grow older better

Tag: Aging

  • Alzeiheimers: Failing Drug Trials

  • Women, Poverty, And Shortened Lives

    old and poorAn article, Get Rich or Die Younger: The Shrinking Lifes Spans of Poor U.S. Women, includes the following 2 conclusions…

    1. Among men older than 55, life expectancies are growing fastest for the rich.
    2. Among women older than 55, life expectancies are growing for the rich and shrinking for the poor.

    Being female, and being poor, is killing US women.

    The only groups decreasing in life expectancy are poor women. The poorest 40% of women all lose years, and the poorer you are, the shorter your life.

    No age group of poor men loses years, they may not gain, but they do not lose.

    Take a look at the chart as it easy to read.

    And with this scenario, the U.S. House wants to reduce aid to poor people!

    Another reason I want to help older persons earn more money. We cannot rely on Social Security – it is too tenuous in the current political arena.

    For more information on my ideas, go to Gray Wolf Productions.

  • Moving In With Your Parents. Not Just For Young Adults Anymore

    homeIt is not just new college graduates and young adults moving back home.

    Now the 50-64 year olds  are moving back home too.

    For seven years through 2012, the number of Californians aged 50 to 64 who live in their parents’ homes swelled 67.6% to about 194,000, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development.

    The jump is almost exclusively the result of financial hardship caused by the recession rather than for other reasons, such as the need to care for aging parents, said Steven P. Wallace, a UCLA professor of public health who crunched the data.

    Another sad commentary on the economy and the futures of middle aged parents…not to mention what happens to the next generations…

    And why I redesigning my main website to include information on earning more income.

    [You can sign up at gray wolf productions to receive information.]

  • Januarys, Birthdays, and A Little Rant

    birthday

    Is it because it is January?

    Or is it because my birthday is this month?

     

    Every January, I get a five dollar coupon for a local restaurant that has good food.

    But I also get mail from a company that wants to sell me cremation services.

    Next up, I know I will get the annual blurb from my Medicare advantage program with all the nonsense about how to take care of my aging body.

    I gather they send this to everyone as if we are all the same because we happen to be over 65.

    It is usually chock full with good information like making sure your floors do not have any clutter on them.

    Well, duh! What happens when you have young cats, a puppy, and are a genetic-clutter person?

    They also tell me to be concerned if I get depressed and give me a telephone number to call – because we all know that anybody over 65 is bound to get depressed.

    Wish instead they offered advice on safety guides for riding your bike when you’re getting older, or a class for making sure you know what you’re doing when you’re skiing, or maybe how to go kayaking or running or something like that – instead of telling me to put bars in my bathroom and be sure to clear my floor.

    Maybe if they offered advice about going out and being active and being social they wouldn’t have to worry so much about those grab bars in your bathroom and depression.

    And yes I do know about depression, which is why I feel like and say something here. But depression can strike at any age and there are ways to avoid being depressed and two of them are by being active and being social.

    That’s why I write this blog, because I know that people over 60, over 65, and over 70 aren’t all sitting home worrying about putting putting grip bars and stuff in their bathrooms or cleaning floors.

    They are doing something else with their lives!

    Thoughts? Comments?

    Thank you.

  • There’s Something About Portland [Oregon]

     my-moorage

    10 years ago I bought a house, actually a floating home, in Portland Oregon.

     

    At the time when I was told things would need replacing or work would need to be done in 10 years, and I thought to myself:

    “Who cares, I won’t be here.”

    FYI – I never stay anyplace more than seven or eight years.”

    Well – here we are 10 years later and I am still in that very same house. In fact this is the longest I have stayed put in one house since I moved away from New York City – and that’s 50 years of moving!

    There is obviously something about Portland that has kept me here. I had to stop and think about it and I’ve come to the conclusion it’s

    • my neighbors
    • my house
    • the river
    • the city itself
    • the friends I’ve made here
    • the love of beer wine and dogs
    • and lots more

    And another thing I do think about as I have aged 10 years since I’ve lived here – is that I feel safe. Moorages are pretty safe, there’s people around most of the time and it’s just a friendly, neighborly situation where we all watch out for each other – so it’s a very safe place to grow old[er.]

    The downside, though, of staying put for these 10 years, is that those things that I was told would need fixing – now need fixing.

    When you move every seven or eight years, you don’t have to deal with a lot of repairs on houses, new appliances, or other things that might need being done. You go out and buy another house that meets your new requirements.

    Well here I am, and I guess it’s time to start remodeling this house,

    because frankly – I really don’t feel like moving again.

     

    Thoughts? Comments?

    Thank you!