Brabec Bulletin Tidbits on Life
March 16, 2026
Amazon’s Secret Vault for Discounted Items
Lower Cost Medicare Health Insurance Plans
Not Seeing the Bigger Picture
Repurpose Used Clothing to Help Others
Tap Dancing Pro & Prodigy Videos
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Amazon’s Secret Vault for Discounted Items
This tip from Kim Komando was in her January 24 newsletter, which I've found very useful in staying on top of how technology is changing everything. I'm a regular Amazon shopper, but I'd never heard about their “secret vault sales” before.
Kim Komando exposes the buried sections of Amazon where Black Friday deals never end. Learn how to locate the secret Outlet and Resale pages to score premium tech for a fraction of the price. Discover why Amazon hides these links and how to shop certified open-box returns for 80% off retail.
Lower Cost Medicare Health Insurance Plans
When Allstate, my supplemental insurance company, told me my new monthly cost would be $344, I was understandably upset with the agent who put me in this program. So I called a different agent at Mature Health Services that I'd worked with before. I couldn't believe it when I learned my good health qualified me for a supplemental plan from Banker's Fidelity, designed for seniors in their eighties, with a monthly cost that would save me $118/month.
You may not need this insurance, but I'll bet some of you are 65 or older, or have parents or relatives who might want to get a quote for a supplemental insurance plan for seniors in their 80s, or for one of their other Medicare plans.
To contact the Mature Health agent who was so helpful to me, call 847-934-1515 and ask for Eve Goodrick and say I sent you. Happy hunting!
Not Seeing the Bigger Picture
(What I learned after buying a new mattress.)
I recall the time a friend told me about a problem that had taken him a long time to solve. He said, “I finally realized I was focusing too much on the problem and not seeing the bigger picture.” I knew what he meant because I’d just experienced that kind of situation. I’d bought a new mattress, one much deeper than my old mattress, with the result being that with the box spring under it, the bed was so high my feet couldn’t touch the floor when I was sitting on it; were, in fact, six inches off the floor. I could no longer sit down in the right spot to lie down.
I hate change, especially change that inconveniences me. So I immediately began to think in terms of making some kind of step that I could step on to get in and out of bed so I could dress more easily with my feet on the “floor,” so to speak. But all the step options were either cumbersome or would have been hazardous, as I would surely have tripped over them in the dark coming back from the bathroom.
After getting advice from three of my friends on the kind of step that would work and coming up empty, I mentioned my problem to a friend who was familiar with my house and my aging needs.
“Why don’t you just set the bed directly on the floor and get rid of the bed frame?” he said.
“Duh!” I said. “What brilliant thinking!”
Talk about focusing on the problem and not seeing the bigger picture. I already knew the bed frame was seven inches off the floor because I had explored the idea of just removing the roller wheels (which would have lowered it only an inch at most). So when we removed the bed frame and put the box spring directly on the floor and added the mattress, we ended up with a bed that was about the same height as my old bed, and I was in seventh heaven with my feet back on the floor.
Only my cat was unhappy then, because she could no longer crawl under my bed when she didn’t want to be found.
Repurpose Used Clothing to Help Others
If you live in California, Delaware, Illinois, Pennsylvania, or Washington, the Cancer Federation invites your donation of used clothing and household discards. They will convert these items to cash proceeds that are utilized to fund their programs. You can arrange for a pickup of your donated items in the states above by calling the phone numbers in this article. Cancer Federation’s representatives will arrange for a pickup at your location and leave a donation receipt for your tax-deductible gift.
If you live in other states and have good used clothing you no longer want, this New York Times article offers suggestions for how to responsibly donate and repurpose your castoffs.
Tap Dancing Pro & Prodigy Videos
I love tap dancers, and for years I followed every step taken by Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. I still watch the movies they made, along with all the other tap dancers featured in musicals I first saw in the fifties. I’m always glad to discover yet another tap dance to enjoy.
After seeing an amazing video of six-year-old Luke Spring dancing with his teacher in the 2016 D.C. Tap festival, I searched for more info and found that Luke is now 24 and is realizing his dream of becoming a professional. If you like tap dancing, this child prodigy is someone you might want to follow because he may well be one of Broadway’s newest stars someday. This video link shows Luke at six, dancing with his instructor, Justin Lewis. A short video of Luke, nine years later, is here.
Luke’s instructor, Justin Lewis, is a professional rhythmic tap dancer, also known as a “Hoofer.” He has been dancing since the age of 5, and his website, The Lewis Concept, includes several videos of his students dancing alone and with others. Notice that today’s tap dancers are using their arms and bodies in ways much different from the body movements Kelly and Astaire did. Now it seems that choreography is more important than the tap dancing itself.
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