The next time you go to a live concert, don’t forget to bring the ear plugs. I’m serious. Over the years I’ve attended a number of concerts ranging from hard rock to country to contemporary Christian. The one thing they all had in common is that the music was so loud I wouldn’t get my hearing back until noon the next day. A friend recommended the ear plugs tip to me and it works great. Believe it or not, you can still hear the music really well even with the foam pieces in your ear canals. This past Friday night I attended the Carrie Underwood/Keith Urban concert in Gwinnett. The music was almost too loud even with the ear plugs!

A couple of weeks ago Jim Potts woke up to the sound of his wife yelling at something. He ran downstairs and discovered that his wife was facing off against an angry possum on their back porch. The possum had taken up residence on one of their lawn chairs and was baring his teeth and growling whenever the wife or the family dog got near it.

Not wanting to shoot the animal in front of his family, Jim came up with a brilliant idea on how to get rid of it. He had recently seen where the U.S. military has been using blaring heavy metal music in combat to disorient and subdue the enemy. Jim decided to try it on the possum. He opened one of the windows to the back porch and put a speaker there. He cranked the music and within minutes the possum was gone and hasn’t been seen since.

Last week I shared a tip recommending that you make keepsakes like concert tickets into bookmarks by laminating them. Brenda Layne shared with me that she does something similar. She laminates mementos of the previous year (like her husband’s birthday party invitation) and puts them on the Christmas tree. Great idea!

Here’s another laminating tip: laminate your Medicare card. Medicare cards can easily get roughed up and dirty. Laminating the cards can greatly extend their life. Just make sure you round the sharp edges. Sharon Osur is the senior citizen who gave me this tip. She said that she’s been using the laminated card for years without any problems. If you don’t want to try to laminate it yourself, take the card to one of the many shipping stores.

And while I’m on tips for my senior readers, consider this one. Instead of buying rubber tips for your walking stick, consider putting a piece of duct tape on the end of it instead. Clark Franks has been doing this for some time and swears by it.