Retire In Style Blog Too

by b+ Clematis in my Oregon yard. I will be fine but I just had some time on my hands and I thought I would let you feel my suffering. :>) Those of us that are retired can have a lot of time on our hands. Even though we fill calendars with dates for activities, it just doesn't seem to be enough to keep us from over thinking just about everything. Because each and every event in our lives involves interaction with other people that share our life experience, even when we are busy, there is always time to commiserate with those around us. It is very true that misery love company. Take our spouses for example. No matter how long you have been married, if you are not on your honeymoon, you have a litany to share with everyone around you. And those you share with have a litany of their own. Then there is our aches and pains. Each day could bring stories of a stiff shoulder or weak ankle if we wanted. I had a friend that called this the "organ recital". He heard it every Sat...

Need to begin thinking about gifts for the retiree on your list? Here is the best that I could find. Let me know what you think. It seems to me that grandparents are getting younger all the time! I find it true in our RV resort and here in our 55+ neighborhood in Oregon.  And since Christmas is on the way I think you need to keep in mind that what you want they want too. Crocheting has long since gone out of style and lifelong learning is in. Keep that in mind when you buy gift! Fitbit from Amazon A pedometer  would be fun. A Fitbit is a wonderful device. If your parents or grandparents or are walking, why not give them a Fitbit so they can keep track of the miles they go each month. Walking made fun is good. I cannot tell you how many women I talk to regret the fact that their spouse cannot waltz or tango. How about dance lesson as a couples gift.  Even a dance lesson video might be fun. I think my husband and I would be more willing to try this first. I...

Isn't it funny how little experiences can change your whole approach to life? That time you were almost slammed into on the street making a left hand turn has you never turning left again. See what I mean? The first time my husband and I visited Mexico many years ago, we were in Puerto Penasco. Even though the gulf was blue and people were lovely, the 10,000 plastic bags and Styrofoam boxes that were hiding under the cactus and hanging from every bush and telephone line had us wondering about plastic in general. We came home fearful for how the landscape everywhere in the world was going to look if we continued to waste everything we lay our hands on. Then the recycle/reuse became a way of life. Plastic bags were replaced by market bags and styrofoam was banned. But, as hard as we tried to avoid bringing bags home, we would still end up with plastic bags that we couldn't in good conscience throw away. So we started in saving them, bags inside bags hung over more bags inside mor...

No, I am not gone forever...maybe you didn't even notice my absence. In that case ignore this post if you like. Does it always surprise you when the seasons change? Do you say things like "Oh my goodness there is such  a nip in the air! It can't be fall already." I do that as though fall has never come and gone before since the beginning of time. Now that we travel back and forth to Arizona from Oregon and the back from Arizona to Oregon every year, you would think that it would be smooth sailing and not a big deal. You would think. I am here to tell you nothing could be further from the truth. It is never totally smooth. First of all I am surprised that it is time to go and cannot remember what to do or what to take or what I left behind. Surprise surprise surprise! Rain in Oregon as we left! This year I woke up the morning we were leaving sick as a dog. We had reservations for three night down the road and there I was...yuck. What did we do? you ask. Well my husband...

My granddaughter did have her baby...after 25 hours in labor. I tell you what, this little person did not want to leave the warm comfort afforded to her for nine months (going on three years) inside her mama's womb. Labor began early Friday morning and lasted until the next day. There was a lot of serious drama and I asked the future grandmother to keep me in the loop. Sometime early Saturday morning night she sent me this text...be sure to notice the emoji at the end: She had just told me that the exhausted mom and dad were sleeping for a bit. She, on the other hand, was an anxious mess waiting on the other side of the room. The baby was not taken until several hours later. When they decided to do a cesarean, it was less than 15 minutes until she was born.  Everyone, including Grandma and Grandpa, are doing fine. The baby is beautiful. Embry Jayde, 7+ lbs at birth We are all smitten to say the least. You can now call me Great Grandmother Barbara and my husband is GGpa. How co...

One of my grandchildren, the 8 year old, was talking about that time he was being built in his mommy's tummy. How long do you suppose it took to build that little boy? Was it only 9 months because it sure seemed like a lot longer than that to me. Early July...arrow pointing at the baby being built is her tummy! The eight year old is the little guy with the broken arm. My dear granddaughter is in the last weeks of her pregnancy which I feel like may have gone on for 3 years already. That poor dear child has suffered from morning sickness for all of that time and she is not consoled when someone tells her that morning sickness makes for a healthy baby. She is not buying it right now. As for me I am wondering how long it takes...come one baby, we want to meet you. Don't be shy. It will be okay. See here is the thing for those of us that came from a time when we did not know that we were pregnant officially until a rabbit died or a doctor could feel something growing in the womb, k...

Boy that title is a mouthful but it says it all. It is raining and there are only so many ways you can say "it is raining". My husband likes to talk about the weather although not as much as he used to. It turns out, even in retirement, weather talk can be boring! Oregon...beautiful, wet, cold, dark...take your pick! My husband is looking at vacations spots, searching our timeshares and considering airline tickets to places we will never go. It is getting a little dangerous to be trapped in our house...at least financially. Arizona...see what I mean? We were going to stay until our granddaughter had her baby (and I still want to do that) but we may not make it. The cold and dark is very hard on us both. AND we cannot afford to shop all the time. Wish us luck! b+

It was just a normal Tuesday in Portland Oregon.  A #clown sighting didn't even cause the sighter to call 911 and he was trying to get into her car! Several years ago I flew home to Oregon without a suitcase. I was sure that I had enough clothes in my closet to stay decently covered for a couple of days. It turned out I didn't. That began the curious incident of the grandma clad like a clown running back and forth between her house and her daughters. No police were involved. Well, actually her daughter IS a policeman so I guess there is that. Now it seems that clowns have appeared across our country and they are scaring the holy c*#%p out of people. (Maybe the clown people don't have anything else to wear. I understand that.) As a result, blog posts are turning away from election rants to talk about clowns. We have had a couple of sightings here in Oregon. One was in Redmond (central Oregon) and that probably turned a few heads and did scare the people that were involved. B...

I don't care about the 900,000,000+ loss on Trump 1995 tax return. I care about how Trump might make the world a better place. It turns out that so much of the stuff that is suppose to be shocking isn't...not anymore. After living through so many elections and political conjuring I am past even raising an eyebrow. I did not care about Bill Clinton's sex scandal...I didn't care and I certainly didn't want to know. History had shown me that the ego of a president leads him to do stupid things in their private life. It has always been so. I did not care about the moral majority nearly as much as I should have. I was insulted when they implied that I was going to hell but not that much. I don't believe in hell so what the heck. And I do not care that Donald Trump is such a bad business man that he lost  $915,729,293  in 1995. He has big problems but it is the way that business is done in his bad banking circle of friends. (I will care if he is elected and does that ...