Someone suggested that we start a “household tips” section. We’ll write about using biodegradable cleaning products as well as including suggestions for decreasing or lightening your work load at home. We will, also, include miscellaneous helpful hints.
If you have environmentally safe cleaning routines or easier ways to clean, please share with the office so we can pass them along to others. Here’s one: Even after they’ve been used, dryer sheets can work magic around your house! Here are some things they can do:
1. buff water spots from mirrors, bathroom/kitchen fixtures and shower doors,
2. remove the ring inside the toilet,
3. after soaking in a pan with burnt food, the pan is easier to clean.
4. wipe baseboards clean. (Does it raise the baseboard to a comfortable working height or help you get up off the floor?)
Leighton shared the following helpful hint with us: Place a chalk line across each entry space into your home. Ants will not across it.
Remember when your cleaning products took up a small space under your sink (Perhaps, Dutch cleanser, ammonia, Pine Sol, and Windex)? Your food cupboards held most of your cleaning products. You know the ones: lemons, baking soda, white vinegar. You may already have most of the ingredients for a basic, natural tool kit: to the lemons, baking soda, and white vinegar, add borax, citrus fruit and spray bottles. Add microfiber old cotton T-shirts instead of paper towels for less waste.
Cleaning green is better for your own household environment. I’ll need tips and hints from all of you. When a suggestion pops into your mind, share it by letting someone in the office know. Happy breathing for all.
Don’t think that from the title this is any kind of an in-depth study. It’s not. I was curious about our standing in society. Our choices as I see them are: Am I a senior or senior citizen? Am I an elder or elderly? Am I older or old? I do know that I am aging, but we all are from birth. I always feel I will confuse someone if I refer to myself as a senior. I feel they may ask which school I’m attending. (Can happen only over the phone; not in person for obvious reasons.)
Elderly is used typically only when referring to groups of people who are patients of aged care facilities or who are totally dependent on others. (Not yet.) “They” have chosen to replace the word “elderly” with “older people”. Elder is thought to convey respect to people who are older in years or wiser. (That’s the one I like; especially when offered a seat on the airport’s moving train from the plane to the baggage department.)
Clearly, the age make-up of the world’s population is shifting and older people today may be more diverse than in the past. We need to be more cognizant of the ways in which we refer to people aged 65 plus in our everyday language. When you are 65 years or older, how would you like others to refer to you and your peers?
To sum it up: When announcing discounts for seniors, I’m in line. If you possess a seat where they are extremely rare, I’m your elder and proud of it. I don’t mind the replacement of older people for elderly, but please not old people; however, there is no cap to the years you can be called old.
So there it is. Select the one that best suits you, or be flexible and select the one that best describes your mood at the moment. There are more to choose from: mature, aged, grizzled, ancient, decrepit, over the hill, historic, antiquated, crumbling, or dilapidated. (I sort of lean toward dilapidated—at least for the first two hours after awakening for the day.). Remember, don’t let anyone else define you. You are the best “you” that there is.
Instead of a “joke” page, why not a “just because” page? A “just because” page is a page for no rhyme or reason, except, possibly, for fun.
Other words for people over 65 were listed in another article in this month’s newsletter. They are fun. On the other hand, they can be quite insulting in some instances. So here goes. Read the following with humor in your heart.
1. Mature—fully developed physically, adult, grown-up.
2. Aged—brought to maturity or mellowness, as wine, wood.
3. Grizzled—having gray hair (I kid you not).
4. Ancient—to a time early in history.
5. Decrepit—feeble, elderly, rickety, infirmed.
6. Over-the-hill—old, and past ones prime.
7. Historic—famous or important in history.
8. Antiquated—Old-fashioned or outdated.
9. Crumbling—breaking or disintegrating gradually.
10. Dilapidated—deteriorated, reduced to decay, partially ruined.
I love the word dilapidated, but I don’t particularly like its definition. I, for one, feel that I am a combination of dilapidated, mature, aged, grizzled, decrepit, crumbling. Have fun selecting the one(s) that best describes yourself. None of the above measures our superior rating in life experiences. We rule.
The only one of the above that totally describes me is “grizzled”. Who knew? Historic applies to all of us. I started as carefree in the ‘40s (WWII was a grown-up problem). I am so thankful that I was a teen in the ‘50s (even though the Cold War was spooky—air alerts and all. The rules were extremely easy to understand, like them or not). We were a part of and totally connected to the ‘60s. We witnessed JFK, MLK, the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, moon travel, the Beatles. We survived and adjusted to long hair in the ‘00s, the recession of the ‘80s, and the list continues. Wow!
So all of you youngsters can call us beloved, friend, on time for dinner, treasured, valued, to mention a few.