-
One Thing or Another: Cruise Control (All Aboard!)
It’s always One Thing or Another… a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.By Mark McNease
“There’s something very depressurizing about boarding a cruise ship. The daily, mundane, pressures of life that bear on you the rest of the time are suddenly lifted, falling away like a jacket let slip from your shoulders.”
Spending time on a floating hotel was never high on my wish list. I no more imagined going on a cruise than I imagined climbing the pyramids at Machu Picchu or hiking the Appalachian Trail. I didn’t have anything against them, they were just things other people did, feature stories in travel magazines I read when I was still flying by choice and not necessity. Then I met the man I’ve spent the last twelve years with, and cruising entered my life. That can happen when we enter relationships: if you enjoy the unexpected, meet the person of your dreams.
My first cruise was just three nights over a Labor Day weekend, out to some cay and back. I didn’t just like it. I loved it. Cruising quickly became a favorite way to vacation for me. I also like spending nights in hotels for some of the same reasons: no chores, no clean up, no appointments, unless it’s a massage or a shave/facial combination. Cruising is that times twenty, with the added bonus of feeling young at fifty-nine on a ship of retirees.
-
6 (More) Questions for Dave Hughes of RetireFabulously.com
By Mark McNease
I’ve been a fan of Dave Hughes and his RetireFabulously.com website for the past five years. I’ve been raving about his columns and had the privilege of helping edit his two books . We both recently enjoyed cruises with our husbands, and I thought it was a good time to ask him some more questions about living in retirement, some of the realities of traveling as a retiree, and a general update. (Note: I’ll be turning 60 this month and hope to retire myself at 62.)
Dave, thanks for taking the time to answer more questions. You’ve been retired a while now and more active than ever. We both just finished cruises, and have fabulous, but different, experiences with this form of vacation. Let’s start there …
MM: I know people who love cruising and people who would rather walk on burning coals than be on a ship. What would you tell someone who’s never cruised to sell them on doing it?
DH: Cruises aren’t for everybody. I won’t pretend that they are. But some people harbor misconceptions about what cruises are really like. There are plenty of lesbian and gay people who harbor misconceptions about what lesbian or gay cruises are like.
-
Lee Lynch’s Amazon Trail: Witch Spittle
Photo by Sue Hardesty By Lee Lynch
Oh, yes, we had fun this year decorating for Halloween. For a couple of hours, I didn’t once think about the ghouls in D.C.
We don’t get trick or treaters here, but we have a lively neighborhood of adults from 55 to 95, ourselves included, who get a kick out of holiday trappings. Our plastic Frankenstein mat screeches bloody murder when we open or close the garage door. Half the time we scare—and laugh—ourselves silly.
It had been many full moons since we last dragged out our spooky paraphernalia. My sweetheart exhumed it from the treasure chest that is our garage and instructed me to decide what should go where. Me? Organize? The prospect was scarier than an army of menacing phantoms.
I somehow coped.
-
The Savvy Senior: What’s the Difference Between Alzheimer’s and Dementia?
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior, What’s the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and dementia? My aunt has dementia, but they don’t know if she has Alzheimer’s disease, which is very confusing to me.
Trying To Understand
Dear Trying,
Many people use the words “Alzheimer’s disease” and “dementia” interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. In fact, you can have a form of dementia that is completely unrelated to Alzheimer’s disease. Here’s what you should know.
-
Grace Anne Stevens: My Transgender Life – Hi! I’m the Bride’s Dad
Grace Anne Stevens By Grace Anne Stevens
It all seemed to be happening so quickly. It was only about a year ago, that my oldest son told me that my daughter, Stella, had visited him with her new boyfriend, Rob.
This was a first-time event for the family, that has already worked through not only the split up of their parents in 2001 and my own transition in 2011. Given that Stella is 38, and we had not experienced this with her before, none of us was quite sure what to make of it.
I got to meet Rob last summer and was pleasantly surprised last Thanksgiving when this kind of old school young fella, started asking everyone in the family – one at a time, and secretly – that he was “thinking about marrying her, and was seeking permission from each of us.” Do people actually do this anymore?
-
The Twist Podcast #70: Calling Dolly Parton, Baby Jails, Miss America Meltdown, and Our Secret Agent President
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we take a look at the headlines, consider who we’d like to play us, America’s newest baby jails, the great Miss America meltdown, and Trump’s KGB handler comes to the White House.Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, YouTube, and right here at The Twist Podcast page.
Copyright 2018 MadeMark Publishing
-
‘Murder at the Paisley Parrot’ Takes the #1 Slot in Gay Mystery
I haven’t been on this list for awhile. It’s nice to ‘Murder at the Paisley Parrot’ grab the #1 slot once again, and to see 6 of the 7 books I have on sale for .99 cents through Tuesday back in the top 100.
-
Book Review: Tin Man: A Novel, by Sarah Winman
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm SezTin Man: A Novel, by Sarah Winman
c.2018, Putnam
$23.00 hardcover / $22.95 paperback CanadaThe picture reminds you of a thousand things.
You recall the day it was taken: the smell of the air, the background sounds, food and drink, laughter and the sense that this was forever. You’ve seen that photo many times throughout the years, but it never fails to remind you of the best of times. Or, as in the new book “Tin Man” by Sarah Winman, it may represent the worst.
-
The Savvy Senior: Simple Gadgets That Can Help Older Drivers
By Jim MillerDear Savvy Senior,
Are there any specific auto gadgets you can recommend that can help senior drivers? Both of my parents are in there eighties and still pretty good drivers, but due to arthritis and age they’re very stiff, which causes them some driving problems.
Researching Daughter
Dear Researching,
To help keep senior drivers safe and prolong their driving years, there’s a plethora of inexpensive, aftermarket vehicle adaptions you can purchase that can easily be added to your parent’s vehicles to help with many different needs. Here are some good options.
-
It’s a Mega Goodreads Giveaway! 100 (Yes, 100) Kindle Copies of ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery’ Available
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Black Cat White Paws
by Mark McNease
Giveaway ends July 10, 2018.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.Enter from now through July 10 for a chance to win one of 100 Kindle editions of “Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery.” Prefer to purchase it outright? It’s just $1.99 through July (regular $3.99). The reviews are trickling in and it’s set to be a crowd pleaser.
-
Stephanie Mott: Good Tidings of Great Joy
Stephanie Mott By Stephanie Mott
“A great many of us, myself most definitely included, have placed our faith into battle after battle where we have tried anything but love.”
The 10th Verse of the 2nd Chapter of the Gospel of Luke says, “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”
However, the United States is currently on a runaway train, racing toward an increasing inevitable crash in a place that is more like frightening senselessness and imminent pain. This, of course, for all people who have historically been marginalized and oppressed (and murdered, and enslaved, and incarcerated, and separated from their children, and turned away from the table).
So, whatever happened to good tidings and great joy?
-
LGBTSr Exclusive Giveaway: 20 Kindle Editions of ‘Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery’
Okay, make that 18 free copies! Congrats to Robin and Larry who got their early bird copies.
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) has a new tool for authors to get the word out. I’ve purchased 20 Kindle editions of my new mystery, Black Cat White Paw: A Maggie Dahl Mystery, and I’m just waiting to send them out to the next 18 claimants. Love a good cozy-esque mystery set in an idyllic river town? Love cats? This book’s for you. All I would appreciate in return for a free Kindle edition is an honest review on Amazon.
Just email me at LGBTSr@outlook.com and I’ll send a download link to the first 18 respondents. It’s just like buying a Kindle book directly from Amazon. No in-between, no gathering of personal information. Just click, open, and read.
Mark/Editor
In Black Cat White Paws, recently widowed Maggie Dahl finds herself faced with challenges on all fronts: life alone in a new town, running a business she and her husband had dreamed of and started together, and now pursuing a killer. Her sister Gerri moves from Philadelphia to Lambertville, New Jersey, to support her sister and start a new life of her own. Together the women search for a murderer, helped in critical ways by their neighbor’s cat. A black cat with white paws. A cat whose independence sets it all in motion and sees it through to the end.
Black Cat White Paws finds Maggie moving from New York City to Lambertville, an idyllic river town with artists, restaurants, incredible landscapes, and enough local characters to populate a murder mystery. Join Maggie, Gerri, Checks the cat, and a cast of colorful small town natives just as eager—and as shocked—to find a killer in their midst.