Author Archive for Cafe Guys

Marriage down the tubes? Dating again? London-born author Jenny Paschall’s new book is about a baby boomer who’s living that life again whether she likes it or not. Scary? Exciting?? Titillating??? You decide, as you read this excerpt from “Stefi.”

Stefi is certainly turning out to be an unusual friend. After I woke up from my very drunken sleep, I decided to have a long soak in a hot, oily, deliciously smelly bath and wash my hair. Sometime during all this, Stefi must have called. Her message just said, “Glad you agreed to stop moping. I’ll meet you at 9.30 tonight at Julio’s Wine Bar.”

What? I didn’t remember making any plans with her, but I suppose I was pretty drunk when she left. Whenever that was. I looked at my watch. It was 8.15. I realized that I still didn’t have Stefi’s phone number, so I couldn’t cancel. I couldn’t stand her up either; that would be terrible. I’d never been to Julio’s (nor had I ever intended to go there), but I had passed it a few times. It was full of bored divorcees and guys looking for a quick fling. Not my kind of place at all. Still, I had no choice.

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Popularity: 29% [?]

Retirement? It sounds like something old people do. But think again: it doesn’t have to mean the end of productivity — just a change in how you produce. Gail Rentsch has a new book out, called “Smart Women Don’t Retire – They Break Free.” The message is, you don’t need angst. All you need is imagination.

Actor Ruth Gordon said, “To be somebody, you must last.” Since many of us expect to have twenty or thirty or more good years ahead, why do we have anticipation angst about retiring from our primary careers and moving on to something else?

When Christine Millen, at fifty-seven, was planning early retirement from her career as a business consultant to global corporations, she remembers asking everyone she knew how they spent their days as retirees. She wanted detailed explanations: “So after you wake up and shower, you begin reading the newspaper. Okay, how long does that take? And then what do you do? And after you’ve been to the gym for your workout, what do you do next?” No amount of explicit information about how others spent their time assuaged her concern over whether she could replace the dynamic, high-energy, intellectually challenging career she loved.

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Popularity: 38% [?]

We are sexy!  

That’s what a new poll of baby boomers tells us: we like it more, and do it more, than Gen X or when we were younger (even though that might be hard to believe).  Want to see if you’re part of the trend? Check it out, and a lot more about boomers’ love lives, in this news story from Reuters.

Share what you think … leave a Comment.

Popularity: 26% [?]

A frequent topic at BoomerCafé is how to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle. BoomerCafé Co-Founder and Executive Editor Greg Dobbs is one of us who is not about to slow down despite … gulp! … getting older. Quite the contrary, he feels this is the time of life to be as active as possible … no matter how old you look.

Every time I come to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center to cover the space shuttle for the high definition TV network HDNet, I rent a bike first thing in the morning to get a little exercise before the day gets too hot. In its shortest form my route takes me about ten sweat-soaked miles, up and back along the hard-packed beach. But when I have the time, I add in some detours, including a couple of residential complexes for seniors. Except for a few big Buicks which scare the daylights out of me when I spot them over my shoulder coming on from behind, these places usually offer quiet palm-lined streets and light cooling breezes coming off the water.

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Popularity: 38% [?]

You think baby boomers have done it all? You think you’ve heard it all? Not even close, as Doreen Orion writes in this excerpt from her brand new book published by Broadway Books, “Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of its Own.” Need we say more?

When Tim announced he wanted to travel around the country in a converted bus for a year, I gave this profound and potentially life-altering notion all the thoughtful consideration it deserved.

“Why can’t you be like a normal husband with a midlife crisis and have an affair or buy a Corvette? I will never, ever, EVER, not in a million years, live on a bus.”

We’re shrinks, but Tim’s obviously the better one, because something less than a million years later, I shocked us both and agreed to set forth with our two cats who hate each other, a sixty-pound dog who loves licking us all, my 200 shoes – and no agenda. Could this boisterous marriage of polar opposites and their dysfunctional furry family survive (even thrive?) 24/7 in 340 square feet for a year?

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Popularity: 34% [?]