Snowbirds...? The Choices Are Shrinking and the Voice of Reason is Small...

 As we age (how many times have I said that?) I find that the things I thought were tasty or interesting don't bring the same emotions. I think I should still like that beef stroganoff I made for a party when I was 30...it would still be delicious...but no. 

I actually made it this summer and there was something missing. What was that? Garlic? Better sour cream? I do not know. Yet, there it was, a big bowl of beef sitting in a bowl with no one to eat it but my poor husband. I know I wasn't going to. Sigh.

It seems that it was at that point I or we began to question everything...where we lived, how we ate and what we had expected of life, our children or even our friends. What did WE want?

Oregon Summer Backyard

Path to our front door...Oregon

Being a snowbird is one of the great joys of our life. We have a townhouse in Arizona and, when we go there, it is like going on vacation. My husband golfs and I write, cook and socialize. We have friends and continue to make more. It is a very good life. 

But as the years go by, I want to come back to Oregon more often and my husband wants to go to Arizona and stay. 

So it came up in the discussion the other evening at cocktail hour. Should we sell our Home here on Harewood Place as well as our Arizona townhouse and buy a big house in Oregon? Or should we leave Oregon all together and move lock stock and barrel to Arizona?

Arizona at it's best!

I know! Both of those choices are a dream. We could rent somewhere in either location and spend a few months. What would be a good choice.

Here is the bit that might throw the plan all off...my husband will be 83 in February and I will be 79 in November. If I were 20 year younger and I heard of someone our age even talking about these big choices, I would have had a fit. Aren't those people ready to go to assisted living? I would have thought to myself.

We are not going to do either...or at least I don't think we are. It might be foolish and unreasonable. Wouldn't you agree?

BUT...there is another way, a place in the middle that might work. Now it is up to us to decided because we actually are allowed to do that still. The opportunity for change is shrinking as the years pass. If you are old you know what I am saying.

Any ideas?

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Link: How to Snowbird and do it right! 

Old Coots Giving FREE Advice...DON’T DROP THE BABY!!!

Yes, I am an old cooterette...I know stuff and boy am I willing to share. I always begin with "Did you know...?" New podcast is up. 

New Podcast: DON’T DROP THE BABY!

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Hiding Our Light Under a Basket

Do you hide your light under a basket? In fact, are you so unobtrusive that no one really knows how you feel or what you believe...and is that a good thing?

Living as we do today in a world where everyone is letting "it all hang out" staying below the radar becomes increasingly hard. The thing is, we are deciding if we care about another person based on their political beliefs. We make the assumption (bigoted in many ways) that if a person is a part of a group that they embrace everything that the leaders of that group propose. Is that fair? Really, we need to stop and think.

Being open minded and staying quiet is very difficult when a group of people want us to all be socialist and another locks children in cages. What happened to the middle? What happened to being disagreeing graciously and accepting that we don't know it all and never will?

So I propose to you that if you, like I am doing today, sit down and write what you are and what you believe, you will find that the middle ground is not so bad and diplomacy works a lot better than anything else. Let your light shine but in such a way that you allow for other's opinions to be valid. Help...just help.

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