Retire In Style Blog Too

b+ I was just reading an article written for a website called Medium . It was called I'm Saying Wrong Things on the Internet . The website is not important (although it was very enticing). The quote I bring to you today went like this: You can’t get it right until you get it wrong. The premise for the article was that doing is the best way to learn. The writer was a programmer that had tried using lessons provided by some very prestigious company. The lessons were incomprehensible so they decided to jump into the pool and just do it learning as they went along. Like inexperienced blogger or writer that has not put in their 10,000 hours, they made mistakes. But here on the internet we all know that someone, somewhere will call us on a mistake or misstatement especially if they see their field threatened by some beginner. And that is what much more experienced programmers did. They pointed out the errors and the beginner learned. Most bloggers are learning as they go along...after al...

My friend Jack just bought himself his very first Apple iPad. He is like an older brother to me so I need to make sure that he has the benefit of my advice. He has been a PC user up until now. He had to let us know because he had been holding out for about 6 years. I suppose that in some weird parallel universe we had won...we have never owned anything but an Apple computer. I did own a Nokia cell phone once but that doesn't count...the iPhone had not been invented yet. Apple is kind of a religion with us I suppose. Anyway... Water droplet Screen Saver He is not the first of our friends to relent and every time someone buys one they beat a hot little path to our door. It just seems so confusing to them. But I will have to admit that the iPad is a bit of a mystery to me too. I haven't ever really taken full advantage of what it can do for me. I learn something new all the time, especially when I am teaching them. There are a few simple things that I need to point out to Jack so ...

Note: Feeling old? You have to read or reread this blog post called Don't Act Old . I even laughed at it and I wrote it. When I received a comment from Mary on yesterday's post about the Peter Pan Syndrome and the need to remain young forever, I stopped in my tracks. Here is what she said: If you are going to be a dino at least be scarey! This was a great post. I just retired last year, but I am just the opposite of the retiree who wants to stay forever young. It was actually retirement that brought me to the point where I could face the aging process head on and become who I really wanted to be. It was while I was still working that I did 'all the right things' to stay young. I can sit back now and see how hard it was on me. My oldest co-worker was 20 years my junior. I was of another generation than everyone else, and I worked so hard to fit in that I forgot about who I am. Today I am comfortable with me.   Mary She took me back to a  blog post  I wrote back in 200...

illustration of Lost Boys, Wendy, Peter Pan (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I was tempted to see if anyone else has had this thought before I began writing but I decided that it didn't really matter. I need to talk about this with you. The question is Do all new retirees and boomers becoming obsessed with the idea that they might remain young forever? Are they, in fact, wanting to return to Neverland and live like Peter Pan and the Lost Boys? I went through that phase when I retired and moved to our winter home in Arizona for six months of every year. It seemed that living in a cloistered world with other retirees, most of them much older than myself, gave me the freedom to be young again...in my case it may be that I was actually young for the first time. Who knows? What I do know is that I felt like I had found Neverland. I even talked about the "pods" in the pool that those people in the movie Cocoon swam with. Remember, those alien pods were like the fountain of youth. Y...

He was very proud of the process he used to make the chocolate products he sold. Our hosts are Casa Mia Suites were the absolute best! In the end it is always the people that stay with you. Whether it is a train ride to the Portland Pearl District or a weeks stay in San Miguel de Allende  in Mexico, the adventure always has a face. In the case of San Miguel, my husband continued a tradition we started in Spain over 10 years ago when I took a picture of the waiter at a restaurant in the Alhambra. Since that time we have accumulated photos of people from around the world...and the USA. Here are a few we took this last week in Mexico: Chocolate and a smile! He was very gallant and sweet...I liked that a lot. Taken at the  San Augustin Chocolates & Churros I think the scent of chocolate came home with us and even permeated our clothing.  Oaxacan  rug maker came to town once every 3 months. We bought one of his creations. He was grateful for a sale and patted me ...

I will never forget standing at our window watching the fireworks a few blocks away lighting the night sky.  T he declaration for freedom that the Mexican people dreamed of was announced from the front of the Cathedral. Hand rung bells in the tower continued for a half an hour of more. It was glorious. A bride and her husband led a parade followed by... ... ...a band of men singing and a wedding party all dressed in white, each taking photos with their smart phones! I am not accustomed to beautiful horses ridden by beautiful men arriving for no reason at all (that I knew of!) We have been here almost 7 days now. Tomorrow we will travel back to a hotel near the airport close to Leon. We have wandered through neighborhoods and poked our head is so many portals I have lost count. It has taken this long for use to begin to appreciate the uniqueness of this beautiful city. This morning we were awoken with fireworks at 5 am or earlier...who knows. We jumped because it seemed as thou...

When John Scherber allowed me to reprint an  article  about an expat's life in San Miguel de Allende , I did not dream that we would actually come to San Miguel de Allende. Not only had I not been aware that it existed, I did not imagine that it would be hard (and expensive) to get here or that it was actually an beautiful as it is.  Not that I doubted John but it took the top rating from Conde Nast and an article in the NYT to convince me that this might be worth taking what travel time my husband and I have left to come to this part of Mexico. San Miguel de Allende has been a expatriates dream come true for almost 50 years and was founded around 500 years ago. It was designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site. But as the NYT's article points out, it is the contrast of the new sophisticated San Miguel with the very old Mexican traditions that makes it such a charming place to be. Times said think of a mango next to paprika and turmeric. In the article written by...

Honestly, we don't plan this sort of thing. Because we are not Mexican Citizens we did not realize that when we made reservations for our vacation, we would be arriving in San Miguel Allende on Mexican Independence Day. Really, we need to start paying closer attention....or not. See, the wonderful thing about running around blindly is that you do run into some very cool things. That is what happened to us today. We arrived in San Miguel this afternoon. This beautiful old city was in the midst of a huge celebration. Today is Mexican Independence Day! Paper flags hung over the streets and a crowd had gathered in the plaza in front of the cathedral. Stages were set up for performances and for speeches and singing of the national anthem. It was, in fact just amazing and beautiful. If I were to compare it to our 4th of July, it actually seemed like a lot more fun. The center of the city was alive and businesses remained open for shopping. Restaurants were crowed and this evening the ce...

Outliers: The Story of Success I pretty sure that Malcolm Gladwell did not invent the 10,000 hours notion. But that is where I read about the theory that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. In the book Outliers he told about the Beatles skill in music being related to the time they played for 8 hours a day while employed in Hamburg.  The whole concept just boggles the mind. Just think how much time you would have to spend at the keyboard, for example, to master your typing skill and to become a proficient writer. I have been writing for about 8 years now (I think). Even if I spent 2 hours writing 7 days a week, 365 days a year for those 8 years I would not even be half way there. And I have not done that...no 2-hours-7-days-a-week-365-days-a-year...not even close. But I find that very comforting in many ways. My expectation or even disappointments are tempered by the fact that I, although I have given a lot of time to writing, am not close to being as good at it as I will be w...