Posts Tagged ‘MEDICARE BENEFITS’
When I was growing up I spent most of the summer in some state of wetness. My town had a pool that was easy for us to walk or ride our bikes to and it was the center of summer social activity. I took swimming lessons, I swam on the swim team, I became a lifeguard and then helped to teach kids to swim.
When I was a freshman in college the perfect opportunity came along – I could get a phys ed credit by earning my certification as a water safety instructor. I took the course, got my certification and then worked for the Red Cross or the YMCA as a swimming instructor. It was a great college job, and now that I look back on it, it really was the single college class that was ever directly responsible for me getting a job.
In all my years of working at pools, I never had to save a drowning person, thank goodness, but I did jump in for the dramatic rescue of a panicked baby bunny. Nobody was going to drown on my watch!
Unfortunately thousands of people do drown every year and more than 25% of them are children. The sad thing is that I think a lot of these drownings can be prevented by following a few simple rules.
- Learn to swim and teach kids to float and swim as soon as possible.
- Children should always be supervised in and around water.
- Never swim alone.
- It’s fun to play in the water, but there’s a line between fun and reckless. Don’t cross that line.
- You know those foam noodles, and inflatable water wings and inner tubes? Those are toys. They won’t keep a child safe in the water.
- If you want a flotation device that will keep you or a child safe in the water, get a U.S. Coast Guard approved life jacket and wear it properly.
So weather you’re at the ocean, the lake, the pool, or just the secluded swimming hole in the river, be safe in the water this year!
Now that the east coast has finally started to warm up, the sun is shining, birds are chirping…allow me to bring some gloom and doom to 
your day. It looks like the cost of obtaining / renewing a passport is going to go up. The State Department is proposing a fee hike that would raise the cost of applying for a passport from $100 to $135, and renewal cost would increase to $110 from the current $75.
The reason? The State Department says that the costs of increased security and anti-fraud and terrorism measures aren’t being covered by the current fees.
Besides this just seeming like yet another rising cost that is annoying to deal with, some lawmakers worry that overall it will hurt the tourism industry- particularly to neighboring countries of Canada and Mexico. They worry that the increased burden will deter Americans from traveling and in turn, continue to hurt the economy.
While the increase is not yet final, it could be in effect by April. The State Department suggests applying for your passport now if you are planning international travel, as a rush of applications are expected in the wake of this news.
Do you have an alternative idea to cover security costs? Do you mind paying the higher fee?