Makin' A Connection - The IRA Way

It is no secret that the love of my life celebrated birthday Number 70 last September. That means she turns 70-1/2 in 2009, and that means she is required by the IRS to begin making minimum withdrawals from her IRA (Individual Retirement Account). She also considers anything related to the IRS (including IRA's, LTCG's, AMT's, AGI, and so forth) to be exclusively my domain. So I initiated the withdrawal process today by calling our investment adviser at BAIS (Banc of America Investment Services). Yes, it's now Banc, not Bank, and I don't know when or why. She was not in (never is), but gave me a voice message telling me to ring up Customer Service. There a taped message asked me to enter Maureen's account number. I did. Another taped message advised me that it could take up to four minutes for a live human to pick up.  The elevator music was not too bad, but it was not memorable, either. About 40 seconds later, a young-sounding man with a eastern seaboard accent greeted me and asked how he could help me today. Friendly guy. I told him and gave him all the account numbers. He asked if my wife was nearby. He needed to talk to her to verify that she was really who I said she was. She was in the back room doing ironing. So she and this young man talked for awhile, and then Maureen handed the phone back to me to work out the details of the transaction. Then the guy said he'd like to speak to Maureen again to get her approval for all this. 

Now comes the good part. When they were done, I guess he asked her if there was anything else he could do for her today. I suppose I would have said, "No, thank you" or something like that. My wife said, "You could come and finish my ironing."  I'll bet dollars to doughnuts he's never had a response like that! Then I guess he said he'd love to do that, but he'd have to come all the way across the country.  Maureen asked him where he was. He said, "Boston." She said, "Oh, I'll bet its a lot colder where you are than where we are." He agreed, and told her he loved Santa Barbara ... was married there, in fact. "Where?" she asked. "At a ranch on Highway 154," he answered. She said she knew where the highway was, but not the ranch. 

What this means is ... I have the world's friendliest person for my wife. She makes anyone, even a BAIS customer service representative who is closing out her IRA,  feel completely at ease. Most of the time she can also learn how she is related to the person in about three minutes. It happens all the time. She is wonderful!   

New Kind of Drive Thru

On Tuesday a week ago I received my annual flu shot. This time, however, I didn't stand in a long line of people older than me. I sat in the front passenger seat of our slowly-moving car in the driveway of the Goleta Cottage Hospital and hung my right arm out the window while a woman who looked like a nurse vaccinated me. Bingo! Now that didn't hurt, did it? See you next year!

Making Your Calling and "Election" Made Sure

(Really posted 12 November 2008)
I met a lot of heroes in the 11 weeks preceding this year's election. Here is one of them:

Modern Proverbs

My son David recently posted to his blog a set of proverb-like rules for his household. Reading them, I was reminded of another set, this one penned ca. 1976-77 for a household residing at 7 La Paz Court. It took a half an hour of rummaging through my pitifully unorganized family history files, but I found a copy. Here goes:

1. Honor the father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land (okay, I borrowed this one and a few others.)

2. Thou shalt not bear false witness ... or fib, or lie.

3. Thou shalt not get into drawers or cupboards or cabinets containing things not belonging to you, unless you hast obtaineth permission.

4. Thou shat keep thy mitts off Dad's clean windshield and his electronic calculator.

5. Thou shalt eat all thy dinner, and thy lunch, and thy breakfast.

6.Thou shalt not litter anywhere, anytime.

7. He who tattleth shalt not be listened to.

8. Thy bed is for lying upon and resting or sleeping; not for jumping upon.

9.Thou shalt not watch television amid litter, but rather thou shalt pick it up and putteth it away first,

10. He who playeth in water or mud without permission wilt surely receive many blows to his sitting down place.

11. Thou shalt not be quick to splash in the tub.

12. Quick to tantrum is quick to bed, or porch, or patio.

13. A wise child will inform his parents of his whereabouts.

14. Thou shalt not singeth loudly at the table, except on birthdays.

15. Swine and lowly beasts eateth sloppily; Hixon children shall not.

16. Thou shalt close the bathroom doors until Stephen learneth not to standeth at the toilet and stirreth the waters therein with his arm.

Oh, What Do You Do In The Summertime?

Well, if you're me, you harvest the fruits of your small garden and when the last picking nets far too many ripe and juicy tomatoes to consume in salads or sandwiches, your lovely wife scalds them, peels them and make them into Stewed Tomatoes! And one can enjoy Stewed Tomatoes for many weeks, even months if you're taste buds are not impatient. MMMMMM!

[Note to my readers: At least one of you has mentioned that most of my blog has to do with food and pictures of food. Well, he is probably correct, so if I have offended anyone, I apologize, but I do not repent! Food is important AND artistic.]  

The Scriptures Are Relevant

For several weeks now Maureen and I (and many others) have been working on a grassroots efforts to obtain passage of an amendment to the California state constitution that would make marriage between a man and a woman the only valid kind of marriage in California (Proposition 8). A state law to that effect was overturned last spring by a 4-to-3 majority of the state supreme court, even though 61% of the voters had approved the ballot measure enacting that law in 2000. The following scriptures from the Book of Mormon (Helaman 7:4-6) seem relevant to our times today, even though they were first written about 23 years before the birth of Christ:

"And seeing the people in a state of such awful wickedness, and those Gadianton robbers filling the judgment-seats—having usurped the power and authority of the land; laying aside the commandments of God, and not in the least aright before him; doing no justice unto the children of men;

"Condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money; and moreover to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the world, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and kill, and do according to their own wills—

"Now this great iniquity had come upon the Nephites, in the space of not many years; and when Nephi saw it, his heart was swollen with sorrow within his breast …”

Am I right?

Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot

Auld acquaintances should NOT be forgot, but that sometimes seems to happen when the auld acquaintance presents herself to you in the foyer of the Newport Beach Temple and says, "Brother Hixon, do you remember me?" and I stammer a bit and say something stupid like, "I think so," as my mind is scrambling for some cognition here and failing at it. "Do you remember my name?" she counters. And I have to say, "No, I don't." And she replies, "I am Shana ... Shana Woodruff! Rachel's friend!" 

And the lights go on in my feeble brain. I know this person, but she has grown up. I think she was in high school or just out of high school when I knew her before. She is still just as fun and energetic as I now remember her being then. The world of temple foyers is small, indeed.