My Year of Turning 50

I’ve come to enjoy Rhea’s blog at The Boomer Chronicles, but she is making me dread my own soon-to-be-scheduled colonoscopy — surely the oddest 50th birthday present, though I did enjoy the moment when she was, uh, prepping for the procedure and a telephone solicitor called. She truly was “in the middle of something.” Anyway, [...]

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It arrived today. AARP found me — as it does almost all of us turning 50. For just $12.50 a year, AARP says it can help me “make the most of life over 50.” Funny thing is that AARP also found me in my year of turning 49 — one of these arrived last year [...]

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While searching for “scary things about turning 50″ — on the Internet, not around the house or in my soul — I came upon a long blog post on “Wifely Steps” about turning 30. Maybe it’s because of the new VH-1 show I mentioned recently called “I Hate my 30s,” I’ve become fascinated with [...]

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Sunset over Lake Dora Originally uploaded by John Cutter.
I was checking on an old photo disc and found a sunset photo I took over Lake Dora near my home in Florida. It was a bad photo — washed out in color. So in iPhoto, I changed [...]

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OK, I lied…I’m not doing laundry, but I am thinking randomly…we lost power tonight — typical Florida thunderstorm — but it made me think of the New York City blackout of 1977, which was 30 years ago this month. I was there for it, and the one in 1965, which was more fun for me [...]

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OK, now THIS I want to see — VH1’s new show “I Hate My 30s,” described as:
“…an irreverent comedy about the unique dilemmas that come from leaving your twenties behind and facing the realities and responsibilities of the next phase of life. Making a Living vs. Living the Dream; Settling Down vs. Hooking Up; Raising [...]

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Every so often I get hit with the cold slap of my age in unexpected moments — another Scary Thing About Turning 50. Today at work, as we discussed the teacher-turned-astronaut who will be on next month’s shuttle flight, someone asked where we all were when we heard about the Challenger explosion that killed teacher [...]

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Sunset at Hilton Head Island Originally uploaded by John Cutter.
I asked that question about turning 50 in my first post, whether it was a sunrise or sunset. Well, this photo is a sunset, or more specifically, the reflection of the sun on the eastern sky, taken [...]

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Home again after too long a drive back from Hilton Head, what with the extra bathroom breaks — inevitable when traveling with a 7-year-old AND a baby boomer. (There must be a joke somewhere in how often we boomers visit the toilet.) Vacation was great, though Hilton Head Island this time of year is crowded. [...]

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Been a while since we had any turning 50 jokes. Here’s an adaptation of an old one on driving that could be used at a roast:
“I don’t want to say that John’s driving has gotten worse as he’s approaching 50, but the other day his wife called him on his way to work and said, [...]

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