Dear Allison,

When you called to announce your engagement, the excitement in your voice was wonderfully contagious! How great hearing your good news! As your “beloved aunt,” your name for me, I’m permitted a certain nostalgia about this life-changing event for you. I can vividly remember when your mother called telling us of your pending birth. In my mind, that happened not very long ago so I’m trying to get a grasp on your engagement.

I know, “Keep up with the times, Auntie,” and I’m trying! You and I have never lived close to each other, but we’ve always kept in touch. And your mom and I have faithfully corresponded with each other since her childhood so I feel closer to you than the map suggests.
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West Peoria will no longer have open burning beginning October 1, 2007. The City Council, in a 7-1 vote, on August 14, 2007 ended the years of debate over the burning topic. This is a huge relief for people who have respiratory issues. Prohibited is the burning of all yard waste, garbage, construction materials and synthetic materials. The use of a burn barrel is forbidden. Permits are required for bonfires, construction site burns and prescribed burns (the latter two also require permits from the IEPA). The ordinance still allows for recreational burning, such as a hot dog, marshmallow roast with a time limit of four hours. Individuals having illegal burns will receive tickets after first receiving warning notices. Landscape waste pick-up is a service included in your garbage bill. Landscape waste is picked up weekly at the curb, not in the alley with your regular garbage. Use it instead of burning.

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It is going to be several years before this author reaches retirement age. Yet, the gathering of information is necessary to assist me with proper planning. One of those subjects which needs to be considered is that of Social Security. Karen Chan CFP, Consumer and Family Economics Educator with University of Illinois Extension, provides some thoughts on Social Security mistakes to avoid.

“That magic age of 62! You’re counting the months or years until you can begin collecting Social Security. But you could wait until you are 65, 66, even 70. If you wait, you’ll get a larger monthly check. Making the wrong choice could cost you money.

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Another month, another hospital stay, but this time it was not me but my son Jason. He gave me quite a scare. On the fifteenth of September, on a Saturday night about ten, he called and told me he was having chest pains and thought he might have to go in to the hospital. I went down and got him at his house just five minutes away and took him to Methodist. They, too, thought it was a heart attack, because they put nitro under his tongue and on a chest patch. They were really great. There were probably about five people working on him at one time, and I was so appreciative. The doctor told us that they would not know if it was a heart attack until they got blood work and a second chest x-ray in eight hours. They admitted him and I came home about three in the morning. The doctor told him it wasn’t a heart attack on Sunday, but kept him in the hospital until Monday for a stress test.

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When Frankie was five years old, she was the perfect picture of a pregnant potato bug. I was just beginning to know her at the time and she was always underfoot. By the time she turned six, I came to my senses and started using her to my advantage. Among other things, I’d have her check my engineering of footbridges over creeks, rope ladders, swings and other hazardous inventions of mine. Remembering Tom Sawyer, I once tricked her into helping me till my mother’s vegetable patch.

That was the day I wanted to play ball ever so bad, but I was put to work removing weeds from our backyard garden. It wasn’t long before little Frankie wandered by. “Whatcha doin’?” she asked. “Having fun,” I replied and kept right on hoeing.

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