I was going to title this piece Things I wish I'd known when I was 20. Then I realized the same wisdom applies at age 30, 60 or at any point in our lives. Knowledge is knowledge. It's all about whether you absorb it and make it work for you. I wish someone had told me these things (and I'd actually taken it heart) when I was 20. So, Gen Xers, Y's and Millennials, this is for you. Here are some things I've learned for sure along the road of…
Math has never been my strong suit. I'm a consistent 20% tipper in restaurants because it's easier to calculate 20% than 15% in my head (and because I was a waitress a long time ago, so I appreciate the value of tips to servers). But, as baby boomers age, we realize that it's easier to get through life with two people than it is with one. I was single for ten years before I married for the first time and spent seventeen years between husband number one and number two,…
Who spends their entire working life with one company any more? Does the end of careers spent with a single employer mean the end of alumni associations and their attendant lunches/get-togethers, long-term service awards and even retirement dinners? Most baby boomers probably had more than one job during the course of our decades-long working lives, although there are some who may have spent the majority of their career at one company. When I started working for Bell Canada (then called The Bell Telephone Company of Canada) in 1965, it was…
The other day I posted a book review that included a condemnation of our tendency to judge people without knowing their background story. In fact, my entire blog is a form of judgement. I did it again this week, at the grocery store. I'll give you the details and let you be the judge. It's harvest season in Ontario, the season for juicy, fresh beefsteak tomatoes, peaches and no end of wonderful local produce. Shoppers are checking out with bushels of Roma tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and fruit for preserving. It…
Mondays come with multiple benefits. Not only because I'm retired and no longer have to get up at the crack of dawn and go to work but also because Monday is change-the-sheets day. When we're retired, it's often those simple things that give us enormous pleasure. I"ll never understand how people can wake up in the morning and go to work or start their day without making their bed. The only thing lovelier than sliding into nice, smooth, cool sheets at the end of the day is when they're freshly…