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Summer Lament

5/28/2020

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It should come as no surprise that a recent study found a consistent pattern of more exercise correlating to better cheer and vice versa. In particular, people who once had been active but rarely exercised now were significantly more likely to feel depressed, anxious, lonely and otherwise worried and dour than people who had continued to work out for at least 150 minutes a week.

So with that in mind, yesterday afternoon with the temperature hovering in the mid-80s, I put on my bathing suit and walked over to Crystal Lake thinking that the water might finally be warm enough to go for a swim. The previous week the water was cold, and the only people swimming were wearing wetsuits.

When I arrived at the lake, I found that the under-20-crowd had taken over the grassy area where I would normally enter the water. It looked like one of the beach scenes shown by all the news channels over the Memorial Day Weekend. Essentially, groups of people lounging in the sun and playing in the water with no one wearing a face mask or concerned about social distancing.

I wish I could have joined them. However, at my age I pulled up my face mask and kept walking.
 
Learn More:
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/well/move/coronavirus-exercise-stress-mental-health-depression-mood-resilience.html?algo=identity&fellback=false&imp_id=657738286&action=click&module=Science%20%20Technology&pgtype=Homepage

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TimeOut

5/21/2020

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Believe it or not, Memorial Day Weekend has arrived...a time to kickback and reflect on summers' past and present.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2713390575438115&set=a.725238094253383&type=3&av=100003015974807&eav=AfbhhL3qDJKE3viv0lz71hp0pGUsfHdw1hv_Dd5TmqO3kq4vZwHxcD6YWAxW2BEPQ-I&eid=ARD4TvQUDMROlEM3GnlRucsj0A56VY9rIPR3yTPD5kIkd1-eku1RY1Htnl9SMn18nEwqbs_FnHqWmxIW
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What, Me Worry?

5/14/2020

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If the markets remain at their current levels until June, most public pension plans will conclude fiscal year 2020 with negative annual investment returns, reduced asset values, lower funded ratios, and higher actuarial costs, according to a report from Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research.

Given that the aggregate funded status of public plans has remained virtually unchanged since the last financial crisis, this downturn is a serious step backwards in their funding progress. Projections suggest that plan finances will continue to decline in the wake of the downturn, but that, overall, plans can endure and will maintain sufficient assets from which to pay benefits. However, some plans with extremely low funded ratios face an increased risk of exhausting their assets and the high cost of pay-go funding if they do.

For Italians in the 14th-century, the Black plague at first seemed extraordinary, then it became ordinary, even endemic, according to a Stanford University historian. People responded creatively to the initial waves of plague. They thought about life and death, love and friendship, sickness, and health differently. They took the moral pulse of their society, while getting down and dirty in the political struggles of the age.

Once people got used to the idea that plague would periodically return, it became an economic annoyance, a catalyst for social negotiation and an administrative problem to resolve. The arc and duration of each outbreak became a measure of the success and failure of public health, rather than a subject of great reflection.

Hospitals and charitable institutions benefited from the ongoing need to experiment with how to care and cure, and how to tend compassionately to the poor during the horrors and fears of a major pandemic.

Learn More:


https://publicplansdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Market-decline_May-2020.pdf

https://scienceblog.com/516309/combating-black-plague-was-just-as-much-about-politics-as-it-was-science/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogrssfeed+%28ScienceBlog.com%29
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When Life Changed Forever

5/7/2020

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“Senior shopping hour” at the local Wegmans starts at 7 am. Its intended to limit potential exposure to COVID-19 for the most vulnerable like me. Who would have thought that after countless bike rides, walks and swimming laps, that COVID-19 would reveal just how unhealthy I am, and how much I am at-risk from the virus.

Last week, I took my annual blood test. It revealed that I have been eating too many carbs of late, and now have a high blood sugar count to coexist with high cholesterol and high blood pressure which are pharmaceutically under control.

The sad reality is that 75 percent of Americans are overweight, more than 42 percent are obese, and that 94 percent of deaths from COVID-19 are in those with an underlying age-related chronic disease, mostly caused by excess body fat. 

With that said, I switched to a low carb diet to reduce my blood sugar level, and with a summery feel in the air, I plan to do lots more mask-wearing outdoor exercise. But when it comes to going food shopping, standing inline with other seniors at 7 in the morning is not for me. I plan to sleep late, and will take my chances shopping whenever we run low on food. And so far with rare exception, the lines have been short, and the items I need haven’t yet been picked over.
 
Learn More:


https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/04/metro/senior-shopping-hours-come-with-their-own-anxiety/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/07/opinion/link-between-coronavirus-deaths-those-french-fries/
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    • Caring for Elderly Parent
    • Eating & Exercise
    • Emerging Technology & Concepts >
      • End of Life Options/Issues/Grieving >
        • VSED Primer
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Health Challenges
    • History of Aging >
      • Ancient Egypt, India, China
      • Before 1500
      • 1500s & 1600s
      • 1700s & 1800s
      • 1900s & 2000s
      • Early New England (1600s)
      • Quest To Look Young
      • Books
    • Housing Options & Aging in Place Guide
    • Insurance, Security, Fraud
    • Intergenerational Programs
    • LGBT
    • News & Trends
    • Positive/Successful Aging
    • Retirement/Estate Planning
    • Science of Aging
    • Support Resources
    • Travel
    • Weekly Blog
  • About
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