Retire In Style Blog Too

I have been reading a blog written by a nurse about aging. She is 97 now I believe and has just written her 100th post. Her website's name is Engaging with Age . Here is a woman that wondered what we all wonder: is this the way it is with most people...am I developing in my old age at normal pace or not? I am 78 years old and have writing about this subject for many years. She decided back in 2017 to start recording the markers of Age Related Changes (ARC). She was 95 at the time and really had not paid attention to her age up until that time. Then one day she got up on a birthday and realized she was 95 years old. She began to wonder about aging and what were normal age related changes. Curiosity sent her out to find books or articles that would tell her about what those changes would be and, I suppose, when those changes would be developmentally appropriate. I am finding it fascinating. This summer I had occasion to visit with a doctor at OHSU about a cholesterol problem that has...

Are you having fun? I talked to a newly retired couple on Sunday. We were tasting wine here in Portland and sat down next to them. We visited about everything...life, travel, wine (of course) and retirement. I found myself asking the question that every retiree gets...What do you do all day? During their married life they had lived in Japan so there was that. I am hoping that they will find that to be an inspiration for more...more of everything. They had only been retired since April and admittedly they were just figuring it out. The newness hadn't worn off. I had a friend that actually began couponing back in the day when it was a big deal. He and a friend would spend hours finding coupons and then redeeming them. It made them happy and it made us laugh. It was fun for them. Now I regret not asking, "Are you having fun?" How YOU have fun is all that matters. So remember please Laugh Have fun Socialize Talk Learn new things Travel a little Try something new Set a goal Ma...

Blog header I created. When I posted this image I clicked extra large so you could see it better. There are just a few things that I think are worth remarking on. I see things on blogs that I really like to read that I think would make those blogs so much better. I hope you will find my ideas useful. Don't be afraid to play with your blog website... Did you know that double spacing after the end of a sentence is NOT a good idea when blogging? You will notice that your next line if off one space if you double space at the end of each sentence. Did you know that if you change your theme just for fun or out of necessity, all of your information moves forward with the change? Did you know that if you go to your theme and click the orange customize   button you can change with width of your blog post space For example, if you chose the Awesome theme you can make the width of your sidebar and post space difference. You can then preview the blog page before you  make it permanen...

The Big Dark I swore when my husband and I retired that we were not going to sit around for the rest of our lives talking about the weather...not me, not us, no way! Sigh! Twenty-two years later the subject just keeps coming up over and over. Now it seems that all those things like weather-talk and having the newspaper read out loud to me have become a comfort zone of sorts. I did tell you that my husband likes to read out loud and I am the person that is suppose to be listening didn’t I? If I didn’t now you know. So, this last week he noticed an article posted in the Seattle Times about "The Big Dark". He read it out loud to me so I know stuff. The Big Dark is that weather system that settles in over the Seattle each year about this time. Seattle is located on the Puget Sound waters and all their life Seattleites endure about 9 month of gray skies. That marine lawyer just will not go away! Being the really nice guy that he is, he needed to share the news article with friends...

Oregon in October San Xavier Mission (s. Tucson AZ) The weather report said:  temp. 59,  air quality good,  wind 6 miles out of the southwest,  next sun: NEVER!  That, my friends, is why we are snowbirds. Even today we have people ask us why we leave beautiful Oregon. Yes it is beautiful but.... Here is where I reinforce the notion that for the aging senior, a few months in the warmer weather is not a luxury...it probably will improve the quality of you general health. It may be a necessity. You can move about more because your pain will be less. Cold weather can have a severe impact on your breathing and even mental health. The warmer you body the less your heart and lungs have to work. In an article written for the Inspiyr website called 5 Reasons Warm Weather is Good for Your Health  Sydney Epstein sited some interesting reasons why that is so. It seems that all the usual reasons applied. The sun is good and being physically active is so important. But t...

Arizona Park Model Interior Some of the company might not go home!  I have always thought that company and fish really stink after three days. My family is not company and neither are close friends. And if people are visiting and living in a separate house, that doesn't count either. Maybe no one stinks in the end! It turns out I love company a lot. And it turns out many of those people came to visit and ended up staying for a very long time. A friend that lives in Florida wrote me a note on my Facebook account today.  His comment was that people come to Florida for two or three month and repeat this pattern for a couple of years. In the end they usually buy a park model or condo and come back to the same place every year.  We see this same pattern in Arizona. It would appear that snow birds are at home where ever they land! Here in Arizona those people that rent for two a three month and find they like the lifestyle will come back a second year, rent again and buy a park...

I first published this article back in June of 2014. A lot has changed. Two grandchildren are married and we have 2 great-grandchildren (both girls).  The cat disappeared on Halloween one year and we are not getting another.  We sold our park model in Tucson and moved into a townhouse last fall.  We bought a dream car...Mini Cooper is now in the Oregon house garage. We have two cars again and fly to Arizona in the fall and back to Oregon in the spring. We both still golf with friends and we joined a club in Tucson that we love.  I still blog but not as much as I did. My husband gets a little more of my attention. He had his 80 birthday last winter.   The message is the same...change has kept us mentally young and healthy. Life is good! Arizona Townhouse Hillsboro Home Remember that very first child...the one they let you take home without a guidebook or a test drive? Retirement is a bit like that. One day they just say " Good bye, good lu...

b+ (Retire in Style Blog) Aging in the fast lane with dancing and swearing may bring people get someone's attention. But the problem is I don't dance that much and honestly I try very hard not to swear.  Blogging is what I do when I need to unwind or rant or share a notion. Traffic really doesn't matter I know. In spite of knowing we don't care a lot, people like me want to know if anyone listening! I have learned that as a lady of a certain age that I need to stand up and be noticeable before anyone will listen to me. I seem to have become a little invisible...not completely but still. Aging in the fast lane with dancing and swearing may bring people get someone's attention. But the problem is I don't dance that much and honestly I try very hard not to swear. Having a glass of wine is just not that uncommon anymore. A little self examination is good for me but, honestly, who really cares? Do I need a little controversy to let people know that I am still here? M...

The lure of the Internet is always there. The web knows what I shop for, where I shop for it and how to get my attention. I personally think that Facebook has the most enticing sidebar but even my gmail inbox is filled with "promotions" and "updates" too. Almost every senior that I know is on Facebook A LOT! It is sometimes hard for people like me to figure out what is true and what is not. All of that plays into the Amazon business model. If I am not sure, I always check on Amazon to see if the offer is a good price and if I can have it delivered tomorrow. Should I be doing that? Now, I have found that Amazon offers their own coffee pods at such a low price that it not even smart to buy anything else. In all of this I am reminded of Ma Bell (AT&T), you know that phone company that had a monopoly on all things telephone. The phones were sacred property, never belonged to you and if the repair man came and saw that the phone had been opened, you would be in big t...

Mt. St Helens blew up...don't let your retirement do that! I have friends that were professional women all of their adult life. Some took only the minimal time when their children were born and others took some real time off. But all of those women out of necessity or by design went back to work very soon. It was the choice they and their families made. My world did not go that way. I was a stay at home mom that worked just enough to get us through those time when we needed extra money. My life was what a lot of women see as a lifetime of retirement. Even though I "worked" very hard at the job of life I was not in the workplace with small vacations and very little down time. Today I was reading a blog post that Kathy over at Smart Living 365  titled Navigating Transitions Before, During or in Retirement . The title lets you know that Kathy has some serious subject matter to cover. A book she had read prompting her to write a review was called  Retirement Transition—An Inn...

From my garden. Something is niggling around in the back of my mind but I just cannot put my finger on it. There is something I need to tell you. What is it? Is it about the newspaper that arrives on my driveway only on Sunday for no reason at all? I didn't request it nor do I pay for it. Or is it something about aging or being a snowbird that is turning over in my mind at night? Or could it be about my garden...do I have some advice? Or maybe a recipe that I think you need to know? One of my favorites... Spicy Cucumber Salad Maybe I have some thoughts on Alzheimer's because a neighbor wandered away this weekend and had to be found by the police? Is it a positive or a negative? ??? Only Bob Lowry will know what this is! What is it? What is niggling at you? b+ ps: I wrote this yesterday but it has not come to me yet. HELP!!! :)