As we read Pebblepie's story about her grueling airtrip to Texas we identified completely with the experience. Hey, air travel today is the pits!

 

I think back fondly to the days when air travel was something I actually enjoyed. We had roomy seats, reasonably good food and fun and games in the passenger cabin. I used to fly from the West Coast to NYC often and went first class. That meant meals with cloth napkins and china plates. We were plied with drinks all through the flight. And we usually had a good movie to watch.

 

Also, the cabin attendants (we called them stewardesses) understood that they were there to make us happy - not to crack the whip and keep us in line.

 

One airline even had a bar section where you could get away from your seat on long flights.

 

Now that we are older and would appreciate such amenities we find ourselves in a hostile air travel environment. On our last trip, coming home from the Ft. Lauderdale airport, we arrived forty minutes before flight time and were told we did not have time to go through security and board. So, we had to catch a flight that left  four hours later.

 

Going through security was an ordeal.  Penny is blind and I had her in a wheel chair rather than pulling her along after me when we have to dash for a gate. Then there is the matter of our electronic implants.  Penny has a neurostimulator  in her back and I have a Pacemaker. That gets us shunted off to an area where we have to practically strip and then we were  hand patted to see if we have terrorist weapons.

 

A blind woman in a wheel chair and an old guy with a heart problem? We constitute a possible terrorist threat? What ever happened to profiling?  I am sure we are on no ones chart.

 

Then there was the waiting with only uncomrtable chairs to sit in.  This was interrupted by three changes of departure gates. Each time we had to go from one councourse to another. In Atlanta that means taking the elevator down to the undergound tramway and thence to the next councourse. Upon arriving at that gate, we were advised that there was another change - and had to reverse the whole procedure.

 

In the meantime we were getting really hungry.  The only sit down restaurant we could find had a long line of those waiting to be seated. When we were finally seated, we were squeezed in between adjoining tables and had to listen to a loud, egotistical business man doing his best to impress his companion.

 

I finally decided that we had gone through enough abuse and were not looking forward to being shoehorned into the tiny seats in the steerage section of the plane (I am 6'4" and 235 lbs.) So I bought us an upgrade to business class where the seats were a trifle larger.  But no softer.

 

Is air travel today fun?  No, it is cruel and unusual punishment.

Some of you have commented to the effect that you have seen reports that say one can keep mental acuity as you age by stretching the mind. I have been reading the same sort of reports - a lot of them. And that leads to the question of what one can do to exercise the mind.

 

My thought is that one should consider being a perpetual puzzle solver. To do this you must put learning to do difficult things into the puzzle solving category. Yes, there are crossword puzzles, numerical puzzles and such. But the ultimate puzzles are trying to learn how to solve new problems.

 

My current example is work I am doing with Lee in developing her web site. In this case, Lee is starting from scratch and has to learn how to use the website programming software Dreamweaver. This gives me the challenge of trying to help her find out how to use it. I have been using it for years and the program is so complex that I continue to learn new things about it. Her new site involves things that have me struggling to understand them. One major thing (editing the flash version of her site has so far defeated me.  But I am not giving up!)

 

But I find that Lee, being a graphics designer, has been using  a program for storage of her work that is new to me.  So, here is another mind-stretching experience. New software, new procedures, new experience.

 

I guess the point of all this is that, as we age, we need to get into mentally challenging situations - not run away from them.  I know too many late lifers who just shrug their shoulders and say "that computer stuff is not for me." What a shame.  Instead of honing their minds, they are letting them go flat.

 

So, have fun with your mind. Learn to enjoy those puzzles that are actually learning experiences.

I can't believe that I have come to consider AARP Magazine to be one of my two favorite mags. The other is Time. It is not just because they deal with late life issues.  The mag is full of interesting stuff about well-known people, health advice, financial advice, and a good crosswork puzzle, etc.

 

The November issue had an article that I clipped and saved dealing with late lifers and jobs. The headline is "Working Wonders. They're dependable, caring, experienced. And that is just for starters. So it's no surprise that more smart companies are turning to older workers to get the job done right."

 

I love this quote: "Larry Huston, vice president for innovation and knowledge at Proctor & Gamble helped start an independent business that hires retirees for flexible work assignments at P&G and several other participating corporations. "One of our managers said the retiree he hired had the energy of a new guy and the wisdom of a veteran. The retiree arrived completely up to speed and ready to work, but he was also energized, full of new ideas. This is tremendously valuable to us."

 

Wow! That should blast away some of the negative stereotypes about late lifers.

 

The same article included a piece on "Where Jobs Will Be." Here are the hot spots:

 

-- Medical assistance

-- Teaching

-- Pharmacy work

-- Retail sales

-- Consulting

-- Self-Employment

 

I won't go into this any deeper, but if any of you want a few more words about why and how these are good opportunity occupations for later lifers, let me know and I will fill you in.

For any new people reading this blog, I am female, blind as a bat, which I know is not politically correct - but it's the truth.

 

Your comments about the mysteries of time acceleration as one gets older brought to my mind another phenomenon I have experienced.

 

I have been a massage therapist since 1998. Since then I have had three out-of-the-body experiences. The first one occured in 2001. I was massaging a female client. The minute my hands touched her body I felt an electrical charge. Shortly after that, somehow my body went up to the ceiling and I was looking down at myself massaging my client. My vision at the moment was 20-20. The massage that was to be an hour seemed as if it took me five minutes. It seemed as if I were dancing around the table.

 

When the massage ended, my client asked, "Whoa!  What happened?" I didn't know at that time.

 

I asked my client if she felt well and she said, "extraordinarily so!"

 

When I got home from work that evening, I called the director of the massage therapy school and related to her my experience. Rhonda told me "This experience rarely happens. You and your cliient have be totally in an electrical synchronization. The odds are against this happening. There is nothing to be afraid of."

 

Since then it has happened two more times. I feel blessed when it does. But I am no longer afraid of it happening.

Right on the heels of the piece  I wrote below, here comes Time Magazine with a fascinating report that debunks the conventional wisdom about losing brain power as we age.

 

Their article in the current issue, "The Surprising Power Of The Aging Brain" is subtitled, "Scientists used to think that intellectual power peaked at age 40. Now they know better."  Here are some quotes from that article:

 

"Far from slowly powering down, the brain as it ages begins bringing  new cognitive systems on line and cross-indexing existing ones in ways it never did before. You may not pack so much raw data into memory as you could when you were cramming for college finals and your short-term memory may not be what it was, but you manage information and parse meanings that were entirely beyond you when you were younger."

 

"It's that talent for reflective thinking that explains the role older adults have always played in the human culture. It's not for nothing that history's firebrands and idealogues are typically young while its judges and peacemakes and great theologians  tend to be older.

 

Not everyone achieves the sharp thought and serene mien that can come with age. But for those who do, the later years can be the best years they ever had."

 

Pete's note: It is about time the scientific world has begun to recognize what late lifers have always understood.

I was just visiting Cheryl's blog "Lost and Dangerous" (see link to the right). She is a high-powered executive/manager who recently went into a pseudo retirement. I see that she is working as hard as ever and suffering physical symptoms as a result (leg cramps).

 

This inspires me to share with you the status of my late life.  I never did claim to be retired - have always been involved in some commercial enterprise.

 

Lately, I find that I am getting increasingly busy. For example:

 

I have completed a web site for Penny's employers which has been submitted to search engines and is up and running www.robertjohnstudio.com  Please go to the Body Massage page and you will learn about Penny's professionalism.

 

I am in the midst of the largest web site project ever.  My client in Florida, Marcos, is submitting a proposal to completely rebuild the 48-page site of a major hospital and retirement home complex. I am working on the architecture of the new site - and, if the project is OK'd, I will write the copy for the site. We will start by doing focus group studies with the residents/patients and their families.  I will run these group sessions.

 

So, this morning I get an email from my good friend Lee, in Florida.  She is the one who bawled me out because I was dithering around about courting Penny. So, I owe her big time. She wants to do a web site for her design business and asked if I could help. I sure will - gratis. We had a start-up session on the phone today.

 

Otherwise, Pete Lustig, what are you doing with your life?

 

Answer: Everything I can!

 

 

 

Just got this email. I sure want to share it with you so you can see corporate PR at work.

 

Hello Pete,

Thank you for writing back to MSN Spaces Technical Support.  

I am sorry for the delay in responding to your e-mail.

My name is Zaida and I understand that you and other users are still experiencing slowness when accessing MSN Spaces. I know how frustrating this can be.

Please understand that we need to do further investigation after reviewing the information you provided. Although we do not have a definite time frame as to when this will be resolved, we are engaging additional resources in investigating this problem. As soon as we have evaluated the situation, we will notify you as soon as possible.

We understand the inconvenience this is causing you and we will work as fast as we can to have your issue resolved.

You are valuable at MSN and we look forward to providing you with consistent and effective service. If you have other inquiries, please do not hesitate to write back.

Thank you for using MSN Spaces.  
 
Sincerely,  
 
Zaida  
MSN Spaces Technical Support  

 

Note that she is careful not to admit to a problem. Can you believe that they aren't aware of this slowness thing?  And are you touched by the pains she takes to empathize with the "incovnenience" this has caused.

I understand your comments about the frustrations of slowness. However, I have noticed that in late life time accelerates. Everyone seems to want things to happen yesterday. I think it took me 125 years before I was 21. This month I will be 63. It's strange to wake up on Monday morning - and then, suddenly, the next day is Saturday. When I went to massage therapy school I came across this motto which I remember to this day. "Yesterday is in the past. Tomorrow is your  future. Today is your gift. That's why they call it the present."

 

  Hope everyone has a wonderul year.

Most of you know my feelings about retirement -- why would anyone want to?  So, I was interested to find this article in the current issue of AARP Bulletin:

 

 

Need the money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61%

Desire to stay mentally active  . . . . . . . .  54%

Need the health benefits . . . . .  . . . . . .  52%

Desire to stay physically active . . . . . . .   49%

Desire to do something fun or enjoyable .  37%

Desire to help other people . . . . . . . . .    29%

Desire to be around other people . . . . .    24%

Desire to learn new things . . . . . . . . . .   17%

Desire to pursue a dream . . . . . . . . . . .  14%

 

Lots of good reasons, huh?

 

 

When I posted up the piece below on instructions to speed up MSN Spaces response it took at least 30 seconds before the posting was accepted. So, the slowness problem continues in spite of the changes I made. I ran into another problem after I did the adjustments.  I could not get Late Life to open from Favorites. I wound up entering Late Life via the MSN Spaces page search engine. Then I noted that the URL was different from the one I had been using - so I had to change that.

 

So, the below instructions may help a little but I don't think that the problem is here on my computer. What has your experience been regarding slowness?

Dietrich asked me if I was noting slowness of Spaces when doing postings and working within it.  I sure did!  It was taking 30 seconds or more to post up comments.  At first I thought my posting hadn't been accepted and would repost.  But then I found that if I waited something would happen.

 

So, I complained to MSN Spaces Support and they came back at me with the following instructions:

 

Hello  Pete,

Thank you for writing to MSN Spaces Technical Support. I am Juvelyn and I will be assisting you today.

I understand that you are encountering new issue in space, you mentioned that you have to wait forever for your comment to be posted in MSN Spaces.

I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you and for the delay in answering your e-mail.

Here are the possible reasons why you encounter issues:

-  the temporary Internet files or cache on the computer may be full
-  the security settings may be set to "High"

Have you tried clearing your browser's cache? The Temporary Internet Files folder contains recorded items you have seen or downloaded from the web. Storing these files in your cache can make browsing the web faster, but all those files take up space, which can cause performance problems. I suggest that you regularly clear the cache, as it will help improve your browser's performance.

To clear the temporary Internet files or cache and the browser history in Internet Explorer:

   a. Click "Tools".
   b. Click "Internet Options".
   c. Click the "General" tab.
   d. Click "Delete Files" under "Temporary Internet Files". Select "Delete all offline content," and then click "OK".
   e. Click "Settings".
   f.  Select "Every visit to the page" option button under "Check for newer versions of stored pages", and then click "OK".
   g. Click "Clear History" on the "General" tab under History, and click "Yes".
   h. Click "OK".

I also advise you to check your Internet Explorer security settings.

   a. Using Internet Explorer, click "Tools".
   b. Click "Internet Options".
   c. Click the "Advanced" tab and then scroll down to the "Security" section.
   d. Clear the "Warn about invalid certificates" check box.
   e. Click "OK".
   f. Under the "Security" tab, click "Default Level."
   g. Verify that the slider is set to "Medium". If it is not, click to select the slider and then move the pointer to "Medium".
   h. Click "OK".

Also, please check your computer if you downloaded a third party software (SpyWare, AdKiller, Gator, HotBar, etc.) as it may be conflicting with MSN Spaces. Microsoft does not support third party software and we recommend that you contact your network administrator or firewall manufacturer for set up instructions on how to enable all ActiveX controls for downloading and installing.

If the above information did not help, please write back and provide us with the following information:

     1. Another brief description of the issue.
     2. Are you encountering error messages? What exactly do they say?
     3. What are the steps that you were taking when you encountered the issue?
     4. How long have you been experiencing this issue?
     5. What changes have you made to your computer prior to experiencing this issue?
     6. Your computer make, model and processor speed
     7. Operating system and version
     8. Browser brand and version

You are valuable at MSN and we look forward to providing you with consistent and effective service. If you have any inquiries, please do not hesitate to write back.

Thank you for using MSN Spaces.

Sincerely,

Juvelyn
MSN Spaces Technical Support


OK, friends - I have done these things and it seems that Comments are posting up a little faster (8 seconds). If any of you have been having slowness problems and decided to make these setting changes, please let all of us know what your results are.

 

PEte

We have a columnist for our local newspaper, The Pantagraph, who picks up and passes on an assortment of amusing news notes from around the country. In his most recent column, there was an item of interest to Late Life guys:

 

The other day a local man went to the doctor where he was advised that he had an enlarged prostate. One remedy, according to his doc, is to have sex on a regular basis. "You should have seen the look in his eyes ...", the guy said,  "... when I asked, can I get a prescription for that?"

 

Still to be asked: If Blue Cross will pay for that prescription.

Bearly Bear was atrociously over-gifted this Christmas.  His wardrobe was expanded to include a variety of outfits (even a grey, pin-striped suit, white shirt and foullard necktie.) I will be showing off Bearly in each of his new outfits in future postings. For now, here he is in one of his jock modes - being a Miami Heat star.

There is a nasty thing about going public in a blog that I keep running into. There are types out there who will latch onto personal information you might inadvertently let show and do nasty things. It seems that women are the most vulnerable to this sort of thing. So, most of them try to keep their real identities hidden behind a pseudonym.

 

Penny and I have been quite open about who we are, and perhaps we have been naive. But nothing untoward has happened to date - perhaps we are just lucky.

 

I am leading up to this matter.  I went in to visit LottieMae's blog and found a message that she is shutting it down and reopening under a different address. Here is her message:

 

Goodbye to: http://spaces.msn.com/members/lottiemae

After 11459 visitors and 8 months of being:   http://spaces.msn.com/members/lottiemae   I had the misfortune of giving out my lottiemae  hotmail  email address about two months ago or so and from then on I was totally overwhelmed and deludged with junk: Please do not leave comments on this old blog. I will be more than happy to see your comments and your happy faces on my new blog as I certainly do not want to lose all my blogging buddies: Oh and if I am on your blogs to visit list, please update me to the new space name listed below so others can find me.. Thanks...   New Space below: http://spaces.msn.com/members/lottiemae56     hugs, lottiemae   Well, we wil be with LottieMae in her new blog site - in fact have changed the url in our favorites links.   Let's all let her know that we are still with her, huh?

The holidays are over. I would like to recommend a good short story for all of you to read. It was written in 1947 by H. G. Wells. The title of the story is "The Valley of the Blind". In the Valleyof the Blind the one-eyed man is king.

 

This story is fascinating and enlightening. In a way its's a little like the portraint of Dorian Gray.  What is real and what is perceived? When you are blind you don't see ugly.  You see the beauty that is within.

 

I also can hear false notes.  When one sense is taken away away, your other senses are enhanced. Usually I hear things most people miss.

 

But, on the other hand, there are times when someone is just kidding me with a serious voice and I don't understand.

 

Communication -- I think that's a problem and and also an answer to problems. Say what you feel and I will feel what you say.

Here are some comments that were made in 1957:

 

1) "I'll tell you one thing. If things keep going the way they are, it's going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $20."

 

2) "Have you seen the prices for the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before  $5,000 will only buy a used one."

 

3) "If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit.  A quarter a pack is ridiculous."

 

4) "Can you believe that the post office is thinking about charging a dime for a first class stamp?"

 

5) "When I first started driving, who would have thought that gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon."

 

6) "Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year? It wouldn't surprise me if someday they are making more than the president of the U.S."

 

7) "No one can afford to be sick any more ...$35.00 a day for a hospital room is too rich for my blood."

 

8) "It's too bad things are so tough nowadays.  I see where some married women are having to work to make ends meet."

 

9)  "If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00 an hour, store owners won't be able to afford to hire help."

 

10) I never thought I'd see the day when all of our kitchen appliances are electric. They are even making electric typewriters now."

 

Pete's Note: Around that time I had a job that my friends envied because I was making $150 a week.