Active Folks Over Fifty -- #1

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  • What do I do for a living . . . NOTHING . . . I'm retired. What have I done for a living . . . bunches of stuff, if you count all the little jobs we tend to have while we're in school. But I guess my working career actually had three major components . . .

    Okay . . . I have a degree in advanced mathematics (Actuarial Science, aka Professional Risk Management, or as I like to call it -- trying to sound smart while making guesses ).

    I taught remedial Mathematics and remedial English in our Canadian Community College system for a number of years --
    Just in case you didn't know, the Canadian University system has a grade 13 entrance requirement. Many students who were in only the four year programmes at the secondary school level were left high and dry without the ability to further their education if they had made a wrong choice back at the grade nine level. The community colleges came into being to allow for Grade 12 entrance to post-secondary education, but we then discovered that many of the students did not have the requisite math and grammar skills to be able to handle the post-secondary level work.

    I spent the last twenty year of my career working for a major international manufacturing concern as their Canadian Pension and Benefits Manager (sort of related to my educational background). Although I retired about six years ago now, I seem to manage to do a lot of free-lance work for them still. Sometimes, it can be difficult to retire.

    In between those two, I worked for five or six years as (believe it or not) a travel agent and tour director. That was a lot of fun. Definitely different, and I got to do lots of travelling, but it really did not engage my mind completely. Helped to keep me thin, though . . . guess I should never have given it up. Everything else I've done has been mostly sedentary.

    Speaking of sedentary . . . I had lots of great activity today . . . a couple of hours of shovelling out the garage; followed by another couple of hours of 'mall-crawling' . . . then blew all that good calorie burning by eating a 100 gram, 86% cocoa, Cote D'Or chocolate bar . . . all 600 calories of it. . . . but it was delicious at the time. Definitely salad for dinner tonight.

    Have a great evening, chickies . . . see you soon . . .
  • It is pretty easy to lift 70lbs if it has a handle - as in a suitcase. And, I shouldn't admit this, but we called it "throwing bags", which implies a little momentum.

    Ha! I like biology, but I can see where a steady diet of biology texts might get boring.

    Talk about boring - I just finished an on-line traffic school class. I got a speeding ticket and don't want it to go on my record. Hence traffic school. The California vehicle code is very dry . Does speeding count as exercise? Or Elder activty?
  • A travel agent! How fun. Did you leave that job with some kind of travel benefits? I get email all the time from Dargal which is an interline travel agent. They have some pretty good deals. I think they are a Canadian company.

    What is your favorite travel destination? For that matter, what is anyone else's favorite destination? I'll have to think about what mine is.
  • Actually left that job because my husband wanted me to play SAHM. A couple of years later, I left the husband (what I should have done in the first place. )

    Favourite destination -- anywhere a cruise ship will take me -- I like the fact that you can do as much or as little as you like on a cruise -- also great if you are the tour directo because once you get the group herded onto the ship you can pretty much relax until it's time to round them up and herd them off again.
  • Advanced mathematics! Yowee, meowee! I am in awe. Actuarial stuff--yes, there's lots of statistics involved, but I know there must be so much more. Really cool!

    I've done lots and lots of things besides editing and tax preparing, too. Gosh--it's a long list! I'll get into it one of these days...

    As for travel destinations--I love Hawaii. I was lucky enough to be able to take trips there in my late 20s-early 30s. I especially love Kauai and Maui. I think part of why I like living in Florida is that the weather is like Hawaii, at least some of the year. But in Hawaii it doesn't seem to get as hot as here.

    Gailr, "throwing" bags-- Yeah, I'm sure that momentum was something needed!

    I once worked in packing & shipping for a musical instrument wholesaler--mostly banjos, guitars, mandolins--and I remember finding out how big a drop a package should be able to survive (10 feet, I think, at the time). It changed the way I thought of mailing things...

    I went on a Windjammer cruise about 20 years ago--it was fun but rudimentary... not a luxury trip! But plenty of food, drink, etc. Sailed around the Bahamas.

    Where are some of the places y'all have traveled?

    Jay
  • I have been on Windjammer! They used to have a retired lighthouse keeper ship that went around and supplied the sailing vessels. The name of the ship was Amazing Grace. We went on back to back cruises on that ship and were gone for nearly a month. It was such a good price, we felt we couldn't afford to stay home. As you say, very casual. I really enjoyed it. I much prefer a smaller ship, but the price on the old fashioned small ocean liner has gotten prohibitive. I like casual, I like small, I like uncrowded and I don't like glitzy entertainment. What I like has become a luxury, I guess.
  • Hey! I remember the Amazing Grace, gailr. That sounded like it would be fun.

    We sailed on the Fantome, which you may remember went down in Hurricane Mitch, I think it was. I went years before that, though.

    Here it is 8 pm and I just got back from doing 20 minutes on the treadmill. I didn't feel like it, but I had promised myself I'd do it today. So, I did!

    meowee, if you come back--are there things one should look for (or look out for) when planning a cruise?

    Jay
  • We went on a Mediterranean cruise. One of the stops was Egypt. We were out walking around and met up with a man who offered to take us on a tour of the mouth of the Suez canal in his little boat. Now, I realize that there may be some risk involved in this kind of adventure, but in our case, it turned out to be one of the highlights of the whole trip. There was lots to see, but the most fun was talking to someone who was actually part of the local culture. There were five of us that went and the man charged us $20 total for about 2 hours of his time and boat use. Pretty good deal.
  • Good morning!

    I'm really enjoying this discussion, but we seem to have only a few participants. Gailr42, I guess we may have to communicate via PM if so few other members are interested.

    Jay
  • I'm still around JAY . . . keep the thread going . . . hopefully it will pick up.

    BTW . . . tips for cruising . . . talk to a good travel agent about the kind of stuff you like best . . . some lines (Italian, British) are pretty formal and require quite a bit of dressing up. Others are more casual and will only have one or two really dressy occasions during the course of a cruise.

    All of them will stuff you with food -- so decide what kind of cuisine you'd prefer too -- personally I always liked the German lines because of the food.

    Biggest tip -- don't gasp at the price -- don't forget it includes, transportation, accomodation, food, entertainment. Only shore trips and personal expenses onboard are extra . . . so it really becomes quite a bargain. Especially if you don't have to travel too far to get to your departure port. Caribbean cruises are probably the most reasonably priced. Alaskan are still pretty pricey.

    Have fun . . .
  • Hi JayEll, other posters, and lurkers,

    I've been lurking, hope the tread stays.

    My most regular activity is walking at a brisk clip. Started 2 years ago when I began my healthy eating odyssey with the goal of 10,000 steps per day. Last year I beat that by averaging more than 12k per day. (Thank you excel spread sheet for adding it all up.)

    I just passed the 10,000/day mark for the whole year by reaching 3,650,000 steps by September 30th. So, I'll reach goal even if I sleep for the next three months

    Have an active day guys.
  • I didn't even know this was here!

    I'm certainly and elder and am working on being active! Back later to check this out as I'm outta here for the gym shortly.

    Ciao.
  • Bill, that is amazing. I am just getting started with the walking. I don't know if I will ever catch up with you!
  • We have a "Million Step Challenge" here at work. I reached my millionth step at the end of June. I try to walk at least 45 minutes on most days. So far this autumn weather in upstate NY has been perfect for walking. I plan to go out at lunch and walk 4 miles along the Erie Canel path.

    Keep on truckin fellow "elders"

    Lyn