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How To Be Cool

May 7, 2020 By Forrest Dailey

After a long winter, once the temperature gets consistently above even 50 degrees, it’s easy to kind of jump to conclusions and officially declare summer started. With the memory of the cold winter still lingering, one tends to find oneself feeling unseasonably warm.

We’re all trying to cut costs right now, and even though we are right now in the middle of a cold spell for this time of year, soon we’ll be looking for ways to keep cool. There are a lot of electric bill-friendly ways to do so. Here are a dozen of them.

1. Using a programmable thermostat – You can save a great deal of money by programming your air conditioner to turn off when you leave, turn back on just before you return, or when you go to sleep and wake up, if you live on a set schedule. You want to schedule it to come on a bit before you come home, so it is already cool when you arrive. Even people who only use the air conditioner when they are at home and awake often spend more because they crank it up to make up for it being so warm. Make it a gradual change. Big, abrupt change in temperature cost more than you’d think.

2. Leaving your bathroom fan on overnight – You’re still using electricity but not quite as much as air conditioning, and it will suck the hot air out of your living space.

3. Reversing ceiling fan rotation – Switch your fan to run counter- clockwise during warm weather months. This causes air to flow directly downward, cooling your home. When turned clockwise in the cold weather months, it pulls the rising warm air up toward the ceiling where it recirculates back down into your living space. In either season, if set correctly, you may find you don’t need it on as much. Just leave yourself a reminder to switch it back again with the change of the seasons.

4. Other fans – Maybe you don’t have a ceiling fan. If you do use a smaller electric fan though , put it in/near a window at night to really get your money’s worth. Better yet, put a bowl of ice in front of the fan for some extra frosty breeze. If you don’t have any kind of electric fan, you can either fan yourself, bribe your kids into doing it, or create some sort of elaborate mechanical fanning device. Necessity breeds invention, right?

5. Just opening a window – There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned open window, screened to keep the bugs and the birds out of course. Fresh, night air has a calming effect too, so long as you are not sleeping too close to the open window.

6. Keeping your blinds or curtains closed during the day – If you’re lucky you’ve got a curtain that will allow a good amount of light in, but not the heat.

7. Keeping unnecessary lights off – Do not deprive yourself of light to the point where you feel like you’re in a cave. Keep a light on. Just don’t keep all of them on. It makes a difference.

8. Not using the oven – Many of us are probably cooking food at home more than normal lately, but using the stove top rather than the oven, or even the microwave a little more will keep you from turning your home into a sauna. Or don’t cook in the house at all. Use your grill as much as possible without having to invest too much in lighter fluid and charcoal, that is.

9. Drinking cold drinks – Crack open a cold one. Your preference. Stay hydrated. When trying to keep cool, what better place to start than cooling yourself from the inside out?

10. Taking a cold shower/using spray bottles – Cold showers are invigorating. Hot water tends to make people tired anyway, especially when the room temperature is also warm. Put them on hold for the summer. In between, if you’re just sitting at home trying to stay cool, get yourself a spray bottle full of very cold water, set it to mist, and give yourself a spritz.

11. Switching to lighter bed linens – I don’t know what it is about fresh linens on a bed but unless they are straight out of the dryer, they just tend to feel cooler. More so if you go from a flannel or fleece sheet to something like cotton sheets. If you really want to go the extra mile, put your sheets in the freezer for a short time, then make the bed just before you get in it.

12. Sleeping downstairs – Again, we all know heat rises. If your bedroom is upstairs, you may want to consider camping out on the sofa downstairs, especially if you have a pullout. If you have kids, you can make a family camp out of it.

Stay cool, everybody.

But What Else Can I Do?

April 1, 2020 By Forrest Dailey

As the
concern over the spread of COVID-19 lingers, most of us have heard many times
over what we can do to avoid contracting the virus. Wash your hands, social
distance, stay home. Cover your cough. And there are endless fundraisers that
one could donate money to in a time like this. The only problem is right now
the biggest concern is allocating our income to pay our bills. But there is a
great deal of good we can do to help others cope with the pandemic that won’t
put us in a pinch.

1. Manage
your stress – The old aphorism that you are not able to help anyone if you
don’t take care of yourself first could not be more relevant right now. This applies to our interaction with co-workers
if we are still at work, our spouses, but especially for those of us with kids.
We all know kids follow our lead, so if we stress out, they will too. Teach
them that it is okay to be afraid, that you can’t have courage without fear. As
for managing your stress when it inevitably comes, exercise, any calming
practice of your choice, and taking time alone however you can get it, will do
wonders.

2.
Check in on people – Loneliness is the most overlooked “unseen danger” in
situations like this. Check in with your elderly loved ones, and with those who
are home bound by choice or otherwise. Brighten their day with a joke or a
story. Ask if they need anything. There are ways to get them the supplies they
need while maintaining social distance.

3.
Donate blood – While blood drives are shut down in compliance with the
guidelines against large gatherings, one can and should donate blood if they
are healthy and qualified to do so. Especially those with a rare blood type. While
COVID-19 dominates the news cycle, people are still coming to the emergency
room every day with unrelated illnesses and serious injuries, and they need
blood.

4.
Donate non-perishable food – Since traditional food drives are pretty much off
limits right now, the local food shelves are struggling to meet the needs of
our communities. That being the case, it is infinitely important right now for
individuals to pitch in even a little at a time when we can. If you are the
type of person who always has stocked up for just such a situation, and if you
find yourself with more than you need, this is good news!

5. Shop local – This was important even before the shelter in place order came in Minnesota. But now, with going out for food and medicine the only real acceptable reasons to visit most places of business, it is crucial that when we do spend, we give our business to local establishments. When the restrictions are lifted, the economy begins to re-stabilize, and the other small businesses re-open, they are going to need us more than ever.

6. Identify scams and minimize misinformation on social media – There is unfortunately a lot of misinformation out there about the virus itself, its spread, the government response to it, etc. Some of it is easy to spot. If your friends and family are sharing things that you know to be misleading or incorrect, show them where they are mistaken, so long as the conversation remains constructive. Misinformation in the age of social media tends to have a domino effect, but so does correct and reputable data.

7. Advocate
for individuals, groups and organizations that need help – This is another very
constructive way social media can be used to fight against the spread of the
virus. Maybe you don’t have the money to donate to any of these organizations,
but you can always raise awareness among those who do.

Remember this. You can only do what you can do. People are depending on each other more than ever in many ways right now, but it is important that no one puts too much pressure on themselves. Take care of yourselves. Keep others in mind. The rest will take care of itself.

Time to Go Solo?: The Group Life Insurance Dilemma

March 2, 2020 By Forrest Dailey

When an insurance agent calls or
approaches you selling life insurance, your response is likely “No, thank you,
I already have life insurance through my employer.”

And the agent’s rebuttal, hopefully, begins something like “That’s great! I’m glad you have coverage.”

Life insurance offered by an employer can be a great benefit, and we encourage our business-owner clients to consider offering it to their staff. But is your employer’s group policy the best coverage for you, as an individual? When your premium is taken out of your paycheck, you might not even pay attention to:

What
type of policy you have
What
the policy covers, and
How much
you pay each month

Life insurance through your
employer is most likely a term policy. So when you retire, leave the company,
or become permanently unable to work there due to an injury, there is a high
probability you will no longer have life insurance through that employer. And beyond
the age of 65, obtaining new life insurance can come at a daunting price for most
people.

It is hard to fathom something as
fundamental as life insurance being dependent on your employment when we know
that in the grand scheme of things, our lives are a whole lot more than who we
work for.

But enough philosophy.

Here’s what you really need to think about. A group life insurance policy is written without taking into consideration the health and habits of the individual members of the group. It’s called a pool rate.

So, just to illustrate the point,
let’s say you happen to be the only one at your office who exercises regularly
and doesn’t smoke or drink or wrestle alligators while skydiving. None of that
would have any effect on the premium you pay as a part of the group. You’d pay
the exact same rate as your co-workers who live on the edge.

On the other hand, if you bought
an individual life insurance policy through your own agent, it would be written
according to tiered rates which, frankly, favor those who are very healthy, and
would likely be much less expensive.

If, however, you do choose to
remain a part of that group policy, you can still save money by taking the
maximum that you can get from the policy for free and then buying any extra
coverage you feel you need through your own agent.

If you are currently a part of a group life insurance policy but would like to see what your options are, call your local Horihan Insurance office today. We’ll give you a free consultation and review of your employer-based policy, and we’ll show you where we can improve on it, or just fill in some gaps in the coverage.

Workouts That Aren’t Really Workouts For the Great Indoors

February 6, 2020 By Forrest Dailey

Last month we explored the cardiovascular aspects of the
workout routine known as shoveling snow.

But maybe you live in an apartment building or you don’t do the shoveling in your household. We’re all shut in more than usual in the winter. What then?

There are plenty of opportunities to get exercise indoors,
and they don’t have to feel like an exercise routine at all. It depends on your
approach.

Everybody has an opinion on what the best workouts are
during these snowy, hibernate-y months. Most of them involve going to a gym,
joining a club, walking around the mall or doing a specific type of workout.

We’re not doing any of that. We’re going to focus on every day life kind of things that you can do on those days when there is nothing to be done but hunker down in your own home.

So here we go with some cold weather indoor workouts that are not really workouts:

Playing with the kids/grandkids – Give the kids a piggyback ride around the house. Pretend you’re on a hike pointing out all of the things you’re seeing out in “the woods” along the way. You get yourself moving, and you keep the kids entertained. Don’t try this with the teens. They’re too big and what’s more, they can find their own entertainment/transportation.
Dancing – Have you ever left a concert, club or wedding reception where you’d been dancing all night, and didn’t realize exactly how much you’d been dancing until you sat down at the end of the night? You can do that in your living room. Do it. Nobody’s going to judge you.
Cleaning out the closet – You’re going to have to do it eventually and you probably aren’t going to during the warm, fun, summer months. This is kind of a one time per season thing, but it can be exhausting in a good way. Perhaps you have a main bedroom closet where you keep your clothes for whatever season it currently is, and you have another closet in another room where you keep your off-season clothes. It’s almost like moving to a different apartment, on a smaller scale, but it will streamline your morning what-to-wear routine.
Chopping fruits and vegetables – Meal preparation in general can be a quite vigorous activity. But even more so if you can incorporate as much vegetable and fruit chopping as possible. Not only will you get the workout, but much more healthful meals will result! You can’t lose. But don’t get too enthusiastic about this. If you have space to freeze some meals for a later date, then great. But if not, remember you and your family can only eat so much zucchini in a week and it goes bad.
Play a musical instrument – Playing a guitar, or even air guitar, can be a real power workout. Especially if you are the type who really rocks out when you find your groove. The same can be said for playing the piano or drums, except for these you will probably want an actual instrument. (Air piano is an under-valued talent these days.) Any brass or wind instrument will be great for keeping your respiratory system strong.
Furniture assembly – If you’ve ever bought a piece of furniture and assembled it yourself, you’ll know they don’t make it easy. At one point or another during the process it may have resembled a wrestling match on your living room floor. But if you manage to finish it all by yourself, you stand to really impress your spouse. If you can’t, then it is a great team-building project for the two of you.
Pace the room while on the phone – Many studies have suggested that multi-tasking isn’t truly possible and certainly is not efficient. That is, if the two or more tasks require dexterity or mental focus. But walking isn’t complicated. So if you are on a long call, while you are giving that your full attention, you might as well get some steps in.
Laugh – You’ve probably heard it takes more face muscles to frown than it does to smile. Research is inconclusive on that, but it’s irrelevant because laughing blows them both out of the water! While laughing, you’re working out from your face down to your belly. And if the joke is funny enough you are probably kicking your legs too. Laughter might be not only the best medicine but the best workout that isn’t really a workout.

This winter has been mild, so get out this winter and enjoy as much as you can, but when you can’t, enjoy the Great Indoors!

How To Be Cool

Time to Go Solo?: The Group Life Insurance Dilemma

Workouts That Aren’t Really Workouts For the Great Indoors

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