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One Thing or Another: Are We There Yet?
By Mark McNease
It’s always One Thing or Another… a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
This column was always intended to be lighthearted, even in its most serious moments. Sure, I look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all. I even ponder death now and then, since it’s pretty much the end point for all of us. Where we go after that, if we go anywhere, is not something I spend much time thinking or worrying about. I have appropriate clothes for any destination, or none at all, in case it’s especially hot.
But 2020 was so difficult, so groundbreaking, like a sledgehammer outside my bedroom window, that it stands unique among the years of my life. And now, two weeks into a new year, it’s still here! The same election we would normally have moved beyond by now, accepting it as part of the political bargain we make for living in a country where people are allowed to vote, keeps hold of us as if to prevent our escape. The frustrations of lockdowns and limited interactions and one-way grocery store aisles and the politicization of absolutely everything has us frayed within an inch of insanity. And that’s just Tuesday!
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Dave Hughes of Retire Fabulously: 50 Things You Can Do During the Pandemic
The following is reprinted with permission from RetireFabulously.com
By Dave Hughes
RetireFabulously.com
The most popular article on RetireFabulously.com has been the mega-list of 100 Things You Can Do After You Retire. After all, there’s no reason to be bored after you retire.Unfortunately, during the COVID-19 pandemic, some of those activities aren’t feasible because they involve interacting with groups of people in potentially unsafe situations.
But don’t despair! The glass is still half full. Half of the things on that list are still doable during these stay-at-home, socially distanced times.
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The Savvy Senior: How to Keep a Watchful Eye on an Aging Parent
By Jim MillerDear Savvy Senior,
Can you recommend any services or technology that help me monitor my elderly mother who lives alone? Since the coronavirus pandemic started last March, my sister and I have noticed that my mom’s health has slipped a bit, so we would like to find something that helps us keep tabs on her when we’re not around.
Concerned Daughter
Dear Concerned
Depending on how closely you want to monitor your mother, and what she’s comfortable with as well, there are check-in call services along with some new monitoring technology devices you can turn to for help. Here are several to consider.
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Dave Hughes of Retire Fabulously: How to Make the Best of Retirement in the Pandemic
The following is reprinted with permission from RetireFabulously.com
By Dave Hughes
It’s July 21, 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been raging for at least four months now.I hope you are doing well and staying safe and sane, to the greatest extent possible.
Aside from the immediate impacts of the pandemic, many other aspects of your life have been upended and changed in one way or another. Many businesses are suffering, but some are booming. People are eating out less, working from home, driving less, buying more of some things and less of others, and so on. Almost every aspect of “normal” has been disrupted.
If you are not retired yet, your work situation has probably changed. You may be working from home or even furloughed. Depending on your line of work, you may be working extra hours.
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The Savvy Senior: Can I Stop Social Security if I Go Back to Work?
By Jim MillerDear Savvy Senior,
I lost my job last month because of the coronavirus crisis. With little savings, I’ve been thinking about starting my Social Security benefits early to help me get by. But my question is, if I find a new job can I stop my Social Security benefits and restart them at a later date so they can continue to grow?
Almost 63
Dear Almost,
Yes, there are actually two ways you can stop your Social Security retirement benefits (once you’ve started collecting them) and restart them at a later date, which would boost your benefits. But in order to do this certain rules and conditions must be met. Here are your options.
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Book Review: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, by Mary L. Trump, Ph.D.
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookwork
“Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man” by Mary L. Trump, Ph.D.
c.2020, Simon and Schuster
$28.00 / $37.00 Canada 227 pagesYou hadn’t seen that container in ages.
You really can’t remember when you put it on the shelf. Sometime this year, six years ago, when you moved last? What’s in it must be worth something, though, or you wouldn’t’ve saved it. Now, as in the new book “Too Much and Never Enough” by Mary L. Trump, PhD, digging may yield answers.
No one has to explain to you who Donald Trump is but, for anyone who’s been completely out of the loop, Mary Trump is Donald’s niece (she uses his first name, always, and to avoid confusion, so will we). Trump has a PhD in psychology, worked at Manhattan Psychiatric Center while in school, was once a therapist, and taught graduate psychology. The point is, she’s got chops and it shows, especially when this book – a look at her family and, specifically, her Uncle Donald – reads like something from the True Medicine genre. Indeed, medically-based passages are nearly emotionless in their clinicality.
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The Savvy Senior: What to Know About Advance Care Planning in the Age of Coronavirus
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
All this horrible coronavirus carnage got me thinking about my own end-of-life decisions if I were to get sick. Can you recommend some good resources that can help me create a living will or advance directive, or other pertinent documents? I’ve put it off long enough.
Almost 70
Dear Almost,
Creating a living will (also known as an advance directive) is one of those things most people plan to do, but rarely get around to actually doing. Only about one-third of Americans currently have one. But the cold hard reality of the novel coronavirus may be changing that. Here’s what you should know along with some resources to help you create an advance directive.
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Lee Lynch’s Amazon Trail: A Personal Silver Lining
Photo by Sue Hardesty By Lee Lynch
I thought there could be no good news.
Not in the midst of a pandemic and the mass selfishness that hastens and continues its spread.
Not when the abiding depth of U.S. racism bubbles to the surface without shame or remedy.
Not when the vainglorious puppet of the far right “that struts and frets his hour upon the stage” continues to assault everything we’ve done right as a country and tout as successful every evil we continue to perpetrate.
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Book Review: Confessions of a Gay Priest, by Tom Rastrelli
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm
“Confessions of a Gay Priest” is a hard, hard book to read – it’ll make you squirm, it’ll make your eyebrows raise, you’ll want to toss it on the street and let semis run it over and yet, it’s stay-up-all-night compelling.
“Confessions of a Gay Priest” by Tom Rastrelli
c.2020, University of Iowa Press $19.95 / higher in Canada 328 pagesYou spent days examining your life.
Sins: that’s what you were looking for How had you displeased God? How many lies, covets, dishonors? What have you done since – oh, when was your last confession, anyhow? They say the sacrament is good for your soul, and in “Confessions of a Gay Priest” by Tom Rastrelli, there’s a lot to tell.
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The Savvy Senior: How to Make the Most of Your Telehealth Appointment
By Jim MillerDear Savvy Senior,
I manage a large doctor’s clinic that treats hundreds of seniors each month. We are moving to more telehealth visits to help keep our patients safe at home during the coronavirus pandemic, but this new way of seeing a doctor is befuddling to many of our elder patients. Can you write a column educating patients on how to prepare for a telehealth appointment?
Regular Reader
Dear Reader,
I’d be happy to help! To help keep patients safe and at home during the coronavirus crisis more and more doctors and other health care providers are turning to telehealth (a.k.a. telemedicine) appointments, which are remote e-visits using a digital communication device like a smartphone, tablet or computer.
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Dave Hughes: Your Retirement Has Changed – Perhaps for the Better
This article is reprinted with permission from RetireFabulously.com
Dave Hughes, Retire Fabulously
A couple weeks ago (mid-May, 2020), I was contacted by a writer for MarketWatch who was working on an article about “Retiree Resentment.” He was seeking input from experts on how retirees can reframe their resentment in a positive, proactive way.In order to give him the best information I could, I asked Retire Fabulously! subscribers to share their thoughts. I asked, “How has this pandemic changed how you feel about your retirement? Has this led you to adjust your plans or expectations for your retirement? If so, how?”
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Cathy’s Wealth of Health: The Eyes Are a Window to Liver Health
By Cathy McNease, Herbalist
Traditional Chinese Medicine has given us a way to physically view how healthy or unhealthy is our liver via the eyes. So much information is provided to me as a practitioner by simply observing my patient’s eyes. The tongue is used in Chinese Medicine for diagnosis. The sides of the tongue tell you about liver health…pale=blood deficiency; red=heat; purple=stagnation. If your eyes are still in good condition, but you observe one of these colors on your tongue, start now to remedy the imbalance in your liver and protect your precious sense of vision. One of the beauties of tongue reading is that it empowers us to prevent diseases before they strike.
Here are some of the most important messages seen in the eyes, followed by some simple remedies:
Red eyes show heat, inflammation, or irritation.
Dry eyes show lack of body fluids, deficiency of blood or too much heat.
Itchy eyes show allergies, and the body’s difficulty in clearing allergens. Nettle leaf, Milk thistle seed and Burdock root, all available in capsules, may be of help.