The Retiring Sort

Purple Mountain Majesty

Posted on February 16, 2013 by The Retiring Sort

I’m really a water person. I’m drawn to lakes, rivers, oceans, and even the little stream in my back yard. But there’s something majestic and awe-inspiring in the mountains as well. I grew up in Pennsylvania, where the rolling Appalachians and Poconos offered the nearest mountain views. I remember driving down the highways looking at the blasting tracks in the rocks, and driving through tunnels in the mountains. The valleys always contained little villages or farms.

Great Wall of China at Badaling outside Beijing

The “saddle” between Mauna Loa (left) and Maune Kea

As I traveled, I realized that, although the mountains of home seemed impressive, they were certainly not the grandest in the world. Now I’ve seen the Rockies, the Cascades, the Alps (we walked the glacier at Mont Blanc), Fujiyama, the Chinese mountains, and the volcanic peaks of Hawai’i.

The big island of Hawai’i passes over a magma vent as the tectonic plates move, creating massive peaks.

Mauna Loa on a rainy day

Observation station on Mauna Kea

The entire island chain was created by volcanoes. The largest are Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, two enormous “shield volcanoes.”

Mauna Loa (“long mountain”) is the world’s largest mountain in area, and although its base is deep in the ocean, its height above sea level is a respectable 13,679 feet.

Mauna Loa is actually still an active volcano, and to its west, Kilauea and other vents are still building the island with periodic lava flows. To its south, a vent underwater has begun building yet another peak, which won’t break the surface of the Pacific for many, many years.

Mauna Kea is actually the highest mountain in the world – about 33,000 feet from its sea floor base to its top. The height above sea level is a mere 13,803 feet.

On the other hand, big isn’t the only measure of a mountain. There is great romance in the mountains of the Scottish highlands, even though the tallest mountain in the British Isles (Ben Nevis in Scotland’s “Great Glen”) is only about 4,400 feet high.

Ben Nevis

These mountains are host to the stories my grandparents told me in my childhood – of Rob Roy MacGregor, of the Campbells and MacDonalds, and of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s failed attempt to reclaim the Scottish crown.

To me, these mountains will always be larger than life.

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This post is in response to a weekly travel theme challenge by Ailsa of WheresMyBackpack, on the subject of Mountains. To see other bloggers’ responses and get more info on her challenge, click here.

Posted in Photo Challenges, Travelogues | Tagged Ben Nevis, Hawaii, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, Mountains, photography, Scottish Highlands, Travel | 28 Comments

Future Challenge – Making New Friends

Posted on February 14, 2013 by The Retiring Sort

Challenge #10

As we get older, our friendships evolve and change. Our children grow up, our parents grow older and eventually pass away. Some friends move away. We retire from our jobs and lose track of many work contacts. Although some friendships may be lost, our need for companionship is as strong as ever. So where do we turn to meet new people?

In retirement, where do you think you will make new friends? (Ideas: Church groups, volunteering, senior living complexes, though hobbies or activities?)

As part of my retirement theme, I offer this weekly Thursday “Future Challenge” to get people of all ages thinking in general about their futures and/or retirement. Each challenge goes with a post of my own on the same general topic. Hopefully we’ll start some interesting discussions!

If you’d like to share what you think, or post on it, that’s great – and I’d love it if you’d share those thoughts in a post or comment (please tag posts TRS Future Challenge and link to this post) so others can also see them.

If you choose not to share them, that’s fine too – but with any luck, you’ll still gain some insight on where you’re headed (or would like to be), and how you can get the most out of your own journey.

To see my own take on this week’s challenge, see my post Companionship on Valentine’s Day.

Posted in Future Challenges, Ruminations | Tagged choices, companionship, friendship, lifestyle | 12 Comments

Companionship on Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 14, 2013 by The Retiring Sort

OK, so it’s Valentine’s Day. My beloved and I shared a lovely dinner at home together, exchanged cards and small tokens, and took a moment to appreciate the fact that we have one another.

We know so many people who are alone. Some by choice, some due to divorce or death of a partner. Regardless of the reason, this isn’t a great holiday for people without partners.

Loneliness is a terrible thing. It can cause any number of health issues. As people get older, being alone seems even worse, because there’s a fear it could be a permanent state. There are many kinds of relationships, and romance is only one of them. That’s why there are a variety of organizations that help seniors find mutually beneficial companionship.

Of course, there are dating services for seniors, and there are so many kinds of senior living options now, from single family homes and condos, to assisted living facilities with social and recreational activities. There are senior travel programs, senior church groups, and volunteer options for seniors. There are organizations that match seniors with rescued pets, and with children in need of companions or mentors. There is a lot of evidence that having friends and companionship helps maintain mental acuity, improves physical and emotional health, and assists with keeping us active.

So, if you are one of the lucky folks who had companionship on Valentine’s Day (or even if you’re not), reach out and share a little friendship with someone you know who is alone. And if you have loved ones with you, make sure to let them know how much they mean to you.

Shower the people you love with love, today, and every chance you get.

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For other favorite Valentine/love songs, and to contribute your own, visit Favorite Valentine’s Day Song 2013!

Some other sites related to this post:

Posted in Ruminations | Tagged change, companionship, lifestyle, loneliness, senior companions, Valentines Day | 9 Comments

Home Sweet Home

Posted on February 9, 2013 by The Retiring Sort

We’re getting better at this “named winter storm” thing in New England. Our governors have learned to close limited access highways before six 18-wheelers have skidded off the road, and to keep us off the other roads early, so that plows and first responders can get where they need to go. We’ve also trimmed many trees to keep them from falling onto power lines, and we’ve gotten “how to prepare for a power outage” messages out early.

In short, we’ve learned from the past few years of extreme weather what our parents already knew (and we’d apparently forgotten.) Each household should be prepared for a stranding winter New England storm, with dry and canned goods, a way to heat water and flush toilets, and a way to stay warm. We’re so accustomed to the immediacy of big box and super grocery stores, technical gadgets, and constant entertainment that we’ve lost track of what it means to be self-sufficient. That used to be what New Englanders claimed as their hallmark.

So how did we prepare for a couple of housebound days? We have gas for cooking, so we’re set there. We have large tubs of water in each bathroom and a cooler full of water by the kitchen sink. We did all our laundry, filled our cars with gas, and charged all our phones, tablets, laptops (one has an extra battery and we charged that too,) radios, and cameras. If the power goes out we can still read at night (I don’t keep all my e-books on the cloud). And even if we lose our internet connection, we can watch DVD’s and listen to music. During the day, we have lots of paper books. And I could always get to work on our taxes.

The truth is, we aren’t going anywhere soon. It’s still snowing. The contractor who plows our driveway came yesterday, but he can’t get up our hill yet today, and now there are two more feet of snow blocking our path to the street – too much for even my little all-wheel drive wagon. So we’ll just have to wait for the town to plow a path for our guy, so he can plow one for us.

Hunkered down in our cozy home, whether we lose power or not, we can start a fire in the fireplace, make hot cocoa, and enjoy some rare, peaceful time alone together, just me and my beloved.

Lovely.

Home Sweet Home.

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This post was written in response to the WordPress Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Home. To learn more about this challenge, and to see other bloggers’ responses, click here.

Two feet of snow dumped on Northeast (news.yahoo.com)
Huge storm blankets Northeast with 2 feet of snow (kfwbam.com)
Northeast blizzard pounds region, leaves thousands without power(darkroom.baltimoresun.com)

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Posted in Photo Challenges, Ruminations | Tagged lifestyle, New England, photography, photos, postaday, postaweek, Winter, Winter storm | 49 Comments

Mind the Gap: Paper or Electronic?

Posted on February 7, 2013 by The Retiring Sort

I still remember going to the library with my Mum when I was a preschooler. I had my own library card, and proudly brought home three books from each visit. I learned to read phonetically, and those books gave me new practice material each week. Finishing each page and physically turning it to the new challenge was fun, and exciting.

Every night as we got older, our father read a chapter of one of the “Children’s Classics” to my sister and me. That’s how we became acquainted with Heidi, Tom Sawyer, Hans Brinker, and others. I still have many of the books I owned as a child, and some of the books I bought for my own children as well. Among them: Dr. Suess’s Gerald McBoing Boing, Kipling’s Just So Stories, and Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses for me – Lobel’s Frog and Toad are Friends and Silverstein’s The Giving Tree for my kids.

Fast forward… When I retired, my co-workers gave me a Kindle Fire and a gift card to load it with books. On days when I was caring for my mother, she slept a great deal and I read. I couldn’t leave the house, but I could download light fiction and mysteries onto the Kindle to pass the time. When the power went out in our last winter storm, I could still read in the evening on my little backlit e-reader.

I like that I can get magazines newspapers, games, and some books electronically. But… there are also things I still like to own in paper form. I love having all my Diana Gabaldon books on the shelf, and there are a few other authors I plan to keep there, too. We have history books, photo books, and more.

I like being able to have up-to-date reference materials online (the OED and encyclopedias take up a lot of space, too.) And I like that I don’t have a million paperbacks cluttering up my space. But for some other kinds of books, I still really love my paper volumes – and the bookstores that sell them.

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This post was written in response to the WordPress Daily Post’s Weekly Writing Challenge: Do you prefer digital books or paperbacks?

Posted in Ruminations, Writing Challenges | Tagged Books, bookstores, choices, DPchallenge, e-books, lifestyle, reading | 17 Comments

Future Challenge – Are you a Gambler or a Squirrel?

Posted on February 7, 2013 by The Retiring Sort

Challenge #9

When we’re young, we think we have all the time in the world to save for our later years. It seems there are always more urgent needs than saving. Besides, there are government programs that provide income and medical care for retirees, right?

As we head into middle age, we become more realistic, and we look at what we’ve saved, what we expect from Social Security, and what equity we have in our homes, stocks, and other assets. Many of us see likely shortfalls at this point.

What we do next says a lot about our personalities. Do we invest in speculative stocks and commodities (gold, silver, collectibles), or do we start to put aside money in lower return, but surer vehicles like Certificates of Deposit/Savings Accounts or Money Markets? Do we refinance our homes to take cash out to pay off debt, or to get a lower interest rate and pay off the balance sooner? Do we gamble with our assets, or hoard them?

How about you – are your retirement financing plans more long-term or short-term? Do you tend to take chances or play it safe? How are your strategies working out for you so far?

As part of my retirement theme, I offer this weekly Thursday “Future Challenge” to get people of all ages thinking in general about their futures and/or retirement. Each challenge goes with a post of my own on the same general topic. Hopefully we’ll start some interesting discussions!

If you’d like to share what you think, or post on it, that’s great – and I’d love it if you’d share those thoughts in a post or comment (please tag posts TRS Future Challenge and link to this post) so others can also see them.

If you choose not to share them, that’s fine too – but with any luck, you’ll still gain some insight on where you’re headed (or would like to be), and how you can get the most out of your own journey.

To see my own take on this week’s challenge, see my post A Little BIt of This, A Little Bit of That…