Readers explain how dogs have enriched their lives

When we’re young they curl up to guard our cribs. As we learn to walk, they herd us away from trouble. They run alongside our bikes and tirelessly chase the balls we throw in the park. When our children head off to college, they fill the empty nest with companionship and wagging tails. After hard days at the office, their smiles welcome us home. When our pace slows and hearing fades, still they walk alongside, keeping us active, and providing help in ways that comfort and amaze. Over the years, we see their pace slow as well, and we see them pass into sunsets of their own. But always, a good dog is an unforgettable friend. Read more

Some readers have gently criticized this column for being a downer about aging. They have a point. Last week, for instance, I wrote about the reasons boomers may not live into great old age (chronic illnesses and high suicide rates). So this week, I counter with a more hopeful report. Read more

Men who gather together for any reason – coffee, golf, walks, fishing, hunting, lunch, a couple of beers – often live longer and healthier than men who don’t. The older men get, the more important socialization becomes. Read more

A decade ago, my boomer-age sister accompanied my then 80-something mother to the doctor. The doctor said he always took his elderly patient’s blood pressure, as well as the blood pressure of the grown daughter or son with the patient. Almost always, the grown child’s blood pressure was worse than the parent’s. The stress of the sandwich years, the doctor theorized. Read more

Helping your parents determine whether they should still be driving can be stressful – especially for Mom and Dad. No one wants to lose a freedom they’ve had for nearly as long as they can remember. On the other hand, they also don’t want to hurt someone, or themselves, while behind the wheel of a car. Read more

You don’t have to see a face to believe someone is old. You can tell by the way they move: slow, shuffling steps, and slow, fumbling movements – whether taking money out of a wallet or picking up change at a store. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The all-over, slowed down movements of age come on so gradually, most people don’t even notice them. Movement gets even slower for those who no longer work outside the home or who live alone. Read more

When my time on earth comes to an end, I would like people to remember me by my motto: a countenance of joy and an attitude of gratitude. It wasn’t always this way. Being the youngest of eight siblings, I guess you could say I was spoiled. Read more

You won’t find the word “senior” in any of the promotional materials for Affinity Living Communities, though most Affinity residents are senior-discount age. Instead, you’ll find “active adult” and other words designed to attract aging boomers: Wi-Fi, fitness center, community gardens, pub, happy hour and “pets welcome.” Read more

Exhale. April is finally over. Nearly everyone in my world seemed overextended last month. So many events, so little room in the schedule. The busy April calendar reinforced my long-held observation that the two busiest months of the year are April and October. Read more

When Jane Fonda stepped onstage at the Academy Awards this year, looking gorgeous at 75 in a bright yellow Versace gown, you could hear the whispers: “How does she do it?” The grandmother of two is the first to say “money helps,” and she has been open about her plastic surgeries, including an eye-lift, a face-lift and a neck-lift (or two). Read more

We baby boomers get blamed for just about every economic hiccup because there are so many of us. And our children are particularly furious because they believe the crisis in Social Security, which may affect their ability to retire, can be laid at our feet like kindling for a burning at the stake. Read more

We’re tired. Really tired. And as this Centers for Disease Control and Prevention graphic points out, women of all ages report feeling more exhausted than men. Read more

Almost 40 years ago, in one of its biggest hits, Fleetwood Mac sang: “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow. … Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.” Today, fans of the band – which hasn’t released any new music in the past decade – are still happily looking backward. Read more

In Ritzville recently, at noon on a Thursday, I heard the town’s warning sirens blow. It was an immediate “memory meld” as I call those sounds, smells or sights that transport people from the present to their childhood in just an instant. Growing up in Spokane in the Cold War era, we heard warning sirens tested every Wednesday at noon until 1973, when the tests went to once a month. In February 2000, the era ended when Spokane County deemed the county’s 50 sirens “surplus property” and silenced them forever. Read more

In an opinion article attributed to the Chicago Tribune in the April 15 Boomer U section of The Spokesman-Review, the unknown author made a number of observations regarding a segment of our society which saddened and, I must admit, angered me. The article implied that the boomer generation has essentially been a selfish group always getting what it wanted simply because it outnumbered any opposition. Read more

Conventional wisdom says you need 70 percent of pre-retirement income to keep the same lifestyle after you stop working. That makes sense if you’ve been putting away more than 20 percent of your income in your final working years. With those savings, and no more work-related expenses for commuting and dry cleaning, you’d probably get away with a lower income. Read more

When I was very young I’d visit my grandmother in Minnesota every summer. She was a small woman who took naps every afternoon of her life.  After she died, I learned she’d survived the influenza epidemic of 1918, reportedly telling my mother the illness had changed her life forever. Read more

Americans spend boatloads of money on medical care – roughly twice as much, per capita, as other industrialized democracies. And what do they get in return? Shorter lives and poorer health. Read more

In last week’s Boomer U stories about embracing new technology, I should have stressed more the advantages of Twitter. When big news breaks, Twitter is instantly filled with information, as it was last Monday when bombs killed three and injured at least 180 people at the Boston Marathon. People on the scene quickly tweeted 140-character messages, as did reporters throughout the country working on the story. For instance, within minutes of the news, a reporter at another newspaper tweeted a link to the marathon website that listed all the runners registered. Our reporters then found the names of Inland Northwest runners, and they started making calls to see if they were OK. Thankfully, they were. Read more

My generation was supposedly about apathy. Disengaged. Slackers. What a crock. Read more