The case for age maximums. Whoa! Are people really talking about that? Yes. We’ve always had age minimums. You couldn’t get a drivers license until you were 16. You couldn’t vote until you were 21, then it became 18. Workers need to be 14 or 16 for most jobs, and now some politicians want to change that to 12 (and shame on them!). You need to be age 35 to be President (more about that in a moment). Military service requires enlistees to be at least 17. In most states you need to be at least 18 to marry and some pols want to lower that minimum (shame on them too!). You must be 18 to rent a car ..read more

Last year was my fifth year of retirement, and I’m pleased to report I’m getting better at accomplishing very little. In 2023, I read a lot of crime fiction, wrote a bunch of blog posts, took a few road trips, watched a couple dozen shows on TV, walked, stretched, swam, cooked and ate delicious food. Dabbled at art. I’d say it was a fine year. As a recovering over-achiever, it feels good to enjoy simple pleasures and chill. I don’t really like to keep count, as my last job was all about metrics gone wild. That said, you may be interested to learn I also enjoyed 21 blissful hours of full-body m ..read more

You’ve seen the news about Orca whales attacking the rudders of ships off the Iberian coast? Animals gone amuck. A sci-fi movie for real. Well, I can relate in my own backyard way. I’ve got woodchucks…ground hogs…whatever you want to call them on my property, giving me a taste of nature in attack mode. It started one morning when I went to my workshop in the basement where I have a large window-well above my chop saw. I cut a cleat for a box I was making, looked up and noticed a family of woodchucks in the bottom of the well staring at me like I was a chimpanzee in a zoo and they were visitors ..read more

The name of a mountain? Do they mean Burden Peak? Nope. It refers to the moment in time when almost all boomers will be age 60 or older. It’s now projected to be sometime around 2029. That’s when the youngest baby boomers will begin to turn 65. If you think peak burden sounds ominous, then you’re going to hate the term “population time bomb.” Hey, it’s not our fault. Our parents chose to have children when they chose to have children. Once again, the sheer size of the boomer population is causing stress to the economy, and it’s only going to get more stressful. One of the most obvious stress f ..read more

That night in July we met at a sandpit bordering the graveyard. I had come with my boyfriend Walker and his buddies. It felt like most of our other aimless, small-town summer nights. While the boys drank Budweiser, my boyfriend gave me a driving lesson. He had a ‘63 Rambler. The front seats went all the way back, perfect for exploring each other’s bodies. And I loved that boy, too. Almost fifty years later I can still recall his scent: Clearasil, Right Guard, Safeguard. All mixed with the musky aroma of sweat and desire. The next year he would be off to college, unless he was drafted, and then ..read more

We recently returned from a two-week trip to Vietnam and Cambodia which included a seven-day cruise on the Mekong, a trip on my husband’s bucket list. I had misgivings because Southeast Asia was not in my comfort zone. I still have bad memories of what happened last year when I got Covid in Morocco. Going to an emergency room in Marrakech was an experience I did not want to duplicate in Vietnam or Cambodia. I was not sure about the food especially since I don’t eat pork or seafood which is abundant. The good news is that we stayed healthy and food was not a problem at all with plenty of delici ..read more

Just when you thought Boomers were getting blamed for everything, it turns out some younger generations think we are on the right side of some issues/contemporary trends. A Reddit user posed the question: What are some things that Boomers got right? The following is a sampling of the feedback received. It may give you hope that all is not lost, and that younger generations can see that we get some things right after all. So, winner, winner, chicken dinner for you! App Exhaustion — Boomers are just tired of apps. Stop making us download an app and set up an account for everything. You’re just c ..read more

Nice easy walks and gentle swims … you’d think I was fully recovered from overdoing it a bit in January. However, just when I thought all my body parts were working in harmony, out of the clear blue of the western sky comes excruciating knee pain that brought all my good efforts to a halt. After a few days of rest, heat, ice, Tylenol and Advil, it seems to be fine. I did a short test walk yesterday and a slightly longer test walk today, and so far, so good. But still, I’ve been exercising regularly for 50 years, and it shocks me how quickly things can go wrong. When I complained to my husband ..read more

Grace was a fine woman. I loved her and her taste in men…after all, she liked me. When you both are widowed, there’s a kind of openness to a mature relationship. We’ve both ‘been there/done that’ with long sincere marriages, children, retirement. It’s a kind of agreement to enjoy the moment while we can. So, there we were in the formal garden of the Alcazar palace in historic Seville. Beautiful. Serene. Chest high, carefully trimmed hedges created a twisting, turning maize of pathways into the exotic world of Arabian nights. The only problem was that I had to take a leak and we were on the gro ..read more

There are loads of issues that can divide millennials from boomers, but one of the most curious to me is printed books vs Kindle. For a generation that’s hardcore when it comes to being online, texting, Tweeting, etc., it comes as a surprise that so many of them seek the pleasure of reading a physical book – that is words printed on paper. Some millennials explain this fixation with paper books as a means of snuggling up with a digital-detox tool. Okay. I find that strange but valid. Some millennials admit to making notes in the margins and/or folding corners of pages that they want to come ba ..read more