The Boomer Blog

I have been watching the television show "Fringe." It involves an alternate universe, similar to ours, but with some differences. This got me thinking about alternate universes and time. I came to the conclusion that, if there are alternate universes, they either have to be exactly the same, or very, very different. It is highly unlikely, maybe even impossible, for two universes to be similar but not exact.

Why? Because of time. Any difference, no matter how small, will start a new time line that will multiply the differences. The more time goes by, the more the differences spread and multiply. So, in order for an alternate universe to be similar to ours (but not exact), one of two possibilities would have to exist - both of which are extremely unlikely. The first possibility is that both universes are brand new. This is obviously not the case with our universe. The other possibility is that the two universes have been identical until very recently. In other words, we just happen to live at the single point in time when the very first difference between the universes appeared. As you can see, this is also very unlikely.

BB

Link: http://www.thirdage.com/

Another great boomer site!

"A web site for baby boomers with articles, resources and information tailored to health, aging, finance and retirement. We've been online since 1997 and have created thousands of articles written by experts in their respective fields."

I have always worn a lot of T-shirts, mostly those with some kind of logo or design.  They seem to last a long time.  I am still wearing T-shirts that I have had for years.  I have T-shirts that represent places I have visited, places I have worked, clubs and organizations I belong to, and just randomly chosen T-shirts in near-by stores.  I have an entire collection that I used to wear under my shirt when I was working.  This collection does not have any design or logo T-shirts, but there are many different colors.

But, T-shirts in my possession have a complete 2^nd life.  After they become too old, worn, or faded, they go into my rag box.  Their 2^nd life is for cleaning, for wiping, and for wrapping around my head to soak up the sweat when I am working in the yard.  So, these T-shirts have an even longer life than expected.  They have a long life as a garment, and a long 2^nd life as a rag.  I sure get my money’s worth!

When I pull one of these rag T-shirts out of the rag box to wrap around my head, or to use as a a cleaning cloth, often I will notice the design or logo on the shirt.  This brings back the memory of the place where I bought it, the place that I worked, or the club or organization I was a member of.  This is yet another purpose fulfilled by these garments.  In addition to clothing and cleaning rags, they are also holders of memories.  Pretty good for the lowly T-Shirt!

BB

I have a frozen shoulder.  This is a recurrence of a condition I had several years ago.  I know that it sounds like some kind of cut of meat for the table, but it is actually a problem where you have a lot of pain in your shoulder and arm, and you lose a lot of your range of motion.  It is also called an Encapsulated Shoulder.

The last time I had this, a month or two of physical therapy, along with nightly exercises, eventually made it go away.  So, I guess I will be repeating that experience.  There is also a possibility that a shot of cortisone would relieve the problem, by my orthopedic surgeon and I have agreed to try the therapy first.  I always lean to the side of no drugs if I can.

This does not seem to be a structural problem, or something you catch.  It has something to do with inflammation.  It is as if your shoulder just gives up and becomes lazy.  Moving your arm beyond the limited range of motion causes substantial pain, and moving within the limited range of motion, but moving too rapidly can cause the pain as well.

Evidently, moving to a warmer climate will not thaw out a frozen shoulder.

BB

Link: http://www.babyboomers-lifes-pleasures.com/

Another nice Boomer site.

THE BABY BOOMER ERA

REDISCOVERING
Love, Intimacy, Relationships & Sex

Are You A Boomer Looking For Passionate Experiences In The Second Half Of YOUR Life?

About 10 years ago, I started taking Paxil and Nortriptolene because I was not sleeping well at night and I was having irritability problems at work.  These drugs worked extremely well for the irritability, and so-so for the sleeping.  Unfortunately, within a few weeks I had gained 10 pounds!

I have always been very thin.  As a sophomore in high school, I weighed 99 pounds and looked like a 10 year-old “leave it to Beaver.”  In junior high, the other students called me “mousy.”  As I got older, I grew taller and gained some weight, but not much.  Between high school and my mid-40’s my waist size slowly went from a 29 to 33.  I still only weighed something like 145.

Don’t get me wrong, I am still not very heavy.  I am 63 now, 5’ 10” tall, and currently weigh 160 pounds, but in the last several years I have been as high as 180.  I would like to be down to 155 again.  This would feel normal to me and be a healthy weight for me as well.

When I gained the weight, most of it went to my belly, and even now there is a small pot-belly under my belt (my breasts are also strangely noticeable).  My waist size now is somewhere between 34 and 35 inches.  Now those of you who have a bigger weight problem are probably laughing now and maybe think I am an idiot.  But all my life you could count my ribs, and my body fat was at 12% to 20%.  I am pretty happy with my weight now, but my belly is still noticeable (take a look at a lot of recent pictures here).  When I wear t-shirts, there is a noticeable belly bulge).

Getting rid of this belly has proven very difficult, no matter how much weight I lose or how many sit-ups I do.  So, I have decided that my pot belly is not only sentient, but controls my stomach.  It appears to have a self-preservation instinct.  The more I exercise, the more I eat!  Eating does not seem to be under my control, so I suspect it is my belly that controls it!!

BB 

 

As a leading-age baby boomer, I’ve been around for a while (I’m now 63).  I can remember being in my 20’s and 30’s and thinking that, since science does not really have a real reason why people age, then it must be a mental thing.  People see everything in life getting older and eventually dying, so their sub-conscious causes them to age as well.  So, I decided that I would not do the same – I would stay young!

So, if you want to know how I am doing with that – don’t ask!  However, I do believe that attitude can go a long way in holding off the effects of aging, and maybe even extend your life.  It is difficult to maintain a positive attitude when aging does catch up with you however.  My dad, a stone-cold perfectionist and type A personality, had a massive heart attack when he was 41 years old.  He lost a third of his heart muscle during the attack.  He was diagnosed by an old family doctor with acute gastritis!  He went back to work after two weeks, but never felt the same.  Seven years later, during a physical at work, he found out about the heart attack and the heart damage!  This was when the bypass operation was brand new, and my dad ended up having another kind of operation that did not work.  After that, there was too much scar tissue on his heart to do a bypass.

Strangely enough, my dad lived into his mid-70’s.  He never had the full life he could have had, but he lived.  I do not chalk this up to attitude, unless you want to count stubbornness as a positive attitude.  But, I do think it tells us what the mind and body are capable of doing.  So how about me?  Well, I had heart problems starting when I was 49.  I had an angioplasty when I was 49, and then a bypass at age 55.  However, because of my dad’s condition, I was aware of symptoms and sought help as soon as I had them.  So, I never had a heart attack, and never lost any heart muscle.  That makes me as good as new, specially with the cholesterol control that is available today.

So, I lasted 8 years longer than my dad before running into heart problems.  Maybe this was because of the diet and life-style awareness, but maybe attitude played a part as well.  Heredity can be a bitch, but I do not really have other major health problems, so I consider myself lucky to have caught and solved the main life-threatening inherited condition that I do have.

From the perspective of our minds, our sentience, or whatever it is that makes us able to consider, analyze, and understand life instead of just reacting to it, aging is a strange bird.  It does not matter how wealthy you are, how big & strong you are, or how healthy you are, the great equalizer will eventually catch up with you and you will be just as sick, just as weak, and just as dying as any other human being at the end of life.  We may all be born equal (not really true, of course), but we all die pretty equal as well.

This is part of a poem I wrote many years ago:

You can’t remember your birth

and you cannot conceive your death

You forget the days you’ve had

and wish you had more left

What does vary, of course, is how much time we have.  Setting aside non-natural causes of death for a moment, some of us die sooner, and some die later.  Some of us age and get sick earlier in life and some later.  It is obvious that heredity has something to do with this, but are there other factors as well?  If life is tough, knocks us around more than others, and gives us more misery than others, does this accelerate the process?  Does hardening of the attitude cause hardening of the arteries, or is it the other way around?  Perhaps it is both, and turns into a vicious circle?

How does the indestructibility of youth (mental and physical) slowly morph into the jadedness and physical deterioration of old age?  Maybe the spiritual among us should be asking “why?”  It would be interesting to see, if an old person’s brain could be transferred into a young person’s body, what would be the result?  Would the body age prematurely?  Would the mind and attitude loosen up and become young and indestructible again?  Will we ever know?

BB

I have been doing my taxes for a couple of days, and as usual it is depressing.  I actually stopped working at the end of March in 2009, but I have made several large withdrawals from retirement accounts.  So, total income was quite high.  The standard withholding when you make these withdrawals is 20%, which is not really enough.  If you end up with a small income, it might be OK, but it is not enough for higher incomes.

I have always maintained my finances in Microsoft Money, but Microsoft is abandoning Money, and soon will not support it anymore.  So, I switched to Quicken, and used a conversion program to convert my Money file.  This worked pretty good, but I did take the time to go thru all transactions in 2009 and make sure I assigned them to the correct categories.  Starting with transactions in 2010, I am thinking about using the “split” functionality to record sales tax, other state and local taxes and fees, and bank charges.  I just spent a lot of time going thru all my 2009 paper receipts and online billing statements to try and compile total sales tax paid.  The standard amount the IRS calculates from income is always low.

Logically, I understand and agree with the reasons that we have to pay taxes, but emotionally it is always shocking to see how much it costs us.  This is specially true when you consider how ineffective Congress can be on such things as health care reform.  There are many, many goods and services that the federal, state, and local governments provide to us, so paying taxes is not simply giving the money away.

But it sure does hurt!!

BB

 

Link: http://reverse-spin.com

This is my Liberal political blog. I originally had my Reverse Spin site up as a BB site, but I have now changed it to a blog site. I have been making my political posts on my other blogging site (http://boomer-blog.com), but I have now copied them all to this site. Comments and registrations are welcome. BB

Link: http://www.tos50.com

This new site has everything for the generation over 50--articles about arts & entertainment, financial advice, retirement advice, health tips, and so much more...it's a community where we can share and enjoy! www.tos50.com (The Other Side of 50)