| I promised the folks on our site at www.retiredandreadyto.com that I would post the press release annoucement for the next Used Bookstore Crawl in San Diego on this blog for our newslettter. You can read my post about the first Crawl at that site. This is just a ton of fun and you should do if you can. James ----Press Release-------- Book Tales, in Encinitas, is announcing it’s Second Used Bookstore Crawl, on Wednesday, October 17, 2007. In an Air-conditioned coach, 26 people will be driven to Downtown San Diego visiting intriguing and eccentric Used Book stores along the way! The coach eliminates parking problems, as well as needless stress, thus enhancing the pleasure of the journey. Excited by the success of the first Used Bookstore Tour in September, the participants agreed that it was the best fun ever; “Can’t we stay a little longer?”, they begged. These stores are the last remaining icons of days gone by, when there were used book stores in almost every nook and cranny. Most of the missing had their rents pushed up so high, that remaining in a brick and mortar situation became untenable. Many opted to sell solely on the internet. Some bookstore owners were elderly, and so gave up, moving and/or storing their inventories; indeed, the thoughts of packing up and moving our stock are so frightening to those of us remaining, that we work harder to stay in the business that we love! An original idea, bookstore tours are gaining in popularity across the US, thanks to determined book lovers and a man named Larry Portzline, author of the book, “Bookstore Tourism” www.bookstoretourism.com This Second crawl, hosted by Book Tales in Encinitas, will begin by meeting the Coach at the Encinitas park-and-ride, I-5 and Birmingham. We will be visiting Book shops in Downtown; Wahrenbrock’s, 5th Ave. Books, Bluestocking Books, and Adams Ave Books, Book Tree, and William Burgett Books. The fare is $36.50 per person and includes lunch. Reservations are in advance. M/C and VISA are accepted. For more information, and to reserve seating, please call 760-436-7892 Book Tales is a member of D.E.M.A., and, a sales partner with Amazon.com. Our web-site is www.encinitasbooktales.com. Business hours are 10:30 am to 5:30 pm 7 days a week. Book buying is done 10:30 to 3: pm Tuesday & Wednesday, Friday & Saturday, only. Paperback exchanges are welcome anytime. |
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Get in on the Used Bookstore Crawl
Friday, September 21, 2007
RETIRED AND READY TO READ
More on the Used Bookstore Crawl that James had already talked about; with my perspective.
One of the things that I looked forward to in retirement was having the time to catch up on my reading. As a child I loved to read. I can remember during the summers during the time I was in elementary school, especially in the 7th and 8th grade, the local libraries would always sponsor a Summer Reading Program. You were allowed to check out 10 books each time. I can remember riding my bike to the library and coming home with my allotment of 10 books in the bike basket.
Once home, I stacked my books on a TV tray next to my Father's easy chair and plunked myself down. It was there that I stayed until my Mother couldn't stand it any longer and have some "job" I was supposed to do. My Mother was someone who magazines such as Women's World and First were made. She couldn't stay focused long enough to read a lengthy book but loved reading article snippets and recipes.
But I on the other hand couldn't wait to start a book and reach that stage where the writing, the characters and the plot had kidnapped me away from my world to theirs. If I had not been kidnapped by the end of the first chapter; that book went on the pile to be returned to the library. Because I knew that there were far more books in that library than I could possibly read in a summer; so I had set my kidnapping standard for which ones I would read.
Unfortunately, one grows out of that "summer off" phase of childhood and grows into the phase of responsibility to college, marriage, family, jobs and just life itself. So you can see that I had this image in my mind of retirement being a time when I could go back to that world of being kidnapped by a book as often as I chose.
But retirement is not always as free of responsibilities as one imagines. I swear sometimes I feel like I have more things to do in retirement than before. Perhaps it is because in your life before retirement all of your responsibilities are confined in given areas. They dictate what you will do--your family, your job, your community; they all set the perimeters. BUT: when you retire; you have more say in what those perimeters are. And, if you are like me; we tend to stretch them far and wide. (My mind wandered....and never came back.)
I may not have all the time I would like to curl up in that old familiar position in a comfy chair and read whenever I want to; but I still find the time to go to bookstores and see it as an expanded version of the library from my childhood. One big difference being that instead of being able to walk out of there with 10 books to bring back when read; I have to pay for these.
Now I know that I can still go to the library and I still do; but there is something about a book store that sucks me in. Perhaps it is the comfy chairs in which to sit and read or it might be the Starbucks
My husband and I have found that the new joy comes in the shape of a Used Book Store. And so many of them allow you to bring your read books back in for credit for ones you have not read.
Therefore, you can imagine our delight when we read in the paper that one of our favorite used book stores, Book Tales in Encinitas, CA was organizing a used book store "crawl" visiting different stores from Carlsbad to downtown San Diego and back. Fourteen of us signed up and boarded a bus in Carlsbad and took our book bags into each store and found treasures in every store.
You can see a review and PICTURES from our tour/crawl on my Squidoo lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/babyboomersandretirement/
For anyone who lives in San Diego County, there will be a second one coming up on November 15th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. If you would be interested in joining us, you can contact Patricia McFarland at http://www.encinitasbooktales.com
One of the things that I looked forward to in retirement was having the time to catch up on my reading. As a child I loved to read. I can remember during the summers during the time I was in elementary school, especially in the 7th and 8th grade, the local libraries would always sponsor a Summer Reading Program. You were allowed to check out 10 books each time. I can remember riding my bike to the library and coming home with my allotment of 10 books in the bike basket.
Once home, I stacked my books on a TV tray next to my Father's easy chair and plunked myself down. It was there that I stayed until my Mother couldn't stand it any longer and have some "job" I was supposed to do. My Mother was someone who magazines such as Women's World and First were made. She couldn't stay focused long enough to read a lengthy book but loved reading article snippets and recipes.
But I on the other hand couldn't wait to start a book and reach that stage where the writing, the characters and the plot had kidnapped me away from my world to theirs. If I had not been kidnapped by the end of the first chapter; that book went on the pile to be returned to the library. Because I knew that there were far more books in that library than I could possibly read in a summer; so I had set my kidnapping standard for which ones I would read.
Unfortunately, one grows out of that "summer off" phase of childhood and grows into the phase of responsibility to college, marriage, family, jobs and just life itself. So you can see that I had this image in my mind of retirement being a time when I could go back to that world of being kidnapped by a book as often as I chose.
But retirement is not always as free of responsibilities as one imagines. I swear sometimes I feel like I have more things to do in retirement than before. Perhaps it is because in your life before retirement all of your responsibilities are confined in given areas. They dictate what you will do--your family, your job, your community; they all set the perimeters. BUT: when you retire; you have more say in what those perimeters are. And, if you are like me; we tend to stretch them far and wide. (My mind wandered....and never came back.)
I may not have all the time I would like to curl up in that old familiar position in a comfy chair and read whenever I want to; but I still find the time to go to bookstores and see it as an expanded version of the library from my childhood. One big difference being that instead of being able to walk out of there with 10 books to bring back when read; I have to pay for these.
Now I know that I can still go to the library and I still do; but there is something about a book store that sucks me in. Perhaps it is the comfy chairs in which to sit and read or it might be the Starbucks
My husband and I have found that the new joy comes in the shape of a Used Book Store. And so many of them allow you to bring your read books back in for credit for ones you have not read.
Therefore, you can imagine our delight when we read in the paper that one of our favorite used book stores, Book Tales in Encinitas, CA was organizing a used book store "crawl" visiting different stores from Carlsbad to downtown San Diego and back. Fourteen of us signed up and boarded a bus in Carlsbad and took our book bags into each store and found treasures in every store.
You can see a review and PICTURES from our tour/crawl on my Squidoo lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/babyboomersandretirement/
For anyone who lives in San Diego County, there will be a second one coming up on November 15th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. If you would be interested in joining us, you can contact Patricia McFarland at http://www.encinitasbooktales.com
Monday, September 17, 2007
RETIREMENT IS TRULY AN ADVENTURE!
And just like all adventures we take; it can have its good sidetrips and its bad ones. The financial aspect of the retirement adventure can be one of the serious road bumps; we struggle with it everyday. But no matter how bumpy the road the most important thing that we can have in our travel kit is our attitude.
I am not saying that attitude is an easy thing to pack. I am not saying, "Don't worry, be happy". I have always been a person with rose colored glasses and I will admit that those glasses lose their color every now and then. And as we age we all know that our eyes can fail us and we do what we can to improve failing eyes. We also know that our attitudes can fail us so I am proposing that we do what we can to improve failing attitudes. For me it is doing yoga and practicing breathing techniques. It is being grateful every day for the things that I DO have not focusing on the things that I DO NOT. It is remembering to stay connected to people, places and things---those people, places and things that keep the rose in my glasses and the positive in my attitude.
One of the things that I enjoy during retirement is having time to explore the roadways on the Internet and meet people in blogs, websites and forums to see what kinds of maps they have for their adventure. Just as I pass on videos that I find and like; I pass on some of the websites and blogs that I like. The following is one of those sites. Enjoy and check out your own glasses and attitude.
Boomers: The Choice is Yours -- Growth or Retirement
There are now more than 34 million retired Americans, and with the oldest of today's 76 million boomers beginning to retire, that figure that will swell to 69.4 million in 2030.
In his book, Age Power, Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D., says, "Retirement is a relatively new and experimental life state that was initially envisioned to last three to five years, not 20 or 30." He cautions that the current retirement model is not realistic for the future.
The future is now and Dr. Dychtwald is right: the current retirement model is not realistic. A joint study by Washington and Cornell Universities conclude that 64 percent of retirees depend on Social Security for half or more of their income; 29 percent rely on it for 90 percent of their income; 18 percent rely on it for all their income. Researchers also say that by age 75, nearly a quarter of those elders will have experienced poverty, and the percentage rises as one ages.
Are ideas about retirement changing? Yes and no. For many, full-time retirement as a life goal is slowly losing its appeal. Nevertheless, tradition, custom, business, and political interests continue to shape attitudes about lifestyles after age sixty-five.
As early as age 50 an accelerating number of media messages imply the end is near. Solicitations to join AARP, dire warnings about inescapable health problems and pitfalls of aging are relentless reminders that life is winding down and it's time to let go of the daily grind. And why not: you earned it, you deserve it, and you are entitled to retirement, even if it compromises quality of life.
Retirement may be an entitlement but it is more traumatic than most people realize. It is closure on a lifetime of effort into which you poured your heart and soul.
The last day on the job, you are a "somebody" -- a manager, a doctor, lawyer, secretary, or accountant. The next day, your life of contribution is over. You are a retired "has been," a person now referred to as "didn't s/he used to be . . ." All of a sudden, what you've been most of your life has lost its meaning, not to you or your family, but in the eyes of the world. This loss of self worth is an invitation for depression.
There are many causes of depression, and perhaps a significant cause among retirees is a feeling of diminished value and identity. It can be devastating to go from being an individual with status in the business world, to just another anonymous good old boy playing golf several times a week with other used-to-be movers and shakers whose conversations are rife with "remember when" stories. Then add what is most important of all: loss of control - knowing you are slowing down, knowing you are "losing it" and unable to do anything to stop the downward spiral. By any standard, that is not happiness.
What to do instead
Everybody has the right to a personal lifestyle choice. But many people retire simply because it's the expected thing to do. They don't think about an alternative or realize they will probably live longer than expected. In 1940 life expectancy was 61.4 for men and 65.7 for women. By 2000 it was 74.2 for men and 79.5 for women. By 2050, life expectancy will be 79.2 for men and 83.4 for women.
Clearly, there must be an alternative to retirement. In the past century, the American lifespan has increased by 27 years. This is a gift to be treated with great care and used with appreciation. Instead of retirement, how about using that gift of time to create a rewarding second life filled with abundance, challenge, and productivity?
The prevailing understanding of aging is that you will get old and decrepit in spite of what you do to try to prevent it. That may have been true at one time, but not anymore. We know too much about how to hold back the mental and physical decline traditionally attributed to the aging process.
We need to recall that time in history when the most respected scientific minds in the universe decreed the earth was flat, which everyone believed until someone with determination, and vision sailed off into the horizon and did not fall into a bottomless abyss.
You have the power to mitigate and control your aging process, and if you exercise your authority over how you age, you will experience the unprecedented benefits of an incredible second life. It's your choice: Let life happen on its terms or be in charge of how your life unfolds.
The benefits of choosing to live each day of your life in a state of youthful growth instead of stultifying retirement are just too outstanding to pass up. Be in that growing number of happy, healthy, productive older people who are reveling in their fulfilling second life.
I am not saying that attitude is an easy thing to pack. I am not saying, "Don't worry, be happy". I have always been a person with rose colored glasses and I will admit that those glasses lose their color every now and then. And as we age we all know that our eyes can fail us and we do what we can to improve failing eyes. We also know that our attitudes can fail us so I am proposing that we do what we can to improve failing attitudes. For me it is doing yoga and practicing breathing techniques. It is being grateful every day for the things that I DO have not focusing on the things that I DO NOT. It is remembering to stay connected to people, places and things---those people, places and things that keep the rose in my glasses and the positive in my attitude.
One of the things that I enjoy during retirement is having time to explore the roadways on the Internet and meet people in blogs, websites and forums to see what kinds of maps they have for their adventure. Just as I pass on videos that I find and like; I pass on some of the websites and blogs that I like. The following is one of those sites. Enjoy and check out your own glasses and attitude.
Boomers: The Choice is Yours -- Growth or Retirement
There are now more than 34 million retired Americans, and with the oldest of today's 76 million boomers beginning to retire, that figure that will swell to 69.4 million in 2030.
In his book, Age Power, Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D., says, "Retirement is a relatively new and experimental life state that was initially envisioned to last three to five years, not 20 or 30." He cautions that the current retirement model is not realistic for the future.
The future is now and Dr. Dychtwald is right: the current retirement model is not realistic. A joint study by Washington and Cornell Universities conclude that 64 percent of retirees depend on Social Security for half or more of their income; 29 percent rely on it for 90 percent of their income; 18 percent rely on it for all their income. Researchers also say that by age 75, nearly a quarter of those elders will have experienced poverty, and the percentage rises as one ages.
Are ideas about retirement changing? Yes and no. For many, full-time retirement as a life goal is slowly losing its appeal. Nevertheless, tradition, custom, business, and political interests continue to shape attitudes about lifestyles after age sixty-five.
As early as age 50 an accelerating number of media messages imply the end is near. Solicitations to join AARP, dire warnings about inescapable health problems and pitfalls of aging are relentless reminders that life is winding down and it's time to let go of the daily grind. And why not: you earned it, you deserve it, and you are entitled to retirement, even if it compromises quality of life.
Retirement may be an entitlement but it is more traumatic than most people realize. It is closure on a lifetime of effort into which you poured your heart and soul.
The last day on the job, you are a "somebody" -- a manager, a doctor, lawyer, secretary, or accountant. The next day, your life of contribution is over. You are a retired "has been," a person now referred to as "didn't s/he used to be . . ." All of a sudden, what you've been most of your life has lost its meaning, not to you or your family, but in the eyes of the world. This loss of self worth is an invitation for depression.
There are many causes of depression, and perhaps a significant cause among retirees is a feeling of diminished value and identity. It can be devastating to go from being an individual with status in the business world, to just another anonymous good old boy playing golf several times a week with other used-to-be movers and shakers whose conversations are rife with "remember when" stories. Then add what is most important of all: loss of control - knowing you are slowing down, knowing you are "losing it" and unable to do anything to stop the downward spiral. By any standard, that is not happiness.
What to do instead
Everybody has the right to a personal lifestyle choice. But many people retire simply because it's the expected thing to do. They don't think about an alternative or realize they will probably live longer than expected. In 1940 life expectancy was 61.4 for men and 65.7 for women. By 2000 it was 74.2 for men and 79.5 for women. By 2050, life expectancy will be 79.2 for men and 83.4 for women.
Clearly, there must be an alternative to retirement. In the past century, the American lifespan has increased by 27 years. This is a gift to be treated with great care and used with appreciation. Instead of retirement, how about using that gift of time to create a rewarding second life filled with abundance, challenge, and productivity?
The prevailing understanding of aging is that you will get old and decrepit in spite of what you do to try to prevent it. That may have been true at one time, but not anymore. We know too much about how to hold back the mental and physical decline traditionally attributed to the aging process.
We need to recall that time in history when the most respected scientific minds in the universe decreed the earth was flat, which everyone believed until someone with determination, and vision sailed off into the horizon and did not fall into a bottomless abyss.
You have the power to mitigate and control your aging process, and if you exercise your authority over how you age, you will experience the unprecedented benefits of an incredible second life. It's your choice: Let life happen on its terms or be in charge of how your life unfolds.
The benefits of choosing to live each day of your life in a state of youthful growth instead of stultifying retirement are just too outstanding to pass up. Be in that growing number of happy, healthy, productive older people who are reveling in their fulfilling second life.
Barbara Morris is a pharmacist and author of Put Old on Hold. Visit her web site, http://www.PutOldonHold.com and sign up for her free content-rich newsletter and receive a complimentary copy of special report, "Thirteen Diva Tested Tips for Fabulous Skin."
Saturday, September 15, 2007
NEW WIDGET FOR OTHER RETIRED BLOGGERS!
All of us who blog on a regular basis are always
looking for ways that we can increase the number
of people who visit and read our blogs. Always being
on the lookout for new and inventive way to accomplish
that; I discovered something just a few moments ago.
So I interrupt your weekend with a quick heads-up
about a new widget you can add to your blog that
could provide a nice boost to your traffic, and
it's absolutely free.
It's called BlogRush and it's from Internet
marketing mega-star, John Reese.
BlogRush is like a traffic exchange. You put the
widget on your blog and get a credit each time
it's displayed. For each credit you generate,
your blog articles are syndicated across other
blogs that use the widget.
Simple enough right?
Since this widget was just released this weekend,
it's the perfect time to join and start referring
other people and generating credits that will turn
into traffic for your blog.
You can sign up here -
http://www.blogrush.com/r13400812
I have added it to the Retired and Ready blog so you can see what it looks like on your
site. See if it works for you
Thursday, September 06, 2007
RETIRED AND READY FOR SOME NOSTALGIA
It must be the rising age of the babyboomers but have you noticed the rising interest in nostalgia? I spend a lot of my time on the Internet looking for information, tips, websites and blogs that might be of interest to our readers. There are lots of nostalgia articles, blogs and polls right now. Just check out our friend, The Google and ask him about nostalgia; you will see what I mean.
As always when different topics come up, it gets my husband, the Ponder That guy, to start asking questions. His pondering took us to a discussion about people's favorite cars and our own. Mine has always been the 1955 Thunderbird and his has always been the 1957 Chevy. We saw one of each on the street the other day. Must be because we had been talking about them.
So, we would like to know about your thoughts on your favorite car. We have included a poll to see how many different favorite cars there are out there. Have fun with those memories.
As always when different topics come up, it gets my husband, the Ponder That guy, to start asking questions. His pondering took us to a discussion about people's favorite cars and our own. Mine has always been the 1955 Thunderbird and his has always been the 1957 Chevy. We saw one of each on the street the other day. Must be because we had been talking about them.
So, we would like to know about your thoughts on your favorite car. We have included a poll to see how many different favorite cars there are out there. Have fun with those memories.
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