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  • Shoes for Your Walking

    5fingers and nasturtiums

    Vibram fivefingers with nasturtiums►

     

    I love my fivefingers!

    A shoe that I don't kick off the minute I am inside.

    I almost never  rave about shoes but I love them so much I even wrote a review for REI [where I bought them.]

    Shoe shopping and I have a love/hate relationship. I know we need shoes but the process of my getting them is no fun so I do it as infrequently as is possible.

    My feet are not structured like the manufacturers think all women's feet should be made and I've learned to buy men's shoes –  but that tends to work only for sandals and running shoes. When I need to get "dressed up" I am stuck with uncomfortable shoes.

    Anyway – these are comfy and not too many people think they are odd. But remember  I  live in Portland where one motto is: Keep Portland Weird.

    If you don't go barefoot a lot of the time, these may take some getting used to. But if you do yoga and have learned to separate your toes [like you did as a kid] then these will not feel odd.

    They are much the same a walking barefoot and you feel the gravel and rocks underfoot – but they don't puncture the shoe or your foot. I wear them walking and running and found when running, I needed to adjust what I was doing ever so slightly. 

    Vibram keeps coming out with new styles and so for next winter I shall get a pair that are a bit more water resistance and also some finger socks!

    **********

    And for those who like shoes without flowers, here is another picture:)

    fivefingers

    Go ahead and try a pair, it's like being a kid all over again!!

    Age in style!

    Comments?  Questions?

  • Rocking on the River!

    karaoke from hell

     

    A friend had a 60th birthday bash for her hubby and our moorage plus were invited.

    A group called Karaoke From Hell played for 6 [or more hours] while we partied late into the evening…

    And in case you are wondering:

    • No – we never fall in the river at parties
    • No – we don't do this kind of partying very often

    The band set up on one deck and the food, liquids, chairs and tables were set up across what we call our lagoon or backyard.

    We have frequent potlucks and parties in the neighborhood but this bash outdid all of those and will go down in the annals of Bridgeton lore.

    Enjoy the movie:  see my neighbors, friends and moorage and rock to the music!

    PS – my house can be seen at about 1:14 into the clip

    Comments? Thank you.

  • Walking for brain fitness

    walking-good-for-brains

    WALK!!

    A  study found that walking isn't just great for weight loss or for just plain old exercise –

    it's great for your memory too!

    …researchers randomly assigned 120 healthy but sedentary men and women (average age mid-60s) to one of two exercise groups. One group walked around a track three times a week, building up to 40 minutes at a stretch; the other did a variety of less aerobic exercises, including yoga and resistance training with bands.

    After a year, brain scans showed that among the walkers, the hippocampus had increased in volume by about 2 percent on average; in the others, it had declined by about 1.4 percent.

    Your hippocampus is a part of the brain that is important for memory formation and normally it starts to atrophy around age 55 or 60. 

    The fact that  it actually increased is pretty amazing..

    It makes me want to go out and walk every day…

    Join me?

     

    Comments? thoughts?

  • But I Don’t Know What To Do Or How To Do It!

    When I talk to groups of people about being self-employed, it seems the older people in the audience may be a bit more afraid than younger folks about being self-employed.

     

    It isn’t just older folks who can’t find jobs but we older ones have had many more years of being in someone else’s employ and may not have any real idea of what we can do or how we can do it.

     

    Or we think we don’t know what to do or how to do it.

    Or we may just be plain old scared!

     

    We need to step out of our comfort zones and change our emotional attachment to jobs! 

     

    Think about it – you are out of a job because your job had NO emotional attachment to you!

     

    I won’t go into a rant about businesses, outsourcing and greed here [I have another blog for that]  but we have learned that if you are an employee, you can be let go at the drop of the proverbial hat. 

     

    We used to think that if we found a good job and worked hard, we would be taken care of for life. We’d have that job til we were 65, then we’d have a pension, continued health care coverage and also Social Security benefits.

     

    This is no longer the case. Jobs have been lost, pensions gobbled up in the Wall Street mess and Social Security stuck in the mud.

     

    If you weigh the scary scenarios – you might begin to think that trying your hand at being self-employed is not as scary as depending on a job or the government.

     

    Yes. It can be scary! But it can also be freeing.

     

    Imagine:

    • making money from what you already know how to do.
    • making money from a hobby you have loved for years
    • getting up each day and seeing your income making activity as  fun
    • letting your creativity having free rein

     

    Then imagine how your emotional self will feel when you earn that first real bit of money!  Your self-esteem will sky rocket!!

    You don't know what to do?  Here's a suggestion:

    Start right now and make a list of all the things you are good at.

     

    Just let your brain run free and if you get stuck, ask your friends and family what they see you as good and great at doing.

     

    And stay tuned for what to do with your list.

  • Older and Unemployed? Try Working For YOU!

    From everything I hear, there might be a small increase in Social Security for 2012 – BUT – any increase is likely to be offset by an increase in the cost of Medicare. So it seems we will be into year 3 of no actual increase in the monthly income.

    The economy is improving slightly but I'll bet older people are not the ones that will be getting hired or getting the "good" jobs.

    Older people with experience are seen as requiring higher pay levels.  It's better for the bottom line to hire young people for lower pay.

    Then there is the office mentality [shh – it's a well kept secret] of not hiring people smarter or more capable than you because they might "get" your job. 

    People who are not seen as threats are safer hires.

    In short: The job market isn't going to look too good for older workers for a long while – if ever. And if you rely on Social Security – it's not going to increase.

    I therefore put this question out there for you:

    If you want to increase your income [and most do] why not be your own boss?

    Stop job hunting!

    For most, job hunting is a debilitating experience. You apply for many jobs and do not even get a courtesy reply of "sorry." You don't even get an acknowledgement that your resume has been received. In fact, you never hear anything from the places you apply to.

    And if you do manage to get a live interview, you may still never hear from them again. Interviews are done for many reasons, and, in my opinion, not all of them ethical reasons.

    What can you do to earn money?

    • Become your own boss!
    • Become an entrepreneur!
    • Do what you always wanted to do!
    • Turn your long time dreams into reality!

    There is much to say about being self employed or an entrepreneur that I'll post on the topic over the next few weeks.

    Stay tuned in

     

    Comments?  Questions?