Boomer Woman Blog

29 March 2010

Cheap Hotel in Las Vegas

Robotic animals like this one populate the show in the courtyard at Sam's Town casino hotel (Las Vegas). It's kind of a confusing show. Hard to follow. And hard to end. Lots of shooting fountains in front of the Mystic Falls with lights they call laser. Lots and lots of choral music. And a wolf-kind-of that howls from the top of the fake mountain. You could watch in fascination of the mix of technologies here except that you'd get very tired. As I mentioned... hard to end. The music signals an end but those fountains shoot up again. And again. I was in the hotel for 5 nights, or 20 performances. I couldn't handle more than one show.

So, why go to this casino hotel? Room rent of $26 on weeknights. There's always another charge, of course. In this case, a daily resort fee of $4.50.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

26 March 2010

Aging in the Casino

The aging of our society isn't only about health and wellness but those indicators are the most obvious.

The Sociologist and I used to compare airports and shopping malls, looking for the changes that retail and service industries were making (or sometimes not making) for older patrons. Our examination included the finer points, like size of arrows on signs and clarity of information. (Clarity almost always relates to how short you can write an instruction. Short words and sentences benefit the older person trying to read without putting on glasses.)

As baby boomers, we also claimed self-interest in our examination, of course.

But we forgot to consider casinos. They're actually moving faster than other public places. Scooters are available in the lobby. (Enough are in use to produce one or two on every floor of the hotel.) And the loud noise of a slot machine finally has an appreciative audience. Yes, I need the flashing button and the enthusiastic voice telling me it's time to spin the wheel of fortune.

22 March 2010

Spring Snow in Texas

First day of spring in 2010 at the dome. That's in Texas.

19 March 2010

The real value of the road atlas

I bought a new map book today. The road atlas style—with color. I bought it even though the 2009 version is still usable. Usable, but not pretty.

My 2010 options: the big atlas or the compact spiral bound book. That compact style is tempting. Fits anywhere. Folds to any page easily. Has just as much color and clear type as the big atlas.

What doesn't it have? Detail. It's not the little roadways I want the detail for. It's the little blue icons marking rest areas.

Rest areas are not as plentiful as they once were. State governments are quietly slicing budgets and putting "CLOSED" signs on an alarming number of sites. Will my 2010 atlas have updated information?

I did attempt to go digital. Put the Rest Area app on my iPhone. Alas, it is not easily navigated and just plain hard to read in a moving car. Nothing beats scanning a paper page for those little blue houses. Whoever would have thought that boomers would have a tradition for locating rest areas?

15 March 2010

Indiscriminate at the Movies

A colleague asked me over vegan fare what movies I have seen. Of course, I knew full well her intent: expose my indiscriminate taste to humor herself. She would protest this motivation, I know, and so perhaps I will ascribe this to my own defensiveness about my movie-going habit. For most years of my life (starting at about age 10), I have made weekly movies dates—with myself. There were a few years in young adulthood when I could not afford the outing, followed by several years during which children demanded my time, daily.

But I would guess that for about 35 years I have enjoyed a movie a week. Between 1995 and 2005 (roughly), I frequently sat in the theatre alone. (All alone.) In recent years, I have rarely sat alone. Regardless of day and hour, there seem to be enough people available to come to the theatre. A man alone is the rarest patron. But next to that is a woman alone, and that's me.

So, what did I tell my colleague over vegan fare? The two weakest films of late have European capitals in their titles (Rome, Paris). Valentine's Day is amusing. Crazy Heart is more than satisfying.

If I were talking to her today I would add that Green Zone has a plus and a minus. Cop Out is not for children but Percy Jackson is. And I'll probably avoid Shutter Island, even on cable. For 3-D, I enjoyed Avatar but mainly enjoyed Tim Allen's comment on a late-night talk show about his own movie... "Well, it's funnier than that Avatar." But I don't have Alice in Wonderland on my short list. Ah, well, as this post would indicate, I don't actually have a short list, do I?

12 March 2010

My New Color Commitment

Paint has been on my mind. As we readied the dome for sale, we naturally found a number of walls that needed touch-up paint. Not purple, as the paint buckets above might imply, but still an assortment of beautiful neutrals that I remember having great fun selecting. All in the off-white and gray palettes, but do you have any idea how many colors that can imply? The result was that matches could not be made. We had to re-paint several whole walls in order to freshen the look.

My commitment for the future: 3 colors. Period. For the entire house. One should be a white (thousands of shades to choose from). One should be an off-white. One should be a white appropriate to baseboard. My other lesson came from Frank, the painter. "Spend $12 on a lambswool roller. Don't use anything else. Well, it would be good to have 30 years' experience as a professional painter, too."

So, who actually uses purple? TCU, which stands for Texas Christian University. The campus located in Fort Worth takes its school color seriously. So do the employees.

08 March 2010

Marketing that lasts longer than a flyer

This is my favorite element of house marketing. Well, besides the fact that Realtor.com now allows 25 photos.... Still, the idea of putting some of those photos on a complimentary water bottle is pretty darn clever. As older boomers, Tom Bold and I started buying houses back when even a paper flyer was rare. Eventually, the flyers became more plentiful and desktop printing made even color a common feature. (The fact that many flyer boxes outside of listed properties become empty and are never replenished continues to amaze me.)

Disclosure statement: Blogs are required to disclose whether the author has received compensation for any product. 99% of the time, my disclosure statements say something like "I have no relationship with…." But today I am amused and eager to report that the product here (the house for sale, not the water bottle) is mine and I certainly do hope to realize compensation from it. The web site mentioned, Realtor.com, is strictly reporting: I have no relationship with that site and receive no direct compensation from it. (This blog's only monetary reward comes through google.adsense links, which are selected by Google, not by me.)

05 March 2010

Teaching boomers new things

Babies can teach baby boomers new things.

An infant visitor to the dome yesterday brought her own equipment. Aside from the stunning Graco car seat (something I'm not likely to be able to afford) I found these two products inventive:

The pull toy produces short songs. The almost-5-month-old pulled the ring expertly (from the arching piece of that Graco car seat) and I was charmed. Sure enough, the Bright Starts web site produced this image for me, along with a large number of products that I am certain were not available when I had small children. This model is a Tug Tune. But the description of the chime version is compelling.

The other inventive product is not a glue stick. But when it emerged from the diaper bag, that's what came to mind. Rather, it's a Magic Stick All Natural Diaper Ointment. Clear. And it's applied to the baby's skin without any mess because the delivery is all about that glue stick design. When did this get invented?

Disclosure statement: I have no relationship with any product or company mentioned here and I have not received any compensation or free product for mentioning them. (This blog's only monetary reward comes through google.adsense links, which are selected by Google, not by me.) FYI: disclosure statements like these are now required of bloggers.

01 March 2010

Health insurance brokers: Consumers' friend

Health insurance brokers, while essentially insurance sales reps, are nevertheless a consumer's friend in the sorting through of policies and choices. I've talked to a broker for the first time this year. In fact, I didn't even know they existed until this year.

As a boomer woman, my knowledge of individual-purchased insurance was zip. I recall my brothers purchasing "major medical" in their youth. And self-employed relatives lamenting the hard choices they had to make about coverage. So, when the topic came up for us recently, I had no experience in purchasing insurance. We have always had the guidance of employers' HR departments.

An Internet reference to insurance brokers caught my eye as I scoured news articles and blogs about potential sources. (This, realizing that heath care reform via Congress would not be timely for us.) The concept is simple: an insurance broker represents multiple companies (say, a dozen) and works with consumers to find the right match. That may include a recommendation to apply to more than one company in order to compare policies and costs and eligibility, too.

I selected an insurance broker in Houston based solely on the web site. The best surprise so far: help in finding dental insurance independent of health insurance. A little more than $40/month for the two of us. All preventive care covered; 50% of big stuff covered. A good buy or only moderate? Doesn't really matter to me. What matters is maintaining an insurance that I know influences our behavior in having twice-a-year check-ups.

26 February 2010

New Perspective on Work Space

When you see your house on the web, you can't help but feel self-conscious. So, house-after-staging is actually the best circumstance for this unusual level of disclosure. This photo is one-half of my office. What you cannot see is another desk and and a chair. The room dimensions? 30 x 13. You'll agree that there's not a lot of furniture for a room this size. The fuller story: before the stager did her work, there were 8 chairs (total), an air desk (in addition to the 2 desks retained), a third bookshelf, and 4 rolling carts. I am adjusting to the new work space. Slowly.

22 February 2010

Living Generically: Life After Staging

Having been staged (the house, that is), we expected to feel a bit plain. Or even generic, like a hotel room. The above photo is where I am right now. It's plain. It's generic. But here's the real what it's like: living in a staged home is like living in a hotel room with Sherman.

Sherman's our dog. When we are in a hotel with Sherman we must keep soap tucked away. Trash cans tucked away. Clothes hung. Papers in briefcases. Cords hidden. And, of course, absolutely no food or cutlery left in sight.

19 February 2010

Relying on a young friend

The stager (for the house that's going on the market) have us many instructions but a very short list of purchases to make. This was lucky.

Even so, we didn't want to assume that our boomer generation eyes would be up to the task. (Generational taste. And interest. Those are the problems.) So, we asked a young friend to do the shopping for us. A few bedside lamps, a chandelier for the kitchen table, and fluffy towels in just the right color.

She did a good job.

15 February 2010

Staging. Stripping. Eliminating.

This wall is now actually a highly decorated space in our home. Its spines (part of the dome ceiling) are built-in design, in contrast to the vast blank spaces that we now call home.

You see, the stager came. Only younger boomers understand staging. Older boomers missed that introduction to the real estate industry—but if they relocate now, they're going to meet a stager. In fact, I think that a visit from a stager should be mandatory in preparing a house for sale. Not so much for the staging as the stripping.

You see, a real stager does not necessarily match the picture we get from TV. Those "selling" shows bring in stagers who put pizzazz in the properties. Our stager insisted that pizzazz doesn't sell. Rather, it interrupts the buyer's train of thought and brings too much attention to the furnishings (or the current owner). Of course, if a buyer falls in love with the furniture, the stager has the opportunity to make a profit, along with the realtor, but my guess is that's not so common.

I have come to appreciate what our real-life stager did: strip the house of personality. Virtually all traces of us are gone. And about 1/3 of the furnishings are gone. What's left is lots of floor space, lots of blank canvas.

The reason I think that staging should be required is that it sews up the seller. If you go through this elimination process, you invest time and then cannot imagine bringing the old stuff back home. So, you're committeed to sell. Good for realtors.

In the meantime, we are clearing to the level of the photo above. And getting ready to tackle the garage. Oh, my.

12 February 2010

What can you get for $2 anymore?

For an incredible $2/hour, you can get play care. (Get it? Play care instead of day care.) It's for your dog: off-leash outside play with other dogs. That's not so common in the kennel world. I decided on the facility even before I knew the price. When I saw this photo on the web site, I laughed out loud and called them immediately.

For the record: I receive no compensation from the Paw Spaw for mention of the facility. In fact, I give the Paw Spaw money (for letting Sherman attend play care).

08 February 2010

Self-Storage: An Urban Tale

In my growing up years, putting something in storage meant taking it out to a barn or a chicken house. (Most things never came back out, which is just as well. I can conjure up the dust now, 40 years later.) My experience with commercial storage was limited to taking wool coats to a cleaners for seasonal storage. I stopped that during college. And then I went a long, long time before I needed to seek out a storage place other than my attic or garage. That time was last week.

My inexperience was obvious. I had to ask elementary questions like, "what kind of items need to go into climate controlled storage?" It finally wasn't the temperature factor that made me select two inside units, it was the agent's explanation that anything in an outside unit ends up collecting a lot more dust. More than your garage at home. Well, there's that dust issue again.

After a round of Internet comparison shopping, I visited a single self-storage facility and latched on to two small units with "first month free" rather than a large, full-priced unit. Did I visit the facility that looked like the best deal (from the Internet)? Nope. I went to the one that is most convenient to our grocery store and dog park. Familiar path and maybe an efficient path.

And what did I learn? To get two locks (for two units) that use the same key. And to label boxes with boring codes. You see, the manager once lost some valuable items in a storage facility because she carefully printed "Antiques" on selected boxes. Those were the only boxes the thieves took. (At a far-away facility, not mine, of course.)

The self-storage business is down a little due to the economy but holding its own as people preserve their house stuffs even if they are between houses. Baby boomers will help this industry in the next few years as retirement and relocation decisions increase in number.

05 February 2010

Where would you live if...

Even though our mobile society is not so mobile anymore, retirees are. And the leading boomers who officially retire in 2011 (if they're not already out of their jobs due to lay-offs) will make us all look mobile even if only a fraction of them start traveling or moving. They will also talk about it more than most people do....

So, the #1 question becomes, Where would you live if you could live anywhere? Some typical answers are back home, where family is, and where it's warm.

Tom Bold and I chose the climate route with a sub-answer of where it's warm on the way to where family is. But there's another sub-answer and Tom gets credit for articulating it.

"You know, we've always had two priorities for neighborhood. We sure don't, now."

Those priorities were quality of schools (that affected one of our home purchases) and length of the commute to work (that affected all of our home purchases, four of them). Now? Except for a very slight interest in resale value, and I'll emphasize slight, we don't much care about the schools. The commute to work is even less of a consideration. Commuting now centers on Internet access, not road access.

One commute is of interest: number of minutes it takes to reach an off-leash dog park. Happily, with 18 dog parks, the greater Las Vegas area can be called dog-friendly.

What drives us, then, toward a neighborhood choice? So far, it's what is missing that calls to us: sidewalks. The best morning walks with a dog happen off pavement. So, it's just possible that the house hunting will be defined by concrete.

01 February 2010

Looking for Neighborhoods

Visiting a potential next community means learning about neighborhoods as much as looking at houses. So, when a realtor says, you don't want to live over there... well, that's where you end up at the end of the day.

As I drove through that not-recommended neighborhood of Las Vegas, I found myself saying, How bad can it be? There's an Olive Garden.

29 January 2010

Retirement Flexibility: Every day is like...

Lots of retirees say, "every day is like every other day" to describe availability for, well, just about everything.

Today, Tom Bold and I reached one of those days. We left home on a trip to look at a possible relocation city to escape wintry weather. And we ran into wintry weather.

It took only a few minutes to pull out the map and re-route our travel along a warmer route. (Same destination but different driving hours, to be sure.)

What did we learn?

First, we were able to re-route without a concern because we could easily (easily!) reschedule our activites. No "must-be-back" worries (as long as I reserve 2/3 of the day to maintain my work schedule, combining on-the-road computing with in-the-hotel computing).

Second, the events of the day underscored our purpose. Escaping wintry weather.

25 January 2010

Three Realtors on Staging

I put on shoulder pads for the realtors. Not Bea Arthur shoulder pads, but shoulder pads nonetheless.

I also stripped the house of clutter and (most of) personal paraphernalia. I knew I could not reach the level of "staging the house" but I desperately needed to communicate that I knew the basics even though I do not.

Our three prospective realtors made these comments about staging.

Realtor #1: Well, you might try hanging a decoration on the front door.

Realtor #2: To price the house where I want it to be, you'll need to hire a stager. That's $3000 to $5000 depending on what they have to bring in.

Realtor #3: We pay the stager. She works for us.

All three said the barn door hangers could stay in the house. I'll explain that another day.

22 January 2010

Transition Decisions

It's one thing to talk about making this year a transition year for retirement and relocation. It's another thing to start casting the talk as decisions. Any one thing can take you to the point of making decisions. For me, it was seeing 3 realtor appointments lined up for one very busy afternoon.

The appointments in question are with realtors in our current town. Why even visit potential next towns if we aren't sure the current house can be sold? That's a new concept for us. All previous moves (into 4 houses across 30 years) were prompted by employment decisions. So, moving was a next step—not an initial step.

Our old concept also involved an important assumption: of course, our house would sell. All houses sold. We were part of the mobile society. Just as we needed to move for employment, others were doing the same. And a goodly number were coming to the place we were leaving. The longest we ever waited for a sale was 5 months. And that was the darkest house we ever had. And that's what potential buyers always said... it's just too dark. Two price drops later, it wasn't too dark.

Of course, this year is different. We make no assumptions about all houses having buyers. The Great Recession is a major reason. But there's another: our society is not so mobile anymore and that slow-down occurred long before our current economic ills. Our society is aging (thanks to us boomers) and when that happens, people just don't move around as much. So, society is less mobile and actually Tom Bold and I haven't made a cross-country move in more than 20 years.

Lucky for us, our daughter told us about HGTV. Now, of course, I knew that such a cable channel existed. (I'm not sure that Tom Bold knew but, after all, this is the man who made it to 2006 before he saw his first 10-minute Oprah segment.) I just had never tuned in to the house shows.

Let me tell you. I am now educated. I know about unsellable houses, interventions (different sort than I knew about before), getting it sold (they don't even have to explain the it because everyone knows what isn't selling), and staging. Oh, my, staging is quite the rage.

We have transformed from the mobile society to the staging society.