True Confessions-I Read AARP

Reading the AARP magazine, I came across the article about people our age needing to stay "relevant" in to days work place. I admit, I never thought I became irrelevant. I have skills. As a cook with no "paper work" some say I can't claim chef. Non-cooks will call me a chef, seeing baked goods and fabulous platings as a sure sign of mastery. I've cooked in various kitchens, had to learn by the seat of my pants, and taught young culinary graduates how to make homemade soup. But that's OK, I understand. Face the stove. Some things come by experience. You can't get it all from reading. So, relevance. Apparently, you can go to http://onlineidcalculator.com

and find out what your Google Quotient is. Once I get brave enough, I'll try it. Its supposed to tell me how personal BRAND, meaning myself, is rated. The author of this AARP article found our he was Digitally Sidtinc, as opposed to Digitally Dissed. Hum. I'm getting some strong coffee, and trying it. After all, I may find out I'm not the person I thought I was.

Acronyms and Other Stuff

Webster defines and acronym as a word formed from the initial letter of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term.

For instance, MADD= pronounced as mad = mom's against drunk drivers

NINJA= no income, no jobs or assets.
Ninjas were given home loans. This seems silly cause anyone should know if you don't have a way to pay for something, you probably won't be able to pay for it. Resulting foreclosure crisis is the result of this silliness.

NIMBY = Not in my back yard.
Nimbists would love to have cheap nuclear energy, just don't put a reactor in their back yard, in their neighborhood, in their home state, hell, on their side of the country.

TEOTWAWKI = The end of the world as we know it.
I saw this word on a web site, which got me to thinking about "acronamics" to begin with. I pronounce it (probably wrong, who's to say?) Tee-oh-twaw-key
Preparations for this event range from outfitting travel trailers on private "junk land", storing tons of beans and rice, learning weaponry, and basically anything frugal. I'm a survivalist, I guess, more mobile though.

EGADS = Eating gross and disgusting stuff.
Yup, I made this one up when reading survival blogs about all the crap we may end up eating, so get used to it, and try some today.

Those of us approaching senior hood have seen a lot of bad stuff in our days. We lived through the horrible Vietnam Era, and if you'd asked me, I never thought we'd get ourselves swamped in another such war. But, whatever.
Things are different, more desperate, more deadly. This whole radiation thing needs solving.
Kids,got any ideas?
Maybe if we poured vinegar on the whole mess. Or baking soda.
That stuff seems to work for a bunch of stuff.

Threau Said Some Stuff!

H.D Thoreau is always worth quoting. Even if you don't have a clue what he was saying, you end up sounding educated and profound.

His works and views never got much press, until the 70s. No doubt many of you know what I mean: that hippy era during our coming of age.

Here's a quote I never remembered:
Do what you love. Know your own bone: gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

and

Let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred, or a thousand.

Both of these point to minimalism, which of course he was famous for, if he ever was famous at all.

Streamlining stuff, not getting overly invested in other people's agendas (hey, how about that bake sale?) and knowing thyself.

I like that. My good friend says he doesn't like a lot of stuff, but the stuff he does like, he likes a lot of it.
Sounds minimalist to me. Finding that good chew toy that you love, and just love the pieces out of it.

I'm not going to be buying that new fangled lavendar purse, do don't even try it. I like some good solid royal blue, ranger green, basic black, pure white, outrageous red. Too many colors going on mean too many things that don't match, in my books.

Thats my bone for today.

Because We Can

I just finished reading an Outside magazine story of a guy taking his 94 year old grandma on a road trip down the Oregon Coast.

Her 60 year old "caretaker" accompanies them, giving grandson the total freedom to drive and chat with this sweet lady.

I love the freedom elders get once they reach that ripe age. We can just say anything we want, you can just listen to stories decades old winding history into our reminising.

Why do we older folks say outragous stuff?
Because we can!
And don't think we don't see your shock, we're just loving it.



Three travel tips evolve from this experience, which I'll share for posterity's sake:

Tip #1 Don't sweat the food. As granny says, "you're eating to exist, not to get fat". So what if its PB sandwhiches all day?


Tip #2 Stop wherever the hell you want. As grandson worries they may have missed the last RV camping park (they're renting a 30 footer), grandma states " We'll just pull over where ever we want. Don't need reservations for anything!"


Tip #3 Slow down and check out everything. Its ok to stop at a view, a mile marker, a McDonalds. Its about the journey, and how can you remember the journey if you don't see anything?

Next time an elder starts telling a rambling story, don't worry what our point is, or how come we're telling it. We tell because we can.

Thats a perk of senior hood.

Pretty Passionate About My Stuff

I get pretty passionate about my beliefs.
Take Japan for instance.
They are having a really hard time over there.
People are being housed in bulk form, no food and little water.

The sweet little angel faces of children make our hearts yearn.
Yet.
Yet, natural disasters happen. This one wouldn't be near as bad if there weren't so many nuclear reactors involved. We have radiation leakage of levels unknown for lengths of time. Desperate measures including water cannons and fire trucks, sea water and spewing steam to avert complete blow up.

Holy cow. Is it time to cash in the IRA and go on a spending spree? The first thing I would buy is a truck load of food and water. Bottom line, you can't live with out that.

I know the world has gone through wars, famines, plagues, and Lady Diane's auto accident.
This just seems way different.
Seems like we are being lied to at every level, and told not to worry.

I bought a big chocolate candy bar today. I ate it all. Not gonna worry.

Time to Grow the Hell Up

ok so i lost my debit card today , i started praying LORD please let me find my card. looked in the kids room and there it was .Esther had got in my purse last night.so glad GOD is mindful of the big and small things.he is always there when we call on him.


This is an actual post I read on Face book today, my daughter's friend posted this.
Yes, after Japan has experienced a major earthquake, suffered tsunami, and explosion at one of its Nuclear plants.

God cares about a debit card.
Please!

Can you be any more trivial, lady? If you would put your purse away in the first place, "ester" wouldn't be getting into it. She might find other things in that purse as well, like pennies to swallow, medications, sharp objects. This borders on child abuse or neglect.

I think its time to get real about whatever god you think you're serving.
Even more disturbing is her friends chiming in that they feel the same way, this same stuff happens to them. Their god answers these "tragic" emergency cries for help.

Can we all grow up and put in a word for Japan?

Study on Condoms for Seniors

The article was entitled, " Boomer's Bed Habits" and the graph accompanying it showed percentages of males and females who used condoms. You can see the graph in the Reader's Digest, March 2011, page 23.

This study was done at Indiana University and they found that while kids age 14-17 used condoms 80% of the time, whether in a monogamous relationship, male or female, by the time they reached 50, men only used them 40% of the time when with causal partners. Otherwise, no, not until they reached 70.

I looked at the female patterns, and although it declined as well, nothing was used after the age of 70. Guys, for some reason, decided to start using them again, whether they were in relationships or just causual.

Questions:
Are these old guys doing it with youngsters, so don't want to get them pregnant?
Are these old guys thinking its pretty awesome they still have the wherewithal to even get one on?

Are these old women not worried about pregnancy, aids or anything else cause you gotta die sometime?
Are women over 70 just not getting any?


I'll be wracking my brain over these questions, so please leave me a comment. I'd love to hear your take.

Too Ugly for Mom

This Mother's Day, be kind.

I saw a whole page in a Men's Journal dedicated to the Mom in your life.

A pair of white pajamas loaded down with red cherries print.

A bracelet with all the kids names spelled out.

A canvas art piece where photos of the kids were printed on it, then custom framed.

Tooth whitening product. anti aging serum.

Please. We'll take care of our anti aging program, advertise how many kids we birthed, or hang family photos on our over hung walls.

I hate prints, especially dorky ones. Maybe I sleep nude, ever thought of that?

For mom's day, some gourmet chocolates, a gift certificate to amazon.com or even walmart is fine. A card. Money is optional.

Not every woman wants to advertise how many kids she's had, swap out coveted art pieces for family collages, or try new Youth Promises in a Jar.

A spa date with the daughters? That could be fun.

We still have style. Try not to give mom anything that screams Nursing Home.

That's my rant for today.

Thanks for listening.

I Love Toby Maguire

Reading the May 2007 edition of the Men's Journal
Number one, he was 32 that year, which makes him about 36 now (depending on his birth month). Not a kid, yet not quite a boomer, still he has some great qualities.

First, who the hell is Toby Magire?
A few of his awesome movies are Cider House Rules, Spider man I and Spider man II, Seabisuit, and Brothers. He plays hero and villain equally well. You just want to give him a big hug to get him through the pain.

Frugal enough to take coach. OCD enough to admit to a journalist, "I have an addictive nature, an obsessive-compulsive nature. I go to addictive extremes...". Private enough to require thought before blurting out an answer for print.

These are admirable traits in any artist.


I love a person who is so Themselves without regret or apology.
If everyone on the block is getting tattoos, stay the hell away from them.

If red is the new black, never wear red.
You get my drift.

Is this a Grandma Print?

Funny how something can look so hot on a model and look like a grandma print on us.

I thought animal prints were in. Or, that shimmery holiday shirt. A pastel print. Heavens, no flowers or holiday motifs.
Turns out it looks old lady.
The only thing that looks great anymore are intense solids, like royal blue, hot pink, black, red, violet purple, white.
So, sorting the wardrobe, I promise myself, no matter what, never buy another print.

I love the green foliage look.
Grandma.

I love the neon rainbow tie dye shirt.
Grandma.

Now, nothing against grandma. But, I ask myself, "what would Tina Turner wear?"
Check out My Hero page, liked to this blog. She's one of them, aging hot and sexy.

Getting my closet under control means throwing the hell away anything I won't wear.
Grandma prints.

Any Prints.

What Is Minimalism?

I'm what you'd call a minimalist.
Thats a word with potentially many meanings.

Sorta frugal, sorta downsized, sorta hate clutter.

But its more than that. It pisses me off that our economy is based on consumerism. And when we're not buying a bunch of stuff, consumer confidence is said to be low.

Maybe we just don't need anything right now. Maybe we're getting those last miles out of the Geo, and this laptop will do until the MacAffey is up for renewal. I spent Twenty nine bucks on this virus protection and I want my full year's subscription.

Its time consuming looking for matching socks in a drawer full of singles. So, sort them out, downsize and save gray matter for more important things like taxes and Facebook.

Too many magazines just get on my nerve. I read them and recycle. If anything needs saving, I cut that article out, paste it in a tiny notebook. Yup, you're right. By the time I have to do all that, the article just doesn't seem that profound anymore.

I qualify as a minimalist. I believe we need to look at what we have in the closet before heading out to improve the Economy by shopping. That attitude helps My Personal economy, and gives me time to write this blog.

A girl's gotta have a hobby!