Posts Tagged ‘Mary Ellen Kaluza’
Procrastination Saves Lives!
overgrown bench/ ben heath By MARY ELLEN KALUZA Early in my gardening career (some 4+ decades ago) I cleaned up the garden each fall, pulling everything out, cutting down plants and stems so that everything was ready to go in the spring. That didn’t last many years. By first frost I was soon ready to be done with gardening and looked forward to just shoveling snow for a few months. Clean out was left till spring. I soon noticed birds feeding on the dried seed heads left standing during the winter. So, I now had an excellent reason to not clean away the dead plants: feeding the birds. Also, in spring I found last year’s vegetable plants munched down to nubs with abundant rabbit turds left behind, presumably in thanks for getting the bunnies through the winter. Rabbit poop is an excellent fertilizer with four times more nutrients than cow or horse manure, and is twice as nutritious as chicken manure. It is not a “hot” manure like horse, cow, or chicken poop - it [...]
Understanding Your Health Insurance and Medical Bills
By MARY ELLEN KALUZA Understanding your health insurance policy can be an exercise in crazy-making. Very few of us have insurance policies that cover everything. What isn’t covered shows up in medical bills. A little knowledge can help make sense of it all. INSURANCE PLAN TERMS Premium: This is what you pay to have insurance. Insurance through your employer is deducted from your paycheck. Otherwise, it's a regular bill like auto insurance. Copay: A fixed amount you pay for a medical procedure or an office visit. The copay amount may be different for different services. Not all insurance plans have a copay. Deductible: This is the amount of medical bills you must pay 100% before your insurance kicks in to pay expenses. This amount can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. Knowing how much your deductible is will help you plan for medical expenses. Coinsurance: After you have satisfied your deductible, your coinsurance kicks in. Typically, plans will [...]
Interview with Local Artist Noelle
By MARY ELLEN KALUZA Late last summer my 19 year old cat died and I was sad. I told my neighbors and their four children about it. They were sad for me. One day the young neighbors came over with something to help cheer me up. They gave me beautiful paintings of things they knew I liked: butterflies, bees, flowers. And fairies. (I had been asked the previous week if I liked fairies. I replied incredulously, “Who doesn't like fairies?!”) Noelle and her siblings were taking art classes online at the time – a COVID inspired pastime. Besides being very touched by their kindness, I was immensely impressed with the paintings, which then inspired this new feature in the alley highlighting young artists in our Phillips Community. Noelle's creations that were gifted to me are featured here. I recently sat down with Noelle at her home to ask her about her art and herself. And, I had the great fortune to see several more of Noelle's paintings while we talked – all [...]
