I will not be home this weekend therefore I am posting this blog early with a simple message:
I WISH ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS
and a
HAPPY AND MOST PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR
Retirement
Tag Archives: New Year
Weather And The Elderly
Seldom a morning goes by, as I arise from my bed, that I wonder what the weather will bring today and what is the temperature at the moment. Sure, I know what the weather was yesterday, but what will it be today, is the forecast correct? The temperature in the house can deceive a person, give a false sense of weather awareness, which will make a person wonder if they will overdress or underdress. To the elderly, it can be a bad cold event or not.
The one thing that really make me feel cold is watching a person walk by wearing shorts, flip-flops, a bald head without a hat and a jacket on a breezy, chilly day. Maybe the person does not feel cold but why does the person wear a jacket if they don’t? I have seen this much too often, and every time I wonder why. Occasionally, I have seen this when there are snow flurries and a stiff breeze. Flu shot or not will not protect anyone from catching something under a nasty weather condition when disregard for properly dressing is in play. No, not catch, the ailment was invited by the way the person dressed, prepared for bad weather.
Elderly people need to be very careful because today immune systems, for some unknown reason, are very fragile which translate into a possible death sentence. I am a firm believer in the body healing itself. I will take a medication only when I have no other recourse, but I do not take over the counter medication unless I absolutely must do so to rid my body of something. However, that is a rare occasion. My immune system ward off many things and the things I do develop are very minor.
If you want to see young people cold or wet and cold but dressed for fun in a nightclub on a nice summer night, look outside a nightclub on a cold windy night. There will be many women barely dressed {men also), turning colors before your eyes yet saying it’s not cold. By putting on a fashion show at the expense of your health is not worth it. It may not be felt today but years down the road will reveal the harm caused during adolescence. Not only from how they were dressed but other ways the body was treated.
How an elderly person looks show what type of life they led and what the elements can do to the human body. Some of the body configurations of these people are not pretty. The dictionary of elderly ailments is all there in a room filled with a dozen or two of elderly people. Even those that spent large amounts of money to snip this, tuck that, shape this, tone that is in the same boat as the rest of us, sometimes worst.
It’s not good for a person when they are the same age as you are but look, act and speak ten years or older than you are. I have had a rough life and my body have been abused because of the work I did, and I really wasn’t careful how things affected my body. I feel it now but there isn’t anything that can be done now except to just live with it. I can not go back in time and redo the things that have been done to my body. However, I have corresponded with a few guys that were working beside me back in the day and just about all of them have the same ailments. They are also trying to care for their bodies, unlike today’s young people. They look into the mirror and most can tell their age.
Bottom line, take care of your body. Dress correctly for the weather that is and that’s coming. Don’t over do it because its’s the only body issued to you. Elderly people take a very long time to repair the body so be careful, make this New Year fruitful.
Days Of Yore
I love this time of year, I hate this time of year. What do I love about this time of year, you ask? I love the festiveness, love of the birth of Christ, the giving, the hibernation of plant life that is awaiting rebirth in three or four months. This is the time that others are seen giving when, actually, it should be done all year ‘round. I love looking at the outdoor decorations, the extreme people have gone to outdo others and wonder how much is spent to do it. I love to watch the joy on the faces of small children as they see the toys, Santa and colorful lights. I love it all and remember my times at that age.
I hate this time of year because it reminds me of my age, of time gone by and of all the well-intentioned money spent on unnecessary things. Bah-humbug? No, just being my practical self. Although this blog comes out at Christmas, I am reminded that at the birth of Christ He did not have much. I hate all the scammers and robbers out there. I hate all the organizations with their hands out, getting plenty of cash so their company officers can get richer. This time of year is a love/hate thing for me.
I long for what is in my memory. A simple life, a simpler time. Smelling the wood fires. These were not just fireplaces, I never knew any family that had one, but wood and coal fires were used for heating and cooking. It was a necessity during my upbringing. I long for looking at the snow-covered houses with smoke curling out the chimney, looking like a picture transformed from a Christmas card. I long for walking into the house, smelling the fire and food slowly cooking on the stovetop. I remember those days, I long for those days and will forever cherish them.
Everyone went to church and it was always more festive during winter. The congregation not only worked together to make Christmas more festive, but they all focused on the upcoming New Year Watch Night and Easter. All festive events were planned many months in advance and everyone pitched in. Church was the starting point as well as the ending for everyone (your baptismal and your funeral). The entire family went to church and, along with the other families, the entire church was family which made everyone a relative.
Today, young people may have heard about this, but they cannot completely grasp the idea of an era like this. Each succeeding era have a time like this with each era getting more modernized than the previous. Today, young people do not have the time to see the lights, go places that they may smell the chimney smoke, go to church or, if they go to church, work together for months for some far away event in the church. There are many young people that can not cook, have parents that do cook and have never seen a wood burning stove or food cooked on one.
The young people have their phones and tablets, but they cannot smell those by-gone things from long ago through them. They can Google the past but will never experience it. They will never stand in the snow or cold wind and hear nothing but the sound of that wind or see the lights twinkling. The lights were not made that way, but the natural atmosphere make them twinkle, everything is serene. I guess I am old, longing for things that will never be again, but I will never forget them and will forever cherish them.
Merry Christmas
Wishing all a very Merry Christmas with a prosperous, safe and event free New Year. Let us not forget why we celebrate Christmas and forever keep that in mind. Today, this era in time, the focus is on economics, money making and the giving/receiving gifts. It also come to mind how people will not give a gift if it is known that a gift will not be received from whom the gift is given.
Instead of celebrating the birth of Christ (thus the name Christmas) it is another reason to sell as many goods as possible. Tis the season to buy and give to those that you have a hard time buying for because the person probably have everything that they need or want. Most people have enough spare money to fill the coffers for the legitimate needy and then some. There should not be a truly needy person (child) anywhere. Think of the number of millionaires/billionaires we have in the USA, yet there are needy people. Remember why we celebrate the season.
The trip is over and it’s resting time before the next adventure. Twelve days cruising and having fun. That is what retirement is all about. Retirement is not for worrying about others, that have been done for many, many years and then some. My wife and I went to Puerto Rico, Barbados, St. Thomas, Martinique, St. Kitt and Antigua. Off and on light rain showers, warm and beautiful was the norm. Hated to return. It was cool when we left New Jersey but returning was a different weather condition. We returned on December fourteen. The twelfth we wore shorts, everyone was either sunning on the deck or in one of the on board pools. The thirteenth was chilly and the twelfth was windy, twenty degrees and snowing. What a welcome home.
Aboard ship was a continuous sea of activity around the clock with plenty of food, drink and entertainment. If anyone said there wasn’t anything to do, see, eat or drink, they were lying. There were times we ordered food and drink and stayed on our private patio, enjoying the sun and salt air. It was a trip worth taking and, of course, I took a thousand pictures or more.
Our next trip is already planned for the beginning of next spring. However, I made a deal with my wife. To go on this trip mean scheduling a trip to Europe. No Europe, no spring cruise. 🙂 It would be great if all the guys I was stationed with could all meet in Europe and party together again. That would be a retirement party to remember. Bucket list???
There is another trip in the planning stage. I forgot about the family reunion that will be in Florida. Have to keep that one in mind and save some energy for that. Retirement can be tiresome at times but it sure is fun. Leave the kids and grand kids at home and we’ll all PARTY!!!! We owe it to ourselves to do it. Lets do it!!!!
Happenings
Hoping all had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and did not forget what and/or why the holiday is. It’s not for commercialization but for the religious beliefs that is meant. In fact, here we are just a few days after Christmas, New Year is not here yet, and Valentine stuff is already up. Now we are in the new year with new things that will occur (especially here in the USA). There are other worst things that are occurring in the world. Let us not forget good old Imperial Plaza have it’s problems also. Oh well..Life goes on.
Being retired means having fun so I’ll mention only a couple things that is happening at Imperial Plaza. Our head of food services is out although he just got here. I’ve talked about food services before therefore I won’t get into it again although my heart is pulling me to speak more on the subject. Alas, I will not, for now. Also, there are a lot of people that is crying about the rent going up but it is just a little bit. I know that being retired put most people on a fixed income but this is not unexpected. No matter where a person go, the rent takes a yearly rise. Not much but it will rise. There is a very old joke that mention “like age, rent goes up” and it does. And we have a new director for Imperial Plaza, Mr. Don Jones. I am patiently awaiting the good things that is promised to happen.
In Imperial Plaza’s weekly travels, this week we went to the Virginia State Capitol Building. I have been to the U.S. Capitol many, many times but not my own state’s. Why and how, you would ask. Easy. The word is “segregation”. As a kid I lived in Washington, D.C. and we used to play in the capitol building and go to many other places. It was not like it is now. The Virginia Capitol is beautiful, not because it has been through a recent renovation but it is. The first capitol was in Jamestown then it moved to Williamsburg and, at the beginning of the Revolutionary War it moved to Richmond.
I took many pictures and listened to the tour guide with fascination. Much of what was said bought back my teachings in school. When I started school, it was a requirement to take the course, Virginia History. This was a requirement all through elementary school. It would have been nice to come to the capitol, when I was in school, but two things were in the way to keep that from happening. First I lived in Petersburg and Richmond was twenty miles away with zero school buses and second, it was during segregation and that meant many places I could not go and that was one of them.
I’ll cut this short for now and go on to another pressing thing. Before I go I want to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR and want you to keep reading and please pass this on and on and on. I need followers and likes for encouragement to continue and, most of all, for the blog to grow. Suggestions for topics to write about would also be great. See ya and remember my saying…Be kind to your neighbors because you’ll never know when you’ll need them. Also, ensure your words are soft and sweet because you’ll never know when you’ll have to eat them. Bye, bye…
SMILE!!
I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and will have a very Happy New Year! This being the last blog for 2015 (on both sites), I would like for all of us to reflect on the good things and the bad things that have happen to us in 2015. But, always remember that even though things may seem bad for us, there is always something worst that have happen for someone else. We have survived our worst and is hoping for better things in the upcoming year. Always look ahead because it’s no use looking at what has happened. There is nothing that can be done about that now, only try, during the next chance, to be better or do better.
I always have to remember that there is no use to bury my head in the sand and hope things will go away. It will not. I constantly remind myself to keep on pushing and smile. Always smile. I see many people with a frown on their face and never a smile. A smile make you feel better and people will perceive you as a better person (and they don’t know what you are really thinking).
There are things I have accomplished, done good, and I smile and wonder what I can do to top that. There are things I have failed in and I smile but try to think about ways to do better. Smiling goes a long way and is on both sides of the coin. One good and one bad. But, smile and it will all even out in the end. There is always an end.
This year, at Imperial Plaza, there have been good and bad and I really don’t want to get into which is what. I just smile and keep going. I just remember that I have had a long and fruitful life and there is nothing that can ever take that away from me. It is time to take it easy and let the next generation fully take over. They have been an apprentice long enough. If they make mistakes, oh well, I am retired and can live through it. It is no use moaning and groaning about what is happening because it won’t do any good. No one will listen to me anyway.
Therefore, we all should sit back and let someone else drive. Give a little direction, a nod of approval or a little advice in the disapproval but we are too old to drive. I’ll keep my eyes open during 2016 but do my own thing. I have plenty of writing to do. I still have The Mighty Pen Project board that I am on. I still have my every other weekend part-time job. I have plenty on my plate. Then add in travel and other pleasures which will have the plate overflowing, but I still smile. I am trying to enjoy retirement and being a senior (I don’t like that word. I’ll try to put another word in it’s place). I’ve had a full life and it’s time to enjoy what I worked all those years for. You should try it, you may like it. And Smile! Remember, it takes fewer muscles to smile than it does to frown.
tega227 