October 18, 2024 • 37 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
Poll: 61% say election is harming mental health. With Leigh Richardson, PhD – Licensed professional counselor – Founder of the Brain Performance Center.
Deer Crashes Increasing by Leaps and Bounds - Drivers urged to be alert as deer crashes spike between October and December with Mark Schieldrop, Senior Spokesperson for AAA.
Medicare Must-Knows to Avoid Coverage Gaps - What changes should beneficiaries be aware of when it comes to their current coverage? With Jae Oh - Medicare Consultant and Certified Financial Planner.
And this weekend looks to be a nice one. Will we have more in the near future. AccuWeather's Brian Thompson joined Dan.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio!
Poll: 61% say election is harming mental health. With Leigh Richardson, PhD – Licensed professional counselor – Founder of the Brain Performance Center.
Deer Crashes Increasing by Leaps and Bounds - Drivers urged to be alert as deer crashes spike between October and December with Mark Schieldrop, Senior Spokesperson for AAA.
Medicare Must-Knows to Avoid Coverage Gaps - What changes should beneficiaries be aware of when it comes to their current coverage? With Jae Oh - Medicare Consultant and Certified Financial Planner.
And this weekend looks to be a nice one. Will we have more in the near future. AccuWeather's Brian Thompson joined Dan.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm Boston Radio Icale.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hope you have a great weekend. It's going to be
great weather wise, or wish the Patriots are playing back home,
because I think it's going to be better weather here
than in jolly old London. My name is Dan Ray.
I'm the host of nightside'd heard every Monday through Friday night.
This being a Friday night, it is the last night
of this week. If you stick with us till midnight,
(00:28):
I'll get you all the way to Saturday, well just
right to the cusp of Saturday morning. So stay with us.
We have very interesting guests coming up. If you'd like
to have your dreams analyzed by a dream expert, we'll
do that for you at nine o'clock. You can call
in and talk about the type of dreams, maybe reoccurring
dreams of some crazy dream you had, and this guest
(00:50):
will be able to explain to you what it all means,
I think. And then we're going to be talking with
Bill Bratton, former police commissioner here in Boston and New York,
and he's the police chief in Los Angeles. They don't
have police commissioners, at least his title there was police chief,
about security and not only domestic security but international security,
(01:11):
security in the context of the next two and a
half weeks between now and November fifth presidential election. And
also there's some suggestions, some stories that are out and
about that Iran has floated out some assassination teams looking
to do damage in Western countries and all ask God
Bill Bratton about that. And look, protecting our political leaders,
(01:34):
be they democratic or Republican leaders a very very important
role for the government to play, that's for sure. And
then coming up tonight in the eleventh the twentieth hour
or eleven o'clock hour tonight, which goes the twenty hour
of the week, to talk about traffic etiquette. I mean,
what have we talked about bad traffic driving a couple
of weeks ago, about the sort of things you've seen
(01:55):
people do. But I'm talking about traffic etiquette. You know,
the person who sits in the left hand lane, he
goes forty five miles an hour in sixty five mile
an hour zone. Well, the person who's in the left
hand lane doing seventy five and some knucklehead has to
be up lasting their horn and flashing their lights. We'll
get to all of that. People crazy drivers here in
(02:16):
New England. I don't know why, but I think we
are and we'll talk about that. But first, we have
four really interesting guests for your consideration tonight, and we're
going to start off with our first guest, who ironically
is going to talk about election anxiety, amongst other things,
Doctor Lee Richardson. Doctor Richardson, Welcome to Night Side. How
(02:38):
are you tonight?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I am good.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Thank you for having me, Well.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Thank you very much for joining us. So you're a
licensed professional counselor and founder of the Brain Performance Center.
But there was an article, I guess in Forbes Health
that my producer saw about election anxiety, politics and mental health.
So it's politics based driving people crazy. I guess that's
the opening question.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
And there's a one word answer for that. Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I thought it was going to be yes. Okay, that's
even more okay. So, other than the interfamilial disputes which
clearly exist within our country, within everyone's family, I'm sure,
why are people so hot and bothered about it?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
They are. Actually it's cyclical. Every four years people get
upset about the election, but this year I think it's
really different. Think back, we didn't even know who was
going to be running for the election, and is you
know President Biden didn't run who was going to run?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, no, he ran. He ran, and he won the
nomination of the Democratic Party, and then he was counseled
by some of the senior advisors that maybe he should
step aside, so we have a new candidate. Yes, you're
absolutely right there. So it's been kind of a wrinkle
that we haven't seen in a long time in American politics,
(04:04):
if ever.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
And I think that while he did run and did
get denomination, the American public started doubting him way before that.
And that's uncertainty, and with uncertainty comes fear and the unknown.
And I think that this election, we're going into it
and it's a really difficult time. If you look at
(04:28):
what's going on around us worldwide, that plays into our
consciousness and when you look at what's facing this inflation.
I mean, there are many things other than the good
old family battle as to who's right and who's wrong,
and that lives on for generations.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So okay, I think you have categorized the problem very accurately.
I deal with this every night of the week, well
not every night of the week, but most nights we
do something on politics. Tonight, I don't think we will
be doing anything on politics other than this interview, which
is merely you're kind of around the edges and you're
tangentle to it. And I will tell you that I
(05:12):
hope that this election on November fifth has a decisive winner,
because I don't want to go through what we went
through in twenty twenty. So the question is, in the meantime,
other than not listening to the news, what should people do?
And maybe that's what they should do.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Go right inad Well, I think listening to the news
a little bit of it is a positive thing. I
think having extreaming twenty four seven is not. And I
think using social media as your knowledge base and reading
comments and letting those comments influence you it's not positive behavior.
(05:52):
And you know, we all know who we disagree with, right, Well,
there's still some people.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Who claim, even as late in the game as we are,
who are theoretically undecided. So there are some people out
there who are still trying to figure it out for
better or words.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Well, and you make a really good point because there's
also some people the survey that you mentioned cided twenty
seven percent of people are excited about the election. So
you're right, there's a lot of variables out there. And
how those all come together peacefully and decisively, I think,
(06:34):
is the question that we're all trying to project the
answer for, Well.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
We'll see in about two and a half weeks. Tell
me you and the founder of the Brain Performance Center,
what is that and is that something that my listeners
can be in contact with take advantage of. Tell us
about the Brain Performance Center.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Absolutely. The Brain Performance Center was started in two in
a nine and it deals with behavioral health issues which
we're all experiencing today as a result of the election.
It's anxiety, it's depression, it's stress, it's dealing with that
neurodivergent population and all of that is it's just a
(07:17):
dysregulated brain and there are ways that we can train
our brain organically to change. And for any of your
listeners that would like to learn more, we have the
good old fashioned website, the Brain Performance Center dot com.
We also have the Brain Performance Institute dot co for
(07:38):
organizations that are looking to create psychological safety. And you know,
it is okay to not be okay, but it's not
okay if you don't do something about it.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, do you have like little test or analysis that
people can kind of do what this brain performance center
so they can figure out if they are okay.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
While we do it more scientifically. We actually record the
brand ways and we can flare them to a database
and we see, you know, it works off the bell
shaped curve. What's it's age specific? And but where is
your brain within normal within normal limits?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So the people in order to take true advantage that
they have to physically be where the brain performance center is.
I'm not exactly sure what's what state or city you're in.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
We're in Dallas, Texas, Okay, And there are there are
organizations across the United States that do the same thing
that we do.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I guess is what I'm hearing you say.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Absolutely, I would encourage anybody that wakes up and thinks,
you know, I don't know if I want to do
this today or oh not another day? Why is this
so hard? Give me a call, because it can that
you calm that brain down and lie it's a game changer.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
I would say. I would say it all starts with
the brain one way or the other. You wake up
in the morning and the first thought is oh the
alarm clock. I gotta get up. I hear you, I
hear you. Doctor Richardson. Always appreciate talking to you. I
think we've talked before, and I hope we're gonna talk again.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Thanks so much, Thanks you, Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
When we come back, we're going to get a little local.
We're gonna talk with Mark shield Drop. He's seen your
spokesman for Triple A. And guess what. Deer crashes are
increasing by leaps and bounds, and it is that time
of year. We will explain I had won many years ago.
I'm not even gonna bother to tell you. Maybe I
(09:42):
will tell you this story. I don't know, but you
have to be a little careful with those little with
those big deer running around, all their homeowners are going crazy.
I'll explain why when we talk with Mark shield Drop
in just a moment. My name's Dan Ray. This is
nine Side to listen to WBZ in Boston. We are
a big, powerful radio station out of Boston. If you
listening to our car radio anywhere east on your car
(10:05):
radio anywhere east of the Mississippi River, that's great. Lock
us in at ten thirty and the AM dial if
you want to listen to us on the iHeartRadio app.
That's really easy. Just download iHeart app. Download it for free.
You be able to listen to WBZ twenty four seven,
three sixty five from anywhere in the world. We'll be
back on Night Side with Mark shield Drop right after this.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nights Sin Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
All right, if you've been driving in New England recently,
I suspect you probably have seen a little more activity
of the deer running hither thither and Yon with us
is Mark shield Drop, senior spokesperson for tripa A, and
he's going to explain what's going on.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's a seasonal thing, correct, Mark.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
And thanks for having me Dan.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
It's great to be back in order to have you,
by the way, one of my favorite guests. Right ahead.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Oh wow, I'm writing that down. It's mating season for
the deer, and when in its mating season they get
a little frisky. That means they get bolder, more aggressive.
And when deer on the move, it tends to be
in the afternoon around dusk and the days are getting shorter,
and when it's dusk, that's like matching up perfectly with
(11:23):
our commute home from work. So it's really a recipe
for a lot of crashes because he got more active deer,
a lot of people on the road, so that all
those things lines up, line up. So that's why we
see almost half of all deer crashes over the course
of the year happened between October, November and December. So
we like to remind folks it's deer mating season. It's
it time to be extra alert. You're going to see
(11:45):
carcasses on the roadway. Now you're going to see the
aftermath of some of these crashes, and there's a lot
of crashes involving deer and folks out there these days.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Well, what it comes down to is the deer will
looking for love and all the wrong places.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
I think, yeah, they are, you know, on the roadway.
It's a terrible place for deer, but it happens to
be kind of an ideal environment for them. So I'm
not a wildlife expert, but I have some interest in
this topic and I did cover it a bit when
I was a journalist before working with Triple A. So
I've talked to some wildlife folks and a lot of
our roads, you know, have a tree line like a buffer,
(12:18):
and then oftentimes it's next to kind of an open area,
whether it's lawns or golf courses or grass. They love
those buffer zones. They love to kind of walk along
a field along the tree line. So that's a lot
of our roadways.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
So that's why we see them a lot.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
I think, on the highway and hit one. I've never
hit one personally, but I've been in a car with
someone to hit one, and it was quite an ordeal.
And we weren't even going that.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Like giving a stone wall it is. It is the
big one that that I hit long, long time ago.
We were headed to Thanksgiving dinner on Martha's vineyard. This
is going to be sometime in the nineteen nineties, I'm guessing.
And I saw a car in the distance flashing its
(13:04):
lights and I thought they were telling me, well, there's
a police officer had slowed down. It wasn't going that fast.
As soon as the car passed me, all of a sudden,
it was like I hit a stone wall and I'm
still on the road, and next thing I saw Bamby
flying through the air. It was really like a movie
with blood spray on the windshield. I hope every no
(13:27):
one's having dinner while we're talking about this.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I went to pull over to try to help the deer,
and my wife said, what are you doing? I said,
I want to see if the deer's eaten nuts. So, yeah,
the kids in the back seat, two of them. What
was that? What was that? I think my wife said something. Well,
Daddy just bumped into Bamby.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Yeah, it's not fun. They're beautiful and majestic. Well, unfortunately
they're less and less afraid of us, which seems to
be not helping them problem. And then there's a massive
deer over population problem. So I pulled a total number
of deer crashes in Massachusetts by year. I started twenty
twenty three. I went all the way back to two
thousand and two, so two thousand and two, eleven hundred
(14:12):
and four crashes, and then let's skip ahead ten years,
so twenty twelve, nineteen hundred and forty eight.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
We're going to the wrong direction.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Last year, Yeah, last year thirty eight hundred and sixty seven.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Wow, that's doubling.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Every ten years, it really is, And it's just every
year more and more and more. So there's more deal
out there.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I remember one year I was on the early morning
news and it was heading to some story at five o'clock.
Four five o'clock in the morning. Light had just come up.
It was mid November, and I looked about I don't know,
a quarter of a mile ahead, and there was this
deer that was trying to cross the road. There wasn't
much traffic, but the deer was sort of like slipping
it sliding. It was like, come ons, the deer get
(14:54):
going going? Yeah, right, the hoofs on the road. They
they the houss on a major roadway that they have
a tough time getting some traction. I've seen it in person.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
Yeah, they're skittish, uh and and they can often they
can jump really high. I have no folks who are
just driving along and a deer just launched out of
the woods like right.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Into the side of the car, like for.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
No reason apparently. So it's unsettling when it happens. Fortunately,
we haven't had a lot of fatalities from these crashes,
but they cause a lot of damage, you know, they can.
They can really be stressful, and they caused some injuries too.
You know, folks who've had the misfortune of a deer
going through the windshield. You know, that's that's an image
(15:40):
you're not gonna get out of your mind anytime soon.
You can get, you know, pretty badly hurt from that.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
So I will tell I will tell this story the
weekend of the Monday that I came in after the
deer strike. Five thousand dollars damage to the front of
my car. By the way, it was the easily damage.
And I wasn't I mean, I really wasn't going that
fast because I had slowed down thinking there was a
police officer. So I was telling the story in the
newsroom that day that following Monday, and one of my
(16:07):
colleagues I'll not identify who it was, said something like,
that's nothing, So what do you talk about nothing? My
brother was driving up in Maine and he decapitated a deer.
The deer had smashed through the windshield and landed in
the lap of his daughter, who was sitting in the
passenger front seat.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Oh that's horrifying.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
How many years of therapy has she been?
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Oh my god, don't don't player the Godfather or anything
like that.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Oh no, No.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
The other question is, how does Massachusetts compare to other
New England states. In New Hampshire, I guess they worry
about hitting moose, which can even be more US.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Yeah, you know, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I would have to do some comparisons.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
But a big.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
Problem throughout all our territory at triple in northeast. So
when we put the advisory out in mass we also
are putting on New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the
numbers are pretty much across the board going in the
same direction, and there's a lot of crash and on
all those states and the more rural parts of New
Hampshire Vermont. I think just due to the fact that
fewer people driving around, maybe they have less of an
(17:09):
issue in terms of number of crashes. But I think
the frequency, as far as the odds of hitting one,
they're certainly going to be high when you're driving in
those areas because you know it's prime territory for those creatures.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I'll tell you what worked for me. I went to
a you know, a hunting and gaming store, and those
little plastic deer horns you mount on your front bumper
they worked. They really do. They set out some sort
of a signal, you know, just a high pitch properly whistle,
(17:40):
and they're pretty cheap. They're just plastic, and I can
remember so many times driving along and realizing that there
was a deer that did not cross the road in
front of me. I would recommend, at least my experience.
I don't endures any product that I haven't used, but
I use those for three or four years and they worked,
They really did. I was out.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
I think, yeah, I think that those are maybe a
good deterrent. You got to make sure you install it correctly,
you know, and and you know, there's different types out there,
and I haven't looked into them too much myself. People
have asked me if they work, and I say, hey, look,
you know, as long as you're not covering up an
important sensor or something, and you can install it properly.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
There's no hart, just simply little plastic things. They looked
like a horn and you just yeah, they were self
glued down to you and you could take them off.
I mean, but they stayed. They stood the test of time,
and they I thought they were pretty good investment and
might have saved the deer or two along the way.
Hey Mark, thank you much. I enjoyed the conversation with
(18:37):
you as always. Triple A available folks. I'm a Triple
A member. I would advise other people to it's all
it's it's a great investment. Trust me. We use Triple
A all the time and they're great people. Absolutely, thanks Mark.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Appreciate it very much. Thanks for the kind of words, Dan,
have great night.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Well they're from the heart. Thank you much. Taking a break,
we come back when to talk with a Medicare consultant
and certified financial planner. We are getting into the Medicare
season and we have all the mustnos to avoid coverage
gaps available with Joh coming back right after the news
at the bottom of the air of My name is
Dan Ray, and you're listening to Nightside.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
All right, we are coming upon the time of year
when people who are on Medicaid or looking to get
on Medicaid have a window to apply and it's not easy.
It's not simple. I find it confusing with us. Now
is Jay Oh. He's a Medicare consultant and certified financial
planner and hopefully he's going to simplify it for us.
(19:46):
Jay Oh, welcome to nightside. How are you?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Thank you very much for having me Dan, How are
you today?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
More than welcome? Is it as confusing? I am not
on medicare, but I got to tell you, from what
I know about it, it's everyone tells me it's confusing,
am I it is? How confusing? Is it? I'll ask you.
I'll ask it to you that way, not necessarily to
you because you know it, but to the average person
(20:12):
who's going to try to get on for the first
time or renew their membership.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Sure, I think that first many people who have been
employed and have had benefits, health insurance benefits from their employer.
The issue is that they have to learn a language
that they've never really faced. They face a menu of
selections which it can seem overwhelming compared to the one
(20:40):
or two plans that you kind of get offered by
your employer. And that's it. Well, under Medicare, we've got
a lot of moving parts. We've got many, many different alternatives,
we have different checkpoints in terms of time, the rules
of medicare, eligibility, enrollment, they are complicated. Admittedly that all said,
(21:04):
I also spend time with yourselves, the public other capacities
because at the end, the quality of coverage that you
can access, at the price at which you can access
it will be very likely superior to anything that you've
(21:26):
had in the US, you know, prior to turning sixty five.
And so I don't want to be passing the message
of be frightened and be frozen. There's work to do
and things to understand. That said, the outcome very usually
is worth it.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
So first, people who for whatever reason find it complicated,
can they reach out to people like you? Are their
private medicare consultants? If you're a medicare consultant, certified financial planner.
Are there enough of those folks around the country who
can make themselves available to help people, particularly the first
(22:07):
time or does one have to be very wealthy to
even consider using the services of a medicare a consultant
and a certified financial planner.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Access to medicare is as democratic as it gets.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Pointing that everybody, yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Exactly, and access So for example, people like me, if
you're coming to us and you can see information about
my book Maximize your Medicare dot com, there's contact ability
and our consults for pure medicare are free of charge,
(22:48):
So nice.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
And do you do it you're located in Boston. We
have listeners all over the eastern half of the US.
Do you have a website? You know, whenever someone comes
on here and they are for informational services, I'd like
to try to put people in contact. And in this
day and age, the telephone still works, so.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
I don't work internetwork.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Can they get in touch with you?
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Sure? The best way is the official website for my book,
which is Maximize your Medicare dot com. And there are
tons of resources, videos in recordings of interviews kind of
similar to this. Not as good, of course as you
but you can understand my point that there are resources.
(23:40):
And every state also has something called SHIP, which is
government funded volunteer staffs Medicare guidance. Now the caveat there
is that they are not licensed. That doesn't mean that
the information is wrong. In fact, I am the ex
(24:04):
colleague of the entire group that has educated all of
them nationwide.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
One of one of the things that I learned when
I became eligible for Medicare when you become sixty five,
Unlike Social Security, where you can take it early, you
can take it late and all that with Medicare. Even
if you are going to continue to work and therefore
you do not need Medicare. You still have to sign
(24:33):
up for Medicare and get a Medicare card because if
you don't sign up, I believe that there's some penalties
that can occur at that time when you want to
go on Medicare.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
So I had spoken about complicated rules, and here's you've
mentioned one. So I wrote, that's my job.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Jay.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
I wrote an article that appears in Kiplinger, a byline
there Kiplinger, a personal finance magazine, and it is the
number one thing, especially as you rightly point out that people,
in order to get the maximum from Social Security, they delay.
(25:20):
But Medicare eligibility is still sixty five. There's a lot
of misinformation in the world about laate enrollment penalties, but
the basic guideline is that if you are the full
time employee and your employer is providing health insurance, you
(25:41):
do not need to enroll in Part B and you
will not incur a late enrollment penalty. There are many
different parts. Part A, which is the first line of
this card, that generally people do. But that's just because
(26:02):
the price is zero, right.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
But that let me I understand because I understand enough
of this to be dangerous. Let's assume someone turns sixty
five tomorrow and whatever the grace period is they choose
and they say, well, I'm still working, I'm a full
time person. I won't need Medicare or any of that
stuff until I'm probably seventy. And they wait until they're
(26:26):
seventy and then they say, Okay, I got to get
my Medicare coverage. Better get my Medicare card. Is there
not a bit of a problem that can occur if
you do not at least sign up and secure the
Medicare card, whether you avail yourself of it or not
when you do turn sixty five. If I'm wrong, please
(26:49):
correct me.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
You do not have a penalty. You do not, so
you give a way.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
So what you're saying is people do not have to
They can wait until they need Medicare. They don't have
to secure a card at sixty five. I was under
the I was under that impression. And if that's a misimpression,
thank you for correcting me.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
And you can see you're not alone in this short
little to and fro, right, which is that this the
Medicare system has a number of rules and people are
afraid of something that says penalty, and it is if
you incur it, it never ends. But this is but
(27:32):
the point here, the nuance here is that if you
have health insurance as a full time employee covered by
your employer, then no, no.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Or if you are a full time employee and you're
covered by your spouse's insurance, I also believe that that
you are protected, you're not obligated to take to pay
for Medicare. Again, that's another wrinkle. I think I'm correct
on that, but tell me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
More wrinkles, which is that as long as the spouse
is the full time employee. So, in other words, if
your spouse is retired and let's say retired early sixty
three because that person didn't like their job or they
were able to access retirement, and then you turn sixty five,
(28:23):
your spouse is retired, you cannot use her spouses or
the sixty three year olds health insurance at the time
that you turn sixty five. You need to be the
spouse of a full time employee covered by health insurance.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
In this day A number of combinations, Jay, in this
day and age is I'm sure you probably know better
than I. There are more and more people who are
working full time sixty five, and married couples are working
full time past sixty five. Both my wife and I,
you know, oh past sixty five, we're both working full time,
and in our situation, she has a better health insurance plan,
(29:02):
So I understand that. But I was always on the
impression that if you didn't get maybe there are some
circumstances that when if you don't get that Medicare card
and you sign up late, there's some penalties, which means
that we need to do this again and maybe in
the next couple of weeks and do another take on
Medicare and provide more information to people, because I thought
(29:23):
this is a this is a very helpful conversation for me,
and I hope it's been a helpful conversation with people
in my audience. Could I get you to come back
in the next couple of weeks and we'll take another
bite at the apple.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Absolutely, the number of iterations we can combinations is dizzy,
and I recognize there I'll get a better one for you.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I have a better recommendation. Why don't we plan on
doing an hour sometime in the next week or so.
If if your schedule permits, and we during this hour
we just do an interview. We don't take phone calls
from nine to twelve. Nine to midnight, we open our
phone lines, so during those hours that would allow people
to call and ask you questions. I think that might
(30:06):
even be more helpful.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
What say you, I'll make myself available, no problem.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
We'll get back in touch with it. Jay. Thank you
very much. And again, the name of your book is
Maximize your Medicare dot com, so people get a head
start on our on our next conversation. Thanks very much.
I really enjoyed this conversation, and thanks for setting me
straight on a couple of things. I am not someone
who claims to know everything about everything. You're the expert here,
(30:34):
and I appreciate you taking the time my privilege.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Dan, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
We'll talk to you soon. Okay, when we come back,
We're going to talk about a subject we all can
agree upon, and a subject there over which there is
no confusion, and that is we are in for a
beautiful mid October, mid to late October weekend weather here
in at least most of New England, and we are
gonna we're going to We talked with Brian Thompson of
(31:01):
AKI Weather. Right after this break on Nightside Stick with Us.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Well, I don't think if the weather folks are correct,
that we're ever going to have a weekend as beautiful
as these next two days, at least at this time
of year with us is Brian Thompson of AKI Weather.
AKI Weather Meteorologist Brian Thompson. Brian, it appears that this
weekend is going to be on a scale of zero
(31:35):
to ten, about a twelve and a half. What's going on.
Speaker 7 (31:38):
We have a pretty warm weather pattern shaping up, But Dan,
we've had an area of high pressure that's been sitting
off to our west for the last few days. This
what's been bringing us this dry weather. I mean, it
has been on the chili side most of the week,
but for most of the time, with the exception of
a little while yesterday afternoon and evening, we've been seeing
quite a bit of sunshine throughout the last few days.
(31:59):
But that high is going to be a shifting more
to the south as we had through the next few days,
and that's going to allow some warmer air to start
to move on in so we'll consider to see a
lot of sunshine with the high pressure area nearby. There's
been really very few clouds again, outside of the clouds
we had yesterday, there's been very few clouds last couple
of days really all across the eastern US. It's just
(32:20):
not really much cloud covering this pattern. So we're seeing
a lot of sunshine. That'll be the case all weekend long.
And we saw a little taste of that warmer air today.
We didn't get into the sixties, and many spots that
tomorrow will be up near seventy and then into the
loads to mid seventies on Sunday. Our average hires are
in the low sixties this time of year, so it's
not terribly common to have weekends this warm, this late
(32:40):
in October.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah, I mean, eventually, I assume the law of averages
would make us pay for this, but when you get
a weekend like this. We got the Head of the
Charles in Boston this weekend, which is spectacular no matter
what the weather, although then it's some soaking rains at
some of the heads ahead of the Childs races in
the past. So I missed what you said, So if
(33:03):
we do hit seventy tomorrow in a little better than
seventy with beautiful you know, sun drenched skies, you know,
beautiful blue skies. What those numbers? How far above the
average are those two numbers, Say it's seventy tomorrow and
seventy five on Sunday.
Speaker 7 (33:21):
Yeah, the average tomorrow and Sunday or sixty one degrees,
they're going to be a good ten to fifteen degrees
above that. In fact, Sunday we won't be all that
far from the record high, which is seventy nine set
back in nineteen sixty nine. The record high tomorrow is
eighty four, so it can still get warm this time year.
A lot of the record highs are still in the eighties.
But this isn't just a one or two day thing.
(33:43):
We're going to see those highs in the seventies continue
likely into Monday as well.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Well. Of course Monday, most people are going back to work.
So that's why I like to focus on Saturday and Sunday. Now.
In addition to that, good news for people who are
not Patriots fans, because the Patriots play early on Sunday
morning in that game over in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars,
which means that the guys who are football fans and
(34:12):
want to stay ensconsed in front of that TV set
to watch the Patriots, that game will be over by
about twelve fifteen, twelve thirty. And at that point, guys,
I think that if the ladies in the family, the
kids in the family are looking to go apple picking
or taking a hike, you're not going to have a
(34:33):
Patriots game as that excused to stay indoors.
Speaker 7 (34:37):
No, and it is going to be warming up quickly.
I think by noontime could very well be in the
low seventies already. This is a pattern, especially with how
dry it's been the last few days, that the nights
will be relatively cool still and the knights will still
generally be in the forties to near fifty, but by
mid to late afternoon we're talking about highs at or
(34:58):
above seventy.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
So then here's my question. I was told I read
an article actually this week that they said the leaf
peeping was insane last weekend. People were out there in
the woods. They had annoyed you. I'm sure you read
some of that, and I guess they had a significant
not twenty inches but they had a real, actual first
snowfall up on the top of Mount Washington. You're a
(35:21):
weather guy. I'm sure you can give me more information
about that. How does that juxtapose with what we're doing
here this weekend? If last weekend the snowflakes were falling
on Mount Washington, what's going on?
Speaker 7 (35:32):
Yeah, it's it's quite the change. And last weekend was
quite the range. All across the northeast. You get down
toward Philadelphia and Baltimore, it was pushing eighty degrees last weekend.
And here we were in the fifties, if you remember,
it was kind of cloudy. It was even in the
forties of times, with the kind of a damp feel
to the air. And as you got far enough north
through the White Mountains over toward the Adirondacks, too, a
(35:55):
lot of places had accumulating snow. And I was reading
the same things you were of people are unprepared for that.
You know, it's it's been relatively mild of late, and
then you go up into the mountains and it's it
is mid October. These things can happen.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
People. People were in flip flops and clocks and stuff
like that. The other thing real quickly. I got to
ask you, is for the first time, some of the
weather people this week had pointed out those I call
them like the blanket clouds. They almost look like whipped
cream clouds or something like that. I forget what the
name of them are, but apparently that's a rear sight.
And I actually saw some of those yesterday. What what's
(36:33):
what are those clouds? I hate to put you on
the spot here.
Speaker 7 (36:35):
But I guess i'd have to see a picture of it.
I don't know offhand what you're what you're.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Okay, it almost looked like the clouds look like ocean waves.
Oh okay, that they you know, normally you see you know,
the cumulus and the cirrus and all of that. But
there was this, uh, this cloud formation, which apparently the
atmosphere has to be just certain, and they were people
actually sending and pictures of it. Uh. And this morning
(37:02):
when I went out door as I saw that for
the first time. We'll save that for another night, Brian, Thanks,
thank you much. Man Hey enjoying the weekend. I hope
you're off and I hope you're not on duty.
Speaker 7 (37:14):
I'm on duty Sunday morning. But but like the Patriots fans.
I'll be out in the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
You can watch the Teatriots game where I know that.
Thanks Brian, we'll talk Sooneray, all right, weaken back. We're
gonna give you an opportunity to have your dreams analyzed. Yeah,
how about that. We have a PhD psychologist, but he's
also a dream researcher. He's director of the Sleep and
(37:38):
Dream Database. You can tell us what your crazy dreams are, Ben,
or what your recurring dreams are, and we'll get them
analyzed for you. All you gotta do is call the
number six one, seven thirty. We will be back right
after the nine o'clock news. Aero Night Side
It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm Boston Radio Icale.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hope you have a great weekend. It's going to be
great weather wise, or wish the Patriots are playing back home,
because I think it's going to be better weather here
than in jolly old London. My name is Dan Ray.
I'm the host of nightside'd heard every Monday through Friday night.
This being a Friday night, it is the last night
of this week. If you stick with us till midnight,
(00:28):
I'll get you all the way to Saturday, well just
right to the cusp of Saturday morning. So stay with us.
We have very interesting guests coming up. If you'd like
to have your dreams analyzed by a dream expert, we'll
do that for you at nine o'clock. You can call
in and talk about the type of dreams, maybe reoccurring
dreams of some crazy dream you had, and this guest
(00:50):
will be able to explain to you what it all means,
I think. And then we're going to be talking with
Bill Bratton, former police commissioner here in Boston and New York,
and he's the police chief in Los Angeles. They don't
have police commissioners, at least his title there was police chief,
about security and not only domestic security but international security,
(01:11):
security in the context of the next two and a
half weeks between now and November fifth presidential election. And
also there's some suggestions, some stories that are out and
about that Iran has floated out some assassination teams looking
to do damage in Western countries and all ask God
Bill Bratton about that. And look, protecting our political leaders,
(01:34):
be they democratic or Republican leaders a very very important
role for the government to play, that's for sure. And
then coming up tonight in the eleventh the twentieth hour
or eleven o'clock hour tonight, which goes the twenty hour
of the week, to talk about traffic etiquette. I mean,
what have we talked about bad traffic driving a couple
of weeks ago, about the sort of things you've seen
(01:55):
people do. But I'm talking about traffic etiquette. You know,
the person who sits in the left hand lane, he
goes forty five miles an hour in sixty five mile
an hour zone. Well, the person who's in the left
hand lane doing seventy five and some knucklehead has to
be up lasting their horn and flashing their lights. We'll
get to all of that. People crazy drivers here in
(02:16):
New England. I don't know why, but I think we
are and we'll talk about that. But first, we have
four really interesting guests for your consideration tonight, and we're
going to start off with our first guest, who ironically
is going to talk about election anxiety, amongst other things,
Doctor Lee Richardson. Doctor Richardson, Welcome to Night Side. How
(02:38):
are you tonight?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I am good.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Thank you for having me, Well.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Thank you very much for joining us. So you're a
licensed professional counselor and founder of the Brain Performance Center.
But there was an article, I guess in Forbes Health
that my producer saw about election anxiety, politics and mental health.
So it's politics based driving people crazy. I guess that's
the opening question.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
And there's a one word answer for that. Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I thought it was going to be yes. Okay, that's
even more okay. So, other than the interfamilial disputes which
clearly exist within our country, within everyone's family, I'm sure,
why are people so hot and bothered about it?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
They are. Actually it's cyclical. Every four years people get
upset about the election, but this year I think it's
really different. Think back, we didn't even know who was
going to be running for the election, and is you
know President Biden didn't run who was going to run?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, no, he ran. He ran, and he won the
nomination of the Democratic Party, and then he was counseled
by some of the senior advisors that maybe he should
step aside, so we have a new candidate. Yes, you're
absolutely right there. So it's been kind of a wrinkle
that we haven't seen in a long time in American politics,
(04:04):
if ever.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
And I think that while he did run and did
get denomination, the American public started doubting him way before that.
And that's uncertainty, and with uncertainty comes fear and the unknown.
And I think that this election, we're going into it
and it's a really difficult time. If you look at
(04:28):
what's going on around us worldwide, that plays into our
consciousness and when you look at what's facing this inflation.
I mean, there are many things other than the good
old family battle as to who's right and who's wrong,
and that lives on for generations.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So okay, I think you have categorized the problem very accurately.
I deal with this every night of the week, well
not every night of the week, but most nights we
do something on politics. Tonight, I don't think we will
be doing anything on politics other than this interview, which
is merely you're kind of around the edges and you're
tangentle to it. And I will tell you that I
(05:12):
hope that this election on November fifth has a decisive winner,
because I don't want to go through what we went
through in twenty twenty. So the question is, in the meantime,
other than not listening to the news, what should people do?
And maybe that's what they should do.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Go right inad Well, I think listening to the news
a little bit of it is a positive thing. I
think having extreaming twenty four seven is not. And I
think using social media as your knowledge base and reading
comments and letting those comments influence you it's not positive behavior.
(05:52):
And you know, we all know who we disagree with, right, Well,
there's still some people.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Who claim, even as late in the game as we are,
who are theoretically undecided. So there are some people out
there who are still trying to figure it out for
better or words.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Well, and you make a really good point because there's
also some people the survey that you mentioned cided twenty
seven percent of people are excited about the election. So
you're right, there's a lot of variables out there. And
how those all come together peacefully and decisively, I think,
(06:34):
is the question that we're all trying to project the
answer for, Well.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
We'll see in about two and a half weeks. Tell
me you and the founder of the Brain Performance Center,
what is that and is that something that my listeners
can be in contact with take advantage of. Tell us
about the Brain Performance Center.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Absolutely. The Brain Performance Center was started in two in
a nine and it deals with behavioral health issues which
we're all experiencing today as a result of the election.
It's anxiety, it's depression, it's stress, it's dealing with that
neurodivergent population and all of that is it's just a
(07:17):
dysregulated brain and there are ways that we can train
our brain organically to change. And for any of your
listeners that would like to learn more, we have the
good old fashioned website, the Brain Performance Center dot com.
We also have the Brain Performance Institute dot co for
(07:38):
organizations that are looking to create psychological safety. And you know,
it is okay to not be okay, but it's not
okay if you don't do something about it.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, do you have like little test or analysis that
people can kind of do what this brain performance center
so they can figure out if they are okay.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
While we do it more scientifically. We actually record the
brand ways and we can flare them to a database
and we see, you know, it works off the bell
shaped curve. What's it's age specific? And but where is
your brain within normal within normal limits?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So the people in order to take true advantage that
they have to physically be where the brain performance center is.
I'm not exactly sure what's what state or city you're in.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
We're in Dallas, Texas, Okay, And there are there are
organizations across the United States that do the same thing
that we do.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I guess is what I'm hearing you say.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Absolutely, I would encourage anybody that wakes up and thinks,
you know, I don't know if I want to do
this today or oh not another day? Why is this
so hard? Give me a call, because it can that
you calm that brain down and lie it's a game changer.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
I would say. I would say it all starts with
the brain one way or the other. You wake up
in the morning and the first thought is oh the
alarm clock. I gotta get up. I hear you, I
hear you. Doctor Richardson. Always appreciate talking to you. I
think we've talked before, and I hope we're gonna talk again.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Thanks so much, Thanks you, Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
When we come back, we're going to get a little local.
We're gonna talk with Mark shield Drop. He's seen your
spokesman for Triple A. And guess what. Deer crashes are
increasing by leaps and bounds, and it is that time
of year. We will explain I had won many years ago.
I'm not even gonna bother to tell you. Maybe I
(09:42):
will tell you this story. I don't know, but you
have to be a little careful with those little with
those big deer running around, all their homeowners are going crazy.
I'll explain why when we talk with Mark shield Drop
in just a moment. My name's Dan Ray. This is
nine Side to listen to WBZ in Boston. We are
a big, powerful radio station out of Boston. If you
listening to our car radio anywhere east on your car
(10:05):
radio anywhere east of the Mississippi River, that's great. Lock
us in at ten thirty and the AM dial if
you want to listen to us on the iHeartRadio app.
That's really easy. Just download iHeart app. Download it for free.
You be able to listen to WBZ twenty four seven,
three sixty five from anywhere in the world. We'll be
back on Night Side with Mark shield Drop right after this.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nights Sin Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
All right, if you've been driving in New England recently,
I suspect you probably have seen a little more activity
of the deer running hither thither and Yon with us
is Mark shield Drop, senior spokesperson for tripa A, and
he's going to explain what's going on.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's a seasonal thing, correct, Mark.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
And thanks for having me Dan.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
It's great to be back in order to have you,
by the way, one of my favorite guests. Right ahead.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Oh wow, I'm writing that down. It's mating season for
the deer, and when in its mating season they get
a little frisky. That means they get bolder, more aggressive.
And when deer on the move, it tends to be
in the afternoon around dusk and the days are getting shorter,
and when it's dusk, that's like matching up perfectly with
(11:23):
our commute home from work. So it's really a recipe
for a lot of crashes because he got more active deer,
a lot of people on the road, so that all
those things lines up, line up. So that's why we
see almost half of all deer crashes over the course
of the year happened between October, November and December. So
we like to remind folks it's deer mating season. It's
it time to be extra alert. You're going to see
(11:45):
carcasses on the roadway. Now you're going to see the
aftermath of some of these crashes, and there's a lot
of crashes involving deer and folks out there these days.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Well, what it comes down to is the deer will
looking for love and all the wrong places.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
I think, yeah, they are, you know, on the roadway.
It's a terrible place for deer, but it happens to
be kind of an ideal environment for them. So I'm
not a wildlife expert, but I have some interest in
this topic and I did cover it a bit when
I was a journalist before working with Triple A. So
I've talked to some wildlife folks and a lot of
our roads, you know, have a tree line like a buffer,
(12:18):
and then oftentimes it's next to kind of an open area,
whether it's lawns or golf courses or grass. They love
those buffer zones. They love to kind of walk along
a field along the tree line. So that's a lot
of our roadways.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
So that's why we see them a lot.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
I think, on the highway and hit one. I've never
hit one personally, but I've been in a car with
someone to hit one, and it was quite an ordeal.
And we weren't even going that.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Like giving a stone wall it is. It is the
big one that that I hit long, long time ago.
We were headed to Thanksgiving dinner on Martha's vineyard. This
is going to be sometime in the nineteen nineties, I'm guessing.
And I saw a car in the distance flashing its
(13:04):
lights and I thought they were telling me, well, there's
a police officer had slowed down. It wasn't going that fast.
As soon as the car passed me, all of a sudden,
it was like I hit a stone wall and I'm
still on the road, and next thing I saw Bamby
flying through the air. It was really like a movie
with blood spray on the windshield. I hope every no
(13:27):
one's having dinner while we're talking about this.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I went to pull over to try to help the deer,
and my wife said, what are you doing? I said,
I want to see if the deer's eaten nuts. So, yeah,
the kids in the back seat, two of them. What
was that? What was that? I think my wife said something. Well,
Daddy just bumped into Bamby.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Yeah, it's not fun. They're beautiful and majestic. Well, unfortunately
they're less and less afraid of us, which seems to
be not helping them problem. And then there's a massive
deer over population problem. So I pulled a total number
of deer crashes in Massachusetts by year. I started twenty
twenty three. I went all the way back to two
thousand and two, so two thousand and two, eleven hundred
(14:12):
and four crashes, and then let's skip ahead ten years,
so twenty twelve, nineteen hundred and forty eight.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
We're going to the wrong direction.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Last year, Yeah, last year thirty eight hundred and sixty seven.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Wow, that's doubling.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Every ten years, it really is, And it's just every
year more and more and more. So there's more deal
out there.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I remember one year I was on the early morning
news and it was heading to some story at five o'clock.
Four five o'clock in the morning. Light had just come up.
It was mid November, and I looked about I don't know,
a quarter of a mile ahead, and there was this
deer that was trying to cross the road. There wasn't
much traffic, but the deer was sort of like slipping
it sliding. It was like, come ons, the deer get
(14:54):
going going? Yeah, right, the hoofs on the road. They
they the houss on a major roadway that they have
a tough time getting some traction. I've seen it in person.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
Yeah, they're skittish, uh and and they can often they
can jump really high. I have no folks who are
just driving along and a deer just launched out of
the woods like right.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Into the side of the car, like for.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
No reason apparently. So it's unsettling when it happens. Fortunately,
we haven't had a lot of fatalities from these crashes,
but they cause a lot of damage, you know, they can.
They can really be stressful, and they caused some injuries too.
You know, folks who've had the misfortune of a deer
going through the windshield. You know, that's that's an image
(15:40):
you're not gonna get out of your mind anytime soon.
You can get, you know, pretty badly hurt from that.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
So I will tell I will tell this story the
weekend of the Monday that I came in after the
deer strike. Five thousand dollars damage to the front of
my car. By the way, it was the easily damage.
And I wasn't I mean, I really wasn't going that
fast because I had slowed down thinking there was a
police officer. So I was telling the story in the
newsroom that day that following Monday, and one of my
(16:07):
colleagues I'll not identify who it was, said something like,
that's nothing, So what do you talk about nothing? My
brother was driving up in Maine and he decapitated a deer.
The deer had smashed through the windshield and landed in
the lap of his daughter, who was sitting in the
passenger front seat.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Oh that's horrifying.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
How many years of therapy has she been?
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Oh my god, don't don't player the Godfather or anything
like that.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Oh no, No.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
The other question is, how does Massachusetts compare to other
New England states. In New Hampshire, I guess they worry
about hitting moose, which can even be more US.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Yeah, you know, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I would have to do some comparisons.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
But a big.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
Problem throughout all our territory at triple in northeast. So
when we put the advisory out in mass we also
are putting on New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the
numbers are pretty much across the board going in the
same direction, and there's a lot of crash and on
all those states and the more rural parts of New
Hampshire Vermont. I think just due to the fact that
fewer people driving around, maybe they have less of an
(17:09):
issue in terms of number of crashes. But I think
the frequency, as far as the odds of hitting one,
they're certainly going to be high when you're driving in
those areas because you know it's prime territory for those creatures.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I'll tell you what worked for me. I went to
a you know, a hunting and gaming store, and those
little plastic deer horns you mount on your front bumper
they worked. They really do. They set out some sort
of a signal, you know, just a high pitch properly whistle,
(17:40):
and they're pretty cheap. They're just plastic, and I can
remember so many times driving along and realizing that there
was a deer that did not cross the road in
front of me. I would recommend, at least my experience.
I don't endures any product that I haven't used, but
I use those for three or four years and they worked,
They really did. I was out.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
I think, yeah, I think that those are maybe a
good deterrent. You got to make sure you install it correctly,
you know, and and you know, there's different types out there,
and I haven't looked into them too much myself. People
have asked me if they work, and I say, hey, look,
you know, as long as you're not covering up an
important sensor or something, and you can install it properly.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
There's no hart, just simply little plastic things. They looked
like a horn and you just yeah, they were self
glued down to you and you could take them off.
I mean, but they stayed. They stood the test of time,
and they I thought they were pretty good investment and
might have saved the deer or two along the way.
Hey Mark, thank you much. I enjoyed the conversation with
(18:37):
you as always. Triple A available folks. I'm a Triple
A member. I would advise other people to it's all
it's it's a great investment. Trust me. We use Triple
A all the time and they're great people. Absolutely, thanks Mark.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Appreciate it very much. Thanks for the kind of words, Dan,
have great night.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Well they're from the heart. Thank you much. Taking a break,
we come back when to talk with a Medicare consultant
and certified financial planner. We are getting into the Medicare
season and we have all the mustnos to avoid coverage
gaps available with Joh coming back right after the news
at the bottom of the air of My name is
Dan Ray, and you're listening to Nightside.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
All right, we are coming upon the time of year
when people who are on Medicaid or looking to get
on Medicaid have a window to apply and it's not easy.
It's not simple. I find it confusing with us. Now
is Jay Oh. He's a Medicare consultant and certified financial
planner and hopefully he's going to simplify it for us.
(19:46):
Jay Oh, welcome to nightside. How are you?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Thank you very much for having me Dan, How are
you today?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
More than welcome? Is it as confusing? I am not
on medicare, but I got to tell you, from what
I know about it, it's everyone tells me it's confusing,
am I it is? How confusing? Is it? I'll ask you.
I'll ask it to you that way, not necessarily to
you because you know it, but to the average person
(20:12):
who's going to try to get on for the first
time or renew their membership.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Sure, I think that first many people who have been
employed and have had benefits, health insurance benefits from their employer.
The issue is that they have to learn a language
that they've never really faced. They face a menu of
selections which it can seem overwhelming compared to the one
(20:40):
or two plans that you kind of get offered by
your employer. And that's it. Well, under Medicare, we've got
a lot of moving parts. We've got many, many different alternatives,
we have different checkpoints in terms of time, the rules
of medicare, eligibility, enrollment, they are complicated. Admittedly that all said,
(21:04):
I also spend time with yourselves, the public other capacities
because at the end, the quality of coverage that you
can access, at the price at which you can access
it will be very likely superior to anything that you've
(21:26):
had in the US, you know, prior to turning sixty five.
And so I don't want to be passing the message
of be frightened and be frozen. There's work to do
and things to understand. That said, the outcome very usually
is worth it.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
So first, people who for whatever reason find it complicated,
can they reach out to people like you? Are their
private medicare consultants? If you're a medicare consultant, certified financial planner.
Are there enough of those folks around the country who
can make themselves available to help people, particularly the first
(22:07):
time or does one have to be very wealthy to
even consider using the services of a medicare a consultant
and a certified financial planner.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Access to medicare is as democratic as it gets.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Pointing that everybody, yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Exactly, and access So for example, people like me, if
you're coming to us and you can see information about
my book Maximize your Medicare dot com, there's contact ability
and our consults for pure medicare are free of charge,
(22:48):
So nice.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
And do you do it you're located in Boston. We
have listeners all over the eastern half of the US.
Do you have a website? You know, whenever someone comes
on here and they are for informational services, I'd like
to try to put people in contact. And in this
day and age, the telephone still works, so.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
I don't work internetwork.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Can they get in touch with you?
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Sure? The best way is the official website for my book,
which is Maximize your Medicare dot com. And there are
tons of resources, videos in recordings of interviews kind of
similar to this. Not as good, of course as you
but you can understand my point that there are resources.
(23:40):
And every state also has something called SHIP, which is
government funded volunteer staffs Medicare guidance. Now the caveat there
is that they are not licensed. That doesn't mean that
the information is wrong. In fact, I am the ex
(24:04):
colleague of the entire group that has educated all of
them nationwide.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
One of one of the things that I learned when
I became eligible for Medicare when you become sixty five,
Unlike Social Security, where you can take it early, you
can take it late and all that with Medicare. Even
if you are going to continue to work and therefore
you do not need Medicare. You still have to sign
(24:33):
up for Medicare and get a Medicare card because if
you don't sign up, I believe that there's some penalties
that can occur at that time when you want to
go on Medicare.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
So I had spoken about complicated rules, and here's you've
mentioned one. So I wrote, that's my job.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Jay.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
I wrote an article that appears in Kiplinger, a byline
there Kiplinger, a personal finance magazine, and it is the
number one thing, especially as you rightly point out that people,
in order to get the maximum from Social Security, they delay.
(25:20):
But Medicare eligibility is still sixty five. There's a lot
of misinformation in the world about laate enrollment penalties, but
the basic guideline is that if you are the full
time employee and your employer is providing health insurance, you
(25:41):
do not need to enroll in Part B and you
will not incur a late enrollment penalty. There are many
different parts. Part A, which is the first line of
this card, that generally people do. But that's just because
(26:02):
the price is zero, right.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
But that let me I understand because I understand enough
of this to be dangerous. Let's assume someone turns sixty
five tomorrow and whatever the grace period is they choose
and they say, well, I'm still working, I'm a full
time person. I won't need Medicare or any of that
stuff until I'm probably seventy. And they wait until they're
(26:26):
seventy and then they say, Okay, I got to get
my Medicare coverage. Better get my Medicare card. Is there
not a bit of a problem that can occur if
you do not at least sign up and secure the
Medicare card, whether you avail yourself of it or not
when you do turn sixty five. If I'm wrong, please
(26:49):
correct me.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
You do not have a penalty. You do not, so
you give a way.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
So what you're saying is people do not have to
They can wait until they need Medicare. They don't have
to secure a card at sixty five. I was under
the I was under that impression. And if that's a misimpression,
thank you for correcting me.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
And you can see you're not alone in this short
little to and fro, right, which is that this the
Medicare system has a number of rules and people are
afraid of something that says penalty, and it is if
you incur it, it never ends. But this is but
(27:32):
the point here, the nuance here is that if you
have health insurance as a full time employee covered by
your employer, then no, no.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Or if you are a full time employee and you're
covered by your spouse's insurance, I also believe that that
you are protected, you're not obligated to take to pay
for Medicare. Again, that's another wrinkle. I think I'm correct
on that, but tell me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
More wrinkles, which is that as long as the spouse
is the full time employee. So, in other words, if
your spouse is retired and let's say retired early sixty
three because that person didn't like their job or they
were able to access retirement, and then you turn sixty five,
(28:23):
your spouse is retired, you cannot use her spouses or
the sixty three year olds health insurance at the time
that you turn sixty five. You need to be the
spouse of a full time employee covered by health insurance.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
In this day A number of combinations, Jay, in this
day and age is I'm sure you probably know better
than I. There are more and more people who are
working full time sixty five, and married couples are working
full time past sixty five. Both my wife and I,
you know, oh past sixty five, we're both working full time,
and in our situation, she has a better health insurance plan,
(29:02):
So I understand that. But I was always on the
impression that if you didn't get maybe there are some
circumstances that when if you don't get that Medicare card
and you sign up late, there's some penalties, which means
that we need to do this again and maybe in
the next couple of weeks and do another take on
Medicare and provide more information to people, because I thought
(29:23):
this is a this is a very helpful conversation for me,
and I hope it's been a helpful conversation with people
in my audience. Could I get you to come back
in the next couple of weeks and we'll take another
bite at the apple.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Absolutely, the number of iterations we can combinations is dizzy,
and I recognize there I'll get a better one for you.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I have a better recommendation. Why don't we plan on
doing an hour sometime in the next week or so.
If if your schedule permits, and we during this hour
we just do an interview. We don't take phone calls
from nine to twelve. Nine to midnight, we open our
phone lines, so during those hours that would allow people
to call and ask you questions. I think that might
(30:06):
even be more helpful.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
What say you, I'll make myself available, no problem.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
We'll get back in touch with it. Jay. Thank you
very much. And again, the name of your book is
Maximize your Medicare dot com, so people get a head
start on our on our next conversation. Thanks very much.
I really enjoyed this conversation, and thanks for setting me
straight on a couple of things. I am not someone
who claims to know everything about everything. You're the expert here,
(30:34):
and I appreciate you taking the time my privilege.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Dan, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
We'll talk to you soon. Okay, when we come back,
We're going to talk about a subject we all can
agree upon, and a subject there over which there is
no confusion, and that is we are in for a
beautiful mid October, mid to late October weekend weather here
in at least most of New England, and we are
gonna we're going to We talked with Brian Thompson of
(31:01):
AKI Weather. Right after this break on Nightside Stick with Us.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Well, I don't think if the weather folks are correct,
that we're ever going to have a weekend as beautiful
as these next two days, at least at this time
of year with us is Brian Thompson of AKI Weather.
AKI Weather Meteorologist Brian Thompson. Brian, it appears that this
weekend is going to be on a scale of zero
(31:35):
to ten, about a twelve and a half. What's going on.
Speaker 7 (31:38):
We have a pretty warm weather pattern shaping up, But Dan,
we've had an area of high pressure that's been sitting
off to our west for the last few days. This
what's been bringing us this dry weather. I mean, it
has been on the chili side most of the week,
but for most of the time, with the exception of
a little while yesterday afternoon and evening, we've been seeing
quite a bit of sunshine throughout the last few days.
(31:59):
But that high is going to be a shifting more
to the south as we had through the next few days,
and that's going to allow some warmer air to start
to move on in so we'll consider to see a
lot of sunshine with the high pressure area nearby. There's
been really very few clouds again, outside of the clouds
we had yesterday, there's been very few clouds last couple
of days really all across the eastern US. It's just
(32:20):
not really much cloud covering this pattern. So we're seeing
a lot of sunshine. That'll be the case all weekend long.
And we saw a little taste of that warmer air today.
We didn't get into the sixties, and many spots that
tomorrow will be up near seventy and then into the
loads to mid seventies on Sunday. Our average hires are
in the low sixties this time of year, so it's
not terribly common to have weekends this warm, this late
(32:40):
in October.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah, I mean, eventually, I assume the law of averages
would make us pay for this, but when you get
a weekend like this. We got the Head of the
Charles in Boston this weekend, which is spectacular no matter
what the weather, although then it's some soaking rains at
some of the heads ahead of the Childs races in
the past. So I missed what you said, So if
(33:03):
we do hit seventy tomorrow in a little better than
seventy with beautiful you know, sun drenched skies, you know,
beautiful blue skies. What those numbers? How far above the
average are those two numbers, Say it's seventy tomorrow and
seventy five on Sunday.
Speaker 7 (33:21):
Yeah, the average tomorrow and Sunday or sixty one degrees,
they're going to be a good ten to fifteen degrees
above that. In fact, Sunday we won't be all that
far from the record high, which is seventy nine set
back in nineteen sixty nine. The record high tomorrow is
eighty four, so it can still get warm this time year.
A lot of the record highs are still in the eighties.
But this isn't just a one or two day thing.
(33:43):
We're going to see those highs in the seventies continue
likely into Monday as well.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Well. Of course Monday, most people are going back to work.
So that's why I like to focus on Saturday and Sunday. Now.
In addition to that, good news for people who are
not Patriots fans, because the Patriots play early on Sunday
morning in that game over in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars,
which means that the guys who are football fans and
(34:12):
want to stay ensconsed in front of that TV set
to watch the Patriots, that game will be over by
about twelve fifteen, twelve thirty. And at that point, guys,
I think that if the ladies in the family, the
kids in the family are looking to go apple picking
or taking a hike, you're not going to have a
(34:33):
Patriots game as that excused to stay indoors.
Speaker 7 (34:37):
No, and it is going to be warming up quickly.
I think by noontime could very well be in the
low seventies already. This is a pattern, especially with how
dry it's been the last few days, that the nights
will be relatively cool still and the knights will still
generally be in the forties to near fifty, but by
mid to late afternoon we're talking about highs at or
(34:58):
above seventy.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
So then here's my question. I was told I read
an article actually this week that they said the leaf
peeping was insane last weekend. People were out there in
the woods. They had annoyed you. I'm sure you read
some of that, and I guess they had a significant
not twenty inches but they had a real, actual first
snowfall up on the top of Mount Washington. You're a
(35:21):
weather guy. I'm sure you can give me more information
about that. How does that juxtapose with what we're doing
here this weekend? If last weekend the snowflakes were falling
on Mount Washington, what's going on?
Speaker 7 (35:32):
Yeah, it's it's quite the change. And last weekend was
quite the range. All across the northeast. You get down
toward Philadelphia and Baltimore, it was pushing eighty degrees last weekend.
And here we were in the fifties, if you remember,
it was kind of cloudy. It was even in the
forties of times, with the kind of a damp feel
to the air. And as you got far enough north
through the White Mountains over toward the Adirondacks, too, a
(35:55):
lot of places had accumulating snow. And I was reading
the same things you were of people are unprepared for that.
You know, it's it's been relatively mild of late, and
then you go up into the mountains and it's it
is mid October. These things can happen.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
People. People were in flip flops and clocks and stuff
like that. The other thing real quickly. I got to
ask you, is for the first time, some of the
weather people this week had pointed out those I call
them like the blanket clouds. They almost look like whipped
cream clouds or something like that. I forget what the
name of them are, but apparently that's a rear sight.
And I actually saw some of those yesterday. What what's
(36:33):
what are those clouds? I hate to put you on
the spot here.
Speaker 7 (36:35):
But I guess i'd have to see a picture of it.
I don't know offhand what you're what you're.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Okay, it almost looked like the clouds look like ocean waves.
Oh okay, that they you know, normally you see you know,
the cumulus and the cirrus and all of that. But
there was this, uh, this cloud formation, which apparently the
atmosphere has to be just certain, and they were people
actually sending and pictures of it. Uh. And this morning
(37:02):
when I went out door as I saw that for
the first time. We'll save that for another night, Brian, Thanks,
thank you much. Man Hey enjoying the weekend. I hope
you're off and I hope you're not on duty.
Speaker 7 (37:14):
I'm on duty Sunday morning. But but like the Patriots fans.
I'll be out in the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
You can watch the Teatriots game where I know that.
Thanks Brian, we'll talk Sooneray, all right, weaken back. We're
gonna give you an opportunity to have your dreams analyzed. Yeah,
how about that. We have a PhD psychologist, but he's
also a dream researcher. He's director of the Sleep and
(37:38):
Dream Database. You can tell us what your crazy dreams are, Ben,
or what your recurring dreams are, and we'll get them
analyzed for you. All you gotta do is call the
number six one, seven thirty. We will be back right
after the nine o'clock news. Aero Night Side
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