Retire In Style Blog Too

I did love this so much. Have a wonderful day. b+

If you believe that global warming is a myth, do you feel free to pollute more? I wonder. What were you thinking and doing before "global warming" became a catchphrase for political purposes? Did you even pay any attention to what was going on and how things looked? We drove big cars, burned coal in our stoves and furnaces, took no notice of what industry was doing to our rivers and lakes. We scatters papers on the sides of roadways and in our National Park. Humans were wasting our earth resources at the speed of light. Back when we thought our earth was so big that nothing we did could harm it, did we even think about what we were doing? That is how pollution crept up on us and began to kill our planet one small drop at a time. The world went into denial because doing anything would be very hard. The sky was really not blue anymore was it? The other day I took a good look around. The sky was blue...it was amazing how pure the air looked and felt. We took a road trip yesterda...

My Mother and Father on my wedding day. In today's world we have found a million way to replace almost every human endeavor. Robots, daycare, machines and even driverless cars are all around us. It is hard to imagine that any person in our life would essential to our survival. But there was a time when the people around us were there for the purpose of keeping us alive and well. Today I am thinking about my beautiful father. I could use all those superlative that people use when they describe their parent both bad and good. But that is not what this about. This about the reality of life during a time when humans were essential to us...remember? My dad loved ice cream in the middle of a half cantaloupe and he shook the sand out of his shoes in the middle of the living room floor. He made kites and wrestled with grandchildren but never hurt them. His smile was full of mischief and his heart was full of love. And, without him in my young life my mother and I would not have survived in...

It always surprises me how the people that write greeting cards manage to come up with the perfect words. Honestly, I am continually inspired by their talent. My son's son graduated from high school this last week and of course we are so proud of him. We wanted to find the perfect card for him so he would know how we felt about him and what he is doing. This is what we found. Congratulation  on  Your High School Graduation from  Your life long cheerleaders!  I thought that described how we felt and what our role is better than any card we have given in recent years. Our grandson knows that Grandfather and Grandmother are his best cheerleaders. It is important to know that your family is on your side even when they are out of sight. 7 years ago they all looked like this. Two have graduated from college, one is in an engineering masters program, one from beauty school, one is in college and. another in the marines. The two smallest are just growing up. Two had not been...

It really doesn't matter! This is the third age you are about to enter. You can travel or not this year and do something totally different next year. This is the time in your life when you are given the freedom to change your mind. How cool is that! But if you decide to travel this year or for the rest of your life and you have a partner in life, you need to make sure that you are both on the same page in the playbook. You need to make soup and talk to each other. It is important. If we decide to become snowbirds, how can we abandon our family? You fill in the blanks here but it is something you need to face. What are we going to do with all that time? All retirees are faced with the inevitable time together 24/7. Being a snowbird is the perfect answer to getting away from all your friends and family. You can build this new stage in your life into something you have both dreamed of in a fresh environment. You need to find dreams you can share so talk...A LOT. Air those dreams out i...

I prefer fresh air whipped around by wind turbines! You know how the smell of freshly baked pie or green grass freshly mown can bring back memories so strong and wonderful? I like those things too but the smells that bring back memories for me are not quite that delicious. See, I like the smell of tar being applied to the roof of a house or the smell of turpentine that cleans paint brushes. I like the smell of coal going into the furnace and I can see the klinker we removed when that coal burned hot and dirty. I spent the first 6 years of my life in a house directly across from a cement plant that emitted dust that killed every plant within many miles. There were no regulations then. But I have such fond memories of those smells.  Those are Summer and Winter and home and clean walls for me. Even the smell of fumes from the lawn mower or diesel fuel used to power railroad trains remind me of my youth in a small village. It all brings back a time when life was simple and light. I sup...

Believe me… everyone around you is sick of hearing it. You are sick of hearing it!     Pink Lilli  -  Bad Gramma I need to have cards printed and give them to my children/friends. The cards will say You Already Told Me That.  They can simply hold them up at the appropriate moment and I will shut up. While I do have a wealth of good stories, they are not infinite...not at all. Therein lies the problem. I was reading a blog from Midlife Women recently about letting go of our victim stories . I am gathering that I am not the only one that seems to retell stories. And, as I thought about it, it turns out two of those much repeated stories are victim stories. Why is that? Does it make me feel sanctimonious or even superior? Maybe. Honestly...no I mean honestly, I really have only two victim stories that I can talk about. That is all I have ever experience or noticed in my whole life. It could be that that is very remarkable. I have told and retold those stories unti...