Do you remember "The Official Preppy Handbook" from 1980? This feels like the forty years later sequel. Written by two preppy New England men, it advises you on how to forestall old age. There were two authors and one of them thought himself unrelentingly cute, but I thought he was a 70 year old frat boy. Some of his stuff was inspiring: he really ( Read more... )

I truly hate mammograms.  I submit to a painful procedure that smooshes my breasts, take in radiation, and then get a call-back saying "we need more films".  The anxiety about "needing more films" is as sucky as the smooshing my breasts painfully.  Last time I waited while they checked to make sure they had a good image, but the doctor who reads ( Read more... )

I have a small liver-colored spot on the back of my right hand below the middle finger ( Read more... )

I saw a picture on my Facebook feed yesterday of a skinny old lady wearing only pasties, a cape and a witch's hat.  Her tits were hanging loose and she had white pubic hair and wasted muscles hanging from thin boney arms and legs.  It reminded me of a cemetary angel that was half beautiful woman and half death's head skeleton.  Time will ruin and ( Read more... )

I've been reading up on the expected impact of climate change in our area and the island.  Mostly I've been untroubled by this; warmer winters don't trouble me particularly, although I'll be sorry to see the sugar maples leave our hillsides.  The pests have already destroyed my stand of five hemlocks, they can't do much worse to me now.  The longer ( Read more... )

When I go to my CFP conferences and read books about retirement planning I am not hearing nearly enough attention to frail old age.  To the age when you need thousands of dollars a month in help with daily living.  When your entire job is going to doctor's appointments and/or navigating stays in the hospital ( Read more... )

In my last post I was talking about how I identified what portions of civilization were critical to my survival and then have, bit by bit, instituted backup plans.

( I have food, water, power and heat. )