October 19, 2009 - The Summer of 09 - Tap dancing away From Retirement - Brain Boosters
It’s been over six months since my last entry - weird the way it went down - several days after hitting my 81st, while munching a Boston cream and gulping a Tim’s double-double, I decided to take a holiday from all this website stuff and concentrate on learning photography and editing my work in this new RAW digital format.
The CIC was delighted - in fact this entire summertime exercise earned me mega brownie points because it moved me off my backside and out of the house - away from the computer except for the short photo editing sessions.
It’s coming along - I even made fifty bucks when the Toronto Star used one of my photos - but the creative process of producing impact photos is a real brain booster and a hobby I urge bored retirees to try. There’s nothing like it when someone asks - "Did you really take this picture - wow" and if you will allow me just one little tap on the back, may I humbly suggest that my summer photo experience adds to the mountain of evidence proving - one: you’re never too old to try something new and two: If I can do it then anyone can do it.
In all, this past summer was a creative blast - at least when I wasn’t contemplating building an arch - record rain - I don’t know how it was in your neck-of-the-woods, but here ,at the gateway to cottage country, residents looked like pissed-off villagers anxious to tie mother nature to the stake.
You’ve heard the expression that ends………"Where the sun don’t shine"? - well, you would have shoved it here.
Even on the rare days the sun broke through the locals continued to walk around wearing that bedraggled look one gets after being hit on the side of the head with a two-by-four because of the slow, parking lot type traffic on the highways leading out of the big smoke and into our community producing a massive, short-stay sun-seeking visitor invasion,
But despite the biblical amount of rain, I just kept click-click-clicking and then studied and worked the magic of RAW in Photoshop elements developing my own style of pictures - it’s amazing and great fun
Anyway, the importance of retirees finding some creative challenge to keep them sharp and alive is emphasized once again in a new book - "Don’t just retire; Live it Love it!" by Richard Atkinson, a 68 year old retiree who spent over 35 years as a human resource management specialist.
He notes that a Stats Canada survey found that seniors who spent most of their leisure time watching TV, listening to music or doing nothing much of anything are the ones least satisfied with their retirement - well, hello.
He also urges folks to challenge themselves mentally and physically on a regular basis - nothing just hit and miss.
As noted in the past, I found that learning how to work the internet via websites - in my case it was from scratch - is a fascinating way to achieve the creative, brain boosting balance one needs to stay mentally sharp - and any extra income you may bank is a nifty way to gauge your success - check out the home page from some ideas - you will find everything you need to get started.
Now - thanks to retired buddy Jim Hill who contributed the following - I was brought down to earth with a mighty thud this morning when I watch the following video - I thought - as my grandaughter would say I was "movin’ goooooood" for my age - I’m not even in the same block as this lady - Dorothy Kloss - who was featured on NBC’s Today show - see how you feel.
From another contributor - retired buddy Bernice Denni - these interesting tombstone inscriptions:
Here lies Lester Moore
Four slugs from a .44 - No Les no more.
Harry Edsel Smith of Albany , New York :
Born 1903--Died 1942.
Looked up the elevator shaft to see if the car was on the way down. It was.
In a Thurmont, Maryland, cemetery:
Here lies an Atheist, all dressed up and no place to go.
On the grave of Ezekial Aikle in East Dalhousie Cemetery, Nova Scotia :
Here lies Ezekial Aikle, Age 102. Only The Good Die Young.
London , England cemetery:
Here lies Ann Mann, Who lived an old maid but died an old Mann. Dec. 8, 1767
In a Ribbesford, England, cemetery: Anna Wallace
The children of Israel wanted bread, And the Lord sent them manna.
Clark Wallace wanted a wife, And the Devil sent him Anna.
In a Ruidoso, New Mexico, cemetery: Here lies Johnny Yeast...Pardon me for not rising.
In a Uniontown, Pennsylvania , cemetery:Br>
Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake. Stepped on the gas instead of the brake.
In a Silver City, Nevada, cemetery: Here lays The Kid. We planted him raw. He was quick on the trigger - But slow on the draw.
John Penny's epitaph in the Wimborne, England, cemetery:
Reader, if cash thou art in want of any,
Dig 6 feet deep and thou wilt find a Penny.
In a cemetery in Hartscombe, England: On the 22nd of June, Jonathan Fiddle went out of tune.
Anna Hopewell's grave in Enosburg Falls,Vermont: Here lies the body of our Anna, Done to death by a banana. It wasn't the fruit that laid her low, But the skin of the thing that made her go.
