes.
At 70, I no longer get punished, and can work a few more years and just invest as much as possible until I bail.
The “killed in taxes: is a big thing. It will ebrn impact what you pay for medicare
That medicare thing is big. There are just so many pieces to the pie.
OK, I just logged into the SS site, and verified that the break even point is age 79 for me if I wait to 70 vs taking it at 67.
That does not include the massive tax hit for taking the $ while working full time. I would get penalized for that.
The “Real” number is probably much closer to 76 if taking into account the penalty for earning a decent salary while collecting SS.
Again, willing to gamble because I want to work as long as I can. The mental exercise is very good for me. Annoying at times, but I like solving problems.
Everyone should run their own numbers, as well as consider other factors in their like health, spouse etc.
Aside from the numbers, I worry about what the politicians will do to bring the SS Program back on sound financial ground. They have been kicking the can, but they are fast running out of time.
Pretty sure ( at least hopeful) people already in the program will be untouched, but very much believe new entrants will be means tested and subject to scaled back benefits.
tale as old as time. The original benefit date pretty much matched the average life expectancy. Combination of people living longer and having fewer children to become the next generation of Duracell batteries (Matrix reference) is an ongoing battle.
Personally, I would be fine if they raised the retirement age to 70 or 72, however that is not fair to people that have physically demanding jobs. It is fair to me.
Some things I think they should do.
Removeraise the cap. If I make more than 184k, it is ok to continue to tax that. No reason for someone making 500k+ paying a smaller % of income into the system than a teacher.I do not have an answer. I just know the government will continue to screw over it’s human resources as long as possible.
And I agree that everyone needs to run their own numbers.
Your 3 points are good. They should also rate the ss tax rate.
I am not a fan of raising the SS rate. it is high enough.
They just keep effing things up like governments do.
2 and 3 good. Don’t agree with 1. don’t think it is fair, If a person making 70k and 700K both get the same benefit, doesn’t strike me as quite fair that one person pays in 10 times as much yearly over 25 years or so. Not sure what the answer is though.
Yep, I was wrong about that.
I agree that if you raise the cap, you also need to raise the benefit for those contributing more.
#1 NO FUCKING WAY!
No fucking wonder the country is going socialist faster than hell
Your points are valid. Every one of them.
That is what a graduated income tax does. Class warfare to get votes, and remove the meddling middle class.
I ran a small business for years, as a contract IT worker, and had to pay both portions.
I am thankful I no longer have to deal with that shit.
I agree with all your points, I am just seeing that (raise the cap) as an option to “fix” things.
I retract the “remove the cap” and would propose a higher than inflation cap once and then maintain inflation related caps moving forward.
Some kind of increase in tax, or decrease in benefits is coming.
Maybe a 225k cap? No idea, it will never be enough.
We are seeing the downfall, and it will get ugly.
Correct, but as corporations eliminated pensions, more and more people are relying on that as their sole retirement benefit.
And I hate all income tax in any shape or form. Tax me on what I spend, not on what I earn. That is just proving that I am property of the government.
If you get 2500 at 65,you wouldget 3700 at 70, not 3000
I just guessed at the numbers but this still makes sense. 1200 more a month about 14000 a year to then cover the 150,000 forgone. Since having the money earlier, present dollars and the chance to earn with it, it sort of equalizes out both takes are about the same if one dies in their early eighties.
Ok, I get it.
You have your Wife’s income along with part time work for you.
That makes sense.
For others who say invest it, I don’t know how they eat and survive, without either
1. taking money from your investments, which defeats the purpose of investing SS.
2. they are a multimillionaire
3. you have a government/other pension to live on.
4. spouse working
5. Rental Properties
I don’t have the luxury of investing my SS.
That all makes sense. And if your retirement funds are making more than 8%, it would be pointless to take that money out and wait for SS. You would be losing money that way. I don’t know how your funds are doing but my retirement funds have been doing better than 8% and I’m rather conservative in my investments. As I mentioned before, I don’t want to start taking out money from my retirement funds until at least a few years after my wife retires, so at some point, I would need to start collecting SS so I can leave my funds untouched and let them grow.
We had a laugh, my wife reached Medicare age, it wasn’t clear initially (believe me I read that pamphlet cover to cover) so we signed her up for part B. She is of course required to be covered by my insurance (which is good) and with our joint income (me 98% her 2%) part B absorbed 65% of her SS cheque. So we of course canceled that. The MC assistant she talked to pulled up the numbers and said oh yeah, you should not be taking part B.
It is fun to play with the numbers. Sometimes you just have to slide down the slide and see what happens.
Very true.
The last Friday with no NFL activity !!
Training camp, pre season and then the real thing in 6 weeks…..
WE MADE IT!
We’re watching “Big Mistakes” (Netflix)
It’s pretty funny
we finished “Paradise” and “The Testaments” (Hulu) both very good
There’s a new Harlen Cobin show on Netflix we haven’t seen yet, we’ll start that next.
If you haven’t seen “Invincible” (Amazon) and enjoy the super hero (ish) genre I recommend it
(five seasons, last one is in production now)
Harlen Cobin (books) are pretty good, the show could be decent.
Harlen Coben’s older books are good. I read one of his newer ones (I can’t remember the title) and now I no longer actively look for his new titles.
Sad to hear, I have not read him in awhile. Not sure why I stopped, probably due to him not being on Kindle Unlimited.
I’ve got plenty of other stuff to read and I really hadn’t read much of his stuff in awhile, so I won’t miss him.
I cannot fudging stand the netflix adaptations. They are too complex and I refuse to watch them any more as I get bored and completely lose the plot in the weeds.
I enjoyed I Will Find You on netfilx. pretty sure that is what you are talking about.
Cycling through streaming services and had cancelled HBO/Max last fall. Just got it again so we are watching the things on there that we like so I can cancel again.
I watched the 1st season of The Pitt, just because it was on TNT. I do not care to pay for another streaming site, just for one or two shows. You are correct very well done and it’s neat that one season is just one day in the ER.
The Pitt (both seasons) was good, there were occasional medical inaccuracies in the script which bugged me but I set aside to enjoy the show.
The show gets a little preachy sometimes
Medical inaccuracies are way above my head. But I am still amazed at the complexity of the human body.
I have worked on some very complex IT systems, and the human hand puts any IT system complexity to shame.
Crazy what you people need to know.
No wonder gougers get paid well….
1st season an ER intern gives a seizing patient with hyponatremia 3% saline IV push quickly to stop the seizure.
That’s not quite how that works, it’s over 15-20 minutes or you can cause osmotic demyelination syndrome.
It’s my job to know that
I haven’t seen a case of osmotic demyelination on imaging since my residency…fortunately it seems most HCP’s know that.
We had one three or four years ago, no I didn’t cause it.
THAT is what blows my mind with your profession.
I know a lot about various IT related things, but man….Nobody dies when I fuck up, I would just get replaced.
Could you imagine if doctors where as accurate as weathermen?
I never thought of it that way, it’s just what I do for money 🤷♂️
@until my onlyfans account takes off@
One thing that med school friends muse and reminisce about is “would you do it again” or “do you want your kids to do it”…it has really evolved over time. No offense to Rob, but the market has become saturated with APC’s. I have no desire to sleuth out the answer myself, but a PA that is right in the middle of the eastern part of the state in Armpit calls me weekly (I think I am one of his few friends)…he just renewed his malpractice insurance at age 85…he really shouldn’t be practicing any more but he has a few long time patients that love him. Anywho, he told me two NP’s have moved into town and he calls them “dumber than shit”, claims they got online degrees that required no practicums/patient contact.
I see a lot of formulaic practice by APC’s. Things that we would debate over “House MD Style” in training they shotgun order. It is similar to working with an AI that tabulates the patient symptoms and lists a differential and $10000 of imaging to order.
My particular field is essentially immune to APC encroachment but most are not.
A typical thing I see on reddit forums is “I am a general NP, my wife an oncology NP, living in a midwestern city…she completed weeks of additional training to become an excellent oncology NP…her practice was absorbed and now she cannot find a job anywhere…” I play a little violin, try 3 years of IM residency, 3-4 years of hem/onc fellowship, call weekends evenings destroyed, and you sure af cannot reinvent yourself as a urologist with a month of classes.
Rob is excellent, super smart guy, practices great medicine, shares cases with me. So there are lots of great APC’s out there.
Montana is just glutted as an independent practice state.
I would not recommend it any longer. Lots of things that require substantially less sacrifice that pay well. The electrician that wired the minisplit at our Love Shack charged 8 x $95/hr for labor.
@I’m offended@
I agree. With the amount of cost and schooling time, along with increased stress and liability with the amount of patients needing to be seen (due to decreasing reimbursement rates), I cannot recommend ophthalmology/optometry anymore either.
FIFY
Rob is excellent, super smartass guy.
I got one for you Monday when I go back to work, haven’t signed the chart yet
I’ve never seen it. For that matter, I think I watched two episodes of Scrubs and it just didn’t appeal to me. FWIW we are watching Yellowjackets (S1E5) right now and enjoying it.
Medical dramas don’t usually jingle my bells, I get enough of that at work.
Scrubs was funny
Yellowjackets is a good show, not so funny
I love the original Scrubs. I’ve only watch a couple episodes of the reboot.
The IT crowd was funny. I never finished it, but I laughed a lot. I am guessing Silicon Valley would be entertaining for me as well. never watched it. I do get enough crap at work that i can relate to.
Dilbert comics are real life to me.
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