Seniors Site

Al and Tipper Gore’s news of separation last June came as a shock to most American. No wonder, since it was about 40 years of married life for this high profile couple prior to the news and nobody’s expecting it to end like that. Well apparently, nobody except for hundreds of married seniors worldwide who must have understood what happened and what went wrong.

It is important to note that when seniors who have been married for 40 years or so suddenly decided to call it quits with their partners, it is not about infidelity—they rarely do. According to senior divorcees, it is usually the missed opportunity that pushed them to separation. Some seniors swear that the moment they heard their partners suggesting separation, they were taken aback—lost, might be the most fitting word, since they had no idea at all that their marriage was on the rocks.

So how would you know if your marriage is indeed battling the 40-year itch? Are there telltale signs you must be aware of?

•    Asking for space. There are actually two sides of the coin when it comes to asking for space. One is, sometimes you just need to have some time for yourself and pursue things without your partner. The other is, when you get irritated or annoyed when you’re around your partner and you never seem to enjoy even a second of it.
•    Dreaming about a different life. At some point in our lives, we dreamt of change especially during those times when we were growing tired of doing the same things over and over again but dreaming a life with another partner is a sure sign you are ready to separate.
•    Spotting—and magnifying—differences. Over the years, you must have grown familiar with each other’s differences and faults but finding and fussing incessantly at this point in time means there is something terribly wrong with the relationship.
•    Lying. Do take note that there are types of lies but lying when there’s no valid reason for you to do so means you no longer want to share your life with your partner.
•    You stop sharing your partner’s life. This includes his or her family, hobbies, interests and friends—and just because you don’t want to do so.
•    Your plans no longer include your partner. And if it is necessary for them to be included, you found yourself annoyed with the idea and sometimes would entertain thoughts of dropping the idea altogether.

Seems like working at home is on the rise as I have been receiving questions from my senior friends regarding this. There are many whats, hows and ifs, however, if you are quite familiar on how computers and the internet work, you are most likely to find your niche—or your own place—in no time!

For business-minded seniors who have limited startup budget or perhaps looking for a more flexible way of operating a store, that is without physically being there all the time, then an online store is for you. You’ll be quite amazed to see how online stores have evolved these days and store-owner support is stronger than ever—some don’t even require an uber-techie person to have one up and running!

Have services to offer? You can actually offer services of any kind to anybody over the internet. And when I say, anything, I do mean anything! But for the wholesomeness of it all, I will just talk about those clerical and office skills you may have or were able to hone over the years working 9-5. This includes bookkeeping, typing, transcriptions, data entry and coding. These are very much in demand nowadays and there are marketplaces in the internet wherein you can join and be found by potential employers.

However, working from home doesn’t mean you are free from paying taxes and other insurance issues. They still exist, mind you. If you are thinking of opening your home to make way for a small business you have in mind, be sure to ask your broker of your insurance coverage and have them arrange what is needed for your small business. They may have to adjust your coverage or have you get another one for the business.

When it comes to taxes, make sure your accountant is well-informed of your decision as you still need to pay municipal and corporate taxes unless you qualify for an exemption. Also, take advantage of other deductions involved when working from home. Just make sure you qualify for one before you actually make a claim.

Make sure you also check your local zoning laws since it can make or break your small business. Zoning laws restrict certain kinds of establishment so it is best to check them out and see if your business is allowed before actually putting it up. Saves you a lot of headaches in the long run.

Don’t forget your license. Businesses, no matter how big or small, require licenses and permits, if you want to operate legally. Check with your local authorities for requirements.

With all those medical mumbo jumbo our doctors have been talking about, we often find ourselves relying on the simplest of words. For example, if we’re told of atopic dermatitis, we are most likely to conclude that it has something to do with our skin, since there is that “derma” word on it. If your doctor is kind enough, he will tell you that atopic dermatitis is actually, in layman’s term, as simple as eczema. However, not all doctors are kind enough and most will have you running for a medical dictionary—and fast!
Which led me to believe that the same clouded notion surrounds the words “same-day surgery”.  If we are to inspect the words piece by piece, you will find “same-day” which means “today” and “surgery” being a “procedure”. If put together, you are to get “procedure done today” but what really comes with it and how will it benefit seniors?
For not-so-informed seniors, same-day surgery is also referred to as outpatient admission. It usually doesn’t require after-procedure hospital stay as well as pre-procedure prep time but may vary from one case to another. Basically, a simple procedure not requiring the patient to stay before and after would be minor surgical operation, nonsurgical operation, diagnostic procedure and most therapeutic treatments.
Of course, not staying in hospitals after a procedure would mean cutting cost on your hospital bills, which I find quite pleasing. On the other hand, for someone who fears pain, I doubt if same-day surgery would ever have a place on my itinerary some time soon. Do note that all surgeries, no matter how minor or major, requires some care after the procedure itself, so if you are in doubt that there will be someone capable to care for you when you get home, I say you’re better off to an overnight hospital stay than risk infection and other health maladies.
When you’re due for same-day surgery, it is better to plan ahead. Here are some tips to start you off:
State your concerns and ask your doctor if this is the best solution for you. Most same-day surgeries are not emergency procedures so you still have time to sort things out. Know when the procedure is due and see if you can still do your own research about the procedure.
All surgeries have their own benefits and side-effects. Since it is your body, you have all the right in the world to refuse a procedure if you feel you don’t need it. You can always get a second opinion if in doubt.
Know all about the facility wherein the procedure would take place, especially if it somewhere unfamiliar to you.
Make sure you bring along your personal medical/health records and show them to doctors and nurses who will attend to you during the procedure.
Enlist help from people back home. Make sure you have someone to help you when you get home.

When it comes to spa treatments, seniors tend to be very specific with what they want and results are very important as it should be visible and instant! If not, expect these seniors to not come back to the spa facility or try that treatment for as long as they live!

Hence, it is very important for spa owners to create a good “menu” of what their establishment has to offer for seniors and baby boomers. This should be targeted and answering to a senior’s needs and wants. Actually, it’s quite easy, if you come to think of it, as we only have two things in mind when we go to a spa:  relaxation and age defying treatments!

We do like massages the best, just consider all those aches and pains magically disappearing right after a full body massages. I personally go for scrubs since they make my skin smooth and soft for days. Facials, I do them about once a month since I keep a fairly active exercise routine and balanced diet.  When I go to spa, either with my friends or alone, I usually ask for the same things over and over again since they are tried and tested but I must admit, every now and then I go look for other things to try. During these adventurous moments, I mostly catch myself scanning for words like “detoxifying” and “anti-aging” so that should give you guys a clue on how my spa treatments go!

For first-time spa goers, worried about showing your wrinkled, sagging fanny? Actually, “spa-tiquette” varies from one country to another. Of course, if you are going to a spa somewhere in Europe, then expect everybody to be in their birthday suits and not caring about it at all! However, it is acceptable in most parts of the world to keep your undergarments during treatments. For the shyest of seniors, go for treatments which won’t require you to shed your clothes off at all such as hand and foot treatments as well as facial treatments.  It will also do you some good if you tell the front desk that it is your first time and you wish to take a tour around the facility just to familiarize yourself of what’s to come. Don’t worry, this is not an unusual request so there’s no reason for you to be ashamed.

There are also different types of spa facilities to choose from. Locally, you can find day spas where you can just walk in and have a treatment. Then there are those you can find during vacation called as resort spas or hotel spas. Destination spas on the other hand provide a more holistic approach to your spa experience since they are designed to change your lifestyle altogether—think bootcamp. 

Seniors who are dabbling with the internet long enough to know that internet shopping is really the “in” thing nowadays must have experienced once or twice the joys of online payments. I must admit, the first time I experienced a successful online transaction, I was instantly hooked! From then on, I tried to resist the temptation of buying online. Just consider this:  prices are almost cut down in half, convenience in paying for these things, no need to go out and risk foot injury at the end of the day just by inspecting rows upon rows of stuff—most of them you don’t even need, and most of all, just wait for your parcel to be delivered right at your doorstep—no matter how big or small your item must be! I say, for a senior like me, online shopping is one of the most valuable things made possible by the internet–EVER!
So you could just imagine the excitement I felt when I discovered that my bank actually encouraged their members to pay bills online—and they are giving away rewards for doing so. E-payments are the next best thing that ever happened to seniors like me who are having a hard time ordering checks from a bank, mailing it to pay their bills as well as the cost that comes with it—that is, stamps, checks etc., then let’s not forget the risk of losing the check on its way to the billing company. All these can add stress to an already stressful senior life every month, whereas paying your bills online is as easy as few clicks on your keyboard!
If security is your problem, rest assured that most banking institutions are triple safe than your regular online shopping sites. However, just to stay on the safer side, here are some online bill payment practices you need to remember:

• Your password is the most crucial. You need to change them on a regular basis so that your account won’t risk being cracked by identity thieves. Try to do combinations of letters and numbers that are not in anyway connected to your personal information such as birthdays, anniversaries, and even names.
• Never pay your bills on public computers since you can never be sure if these computers are safe or if they are infected with malicious programs that can steal your bank information.
• Never respond to emails requesting for your information such as username and password. If your bank needs these things, they will wait for you until you personally access your account and will make you do updates while you are in the site itself.
• Make sure you are doing transactions with the right URL. FYI, URL is the address of a website located at the upper bar of your browser alongside reload, back and forward buttons. This usually starts with letters “http”. Consider this as your home address or the address of your bank for that matter. Payments should only be done within the bank’s premises.
• Always check your account balance so you can spot discrepancies at once. Report to your bank whenever you feel funny about something.

If you are going to ask me, keeping your personal health records intact and within reach at all times is not all about being organized but more of a convenience on your part. As you grow old, you will notice that every visit to your doctor will mean an additional health question or inquiry or perhaps a test that you need to follow through. If you are like me who tends to forget yesterday’s activities before today’s sundown, then all the more reason for you to have your medical records in one place.
Keeping a reasonably organized personal health record or medical history is fairly easily. If you are a senior who won’t bother with details then just have a box where you dump all your records and prescriptions after each trip to your doctor’s clinic. However, if you would like to be very specific about it, then it will be a good idea to keep a medical journal where you jot down your visits as well as your doctor’s findings—you can even have your doctor write his thoughts on your journal so there will be no misunderstandings if and when that entry will be used for reference.
Keeping track of your medical history is not that easy since you most probably have visited several doctors for consultations over the years. Of course, you can always request for a copy of your medical records with each and every clinic you have had but just consider for a second how inconvenient that would be especially if your current doctor needs them badly, where as if you have been keeping your own personal health record, you are sure to receive the best possible health care for your condition. Other uses for personal health records are:
•    To remind you when your next appointment with the doctor should be as well as his contact number in case of an emergency.
•    To determine if your last lab result is still suitable for reference or if you need to undergo another test.
•    To have an accurate basis when your symptoms or condition started and when it got worse.
A simple personal health record should include:
•    Name
•    Birthdate
•    Blood type
•    Major illnesses or condition
•    List of medicines you have been taking as well as those you have had in the past—should include over-the-counter medications too.
•    Allergies
•    History of illnesses in your family particularly those of you immediate family.
•    Who to contact in case of an emergency

Mobility is one of the most important things in a senior’s life. It represents freedom and at the same time, independence—the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want without having to depend on someone else. That is why we refuse to hand over our car keys even if we’re too blind to see road signs and mistakenly parked the car at the neighbor’s garage the other day. Over time, we, seniors, will learn to accept our limits and try to make the most out of our wheelchairs and walking sticks. Do understand that we are doing this just because we don’t like being confined to one area alone, doing nothing but stare with envy to those who can still get up in the morning and walk their dogs down the street! Taking all these into consideration, you should see why it is so exciting for us to jump onto a bicycle and pedal our lives away!
Just as cycling is for any other age group, it is a great form of exercise for seniors. It is a fun thing to do and it builds your cardiovascular endurance plus it strengthens your leg muscles without stressing your joints too much. Add to that the fact that it gives you the chance to meet other people, socialize and be outdoors. You can do this by joining races and cycling organizations, most can be found locally and around your area. However, if you are too shy to do so, opt to bike alone—but safely—on bike paths, lanes and designated routes. If it still poses a problem for you then go to the nearest gym and pedal your way with a stationary bike—it yields, more or less, the same physical results without having to expose yourself to outdoor hazards.
To start you off on your cycling activities, you need a good bicycle to ride on. First, you need to know that not all bicycles are created equal and same. Some are made for pavement and then there are those designed for rocky lanes. Aside from that, there are bicycles made specifically for girl bikers. One good thing to remember when shopping for a bicycle is knowing your specifics, that is, where you are planning to bike and how you expect it to perform. A good bike should feel right when riding it—having the right stand over height as well as plenty of arm/elbow room when reaching the handlebars. Also, don’t forget to gear up no matter how awkward it feels and looks like as it can save your life. Allow some time for your body to adjust to the bicycle by starting with short rides at a steady pace. Cycling experts suggest that you bring along a first aid kit and a tire repair kit always so you don’t have to worry if something happens.

Lucky are those who stayed with their partners for such a long time that it already became impossible to imagine life without the other. Some may look at it with a disbelieving eye and will try to find loopholes or signs that the marriage is not what it seems. Then there are those who can only stare with envy and wish theirs would also last that long. I say I belong to the latter since I am really a hopeless romantic at heart!
I would like to believe that it has something to do with the way I was brought up, or the family values I was taught as a child, or even the era I had lived in. Back then, jumping from one relationship to another was considered as promiscuous. Also, it could be taken as a sure sign of fickle-mindedness bordering to carelessness. Marriage for me is a lifelong commitment, a vow to last a lifetime.
Good news is, it can still happen. Their secret? Read on:
•    Bring no expectations into the relationship. First impressions last, yes, but it need not be brought into the relationship, much less into the marriage. No matter how you yearn for a prince or princess, you must not see the other person as your eyes would like them to be. You just have to love them as they come.
•    Roles are not important. It doesn’t matter who should wear the pants in your relationship or who brings home the bacon. What’s more important is what works for you and your partner.
•    Strive for one another. Work for your kids, support the family but ALWAYS strive for your partner. And when I say strive, I mean doing it because you want it.
•    Don’t be the one to introduce pressure to the relationship. As much as possible, make it simple and easy for your significant half. Putting too much pressure—or causing it—will only make your relationship vulnerable.
•    Financial independence is important, but your marriage doesn’t need it. While it is important that you have yourself covered in case something unexpected happens, it can also unnecessarily break a marriage. If you are more comfortable having your own money, then so be it, but it should never enter your marriage equation in any way.
•    Focus on your partner as he or she should do the same. You chose to be with this person because you decided to care for him or her. Once you entered a relationship, you make room for this other person in your world. Not only that, you move a little and side by side, you both be the center of the world you are trying to create.
Bear in mind that for a marriage to work, it should be both ways. That means, it’s you and your partner working together, having the same goals and dreaming of same lives. Being stuck in a one-way relationship will not and cannot work.

Going on a cruise indeed highlights your retirement life. In fact, it’s every American’s dream to join one even those who are not yet—or still far from—retiring. However, due to time constraints and of course, budget, going on a cruise remains to be a thing you do after you retire from the workforce. Problem is, cruising this late in life usually puts seniors in greater risk especially in terms of their safety and well-being.
We most probably have heard about several horror stories associated with cruising such as disappearances and violence while on board which got us thinking if going on a cruise is still safe for seniors. To appease your troubled mind, most of these reported incidents did not occur onboard so it is safe to say you don’t have to worry while you’re inside the ship sailing. Going off it, however, is a different story.
Here are some tips on how to stay safe while on a cruise, and of course, be able to enjoy the ride!
•    Keep your valuables with you at all times, on and off ship. These would be your documents, medications, spending money and whatnot. Invest in a good, sturdy cross body bags or messenger bags—light and convenient enough to be carried anywhere.
•    Cruise ships have safe boxes. Please use them as you already paid for it the minute you signed up for the cruise. Safe boxes are provided so that you will have a place for your other valuables which you don’t have an urgent need at the moment.
•    Keep in touch with those you left behind. Call them, email them, just make sure you stay connected during the whole trip. If you have no intentions of hooking up with a fellow cruiser and getting caught, perhaps it would be best if you give someone back home your itinerary and where in the world you should be at certain day and hour. This way, it will be easier to track you if and when something happens.
•    Report anything suspicious. Even if it’s fairly safe while inside the ship, you still need to keep your radars up. Anything suspicious and out of place, you report to authorities. Bear in mind that a ship, no matter how big it is, can be a very small place for con artists, scammers and unscrupulous people to find you—or the frail lady next door.
•    Avoid unfamiliar places. That includes someone else’s room or darker parts of the ship. Always be where people are and never wander alone.

What I really , really love about computers, internet and indeed the world wide web is the ability to share valuable information without having to go out there and work your way against obstacles. I will tell you about the first time I fell inlove with the technology: back then, there’s no internet, just your simple desktop computer and few gigantic, impossible looking laptops. What amazed me was the convenient it had brought me while typing, saving my files and printing, not to mention a few selection of fonts you could play with.
Then came the internet. Although it was quite limited back then as compared to what internet has now become, still I considered it a breakthrough. I began emailing my friends, instead of writing them letters all the time—I still do that when I feel like it though. Now, I would like to call this phase as a “sharing era” when everything can be shared—and apparently, learned. There’s no limit now, you can find virtually everything over the internet. From your grandkid’s homework to your daughter’s Facebook to your neighbor’s famous apple pie recipe, they are all just a few clicks away. That’s not all, to top that, almost everything you can find over the internet is for free!
The latest trend however would be e-learning. For seniors who would like to learn something—anything—this late in their lives but are having a hard time figuring out how to go out of their houses and attend classes, e-learning is for you. E-learning usually doesn’t require anything for seniors to join. Some are conducted as formal classes where you listen to an instructor/teacher and throw questions at the end of each session. They can be in form of webminars—seminars that are conducted over the interent—or video recorded classes wherein you can view them anytime you want. Tests are also given to ensure you get the right feel and of course, to assess if you’re able to learn something from it. Tests are usually submitted through emails as well as correspondence between professors and students. Paid courses are usually credited and can be added to your resume, if need be. Some of the most popular courses are:  web animation, website design and web programming.
If you are interested in joining e-classes, there are some few things you need to get you started. First, you need a good internet connection—preferably fast enough for video and audio downloads—and a little know-how on clicking the play/stop/pause buttons. Seniors might also want to buy a separate USB stick to save files to as backup or to view them offline, although it is not required.