My HP 1012 printer purchased in 2007 at an old CompUSA store.
I remember pretty clearly going into our CompUSA store in Lansing and buying our inexpensive laser printer. I think we paid less than a hundred bucks. It has worked really well since then. We can print from our laptops using wi-fi. Works like a charm. However, there are two issues.
First, the toner cartridges are a little more than $61 with a new up-to-date printer costing around $90. For us, the cartridge should last more than a year. A downside, our old printer doesn't allow us to print from our phones or our iPads.
We went to Sam's Club and looked at their printer choices and tried to carefully weigh the issue of keeping the old versus the new. It's always tempting to get a new "device" even if it is a printer.
Finally, we opted to keep the old printer and revisit the choices when the present cartridge runs out of toner.
Do any of you have wi-fi printers where you can print from an iPad or iPhone?
My HP 1012 printer purchased in 2007 at an old CompUSA store.
I remember pretty clearly going into our CompUSA store in Lansing and buying our inexpensive laser printer. I think we paid less than a hundred bucks. It has worked really well since then. We can print from our laptops using wi-fi. Works like a charm. However, there are two issues.
First, the toner cartridges are a little more than $61 with a new up-to-date printer costing around $90. For us, the cartridge should last more than a year. A downside, our old printer doesn't allow us to print from our phones or our iPads.
We went to Sam's Club and looked at their printer choices and tried to carefully weigh the issue of keeping the old versus the new. It's always tempting to get a new "device" even if it is a printer.
Finally, we opted to keep the old printer and revisit the choices when the present cartridge runs out of toner.
Do any of you have wi-fi printers where you can print from an iPad or iPhone?
This selfie was taken with an app--Flare--which I'm helping to beta test.
I know it's only a number, but turning 70 this year seems like such a big number. For instance, in ten years I'll be 80. I know that physical and mental limitations start to show themselves more as one crosses these milestones. As a result, I know that I need to carefully prioritize my time. I know how easy it is to let time cruise by and not get anything done.
First, I need to deal with the number 70. It's a head thing, an attitude. It's easy to get lost in the feeling that I'm done. I haven't had a day job for 11 years. Somedays I've felt like my wheels have been spinning in the mud, while other days have felt like I'm stuck in a quick sand that's pulling me down.
Let me be clear. My wife is retired too. And we enjoy doing things together. Really, we do. Since, we've gotten married our life has been built around our mutual faith in God. We put value in being part of a church. Those involvements come and go. The church we attend now and the one that we really like seems to retire attenders to the backbencher once they reach a certain age. And, I think we've crossed that chronological line.
Our kids are great, as are our grandkids. We do try to plug into their lives, but because of substantial distance, we usually do it via FaceTime or phone calls and occasional visits. This technology allows us to be part of their lives, but in a limited way. We saw our granddaughter eat her first bite of cereal and we've seen one of our grandsons take his first tentative steps and then grow into a toddler and now a full-fledged walker.
We've outgrown our house as empty-nesters and we are contemplating the next move. Condo? Climate? Nearer to the kids? Money? How much can we swing?
The sand in the hourglass seems to be moving quicker and quicker. These are points to be dealt with this year. They are all positive, I guess.
Life is a big series of phases. There's the first time the baby sleeps all night. First time walking. Then they talk. You turn 50. Kids graduate from high school. Then college. Their first jobs. You walk your daughter down the aisle. Stand next to your son as his best man. And then the grandkids.
My junk mail has even gone through phases. A couple of years ago, everybody was trying to sell me hearing aids. Now I'm getting mail from funeral homes.
Yup, this is the year to double-check how I use my time. Less Dr. Phil watching and more doing what I really want to get done.
I'm more used to searing with the written word than with foods like veggies.
My son can cook and so can my son-in-law. As I get ready to turn 69-years-old, my informal bucket list has cooking a full meal in the top five.
Today, real guys cook and they cook well and they can cook just about anything. It wasn't that way when I was a kid, not at all and somehow I slid through life being able to do just the basics, like heat up frozen meals, soup from a can and other very simple things.
This is very cliche, but I can cook meat and some veggies on the grill and they taste passable. And I've thrown stuff in the microwave like potatoes and it works.
I want to do more. Yes, I can read instructions in a recipe. Part of me is afraid of failing, setting something on fire, but I will try soon.
This is item #12 on my list of things I've learned in almost 69 years of life. Guys need to be able to cook. And it's time for this guy to start.
Are you an older baby-boomer who is in his or her mid to late 60s?
Do you have a list of things that you want to do before you reach the front door of eternity?
I turn 68 in a little over five months and I find myself trying to decide what I want to do before I reach the front doors of eternity.
Super-wife and I both saw the movie Bucket List and we were entertained by two old guys trying to find themselves and to find experiences that would bring them fulfillment. They travelled around the world to a lot of exotic places. Do you remember where they went and what they did? They climbed one of the tallest mountains. Didn't they go to the Great Wall of China?
I think they had a long list of things they wanted to do? Can I develop a list of five, ten or more? I've got some ideas. I signed up for bucketlist.org where people from around the world share the items on their lists. I thought I might find some inspiration.
One item I saw was "Getting A Tattoo." How about a heart on my arm with my wife's name on it? I don't think so. I'd make the point better by loading and unloading the dishwasher for a week.
That's me on the left carrying Walt's banner in the July 4th parade in Lansing.
Somebody on Facebook expressed surprise that a conservative like me would support a liberal like Walt Sorg for the Michigan House of Representatives in the 67th District.
First, I can't actually vote for Walt because he's not in my district, but I would if he was. Next, let me be completely open about my relationship with him. I've known him for at least four decades give or take a couple of years.
We have worked together as reporters and on the staff of the Michigan Legislature. We have socialized and we have helped each other when necessary. I have seen his ups and downs and he has seen mine.
He knows how to govern and he knows that you need people from the other side to do it. He listens and he reacts and it's not some phony exercise to create the illusion of communication. If he disagrees, he'll let you know and he's open for continued conversation.
Walt is open and transparent. He hasn't tried to hide that he has had bad knees or that he has struggled in keeping his weight down. He's had financial and health challenges. He's a real person.
He was there when I needed help cutting a tree down and he was there when I needed a place to stay when I found myself homeless for a week.
What about the philosophical differences? What are labels worth anymore. Mitt Romney calls himself a conservative and he was the father of the health plan in his state that President Obama used as a template nationally. Romney says Obamacare is wrong, but it's the same as Romneycare on the state level.
Relationships are key in politics and I don't even no who's running on the Republican side in the 67th District. I've seen Walt at every community function I've been at. He's listening and he's talking.
I'd vote for him if he was in my district, the 68th.
I never really understood the importance of literature until after I retired in 2005. I didn't get it. I felt like fiction was a waste of time. It was something set aside for the artsy-craftsy side who had an intellectual bent.
Can anybody who has tried to read Faulkner or Hemingway relate? Learning about the symbolism in these two authors would drive me to distraction.
That changed after I moved away from my day job and had more time to do some below the surface thinking.
I'm now fascinated by how authors explain a chunk of life through their work. And I'm even more intrigued by how that's transferred from the pages of a book to a movie. It takes some real skill.
For almost a year, I've been trying to write my own story. There's nothing so unusual about me, but I do have a story just like everybody else. It's multi-layered and not unlike a lot of other people. There's pathos, ethos and little bit of eros.
I'm just a member of the first class of baby-boomers born right after World War II and raised by a single-mom who was the consumate survivor. When I was barely a toddler my dad vanished pure and simple and never came back. I found him when I was in my twenties. There's been a lot of life that I've experienced. Anything to be learned by others? I think so.
Can I pull it off and make it readable and useful to others? I'm trying.
What about the movie of my life? Who'd play me? John Belushi? He's gone. I'd be happy to have a story that my grandson, granddaughter and grandkids to be can read and learn more about their background. And I'd be happy if somebody else could pick up some hope from it too.
It seems like it was just last year when my wife, daughter and son threw a surprise 60th birthday party for me where our house and backyard was filled with people who helped me cross-over into the next important phase of my life.
This year on the last day of August, I'll turn 66. I'm going on seven full years of retirement and my point is simple. My life seems to be zooming by. I hesitate to imagine how quickly my trip to being 70 will go.
I've been dogged by the desire to be sure that I get to my list of things I want to do before I'm either too old or I pass from this life to the next. And that's where the rub comes in, trying to determine what should be on my list. I've had to shuck all kinds of things off the platter of choices.
I know I'll never run a marathon anymore. A bad left knee says that will never happen. I'll never sit down and talk to my earthly-father. I found out he's dead and he's been cremated. I might be able to sit down with my grandson and pre-born grandaughter over a beer or a coffee and talk about life. But what else?
With the continued clicking of my personal clock, I feel the urge to get my list settled. I know the first item on my so-called bucket list. It involves my relationship with God. I know that everything in my life starts and ends there. What does that mean? How does that look in my day-to-day life? I think I'm finding some of the answers.
It helps me to write it down and then to make sure that's where I put my focus.
How about you other retired baby-boomers? You got this all figured out or still working on it?