u/Personal-Comment-457

I've been listening a lot in the car and while working in the yard. They have to program material (no commercials, only station identification or whatever it's called, 5 seconds, every 2 songs or so) 24/7 and it's a limited amount of songs. So I'm fine with the solo works being included. Hep Stars material is ok (even their version of Silent Night, in Swedish; the oddest part was hearing it in July). I even appreciate Benny Anderssons orkester. Hootenanny Singers songs are good for a change of pace. I can take a Gemini cover of a B/B song. I'll even put up with an Agnetha duet with Peter Cetera.

What I can't stand is the Mamma Mia soundtrack songs. I've not seen the movies and I won't. Amanda Seyfried has an ok voice but I don't need to hear her interpretations. And Meryl Streep I don't need to hear at all. The music is a poor imitation of the ABBA recordings, I find every song annoying. I have to turn to something else when the soundtrack music comes on.

The people who came to know ABBA through the movies and then through GOLD probably don't want to hear Agnetha's and Frida's solo work (particularly the older stuff in Swedish). If you want to hear Pierce Brosnan do his thing then fire up Spotify or something.

https://preview.redd.it/5wsgcdigkgah1.jpg?width=2464&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bb784577291dc108b8fa4d7b43890dd2308bb987

Unflattering photo but I applaud Agnetha's professionalism. Staying good and maybe getting better.

Not fading, even more of a fan now. Could not STAND Chiquitita or The Day Before You Came when I first heard them, now I'm whistling the tunes absentmindedly (which is often the case for me with new songs from any artist). Medley is pretty tough to take, a word came into my head on first listen: Sacrilegious. But I'll give it time. Throughout the catalog, I really love it when the girls sing "uh huh" and "ah ha", it's done very well (and often), they are excellent singers and very well recorded and mixed.

M/69 married. Just revised our wills, descendants are satisfied with their shares. We've lived comfortably so far for 3 years on Social Security retirement and my wife's pension without dipping into savings. Her pension + SS are approximately the amount of my SS payments.

House and cars are paid for, no debt. About $800k in assets.

I have a $100k term policy that expires Nov 2029.

I also have a $150,000 Penn Mutual Accumulation Builder Flex IUL, a Flexible Premium Indexed Adjustable Life Insurance policy with these riders:

- Chronic Illness Accelerated Benefit Rider

- Accelerated Death Benefit Rider

The annual premium on this Penn Mutual policy is $4,637.

As of today, the Penn policy value is $14,266 and net cash surrender value is $11,242.

-Why do I need this Penn policy? Should I cash out or continue to pay premiums? My wife does not like or want the policy and hates the premium payments.

Not inside (2 cats; if they should get sick I'll never hear the end of it even if they got sick after the lawn was sprayed from something other than the pesticide) Prefer a local company. Any recommendations?

Price and turnaround. Maximum Outdoor??

m/69 continuing my delightful "discovering" of just how good ABBA really was. Since January I've listened to the Sirius XM ABBA station nearly every day. Weeks ago while working in the yard I'd hear Super Trouper and realize that it was from the live LP (presumably it's Bjorn at the end asking if they want to hear an oldie, one of their oldest). No applause or crowd noise until the end so I was surprised again and again that it was live. Frida's vocal is SO good. What a pleasure. I noted that she sings "I called you" in the live version and "you called me" on the studio version, which is also good but pales in comparison to the live track, I think.

M69 with age spots (liver spots, as they used to be more accurately called). I used a Chinese made retinol cream with poor results. Switched to Neutrogena Rapid Tone Repair Retinol + Vitamin C Dark Spot Corrector Face Serum, Daily Anti-Wrinkle Dark Spot Corrector, thought I was making progress at first but I'm disappointed. Dermatologist said I have to have a retinol product, it's the only thing that really works. I use sunscreen and stay out of the sun as much as possible. Retinol does not irritate my skin, no redness or peeling. I'd like a product with a higher %. Any recommendations? I'll do before/after photos.

I'm 69/m, never was an ABBA fan. Beatles, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Joe Walsh/Eagles etc. Of course I heard ABBA on the radio, Waterloo, SOS etc. Ok but odd, Swede girl vocals, nothing to get excited about. I don't recall hearing them on the radio much after 1975. So several months ago, driving in the car with Sirius/XM 70's on 7, I heard Knowing Me, Knowing You. I was familiar with it, but it struck me as a pretty good record so I put it on my YouTube playlist. Listened to it regularly and I was surprised by the deep sadness of the lyrics (included in the video) and the musicality of the record, it's really good. YouTube suggested another video, can't remember what, and back to Waterloo again (good) and what's this Ring, Ring, that's pretty good too. Then it steamrolled. I've been listening to The ABBA Station on the Sirius/XM app every day since. Bought Palm's biography Bright Lights, Dark Shadows and enjoyed it quite a lot. Bought the double CD The Definitive Collection and I listen to that in the other car that doesn't have XM or ApplePlay. Had to confess to my wife that I'm into ABBA, she stared at me. She's ok with it, not a big fan, prefers Dave Matthews Band. Seriously, I'm deep into this and enjoying it all, it's fantastic. The XM app " artist stations" play other related artists too. For ABBA, lots of 70's Bee Gees (I'm ok with it) and Olivia Newton-John (becoming a fan!), Carpenters (I'd already heard Karen sing on XM and she does have a beautiful voice that you can't appreciate on AM radio, love to hear it but I despise Richard trying to horn in on things with his tinkley piano all the time), Neil Diamond (hell no), Air Supply (F*** NO) etc. Benny consistently worked very hard on the music and Bjorn usually did well with English lyrics. The girls' vocals are really good, the arrangements overall impress me over and over again. The recordings themselves are also remarkable, Michael Tretow was probably indispensable. Really well done. I'll close with this: I emailed my older sister to confess I'm into ABBA and they're so good etc. She wrote back and said essentially to save it, she recently already heard all about ABBA and how underrated they are from our brother! That was weird, I haven't spoken to him in 6 months and not about music in years. Question: I have the singles. Which ABBA album overall has the best album cuts that weren't played on the radio? I guess I could buy them all but I want to start at the top and work down.