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Yesterday was Groundhog Day, and Punxsutawney that this is a broad topic, so we’ll plan to devote sev-
Phil saw his shadow. (Big news these days….) Ac-
cording to folklore, this means six more weeks of
winter. I’ll settle for that if spring shows up during
the seventh week…….
I hope you and your loved ones are safe and sound.
Illinois residents in Phase 1b (which fits many of us
in LCACE) are starting to get vaccinations, so eligi- positions and include president, vice-president, sec-
ble members may be getting a call before too long.
(Please be sure that you are on somebody’s eligibil-
ity list. In our last newsletter I provided info about
signing up on AllVax, the Lake County Health De-
partment priority list. More recently, I have
learned that Advocate Aurora Health (which covers
multiple hospitals in northeastern Illinois and south
eastern Wisconsin) is notifying patients when their
turn comes for a shot at one of their hospitals. If
you have been a patient at one of their hospitals or
see one of their affiliated doctors, you should be in
their system. For everyone else, I suggest you
check with your doctor for suggestions about
where / how to get on a priority list.
Looking ahead, we expect to be doing virtual LCACE
meetings through at least June. When I reached
out to the Grayslake State Bank of the Lakes about
availability of their meeting room for our July pic-
nic, I was told that their meeting room is currently
not available to anyone for meetings, so we’ll have
to wait and see if things open up by July. (I’m not
counting on it.)
Our upcoming virtual
meetings will be at 1:00 pm
th
th
on February 13 , March 13 ,
th
th
April 10 , May 8 and June
th
12 . At our January meeting
a suggestion was made to dis-
cuss the best ways to organ-
ize our digital files – docu-
ments, photos, music, email, etc. etc. We agreed
February 2021 3
eral meetings to this important task – starting with
our February meeting. J.J. is working on a presenta-
tion about the pros and cons of all-in-one desktop
computers; we’ll fit that into the first-half schedule
as well. Also, we are scheduled for election of offic-
ers in April. We’ll be asking for volunteers and nomi-
nations at the March meeting. (These are two-year
retary, treasurer, program chair, publicity chair and
membership chair.) Please give some thought about
how you could put your talents and interests to good
use as an LCACE officer; feel free to nominate your-
self in March.
Having fielded some questions in the past about low-
cost mobile service providers (and recently made
some personal changes in this regard), here are
some of my experiences……
My original cellular provider was Virgin Mobile,
which I used for many years back in the flip phone
era and my early smartphone experience. Along the
way, I ran across Tracfone Wireless, a subsidiary of
Mexico’s largest telecommunications company
which offers not only the Tracfone brand, but also
Straight Talk, SIMPLE Mobile, Total Wireless, Walmart
Family Mobile, and NET10 Wireless.
I’ve been using Tracfone for
at least one of our phones
for years and have found
them to be the cheapest
option for low-usage cus-
tomers. The Basic Plan that
I have been using offers 90
days of service for $19.99.
It used to include 60
minutes of calling, 60 text messages and 60 MB of
data – which were typically tripled if you bought or
brought a smartphone. (Unused minutes, texts and
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